The intervention by Vangelis Marinakis, calling for an international alliance to control the Strait of Hormuz, highlights how deeply Greek capitalism is entangled in Trump and Netanyahu’s war at its most critical turn.

The shipping magnate, in an article in a London newspaper, boasts that “our companies, Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp, the largest U.S.-listed owner of LNG carriers, and Capital Tankers Corp, a major tanker owner, represent part of the most strategically important tonnage in the global energy system.”

From the heights of this ownership, he proposes: “This moment calls for a formal alliance between the world’s largest shipowners, the Gulf’s oil-producing countries, and the United States, with the sole immediate objective of restoring energy flows from the Gulf to global markets by ensuring the safe passage of our vessels and providing guarantees that the world will not once again be held hostage.”

The “moment” in which this proposal is made is the time when Trump is calling on NATO to send a fleet to the Strait of Hormuz, and EU member states are preparing to extend the presence of their naval operation from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. The frigates of Mitsotakis and Dendias are already playing a leading role in this operation, from Cyprus to Aden.

Resistance

That is why it is especially important to deepen our own involvement in the global anti-war movement, with the immediate step being the international day of action on March 28. On that Saturday, resistance to Trump within the United States reaches its greatest scale, both numerically and politically. Millions are preparing to take to the streets in thousands of cities, and the slogans increasingly resemble those of the Vietnam anti-war movement. Neither mothers nor sons want to go as marines in Trump’s war.

Alongside them, demonstrations are spreading across Europe’s capitals—in London, Rome, and Paris. In France, they are heading toward March 28 after already taking to the streets in large numbers on Saturday, March 14, against the fascists emboldened by Macron’s outrages. Europe’s states are not “cowardly,” as dominant media portray them. They are leading actors in war profiteering from Ukraine to the Middle East—alongside them, the Greek government. Greek capitalism is not a “poor little Greece”; it has a long tradition of imperialist involvement with the help of shipowners, from the era of the battleship “Averof” to today’s frigate “Kimon.”

We unite our forces with the anti-war movement everywhere, also demanding its escalation through strikes. This Thursday, March 19, in the center of Athens, alongside the students’ anti-war demonstration, striking workers from hospitals, tax offices, customs, and the Ministry of Finance are protesting. Marinakis has the audacity to claim that the international war alliance he proposes will protect seafarers working in shipowners’ fleets. But it is strikes on ships and in ports that have the power to cancel such hypocrisies, as has been shown many times.

Forward—everyone, all together—to globalize resistance against imperialist war.