the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 18, 2026
Once the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel went up at the pump, a place called the Strait of Hormuz made the news. A part of the global maritime highway, it became publicized that 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through this transport chokepoint.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, is one of seven or eight major maritime chokepoints in the world.
Information about ocean-going container ships and tanker ships may not be trending on social media, but the hidden role played by ocean-going vessels in the global economy is being illuminated by the blockade.
In the interconnected capitalist world, much of what people need, to live a life on this planet, gets transported on the ocean—in or on a ship. It can take a month or more for goods to get from port to port.
At one point or another, 80% of international trade, by volume, is carried by sea.
During the price increases and shortages of the COVID pandemic, global supply chains were revealed. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is revealing that global shipping is the backbone of global trade. And the workers on these ocean-going vessels, the sailors, are the backbone of shipping.
Every time you see a train hauling containers and every time you see a semi-truck hauling a metal shipping box, ocean-going shipping was likely a part of that process.
The world is an interconnected economic whole. The problem remains that the billionaire class controls what the globally connected working class makes possible.