Maritime Union statement on Gaza and Port protests

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says it sup­ports the right of the com­mu­ni­ty to take part in peace­ful protests at ports and else­where.

Com­mu­ni­ty protests are planned against Israeli-con­nect­ed con­tain­er ships at the Port of Auck­land as inter­na­tion­al pres­sure mounts for a cease­fire in the Gaza con­flict. 

The Con­tship Dax oper­at­ed by ZIM Inte­grat­ed Ship­ping has already been the focus of protest action in Aus­tralian ports last week and the ship will be call­ing in New Zealand ports in the next week, includ­ing Tau­ran­ga, Auck­land and Lyt­tel­ton.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the Union is back­ing inter­na­tion­al calls for a cease­fire in the Israel–Gaza con­flict.

He says the Union endors­es calls by Labour Par­ty leader Chris Hip­kins, the New Zealand Coun­cil of Trade Unions, and the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion sup­port­ing a cease­fire and a polit­i­cal solu­tion to the con­flict.  

“The Mar­itime Union con­demns any attacks on civil­ians, and we rec­og­nize the long stand­ing polit­i­cal issues includ­ing the oppres­sion of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple that have con­tributed to the cur­rent cat­a­stro­phe.”

Mr Har­ri­son says protests at ports are occur­ring through­out the world and are like­ly to become more com­mon as con­cern mounts at the ris­ing death toll of civil­ians in Gaza.

He says the Mar­itime Union strong­ly oppos­es any form of reli­gious or eth­nic dis­crim­i­na­tion includ­ing anti-semi­tism or anti–Muslim prej­u­dice.

“As a Union we are unit­ed as work­ers and sup­port all efforts towards inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, jus­tice and peace.”