Harboring Collective Identification: The Dockers of Genoa Mobilizing for Gaza

Focusing on a case of fast intensification of protests against militarization and the genocide in Gaza that reached a pick in the late Summer and early autumn of 2025, we look at the ways in which a collective of workers of the port of Genoa was able to mobilize millions in the Italian streets. Aiming at bridging social movement studies and studies of revolutions in the analysis of the intensification of protests, we will focus on how collective identifications developed in the course of a struggle during which a small and marginalized group of workers was able to anchor a broad network of social movement organization and activists. Going beyond the construction of solidarity with an international cause, in the mobilization against the genocide in Gaza, moral shock played a most important role in accelerating the workers protests against arm trafficking and in support of human rights which are connected with concerns about security on the labor place.