Port workers gather in Athens' Piraeus to demand ports not be used in war efforts

Ships remained docked at some Greek ports on Friday, disrupting ferry services, as dockworkers went on a 24-hour strike. According to Associated Press some unions demanded better pay, working conditions, and improved safety measures. Others took part in an International Day of Action calling for an end to wars. A few hundred workers gathered in Piraeus to demand ports not be used in war efforts. We don't want our ports to be hubs of military material, transferred so as to kill people, said Georgios Gogos, president of the dockworkers' union of Piraeus Port Authority. We don't want militarization because all this expenditure for weapons and military items should be expanded in social security, in welfare, not warfare. Some protesters held flares, banners and shouted anti-war slogans. One banner read, Freedom to Palestine, while another featured children's drawings of ships and flags from different countries with a title reading, Dockworkers Don't Work for War. During the Second World War for the people. We don't forget it. So, apart from death, it also brings destruction. The genocide of the Palestinian people has made the same decisions against the wars, against the international imperialism, against the competition of the big capital that is trying. We are the martyrs. We will win. Thank you. We don't want to participate in any war all around the world. We don't want our ports to be cups of military material transferred so as to kill people. We don't want the militarization of the port because we are going to be one of the first targets. We don't want the militarization of our ports because our ports want to be bridges between civilization and society. That we have prosperity in peace. We don't want militarization because all this expenditure for weapons and military items should be expanded in social security, in welfare, not warfare. The American team, the industrial... Our message for today is we call other workers in other sectors to join this activity, this action, to be strangled against militarization of our societies, against the wars. Of course. We want to have Germany, Melbourne, Mexico and the United States and we shout it out.