Corporate media prefer to talk about Donald Trump at a daily rate that has long surpassed other entertainers: the war of the USA and Israel against Iran, oil – where those who helped put Trump into the White House receive a handsome return on their investment – global shipping, and the Strait of Hormuz. Yet next to nobody mentions those who work on all those commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

When looking at the world’s largest shipping nations, funny countries turn up: Liberia (a country with next to nothing to export), and the same goes for number two: Panama. Even more Mickey Mouse: the Marshall Islands (42,000 people). Maybe it needs so many container ships to export coconuts, tomatoes, melons, taro, breadfruit, fruits, pigs, and chickens.

Next on the list is a city: Hong Kong, followed by another city: Singapore. China is the first on the list with a serious shipping need. After that comes the tiny island of Malta. Perhaps its 520,000 people need all those container ships to export limestone and Maltese pastizzi. After that is the Bahamas – a tax haven. Number nine is Greece, with 10 million people and lots of cheese, ouzo, and rebetiko to export. Finally, there is Japan.

How is this possible? It is possible because all of them run what is known as flags of convenience (FOCs) – also known as Ships of Shame (SOS) – on their ships. In other words, it saves corporations a substantial amount in taxes to put a funny flag on your ship – Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Barbados, Antigua, Saint Kitts, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, and so on. 

Meanwhile, countries with a serious shipping need tend to run so-called second registers. These are internal FOCs. It’s a bit like registering your car in a dodgy country: next to no tax, next to no technical checks, no questions asked.

Best of all, FOCs and international shipping are a perfect example of how state capitalism works. Huge profits are made by corporations, next to no taxes are paid, and yet, when there is a crisis somewhere in the world, all too often the state-funded navy is sent to protect commercial ships. In other words, profits go to corporations, and all other costs – seen as externalities – are offloaded onto the taxpayer who pays for protecting commercial shipping. This is how state-sponsored capitalism works.

It gets worse. Registering your multi-million-dollar container ship under an FOC not only saves you taxes, it also allows you to underpay your sailors – or better, not pay them at all. These ships are run by three groups of people: the captain (often European), officers (usually Eastern European), and finally the sailors, deckhands, or ratings. Filipinos make up almost 50%, Indians between 20–25%, with the rest being a mix of Vietnamese, Indonesians, and Chinese.

As always, in a hierarchical labour market, those down the chain of command suffer the most. Their working conditions and pay truly reflect the term Ships of Shame. This is the high price we pay for cheap imports from Shein to Alibaba, Walmart to Amazon, and so on.

Yet, while often suffering horrendous working conditions for microscopic pay, the US-Israeli attack on Iran and Lebanon has not only damaged the Middle East; civilian sailors in the Strait of Hormuz have almost received their death writs.

Fighting all this is the London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). The ITF condemns the ongoing attacks on civilian seafarers involved in the escalating war against Iran and the Middle East. For corporate media, the ships count, the oil and the oil price – not the human resources (another kind of material). Never mind the human.

Speaking of which: after declaring help is on the way for Iran, the orange monster in the White House now claims, A whole civilization will die tonight. While it may all be Trump’s typical TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – it still has bitter consequences for seafarers.

With Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, workers in the global shipping industry will once again be directly in the line of fire. Since the United States of America and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury – a code word for killing – against Iran on February 28, ITF Seafarers’ Support has been receiving a large number of requests every day from seafarers seeking advice and support. Among the most frequent concerns are:

  • the clarification of their rights;
  • protective measures;
  • repatriation applications; and
  • questions about their right to refuse entry into the territory.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz has still not been declared a war zone. The result: more than 20,000 sailors on over 3,000 ships are affected, with very little notice given to these victims of war. Shipping is again in pandemic mode. Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is almost paralysed.

No matter how Donald Trump’s illegal attack on Iran ends or continues, the merchant ships anchored in the Persian Gulf have sailors who are virtually trapped on board and will remain victims – until further notice. The ITF has urged their bosses to provide reliable supplies of food, clean water, fuel, and medical assistance. This is not an idle request. Seafarers have been starving in the not-too-distant past on these Ships of Shame. This is not optional; these are fundamental rights.

At the same time, no sailor should be expected to stay in a conflict area against their will – ratings are mostly men. Conditions on ships have historically been, to use the proper words, dehumanizing and often inhuman, despite the romantic hallucinations of Hollywood. 

It became necessary for the UN to establish a shipping organization known as the IMO. The IMO says that 20,000 sailors affected by the blockade have no parallel in history since the Second World War. For decades, never has such a large number of sailors been trapped in a war zone.

Apart from their acute physical and psychological needs, fears that the situation could deter future seafarers are growing. Some compare the current situation with the pandemic years. At that time – despite all the stupidities of anti-vaxxers like Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – there was at least the feeling here and there that someone, somewhere, was trying to save the lives of seafarers.

COVID-19 restrictions were harsh, but their intention was human. The current war could well be Trump’s destabilization of global shipping. In this, seafarers are all but the forgotten victims of the Strait of Hormuz. Yet people around the globe fear for supply chains, fossil fuels, and fertilizers. Meanwhile, some ship owners celebrate that they have defied Iran’s bombs.

In other words, ship owners continue to do what they have long done: haggle with the lives of sailors for a good fare, urging their crews to voluntarily cross war zones. Meanwhile, governments continue to abandon them, ignoring the demands of trade unions. Seafarers are in acute danger, and attacks on merchant ships have already been recorded, leading to deaths and injuries.

Crew members are forced to sign declarations that they – in full knowledge of the risks – take them on voluntarily. Ship owners know they can get away with it. How and where should you disembark? These ships do not call at ports, and they are not allowed to leave until a replacement crew arrives. So seafarers are forced to stay.

Ten sailors had resigned – their death writ – on one tanker in the Gulf alone. Judging by the usual crew strength of 15 to 25 people, this is a lot. If Donald Trump’s military operations were officially declared what they are – a war – crew members would have to be evacuated if they wished. Unions have so far unsuccessfully tried to get the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to intervene so that the Persian Gulf would be officially declared a war zone.

Sailing through the Strait of Hormuz is life-threatening. A Greek ship owner has nevertheless sent ships through the strait – despite protests from seafarers’ unions. Sailors have been demonstrating in Piraeus in solidarity with their colleagues stuck in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Workers have been rallying against the continued passage of Greek oil and gas tankers. The two leading Greek seafarers’ unions – Pemen and Stefenson – have called for this.

As so often in capitalism – some call it necrocapitalism, a system that profits from death – this is business with death cruises. While these supertankers make millions, seafarers are a disposable commodity. Ship owners defying threats in the Persian Gulf make immense profits through risky manoeuvres. Capitalism, pure and simple. Yet there is resistance among sailors to these dangerous missions – and it is growing.

For these death rides, ship owners make hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. When passing through the strait, ships turn off their tracking systems, making them harder for attackers to detect – but also harder for allies and rescuers to find. These ships remain visible only via radar or the naked eye.

Unsurprisingly, many seafarers feel abandoned by politicians and ship owners alike. Their accusation: enormous industry profits are made at the risk of sailors’ lives.

Governments must act now to protect seafarers. The ITF has called for immediate action after an emergency meeting at the International Maritime Organization. The world has recognized the danger faced by seafarers near the Strait of Hormuz – now governments need to act. Yet corporate media spend endless hours analysing every small move by Donald Trump. Seafarers are no news.

For the thousands of sailors still trapped in this region, facing threats to their lives every day, what matters now are urgent, practical measures to protect their safety, health, and dignity. The ITF has highlighted the reality they face: direct threats to life, disrupted navigation systems, limited access to food, water, fuel, and medical care, and severe restrictions on crew changes and repatriation. Seafarers are civilian workers. They are not parties to Donald Trump’s war – and they must never be treated as expendable.Email