Italian strikes show the working-class struggle needed to fightback

Tom Porter-Brown, Leicester Socialist Party

Gaza flotilla activists who sailed as part of Global Sumud Flotilla have been detained in Israel by the government and have been subject to brutal repression by the Israeli military, the IDF. Far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally overseen the repression and, while sadistic in nature, it also indicates just how much the flotillas are causing problems for Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide on Gaza.

While very little, if any, aid has actually made it to Gaza, the detention of each flotilla in the last year has come with more bad press for the Israeli government. It begs the question, if the Israeli ruling class will treat Europeans this way, on camera no less, then what do they do to the Palestinians when no-one is recording?

In the past, flotillas detained by the IDF and the brutal treatment of those involved don’t generally get much documentation besides released activists speaking about the abuse they’re subject to, which in this case has included physical torture and sexual assault. But the video released by the Israeli government is a shift in tone which raises questions.

It may be that this footage has been posted in an attempt to discourage future flotillas from trying to reach Gaza. On the contrary, there are signs of reigniting the resolve of the anti-war movement internationally. Even the Meloni government in Italy has spoken out against the brutal treatment of the flotilla, which represents the pressure Meloni is feeling from the Italian working class, especially because of the mass strike of the port workers in Autumn of 2025, over the very issue of being opposed to the Israeli genocide on Gaza. It’s also proof that even far-right parties and governments can be pushed back by the actions of the organised working class.

The strike action taken by the Italian port workers is a glimmer of how trade unions can organise in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the Israeli ruling class. On this occasion solidarity strikes in Italy were not on the same scale as those in the autumn, but are significant. Building workers’ struggles internationally – including in Palestine and Israel, and including the development of mass parties of the working class – is the most effective way to act in solidarity with the Palestinians. It is on that basis that socialist change can be won.