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By: Reid Jackson
SHEFFIELD, MA – Adnaan and Torleif Stumo are two brothers from a town in the westernmost corner of Massachusetts. On October 8th, 2025, they were in the epicenter of Israel’s violation of international and maritime law. Today, they are back in America. In the heart of the nation that allowed for them to be kidnapped from the open ocean, held in a foreign nation’s prison with no due process, and physically and psychologically tortured for the crime of attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims of Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians.
Who are the heroes of Adnaan and Tor’s story?
Those who have been watching the Stumo brothers’ story closely have lauded them as champions of the movement for Palestinian liberation for their sacrifice. The comparison is easy to make when the brothers are put on the pedestal of other high-profile flotilla members like Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, whose mistreatment by the Israeli military broke through into mainstream coverage. They would argue, however, that they are no more exceptional than the hundreds of others who supported their mission at home and abroad.
Adnaan said, upon hearing praise for him and his brother’s mission:
Then who are the heroes in Adnaan and Tor’s story? Their answer: the workers who went on strike all over the world in support of their mission.
The brothers had a lot of praise for the efforts of the flotilla support team, and their success in helping coordinate simultaneous widespread strikes in Europe in support of their voyage. On October 3rd in France alone, the Ministry of the Interior reported almost 200,000 protestors in all sectors of public life, with trade unions claiming that the number was closer to half a million. Adnaan said:
We were four hundred and eighty six people captured and thrown in prison. But there were over two thousand people who were working on land. Forty-two boats sailing into Gaza… without that network… we would’ve probably been in prison for a very long time.
In Italy, the response to the Flotilla’s unlawful interception was even more severe, culminating in a full general strike where almost every aspect of life was disrupted because of the numbers gathered in the streets all across the country. Numbers reach up to two million participants in response to the Italian government’s complicity in Israel’s actions. The main difference between unions in Europe and America is their significant political power given the proportion of workers they have influence over, as when organizations like the Italian General Confederation of Labour call for a general strike, causes not just Italy, but the world to feel the effects of their government not listening to their demands.
These intense, large-scale disruptions motivated by the Flotilla’s public journey to travel to Gaza are one of the most promising outcomes that the Flotilla organizers were hoping for. According to an organizer who was in close contact with the Stumo brothers, a port shutdown that took place in New Jersey cost an arms manufacturer $3 million USD in just one day of work disruption.
Adnaan summarized:
We’re not heroes. We’re normal people.
History for Solidarity
This sentiment that worldwide worker power is the most important force for change is true not just for the Stumo brothers’ mission, but many campaigns for liberation in history before them.
In 1936, the advent of the Spanish Civil War was marked by numerous massive labor and rent strikes throughout the country, months before active combat began. The organizations of the labor networks easily translated to become resistance networks after the fascist coup in July of that year. Their robust and focused leadership allowed the Spanish rebels to amass an opposition force that initially completely outnumbered the Nationalists in 1936, before the establishment swiftly moved to consolidate outside assistance from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
This goes to answer what many are asking about the aftermath of the situation– if the Flotilla’s mission was a success by the organizers’ and participants’ definitions. Objectively the Flotilla did not succeed in its goal to penetrate Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza. But there were additional levels to the organization’s goal than just delivering the aid. The Israeli colonial project would much prefer if the world forgot that they are now entering the third year of their genocide against the Palestinians since October 7th. The Flotilla forced Israel into a crisis point with the international community of states, especially in the West, in an advance never seen before in history.
The data reflects this shift, as noted by the Pew Research Center: “39% now say Israel is going too far in its military operation against Hamas. This is up from 31% a year ago and 27% in late 2023.” This kind of a shift on what used to be a political given among the American voter base is monumental to say the least, and a trend that will continue to shift in the favor of the Flotilla’s goals as Israel becomes more and more desperate to maintain their apartheid apparatus.
What’s the Result of the Mission for the Movement?
What was most heartwarming to see was a viral video out of Gaza itself. While Adnaan and Tor were fending off IDF warships at sea, the full focus of the world and the Israeli military was upon them. This allowed for fishermen in the occupied strip to actually go out and fish in their own waters for the first time in years; a moment of hope and a tangible effect of the Flotilla’s mission to Gaza.
This moment coming from some of the most oppressed people in the world should remind us all of what the stakes are, where these are people who are deprived of the right to fish in their very own territorial water. The brothers echo this idea themselves, that for everything that they were subjected to in the Israeli prison, they have the perspective that their time in the hands of the IDF was a brief nightmare compared to what the people of Gaza have been subjected to, and will continue to be subjected to as long as the Israeli colonial project exists.
For Adnaan and Tor, they got to go home. Shaken, and dealing with the consequences of the IDF’s abuse, but their mission to end the occupation will not be the last one. There may be more flotillas, or marches, and there will continue to be endless resistance against Israel’s genocide all over the world, until Palestine is finally free.
Reid Jackson is a conributor to Working Mass and a former member of the YDSA at the University of Rhode Island.
The post The Stumo Brothers of Western Mass: On Mission Sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla appeared first on Working Mass.
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