New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has publicly endorsed a massive, coordinated international dockworkers' strike in solidarity with Palestine and against militarism, declaring that "New Yorkers stand with them."
In a post on X on Monday, Mamdani wrote, "Dockworkers went on strike across 113 ports in 22 countries to disrupt the transport of weapons of war, in solidarity with the Palestinian people." He added, "New Yorkers stand with them. When working people unite in their power, we build a better world."
Dockworkers in 22 countries will strike on Friday, protesting against war and the use of ports for arms exports in action organisers say could disrupt over 40% of Mediterranean cargo and snarl over $2 billion worth of freight.
The strike, originally called by dockworkers' unions in Italy, France, Greece, Spain's Basque Country, Turkey and Morocco, is now backed by more than 25 unions in 113 ports.
The protest is expected to target major shipping hubs across Europe and beyond, including Hamburg, Valencia, Le Havre, Algeciras, Piraeus and Genoa, as well as Morocco's Tangier Med and India's Nhava Sheva.
Among the labour groups joining the protest are ver.di in Germany, Ireland's largest trade union SIPTU, 3F in Denmark and CGT Ports et Docks in France.
Beyond Europe, the organisers said about a dozen ports in India could be disrupted, with the Water Transport Workers Federation of India (WTWFI) also supporting the action.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, a pro-Palestinian campaign group that repeatedly tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, said it would execute "coordinated, strategic actions on the water" to support the strike.
Italian grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) called a 24-hour general strike in Italy for the same day, with protests scheduled in over 40 cities.
Ferries will remain docked at Greek ports on Friday as Greek dockworkers, engineers and seafarers' unions join the strike.
Dockworkers at Greece's largest port, Piraeus, said in a statement, "We will send our own message of peace from Piraeus, and we will show our solidarity with the peoples suffering from war," adding they would stop work from 0800 to 1100 GMT.
The action follows calls from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), which since 2023 has urged workers and unions to "Stop Arming Israel," and which in 2025 asked international workers to organize days of rage and solidarity "in factories and workshops, in ports and airports, in the streets and public squares."
It is co-sponsored by the World Federation of Trade Unions, an Athens-based organization whose affiliated unions represent 105 million workers, which said the mobilization comes as "war fronts are dangerously expanding" and accused Israel, backed by the United States, the European Union, and NATO, of continuing its crime against the Palestinian people.
Charmaine Chua, a scholar of supply chain disruptions and an organizer with Workers in Palestine, said the ports sustaining Israel's genocide include Ceyhan in Turkey, which supplies crude oil, South African ports that export coal, Genoa, Ravenna, and Livorno, which ship components to Elbit Systems, and Oakland, which supplies US military operations worldwide. Dockworkers in Livorno have already disrupted the movement of US military cargo from the Sigonella air base, which is nicknamed the "Hub of the Med."
Dockworkers have a long record of refusing to handle cargo for regimes they oppose. In 1984, union dockworkers in San Francisco refused to unload South African cargo during the struggle against apartheid, and in 1978 dockworkers in the same city helped press the Carter administration to stop sending military equipment to Pinochet's Chile after discovering the shipments.
Mamdani is arguably the most pro-Palestinian mayor in New York City's history. He campaigned heavily on the issue of Palestine, repeatedly condemning Israel and labelling its war on Gaza a genocide.
Before he became mayor, Mamdani vowed to fulfil the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York City, calling him a war criminal.
