On this day, 8 December 1949, a conference of dock workers in France agreed to prevent all cargo destined for Indochina from being transported from multiple ports during the anti-colonial war in the region. France had been at war with the anti-colonial movement in Vietnam since 1946 in a conflict which spread to the neighbouring French protectorates of Cambodia and Laos. The ports on the Mediterranean coast which were blacked were Marseille, Sete, Nice, Port-de-Bouc, Port-Saint-Louis, Port Vendre and Toulon. The move followed a refusal of dockers the previous month to load two ships headed for Indochina: the Montbeliard and the Cap Tourane (pictured).
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