Ports of Peace: Weapon Watch Analysis

Yesterday, Friday 6 February 2026, was doubly important.

On the one hand, the workers of many European ports (twenty-one), of which eleven were Italian, concretely protested against the rearmament policies and repeated that “dock workers do not work for war”. A non-secondary or casual effect was having forced four ships to change their travel plans: thus «ZIM Virginia», «ZIM New Zealand», «ZIM Australia» and «MSC Eagle III» remained respectively off the coast of the ports of Livorno, Genoa, Venice and Ravenna, thus indirectly confirming – as repeatedly noted by Weapon Watch and activists – that they are part of the most structured logistics chain at the service of conflicts, and in particular the most inhumane and concealed one underway, the one against Palestinian civilians. «ZIM Virginia» in fact operates on the high military value route between the USA and Israel, «ZIM New Zealand» calls in sequence Marseille-Genoa-Salerno-Ashdod and has already been reported for its loads of weapons and ammunition, «ZIM Australia» has so far been operational on the Constanta-Piraeus-Ashod route but has recently been placed on the route from the northern Adriatic to Israel, and the same goes for «MSC Eagle III» which covers Koper-Trieste-Venice-Ashdod.

On the other hand, again yesterday, a proposed resolution was presented to the Genoa City Council – first signatory Francesca Ghio (AVS) – to the establishment of a “permanent council observatory for transparency, ethical sustainability and safety of the workers of the port of Genoa”. It is the first step so that institutions and port workers can cooperate to make concrete the definition of “Genoa as a port of peace” which associations, trade unions, youth and religious groups have long made their own. Naturally, this proposal will also move according to political times, and assiduous vigilance and a lot of pressure will be needed for it to be transformed into the desired discussion body. But the port workers, and especially the Genoese ones, do not lack either the initiative nor the struggles that are pressing and uniting, and in fact they are already organizing the next flotilla. Nor should we underestimate the attention that other Italian port cities are paying to the Genoese proposal, first and foremost Ravenna, Livorno and Bari, where in the coming weeks other similar initiatives will start from the bottom, especially aimed at the authorities.