Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. During the recent attacks in Gaza,

the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza put out a statement that called

for solidarity actions from the labor movement in the United States.

Organizers and workers heeded the call. In early June, Bay Area activists successfully shut down an Israeli cargo ship from unloading goods at the Port of Oakland, with similar actions happening at ports

across the country. The effort was spearheaded by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.

Since then, the Israeli cargo ship has totally stopped docking in Oakland because they're

scared of another successful action.

This is a huge PR disaster for the apartheid regime, seeing organized labor take the side of the BDS struggle

in one of the biggest ports in the country.

So to talk about how this victory was won and how it can be pushed further, I wanted to

talk to the leaders of the Block the Boat action.

So from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, I'm joined by lead organizer Sharif Sakout,

and executive director, Lada Kiswani.

Thank you so much for joining me on the Empire Files podcast.

Thanks for having us.

So why don't we start with you, Lada.

Why don't you walk us through the latest action to block the boat in Oakland?

Just walk us through that inspiring day.

So we were alerted in May in the midst of the rebellions in Palestine that the Israeli Zim shipping line was attempting to return or had been scheduled to dock in Oakland for the first time in seven years during, in that month of May.

Once we were alerted about this, we reorganized ourselves to re-engage and reconvene the Block the Boat Coalition from 2014 when we had successfully stopped Zim

from indefinitely docking at the Port of Oakland. And so for a few weeks, we put out a call to action.

We set up a text alert system so people could subscribe for regular updates, learning from our

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