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Maersk Shareholders To Vote On Banning Israel Arms Transfers

Shareholders in Danish shipping giant Maersk are set to hold a vote on 18 March for a proposal to cease weapons shipments to Israel for as long as it is waging war on Gaza. The vote comes as Israel has renewed its genocidal campaign against the strip, killing over 420 Palestinians since early Tuesday morning. Weapons transfers to Israel are “in violation of international conventions, assuming that military equipment, weapons, and components were used in Israeli army operations where international conventions are breached,” shareholder Zen Donen told AFP.

Pro-Palestine Activists Shut Down Maersk Headquarters In Copenhagen

On February 24, nearly 1,000 activists staged a demonstration to shut down the headquarters of Danish shipping giant Maersk in Copenhagen. The pro-Palestine demonstrators were protesting Maersk’s shipment of arms to Israel, under the slogan of the international “Mask off Maersk” campaign, as part of a protest camp organized by the CRAC Collective. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg participated in the demonstration, saying that “we take it on ourselves because we know that these big companies are all about profit.” The Palestinian Youth Movement launched the international “Mask off Maersk” campaign last year, targeting one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

Maersk Exports Cargo From Illegal Israeli Settlements To The US

A new report details a shipping and logistics giant’s role in sustaining illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and Syrian territories. A.P. Moller Maersk is a publicly traded Danish company that netted a revenue of $51.1 billion in 2023. According to research compiled by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and its Mask off Maersk campaign, the company has repeatedly facilitated shipments to the United States from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights. “The global structures of financialized capitalism, logistics and supply chains play an outsize role in the maintenance of extraction and accumulation.

Spain To Block Maersk Ships Bound To Israel After Pressure From Activists

The Spanish government has announced it will block two ships—Denver and Seletar—operated by shipping giant Maersk and carrying military cargo bound for Israel, from docking at the port of Algeciras. This decision comes just days after the Mask off Maersk campaign released a report exposing the company’s regular use of the Spanish port for transferring cargo that enables the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, despite Spain’s stated arms embargo. Researchers from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Progressive International (PI), who contributed to the report, told Peoples Dispatch that it is unclear whether Pedro Sánchez’s administration was genuinely unaware of the shipments or deliberately chose to look the other way.

Nearly 50,000 US Dockworkers Strike And Flex Collective Power

At midnight on October 1, nearly 50,000 dockworkers across the US’s East Coast walked off the job, shutting down ports across the coastline across cities including Boston, New York, Miami, and Houston. This is the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA) first strike since 1977. ILA dockworkers are a lynchpin of the US economy. Ports affected by the strike include the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third largest port in terms of the volume of cargo. “When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lockdown,” said ILA President Harold Daggett. “Everything in the United States comes on a ship.”

PGFTU Calls For Unions To Support ‘Mask Off Maersk’ Campaign

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions has issued a statement marking nearly one year of resistance to genocide since October 7. Addressing their “Brothers and Sisters of trade and workers’ unions in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world,” the PGFTU calls on “the free world and the global labor movement to stand in a broad and pressing solidarity campaign with our people in Gaza.” The PGFTU expressed support for “dock workers unions in Africa, Europe, and other ports in taking action to stop the flow of weapons and disrupt the financial networks that finance the bombing of our people.”

Campaign Launches Against Shipping Giant Maersk Over Genocidal Weapons

On June 3, the Palestinian Youth Movement announced a new global campaign targeting Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, a vital piece in the flow of weapons from the United States to Israel. PYM, a transnational Palestinian diaspora formation, has led mass mobilizations in several countries, especially in North America, challenging the US and Canada’s unconditional support for Israeli genocide in Gaza. The organization now seeks to take on the logistics industry shipping arms that transports the weapons that are used to carry out the genocide. “Maersk ships transport weapons and weapons components, meaning Maersk actively facilitates the flow of weapons to Israel to use in its criminal war in Gaza,” said PYM’s Nadya Tannous.

Feds Recently Hit Maersk In Baltimore Disaster For Silencing Whistleblowers

The company that chartered the cargo ship that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was recently sanctioned by regulators for blocking its employees from directly reporting safety concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard — in violation of a seaman whistleblower protection law, according to regulatory filings reviewed by The Lever. Eight months before a Maersk Line Limited-chartered cargo ship crashed into the Baltimore bridge, likely killing six people and injuring others, the Labor Department sanctioned the shipping conglomerate for retaliating against an employee who reported unsafe working conditions aboard a Maersk-operated boat.