Prosecuted for Union Stopping War Cargo to Israel

Defend Greek Dockworkers President Markos Bekris

On the night of 17 October 2024, dockworkers in the port of Piraeus, Greece blocked a container with 21 tons of ammunition from being loaded onto a ship owned by the Israeli ZIM Lines, bound for Haifa, Israel. On the containers, workers spraypainted “Murderers out of the port” and “Free Palestine!” The blockade drew worldwide attention. The Internationalist published an article hailing the Piraeus port workers’ bold action as a sterling example of the League for the Fourth International’s call for international workers action against the genocidal U.S./Israel war on the Palestinian people of Gaza. (See “Greek Workers Block Arms to Israel and Ukraine,” The Internationalist No. 74, September-December 2024.)

Now, a year later, Greek authorities have begun prosecution of Markos Bekris, president of the Union of Container Handling Workers (ENEDEP) in the port of Piraeus for the union’s courageous action. The union is affiliated with PAME (the All Workers Militant Front) labor federation associated with the Greek Communist Party (KKE), and Bekris has run as a KKE candidate in elections for the European parliament. The October 2024 port action was not the first time Greek dockers stopped military materiel for the Zionist murder machine. The previous June they refused to load or unload an Israel-bound ship and in July 2025 they refused to transfer a cargo of military-grade steel, saying they would not touch this “cargo of death.”¹

The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the hard-right New Democracy (ND) party is clearly trying to make an example of Bekris, and to do a favor for the ultra-Zionist Israeli government which is worried about the spread of port workers actions in Morocco, France, Italy and Greece that have begun to affect its war supplies. It also comes shortly after the European Dockworkers Conference in Genova, Italy on September 26-27 and mass strikes which shut down Italian ports, airports, railroads and highways in solidarity with Gaza on September 22 and October 3, defying “security” decrees of the fascist-led Meloni government. (See “European Port Workers Call for Strike Action to Stop Arms,” The Internationalist No. 76, June-October 2025.)

But the attempt to intimidate the combative port workers is backfiring, as expressions of solidarity are coming in from unions in Palestine, Italy, Denmark and elsewhere. In Italy, a nationwide mass strike and mass march in solidarity with Gaza has been called for November 28-29. And in the United States, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 voted a motion on November 20 saluting the Greek dockworkers action and defending ENEDEP president Markos Bekris. On May Day 2024, Local 10 unanimously voted a resolution to refuse to handle (“hot cargo”) military cargo to Israel, which was later squelched by the ILWU bureaucracy at the union’s international convention in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Citing the ILWU watchword, “An injury to one is an injury to all,” the Local 10 motion (printed below) calls on the ILWU leadership to send a letter to the Greek government demanding that the charges against Bekris be dropped.

Defend Markos Bekris, President of the Greek Dockworkers Union ENEDEP

WHEREAS, Markos Bekris, president of the Greek Container Handling Workers Union, ENEDEP, has been charged with blocking containers of ammunition from being loaded onto a ship bound for the port of Haifa, Israel last year; and

WHEREAS, blocking military cargo enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza is not a crime but an act of solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people that is to be commended; and

WHEREAS, ENEDEP has continued to block war cargo to Israel, including shipments of military grade steel this past July; and

WHEREAS, this bold action has inspired dockworkers internationally and other European and Mediterranean ports have followed the Greek and Italian dockworkers’ example; and 

WHEREAS, the European Dockworkers Conference in September called on other port workers to deem arms to Israel as “hot cargo,” not to be handled, and to defend those who are victimized for taking this courageous action; and

WHEREAS, the prosecution of Markos Bekris is a threat by governments beholden to maritime capital against the labor movement worldwide,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that in the best tradition of the ILWU, we demand charges be dropped against our brother Markos Bekris and will communicate our protest to the Greek government; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that ILWU Local 10 send a letter of solidarity to the ENEDEP dockworkers union in Piraeus under our watchword, “An Injury to One is an Injury to All,” solidarizing with their action and noting that on May Day 2024 our Local 10 voted to boycott military cargo to Israel and 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that we request that our International Officers consult with other port workers unions about common action in defense of Markos Bekris and the Greek dockworkers union ENDEP.