Monthly Archives: September 2025

European dockworkers and medics to join Global Sumud Flotilla

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Original article by republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Source: Freedom Flotilla/X

Delegations from 17 European countries, including trade unionists and health workers, will join the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza.

Delegations from at least 17 European countries are preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla, which will set sail on Sunday, August 31, in a new attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Many of the crew members taking part in this effort to deliver urgently needed supplies have already been active in Palestine solidarity campaigns in their own countries over the past years. For them, joining the flotilla is a logical step in confronting Israel’s ongoing genocide.

Belgian physician Hanne Bosselaers, active with Medics for the People (MPLP–GVHV) and the People’s Health Movement (PHM), emphasized that it is impossible to remain idle while a genocide unfolds in Palestine. Like other PHM members who will also be on board, including British emergency doctor James Smith and Moroccan health activist Aziz Rhali, Bosselaers has long worked with Palestinian health organizations and highlighted the resilience and determination of Gaza’s health workers.

Read more: In Palestine, healthcare is also a form of resistance

For many European participants, the flotilla is also about holding their governments accountable for inaction and silence in the face of Israeli war crimes. “We have a collective responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes,” Smith said in a PHM statement. “Our governments and our courts have failed, and so we must do whatever we can to expose Israel’s crimes and break its brutal siege.”

“Workers can effectively oppose war”

Workers from different sectors will make up a significant share of the flotilla’s crew. Among them are members of the Autonomous Collective of Port Workers (Collettivo Autonomo dei Lavoratori Portuali, CALP), a group known for its consistent actions against arms shipments through the port of Genoa in Italy. CALP’s decision to participate comes alongside an intensive campaign carried out with Music for Peace, which collected more than 40 tons of supplies for Gaza in just a few days – reflecting the widespread opposition to Israel’s crimes.

“The decision by CALP members to take part in the Global Sumud Flotilla, not only by collecting humanitarian aid but also by boarding long-standing member José Nivoi, a leader of USB’s Sea and Ports Coordination, represents the outcome of a long trade union and political journey that is, importantly, oriented toward the future,” the trade union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) wrote.

That vision of the future includes building international cooperation and solidarity, something already demonstrated by dockworkers’ coordinated refusals to handle arms shipments bound for Israel. “Dockworkers are sending out a hugely significant signal: workers can effectively oppose war, and they can do so even more powerfully if they unite internationally,” USB stated.

Read more: Italian city says no to warships and weapons for Israel

As dozens of send-off events are being prepared across Europe ahead of the flotilla’s launch, hope and determination remain strong among its supporters. “We do not know what will happen, and we are well aware of the Israeli government’s contempt for international law,” USB cautioned. “We are confident, but also concerned.”

Despite such concerns, the broad grassroots support for the Global Sumud Flotilla makes clear that across Europe, ordinary people, unlike their governments, reject war – and are prepared to mobilize for peace.

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Israel escalates attacks on Yemen, killing several ministers

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Israeli airstrike in Sanaa on August 24. Photo: Xinhua

The Yemeni resistance movement confirmed that the aggression will not deter it from continuing its struggle against Israel.

Israel has renewed its aggression on Yemen with two major aerial attacks that targeted the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday, August 24, and Thursday, August 28.

At least 10 people were killed and 92 others wounded in Sunday’s onslaughts, in which Israeli warplanes struck an oil facility, a power plant, and a presidential palace in Sanaa.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) claimed in a statement that Sunday’s strikes were launched in response to Ansar Allah’s repeated attacks against Israel.

The IOF’s offensive came two days after theYemeni resistance movement launched a ballistic missile attack on the central territories occupied by Israel on Friday, August 22, reportedly using a new projectile with a cluster bomb warhead.

On Thursday, Israeli fighter jets carried out new airstrikes, targeting a building southwest of Sanaa, allegedly used by Ansar Allah’s top leaders as a hideout.

Following the attack, some local Yemeni outlets reported the killing of top leaders affiliated with Ansar Allah, including Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi, and Chief of Staff Mohammad al-Ghamari. Israel said on Friday, August 29 that it was still confirming whether it succeeded in assassinating them.

On Saturday, August 30, the Ansar Allah-led Presidency of the Yemeni Republic confirmed in a statement “the martyrdom of the Prime Minister in the Government of Change and Construction, Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahawi alongside a number of his fellow ministers.”

The statement clarified that the Yemeni senior officials were targeted by “the Israeli criminal and treacherous enemy Thursday afternoon during a regular workshop, which is held by the government annually to evaluate its activities and performance.”

The Presidency also indicated that a number of other ministers sustained moderate and serious injuries in the assault, and that they have been receiving medical care ever since.

The names of the ministers who were killed or injured in the attack have not been disclosed by Ansar Allah yet. Moreover, it is still unknown whether Defense Minister Mohamed al-Atifi is among them.

However, the IOF seems to have failed in assassinating the Yemeni Chief of the General Staff, Major General Mohammed al-Ghamari, who defied Israel in a statement on Friday, declaring that the stance of Yemen in supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza will remain firm “regardless of the scale of aggression or sacrifices required”.

Al-Ghamari further threatened that the Israeli escalation “will be met with escalation.”

The head of the Ansar Allah-led Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, had also warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement issued on Thursday, briefly after the Israeli strikes were carried out:

“You are dragging the Zionist entity to its end, and you have entered a challenge with a people whose struggle you are not equal to. We have foiled your conspiracies despite you, so wail as you wish. Your strikes will not shake a hair on the head of even our smallest children.”

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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People’s Conference for Palestine draws thousands in struggle against genocide

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Original article by Natalia Marques republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine opens in Detroit (Photo via People’s Conference for Palestine)

The second annual “People’s Conference for Palestine” seeks to strengthen the growing movement for Palestinian liberation within the United States – Israel’s largest political and financial backer

The second annual People’s Conference for Palestine opened Friday afternoon, August 29, bringing together thousands of people of conscience in Detroit, Michigan. “Through this conference, I invite all of you to take part in the rich revolutionary tradition of Detroit,” said Nelson Garay, a member of Detroit’s People’s Assembly, a grassroots coalition fighting back against Trump’s policies. “In one voice, let us declare that we will not stand for the dehumanization of the Palestinian people, and we will not stand for anything less than their true liberation from a genocidal, apartheid state.”

Taher Dahleh, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and an activist in the labor movement through his membership in the Communication Workers of America, opened the conference by describing the major milestones in the Palestine solidarity movement since last year. “Millions marched to break the siege, flotillas set sail one after the other, doctors risked lives, went through repression, every single possible means to participate in medical missions to provide life-saving aid, and millions of workers, regular people, organized for an arms embargo, to demand that companies like Maersk halt all complicity and stop shipping weapons components to the occupation.”

Attendee of the People’s Conference for Palestine (Photo via People’s Conference for Palestine)

The conference is being organized by a coalition of 12 groups active in the broader Palestine solidarity movement: the Palestinian Youth Movement, the US Palestinian Community Network, The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the ANSWER Coalition, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the People’s Center for Palestine, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and the Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC).

Last year’s conference was held after a fierce wave of student protest against ongoing complicity of US institutions and government in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This year, thousands of activists once again reconvene as the situation in Gaza reaches a humanitarian breaking point: the entire population of the Gaza Strip is being deliberately starved en masse by Israel.

“Freedom Flotillas” take a stand against mass starvation

In protest of Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza, several “Freedom Flotillas” have set sail carrying life-saving supplies including food, baby formula, and medical supplies. Each of the three flotilla missions launched this year has been blocked by Israeli forces.

In one particularly brutal example of Israeli state repression, all the passengers aboard the most recent Flotilla, the Handala, were kidnapped by Israeli forces and held in custody by Israel. US labor activist Chris Smalls, also the only Black passenger aboard the Handala, faced the most brutal repression. “They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back,” the Freedom Flotilla coalition wrote in a post on X. “When his lawyer met with him, Chris was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists.”

Chris Smalls makes opening remarks (Photo via People’s Conference for Palestine)

Smalls gave opening remarks at this year’s conference. “As a labor leader, it is our responsibility to be a shield for the working class,” Smalls said, addressing an auditorium of thousands. In 2022, Smalls led the successful effort to create the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States, the Amazon Labor Union. “It is our responsibility to stand up when things are uncomfortable, and take a stance.”

Victories in the global movement for an arms embargo

At last year’s People’s Conference for Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement announced the launch of “Mask Off Maersk,” an international organizing campaign aiming to expose the role of logistics giant Maersk in sending weapons components to Israel.

Through international pressure, this campaign has marked significant victories since last year. In June, Maersk became the first global shipping company to divest from companies in Israeli settlements. The campaign raised global awareness of Maersk’s role in supplying Israel, to the point where people across the globe mobilized against Maersk shipments. In April, Moroccan protesters successfully delayed Maersk ships leaving the country for Israel. In November of 2024, the Spanish government announced it had blocked two ships operated by shipping giant Maersk and carrying military cargo bound for Israel.

Palestinian Youth Movement organizers Aisha Nizar (Photo via People’s Conference for Palestine)

Speaker Aisha Nizar, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, spoke at a plenary on the topic of the global demand for an arms embargo on the lessons learned from one year of the “Mask off Maersk” campaign. “We need to be surgical. We need to be strategic, and we need to be bold in our actions. Because there are many different points of these supply chains of death that we can intervene in, and we must intervene in.”


Original article by Natalia Marques republished form peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingPeople’s Conference for Palestine draws thousands in struggle against genocide

Nearly 1,000 ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Protests Planned Across US for Labor Day

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Thousands of labor union members and activists march in Philadelphia for May Day, on May 1, 2025.
 (Photo by the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America)

“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Unions and progressive organizations are planning nearly 1,000 “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations across the United States this Labor Day to protest President Donald Trump’s assault on workers’ rights.

The day of national action has been organized by the May Day Strong coalition, which includes labor organizations like the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, and National Union of Healthcare Workers, as well as advocacy groups like Americans for Tax Fairness, Indivisible, Our Revolution, and Public Citizen.

“Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover,” the coalition says. “Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.”

Since coming into office, the Trump administration has waged war on workers’ rights. Among many other actions, his administration has stripped over a million federal workers of their right to collectively bargain in what has been called the largest act of union busting in American history and dramatically cut their wages.

He has also weakened workplace safety enforcement, eliminated rules that protected workers against wage theft, and proposed eliminating the federal minimum wage for more than 3.7 million childcare and home workers.

Despite Trump’s efforts, Americans still believe in the power of collective action. According to a Gallup poll published Thursday, 68% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, the highest level of support since the mid-1960s.

“Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action,” the coalition says on its website.

The May Day Strong coalition previously organized hundreds of thousands of workers to take to the streets for International Workers Day, more commonly known as “May Day.” On Monday, rallies are once again expected across all 50 states.

Four months later, their list of grievances has grown even longer, with Republicans having since passed a tax cut expected to facilitate perhaps the largest upward transfer of wealth in US history, featuring massive tax breaks for the wealthy paid for with historic cuts to the social safety net.

“There are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the country with a whopping $6 trillion, and that is still not enough for them,” said Saqib Bhattie, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, another group participating in the protests. “They are pushing elected officials to slash Medicaid, [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits, and special education funding for schools in order to fund their tax breaks. We need to claw back money from the billionaire. We need to push legislation to tax billionaires at the state and local levels. We need to organize to build the people power necessary to overcome their money.”

The group also plans to respond to Trump’s lawless attacks on immigrants and his militarized takeovers of American cities.

“This Labor Day,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, “we continue the fight for our democracy, the fight for the soul of our nation, the fight against the vindictive authoritarian moves Trump and the billionaire class aimed at stealing from working people and concentrating power.”

“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “This Labor Day is really different, because it’s not just labor unions, as important as we may be to the workers we represent. It has to be all workers and all working families saying enough. Workers and working families deserve the bounty of the country.”

May Day Strong will host a national “mass call” online on Saturday. The locations of the hundreds of protests on Monday can be found using the map on May Day Strong’s website.

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingNearly 1,000 ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Protests Planned Across US for Labor Day