On 4 June, dockworkers in the French port of Fos-sur-Mer, Marseille, refused to load arms components bound for Israel. These arms components – metal links for machine guns – were produced by the French company Eurolinks and scheduled to be loaded in secret and then sold on to the genocide-enabling military-tech giant Elbit Systems. Shortly after this action in France, Italian dockworkers in Genoa announced that they would inspect the same vessel and block it if weapons were found.
Neither of these exemplary actions resulted from spontaneity; instead, they were built on many months of international organisation by dockworkers and their unions. Going as far back as November 2023, the European Dockworkers Council, which brings together dockworkers from 12 different countries, led a coordinated day of action against the Gaza genocide. Similarly, Swedish Dockworkers Union members voted for a six-day boycott of all military cargo to and from Israel.
These trade union actions were also supported by local and international Palestinian solidarity movements and their activists, as well as the important work of investigative journalists who were vital in revealing the existence of these secret weapons shipments to the public despite the protestation of the French government in the case of Marseille-Fos. These important actions need to be followed through with more sustained action to bring the genocide machine to a halt.
Merchants of genocide
As the death toll from the Gaza genocide increases, and Israeli aggression escalates to other regions, the key players in the Israeli military industrial complex are raking in bumper profits. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) recorded an all-time sales record in 2024, with revenue rising 14% compared to the previous year, reaching $6.1 billion. Check Point Software Technologies co-founder Gil Shwed now has a net worth of $6.4 billion; and Elbit Systems is the second most profitable company in Israel. One Israeli “start-up” which makes assault rifles, framed the genocide as a sales boost, stating: “This is the finest hour of the defense industries,”
Indeed, the customer base for high-tech weapons is not limited to the Israeli military. Israel is the world’s tenth-largest weapons exporter, sending military technology to at least 130 countries, with occupied Palestinian land historically used as a testing ground – a lucrative means of marketing high-tech weapons to regimes all over the world.
Hit the supply chain
However, these arms companies would not be so profitable, were it not for an international workforce behind the supply chain of components and technologies used for their production. Unionised dockworkers are in a strategic position to hit the Israeli weapons supply chain directly.
In Ireland, workers and activists should take note of the clandestine manner in which weapons parts were due to be loaded onto the boat in Marseille, and draw parallels with the manner in which Shannon Airport is currently being used to facilitate US military operations abroad. Despite our Government’s insistence that the state is not complicit in the Gaza genocide, decades of documentation by activists and investigative journalism have proven otherwise.
Shannon Airport could be a focal point of struggle, with its 3,000-strong workforce across 80 different companies. A refusal on behalf of workers within the aerospace industry to cooperate could strike a blow where it’s needed – within the military operations that are facilitating this genocide. In particular, the vital role of air traffic controllers could put a swift halt to the use of Irish airspace and Shannon to transfer munitions. This could give way to international actions elsewhere, just as the dockworkers’ actions did.
Another area of Irish capitalism’s collusion is the close ties between the tech and pharma industry here and Israel, which sees Ireland listed as Israel’s second-biggest trading partner. Again, a move to down tools in tech processing plants such as Intel in Kildare could have ripple effects elsewhere.
Join forces
With the backdrop of Government inaction, it is crucial that the trade union movement gives full backing to any worker who takes action against genocide.
Erik Hegelson, vice-chair of the Swedish Dockworkers Union, noted that support from other sectors – including teachers, health workers, and public service employees – was vital in sustaining such actions. Furthermore, Ireland’s thousands-strong Palestinian solidarity movement has an important role to play in giving confidence and support to any worker in any sector who refuses to engage in business as usual while a genocide is being carried on.