The Global Sumud Flotilla is the largest international maritime initiative in solidarity with Gaza in history. It includes dozens of boats from 44 countries, bringing together activists, political organizations, and ordinary citizens. More than 28,000 people have registered to participate in this initiative that is part of the global movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The coalition unites coordinators, organizers, and participants from the Freedom Flotilla, the Sumud Maghreb Flotilla, the Sumud Nusantara convoy, and the Global Movement for Gaza, along with other international organizations fighting in defense of the Palestinian people. The group’s aim is to confront and break the illegal siege imposed by Israel on Gaza.
The flotilla set sail on August 31 from Spain, and the ships will meet in Tunisia on September 4. It takes place in the midst of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to take the city of Gaza and implement his so-called “Final Solution” and total occupation of Palestinian territory. This makes large-scale actions such as the Flotilla even more important and urgent, in addition to actions and demonstrations of all kinds around the world of with people united in a single cry against genocide.
We are participating in this initiative with our full support. Bruno Gilga — a member of the University of São Paulo Workers’ Union and a leader of the Revolutionary Workers Movement (MRT) — has also joined. Bruno is one of the coordinators of the Global Sumud Flotilla for Brazil and has been appointed a spokesperson for the Brazilian delegation, which includes Thiago Ávila and more than 15 other representatives who play a key role in this initiative.
Follow the latest on the Global Sumud Flotilla through the La Izquierda Diario Network
We are part of the media team for the Global Sumud Flotilla Brazil, and the La Izquierda DiarioNetwork will offer coverage in eight languages with our activists from our sections in 14 countries. In addition, our comrades from the Revolutionary Workers Current (CRT) andIzquierda Diario in Spain — in particular Esquerra Diari in Catalonia, who are covering the flotilla from Barcelona — are among the volunteers participating in the departure event for this new flotilla. Our comrades from Révolution Permanente (RP) traveled from France to support and cover the event.
Bruno, who is also traveling as a representative of the Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International (TF-FI), the international organization that publishes the La Izquierda Diario Network, is making his second trip to Gaza. He was previously part of the TF-FI delegation to the Global March on Gaza, along with Luca Bonfante and Patricio Del Corro, from the Party of Socialist Workers (PTS) of Argentina. The march was brutally repressed by the Sisi government, which deported several activists from around the world who were on their way to Egypt, including our comrades Pablo Castilla and Santiago Lupe from the CRT in Spain.
As the TF-FI, we are participating in this mission as part of our active internationalism, which requires us to act with diverse methods and intervene in every arena possible. In all the countries where we operate, we participate in the anti-imperialist movement, whose main engine in recent years has been the urgent cause of the Palestinian people. A strong anti-imperialist sentiment is simmering at the international level, especially among young people who are rising up not only for Palestine, but also for all oppressed peoples.
This vast movement in defense of the Palestinian people has suffered severe international repression that we must reject. The release of Mahmoud Khalil — a leading figure in the pro-Palestinian student movement in New York who was imprisoned for 104 days — was an important achievement. After 41 years of struggle for his freedom, Georges Abdallah, a political prisoner serving the longest sentence in Europe for his pro-Palestine activism, was finally released from prison.
As the Trotskyist Fraction, and with the support of dozens of organizations and hundreds of intellectuals and public figures from various countries, we have developed a strong international campaign to defend Anasse Kazib, a railway worker and member of Révolution Permanente, who is being persecuted for his defense of the Palestinian people.
We have also faced repression against our activists as part of the vanguard fighting for Palestine in the United States, Spain, Brazil, and Germany. In Chile, we actively participate in the dynamic pro-Palestine movement, including a recent festival that brought together thousands of people in solidarity with Gaza. In Argentina, where Zionism has great influence, the PTS has waged a fierce battle in defense of the Palestinian people, led by figures like Myriam Bregman and Nicolás Del Caño.
We are fighting for the working class to intervene with its own methods to stop Israel’s war machine. The struggle for an energy embargo on Israel can only advance based on the solidarity of the global working class, not the government of any nation. We are inspired by the actions of dockworkers in Italy and Barcelona, who are seeking to stop the war machine with workers’ power. In Brazil, we are participating in a campaign by the Rio de Janeiro Oil Workers’ Union to stop oil exports to Israel. Such actions — combined with mass mobilizations in each country against genocide and initiatives such as the Freedom Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza — are essential to force all countries to break all diplomatic, commercial, and military agreements with Israel. We must rely solely on the forces of the global mass movement to stop the genocide, as the bourgeoisies of Arab countries have already shown that they will not participate in this process.
Progress toward true self-determination for Palestine will require the convergence of a strong international anti-imperialist movement and the revolutionary struggle of the working class in the Arab countries, together with the Palestinian people and Jewish workers who break with Zionism. The successful development of this struggle requires the construction of a socialist and workers’ Palestine, where Arabs and Jews can coexist democratically and peacefully, as part of a federation of socialist republics in the Middle East.