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Activists disrupt weapons cargo ship bound for Israel

Nora Barrows-Friedman Activism and BDS Beat7 November 2023

Activists protest a US cargo ship bound for Israel in Oakland, California, 3 November. (AROC)

Indigenous activists using a canoe at the Tacoma, Washington port blocked a container ship headed to Israel on Monday.

The ship eventually left the port. But activists said that they would continue to track its route.

The Cape Orlando is a US military supply vessel which was slated to be loaded with weapons at the port and delivered to Israel, according to the Arab Resource and Organizing Center(AROC), an activist group that in 2021 led historic actions with dockworkers to prevent Israeli cargo ships from unloading.

Activists in Oakland, California, delayed the ship from leaving the port for nine hours on Friday. Protesters scaled the ladder on the Cape Orlando as hundreds led chants and disrupted normal port business.

US government records show that the Cape Orlando has been used in US military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BreakThrough News reported on Monday that dockworkers confirmed “that the docks are hoping to use military personnel to load the Israeli weapons shipment that is currently being blocked.”

“Workers also told us they have a right to not work under dangerous conditions like this,” the news organization added.

A worker who was reportedly inspired by the action to disembark messaged the protesters: “Keep fighting, unionize, show the great powers of the world that we, united, can overcome senseless slaughter and develop a global consciousness for one another’s humanity.”

“I am not special by any means. All of you and I are one … Within your day to day lives, you can all make the conscious effort to show love to someone you may never know in your own individual ways. We need to love one another again. I love all of you. Love each other. Keep holding this line.”

Barcelona dockworkers refuse to handle war cargo

Longshore workers in Barcelona, Spain, announced on Monday that they would refuse to handle cargo ships that contain war material in order to “protect civilian population[s].”

“As a collective of workers, it is an obligation and a commitment for us to respect and vehemently defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the dockworkers stated.

The workers also called for an immediate ceasefire.

“Congress won’t stop the bombs so we will”

Back in the US, protesters near St. Charles, Missouri, shut down a facility belonging to the weapons maker Boeing for several hours on Monday.

Activists with We Are Dissenters, a youth-organized anti-militarism group, said that workers were “being sent home and deliveries for the day have been canceled.”

“Congress won’t stop the bombs so we will,” the group said.

• Operation Al-Aqsa Flood
• #blocktheboat
• AROC
• Oakland
• Oakland Port
• Tacoma
• We Are Dissenters
• Boeing