1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:05,240 Welcome to our event 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:11,064 to the struggle of the factory collective Collettivo di fabbrica GKN from Florence. 3 00:00:22,628 --> 00:00:25,760 I am personally very happy 4 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:30,520 and also a bit excited because actually six of the comrades 5 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:35,913 from Florence have made it, in a night and fog action 6 00:00:36,022 --> 00:00:39,720 to come here to Germany to report on their struggle. 7 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:41,162 And they are here 8 00:00:41,232 --> 00:00:45,072 as representatives of the collective, to report on their struggle. 9 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:50,880 And I'm very pleased to be here this evening. 10 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:52,556 I'm Julia. 11 00:00:52,610 --> 00:00:55,829 I'm active in Leipzig only visiting Berlin, 12 00:00:55,915 --> 00:01:01,560 and actually active mainly in the SDS and in the climate movement in Leipzig. 13 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,760 And I want to tell you very briefly in a few sentences how it came about 14 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:09,480 that the comrades from Florence are speaking here today. 15 00:01:09,519 --> 00:01:14,639 Large parts of the climate movement have been convinced of this for a long time, 16 00:01:14,734 --> 00:01:17,320 and I think a lot of people share this idea, 17 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:21,120 that in view of the ecological crisis 18 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,360 we need a big mass uprising and of course we would have to go into the factories 19 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,920 and paralyse everything and have a lot of alliances 20 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:32,560 between workers and climate activists. 21 00:01:34,219 --> 00:01:37,340 I have had many debates about this in the last few years 22 00:01:37,410 --> 00:01:39,080 and often the argument came up: 23 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,400 "That's all well and good." - you see it already here behind us - 24 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:45,720 "Between public transport colleagues and climate activists it may be. 25 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:50,880 But when we think of the coal and car industries and so on, 26 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:56,200 then it's an illusion that we could now, could soon build strong alliances 27 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,800 between car workers and climate activists." 28 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,720 And then there was usually little else to say than: 29 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:06,502 "Yes, it has to work. 30 00:02:06,573 --> 00:02:10,213 In the 1980s there were also conversion movements 31 00:02:10,299 --> 00:02:14,510 and there were also women workers fighting for a different production." 32 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:18,880 And then suddenly this fight of the Collettivo di fabbrica 33 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,560 fell from the sky, for me at least, 34 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:24,360 and a couple of people who are also here today, 35 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,840 for example Lukas, the interpreter, Franzi, who is sitting here in the front, 36 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:32,153 or the people from labournet.tv who made a super great documentary, 37 00:02:32,480 --> 00:02:34,960 they went to Italy and found out, 38 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,920 that there is a workforce there who should actually be dismissed 39 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:45,120 and has established a permanent assembly in the factory for one year and a half 40 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:47,840 and is fighting so they will not be dismissed, 41 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,360 but that all > the machines, the robots, 42 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,325 everything that is there, is finally being used, 43 00:02:54,357 --> 00:02:56,640 so that something useful can be produced. 44 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,280 In discussion are for example Buses, parts for buses, 45 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,640 cargo bikes are a hot topic in the discussion. 46 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:15,080 Other ideas are photovoltaic systems and the colleagues from down there, 47 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:17,400 from Florence want to produce something else. 48 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,081 And this fight was watched by a few people here in Germany. 49 00:03:22,191 --> 00:03:26,320 And for a long time there had been the idea to bring the comrades here. 50 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,720 And now they have actually come. 51 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,506 And I am happy about it. 52 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:48,080 And so today we mainly want to give you time 53 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,052 to tell about your struggle. 54 00:03:50,153 --> 00:03:52,600 Maybe you already know a little bit, maybe not. 55 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,480 In any case, we want to hear for about half an hour: 56 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,600 What is it with you guys in this factory? 57 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,800 How is it possible that you're fighting such an extremely offensive struggle 58 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:05,200 and to what extent have you actually 59 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,480 collaborated with Fridays for Future in Italy? 60 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:10,480 How can we support at the moment? 61 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,480 These are the questions we asked them in advance, 62 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:20,360 but we don't just want to - 63 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,640 and that is of course a political decision - 64 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,320 not only listen to the GKN colleagues, 65 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:30,200 who say, "Here in Italy everything is great and we are leading 66 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,120 a super fight", 67 00:04:32,208 --> 00:04:34,692 and then we can all keep our feet still, 68 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:36,840 but we also want to hear 69 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:40,800 what the situation in Germany is right now, in order to be able to tie in with it. 70 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,687 And that's why we have two climate activists sitting here, 71 00:04:45,836 --> 00:04:47,636 who are going to follow up on this. 72 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:54,140 And first we have Daria, one of the speakers from Fridays for Future 73 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:59,200 and she's going to talk about where we are at the moment with FFF. 74 00:04:59,372 --> 00:05:01,972 Interesting in that regard is, 75 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:06,280 and this is of course of interest the comrades from Italy, 76 00:05:06,493 --> 00:05:10,376 what is the state of Fridays for Future in Germany right now? 77 00:05:10,493 --> 00:05:12,685 What did we see yesterday for climate strikes? 78 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:17,840 Are these issues of production or alliances of workers 79 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:21,520 and climate activists here in Germany an issue or not? 80 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,680 And what the colleagues, comrades from Italy find interesting 81 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,513 above all is, I think, what is happening in Lützerath. 82 00:05:29,623 --> 00:05:34,154 The way we look at this conversion debate in Italy, 83 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:38,440 they say they are totally captivated by it, what's happening in Lützerath, for example. 84 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,403 We will hear a bit about that. 85 00:05:41,458 --> 00:05:43,592 Welcome to you, too. 86 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:57,200 And thirdly, Franzi will tell you something about what you see on the left of the picture. 87 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:01,800 Yesterday was a pretty special climate strike, because in many cities 88 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,400 public transport workers and climate activists went on strike together. 89 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,480 And that these pictures - you might have seen it in the press, 90 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:16,320 on some YouTube channels - that this collaboration came about, 91 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:21,040 that is also the result of months, actually years of work 92 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:23,840 and not just somehow a nice coincidence. 93 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,920 Franzi is in the core group of these very projects. 94 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:33,070 "We ride together" is the name of the campaign and she will talk a little bit about it. 95 00:06:33,187 --> 00:06:35,880 Because in Leipzig for example, we had a climate strike, 96 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,734 that was for me personally completely crazy, 97 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:41,160 with a lot of climate activists, 98 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:44,611 striking public transport colleagues and the comrades from Florence. 99 00:06:44,697 --> 00:06:48,510 And it was such a small socialist dream for one day, 100 00:06:48,588 --> 00:06:49,838 that everybody was standing there united 101 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,600 and we want to hear a little bit, 102 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:54,197 what's the potential there, what's the next step? 103 00:07:02,865 --> 00:07:06,419 With this I hand over the the floor to both of you. 104 00:07:08,216 --> 00:07:10,638 Thank you to the interpreters. 105 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,585 Thanks to all 106 00:07:42,937 --> 00:07:46,720 for this invitation and this meeting 107 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:48,520 which, of course, for us 108 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,065 is important and touching. 109 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,320 It was not easy, but we are here. 110 00:07:57,707 --> 00:07:59,627 And it won't be be easy for me 111 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,400 to try to sum up twenty months, to sum up twenty months of struggle. 112 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:06,840 Also because these twenty months would have to be explained 113 00:08:07,322 --> 00:08:10,219 with all that happened before, 114 00:08:10,275 --> 00:08:13,635 that prepared us for these twenty months of struggle. 115 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,480 But there is one thing I want to say right away: 116 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,049 We have not started our struggle 117 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:23,520 by talking about environmental protection. 118 00:08:23,968 --> 00:08:26,891 We have not started our struggle 119 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,146 by talking about convergence and about the need to combine 120 00:08:30,199 --> 00:08:34,990 the struggles of the workers and the environmental movement. 121 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:37,440 But we have learned through our experiences, 122 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,400 that both are necessary. 123 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:45,527 Our attitude is therefore not the result 124 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:50,304 of a certain pre-existing ideological attitude 125 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,425 - which wouldn't be wrong - 126 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:58,240 instead, our current attitude is 127 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,360 the result of everything we have done, 128 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,040 and will have to do to save our jobs. 129 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:07,400 Meaning, 130 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,940 the connection between the environmental movement 131 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:12,891 and the workers' movement 132 00:09:12,963 --> 00:09:16,700 is not just an abstract necessity 133 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:18,400 - which it also is - 134 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,478 but a practical necessity. 135 00:09:21,549 --> 00:09:24,635 It is the only possibility that we have as workers 136 00:09:24,681 --> 00:09:27,025 to actually defend our rights, 137 00:09:27,070 --> 00:09:30,266 our jobs and our wages. 138 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:35,507 So there is not the economic struggle of the workers' movement, 139 00:09:35,613 --> 00:09:39,246 which then at some point through a strange altruism 140 00:09:39,298 --> 00:09:41,320 becomes an environmental movement. 141 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:44,800 There is only one struggle. 142 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:48,880 For life, understood as a harmonious capacity 143 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:53,440 to live from one's own wages with one's own rights, one's own time. 144 00:09:53,604 --> 00:09:56,047 Life is the air we breathe, 145 00:09:56,145 --> 00:09:59,400 life is the territory that we cross, 146 00:09:59,472 --> 00:10:02,006 life is the ability of the people, 147 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:05,409 to defend their jobs, but also to decide: 148 00:10:05,487 --> 00:10:07,480 Who benefits your work? 149 00:10:07,583 --> 00:10:09,184 What world will it leave behind? 150 00:10:09,233 --> 00:10:10,873 In which world does it take place? 151 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:20,304 In 2018, the GKN Group was was bought by a financial fund, Melrose, 152 00:10:20,597 --> 00:10:22,960 whose motto is not very secret: 153 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:26,606 "Buy, improve, sell" 154 00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:29,840 "Buy, Improve and sell" 155 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:35,196 means to restructure, close down, make redundancies to increase profits. 156 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:41,185 In 2021 Melrose made a loss of 157 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:44,519 100 million. 158 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:50,174 2022 it has made a profit of 300. 159 00:10:50,988 --> 00:10:53,010 It closed GKN Florence, 160 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,042 it closed GKN Birmingham 161 00:10:55,088 --> 00:10:58,544 and other factories of the aviation industry, 162 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,880 it closed GKN Kaiserslautern 163 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,560 and announced the closure of GKN Mosel announced. 164 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,760 But we are not here to cry 165 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,360 and to say that this is a shame or to be indignant. 166 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,720 They did their job well 167 00:11:17,908 --> 00:11:19,960 because that is their job. 168 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:24,546 You cannot at the same time accept the financial system 169 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,520 and weep about lay-offs. 170 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:30,160 If you accept the financial system it is inevitable 171 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:33,640 that one has to accept that factories are closed by the click of a mouse 172 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:35,610 or with an e-mail, as it happened to us, 173 00:11:35,695 --> 00:11:37,375 on behalf of the shareholders. 174 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:42,640 As the financial fund comes in in 2018, we resolve 175 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:45,040 that we must need to prepare 176 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,520 and we try to accelerate our organising, 177 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:51,520 which is the result of a mixture 178 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:55,423 of everything we inherited from the 1970s, 179 00:11:55,525 --> 00:11:58,535 because GKN Florence was the old Fiat, 180 00:11:58,606 --> 00:12:01,599 by young people who came into the factory, 181 00:12:01,661 --> 00:12:05,514 and tried make the union a reality in a different way, 182 00:12:05,568 --> 00:12:06,497 up to the attempt 183 00:12:06,572 --> 00:12:09,972 to build a democratic and militant union model, 184 00:12:10,029 --> 00:12:12,560 with the foundation of the factory collective 2018 185 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,739 and the introduction of the factory delegates. 186 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,178 Because the point is that we not only went on strike, 187 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:24,155 and enforced rights, wages and contracts. 188 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:27,912 We also said to ourselves: If we don't expand 189 00:12:28,022 --> 00:12:30,444 our ability to control the factory, 190 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:33,520 one day all the agreements that we had signed, 191 00:12:33,586 --> 00:12:35,318 will be null and void. 192 00:12:35,764 --> 00:12:38,639 Because this is a rigged game. 193 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,200 We are striking and fighting to get contracts, 194 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:45,603 and they defy agreements at an opportune moment. 195 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,880 And even if you are in the right, it is too late, 196 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:54,040 because in the meantime the factory has already been closed. 197 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:58,720 On 9 July 2021, it was a Friday, they say we should stay at home 198 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:02,465 for a day off, because there is little work. 199 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,652 In the morning we receive an e-mail, 200 00:13:05,707 --> 00:13:08,128 saying that we're all fired, 201 00:13:08,190 --> 00:13:10,863 that we won't enter the factory any more. 202 00:13:11,363 --> 00:13:14,558 Obviously also a form of psychological violence. 203 00:13:15,503 --> 00:13:18,003 We gathered in front of these gates, 204 00:13:18,073 --> 00:13:22,104 because we had prepared for this case for a long time. 205 00:13:22,268 --> 00:13:25,869 The gates were closed, there were armed guards inside, 206 00:13:25,924 --> 00:13:28,424 defending the factory. 207 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,064 We went in, took back the factory 208 00:13:31,143 --> 00:13:36,040 and since 9 July 2021 we are in a permanent assembly. 209 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:39,390 Some things we had prepared 210 00:13:49,049 --> 00:13:51,960 Some things we had prepared, others we had not. 211 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,260 At this point in time we had 75 days, 212 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,142 to prevent the dismissal from becoming final. 213 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:02,669 And these 75 days they had chosen on purpose 214 00:14:02,821 --> 00:14:05,207 in July and in August. 215 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,411 First we say "GKN stays!". 216 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,692 Then we realise that this slogan might not mean anything. 217 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:16,680 We live in a country, Italy - 218 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:18,960 but the problem is European and international - 219 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:21,415 where at the moment of our release 220 00:14:21,468 --> 00:14:24,852 we lost a million jobs during the pandemic. 221 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:29,336 In our country the number of the poor rised from 1.5 million in 2009 222 00:14:29,540 --> 00:14:31,760 to 5.6 million in 2021. 223 00:14:31,893 --> 00:14:34,620 That means that the number of absolute poor has tripled. 224 00:14:34,714 --> 00:14:37,114 Then there are the relative poor. 225 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:39,667 We have 3.5 million precarious people 226 00:14:39,769 --> 00:14:42,151 who from one day to the next had been left at home 227 00:14:42,230 --> 00:14:43,696 as it happened to us. 228 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,868 What does "GKN stays" mean to all these people? 229 00:14:46,946 --> 00:14:50,759 Why should GKN stay? 230 00:14:51,306 --> 00:14:53,001 So we say something different. 231 00:14:53,032 --> 00:14:57,440 After two days we say: "Let's get up!" 232 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,791 which is a motto of the resistance of the partisans, 233 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:04,588 to indicate that we have a dark period behind us 234 00:15:04,651 --> 00:15:07,960 and that this time would only pass if everyone decided 235 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,580 that a limit had been reached. 236 00:15:11,411 --> 00:15:15,598 If our struggle became a symbol of social resistance for all, 237 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:18,760 so that by winning at GKN we would win for all 238 00:15:18,855 --> 00:15:22,871 and set a favourable precedent for all. 239 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:25,949 These 75 days pass very quickly, 240 00:15:26,004 --> 00:15:29,644 we organise three very big demonstrations and a general strike 241 00:15:29,746 --> 00:15:31,800 and we manage to prevent the dismissals. 242 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,816 With a demonstration on 18 September 2021 243 00:15:33,863 --> 00:15:35,791 with 40,000 people in Florence, 244 00:15:35,845 --> 00:15:38,470 as well as with a successful lawsuit, 245 00:15:38,540 --> 00:15:41,445 declaring the dismissals to be unlawful. 246 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:46,939 So we defeat the summary dismissals. 247 00:15:47,900 --> 00:15:49,614 But the work does not come back. 248 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,760 We remain in the empty factory which does not start again, 249 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,120 although we are not fired. 250 00:16:01,821 --> 00:16:05,560 And from there on time suddenly slows down. 251 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:07,400 They leave us there in the factory. 252 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,056 We don't know when the lay-offs will come back. 253 00:16:11,150 --> 00:16:15,240 Since we had 75 days in which thousands of people defended us, 254 00:16:15,777 --> 00:16:17,377 we now have time 255 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:21,440 to develop a convergence with other social mobilisations. 256 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:23,960 We ask ourselves how we use this time. 257 00:16:24,090 --> 00:16:28,324 We travel to the Climate Camp to Milan in September, 258 00:16:28,395 --> 00:16:32,855 where there was a demonstration with as many thousands of people, 259 00:16:32,996 --> 00:16:34,886 organised by Fridays For Future 260 00:16:34,964 --> 00:16:37,019 and we tell them something simple: 261 00:16:37,081 --> 00:16:40,777 Don't think that we are defending the car industry 262 00:16:41,124 --> 00:16:43,472 against the ecological turnaround. 263 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:45,160 That's not what it is. 264 00:16:45,454 --> 00:16:47,839 We were not asked what to produce 265 00:16:47,910 --> 00:16:49,017 when they hired us 266 00:16:49,087 --> 00:16:51,587 and we don't want to be held responsible 267 00:16:51,665 --> 00:16:54,738 for something we no longer produce when we are made redundant. 268 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,000 If we are held responsible for what we produce, 269 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:02,315 then we want to decide what, for whom and how much we produce. 270 00:17:02,565 --> 00:17:05,463 And we declare that an axle shaft factory like ours 271 00:17:05,541 --> 00:17:08,673 can be integrated into the public bus production 272 00:17:08,712 --> 00:17:10,664 for sustainable mobility, 273 00:17:10,828 --> 00:17:13,588 to produce electric buses. 274 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:18,680 To keep the factories that the private car industry is abandoning, 275 00:17:18,750 --> 00:17:22,351 to instead create a production 276 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:27,560 - the only really sustainable one - of public transport, 277 00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:32,719 which are environmentally friendly, electric and free, 278 00:17:32,796 --> 00:17:37,397 that actually make our mobility public and sustainable. 279 00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:46,080 Of course we know that the state intervention, 280 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:51,043 that we are asking for does not exist and they will not give it to us. 281 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,910 Because there is no opposition between the Italian state 282 00:17:55,965 --> 00:17:58,000 and the multinational companies. 283 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,327 There is, if anything, the attempt of the state, 284 00:18:02,382 --> 00:18:04,632 to position itself at the disposal of multinational companies 285 00:18:04,678 --> 00:18:06,390 to gently close down the factories. 286 00:18:06,483 --> 00:18:09,905 The multinational companies close you down with a mail, 287 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,427 while they close you with endless round tables, 288 00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:14,607 leading to the same result in the end. 289 00:18:14,700 --> 00:18:18,080 over the years and with public money, 290 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,240 not to get the factories to get going again, 291 00:18:21,265 --> 00:18:24,481 but to give us social plans and unemployment benefits, 292 00:18:24,536 --> 00:18:27,332 to keep us there, so we don't do anything, 293 00:18:27,410 --> 00:18:29,920 until we resign ourselves. 294 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,280 So when we speak of public intervention 295 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:37,610 we connect with researchers and solidary people 296 00:18:37,666 --> 00:18:38,736 and in December 2021 297 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,680 we call a meeting at the factory, 298 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,960 where we present our plan for sustainable mobility. 299 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,880 And on this basis we demand an intervention of the state. 300 00:18:49,062 --> 00:18:52,589 At the same time we say that if Melrose resumes the dismissals 301 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:55,573 we are ready to mobilise again. 302 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,860 At this very moment, when we are talking about public intervention 303 00:18:58,946 --> 00:19:01,431 the consultant from GKN shows up 304 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:04,600 and says that he buys GKN Florence, 305 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:06,920 to stop the redundancies. 306 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:11,378 So there is another victory, 307 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,268 because we are bought by this entrepreneur who says: 308 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,960 I withdraw the dismissals and the liquidation of the factory. 309 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,040 I will bring you an investor. 310 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:25,210 For he has neither capital nor a new product. 311 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,320 We have a strong doubt whether this promise of the investors 312 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,240 is designed to buy time to wear us down further. 313 00:19:31,306 --> 00:19:33,385 Because obviously a social mobilisation 314 00:19:33,414 --> 00:19:35,614 cannot last indefinitely. 315 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:39,211 The solidarity movement around us is relaxing 316 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,760 and goes home. 317 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,040 The only possibility we have, 318 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,680 to see whether this investor actually arrives 319 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:50,814 is to increase the convergence even further. 320 00:19:50,884 --> 00:19:53,728 Which is why we call to a nationwide demo 321 00:19:53,822 --> 00:19:55,353 in Florence on 26 March. 322 00:19:55,415 --> 00:19:58,000 Together with the Climate Strike of 25 March, 323 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,455 - so the convergence deepens - 324 00:20:00,521 --> 00:20:03,520 and say that we did not fight FOR THIS [for our factory], 325 00:20:03,593 --> 00:20:06,638 but FOR OTHERS, in solidarity with other mobilisations, 326 00:20:06,722 --> 00:20:09,177 and FOR EVERYTHING, for a connection 327 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,480 between our struggle and struggles like that for the environment, 328 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:18,680 against the invasion of Ukraine and the worldwide escalation of war, 329 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,555 the anti-fascist struggles the struggles against patriarchy. 330 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,821 Of course they attack us for that because they say 331 00:20:25,884 --> 00:20:28,440 GKN does politics instead of trade union work. 332 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:32,380 But that was the only way to stand our ground, 333 00:20:32,442 --> 00:20:36,842 to secure our existence also on the trade union front. 334 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,120 The months go by, 335 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,241 and still no investor, 336 00:20:44,335 --> 00:20:49,000 round tables, promises and the factory continues to stand still, 337 00:20:50,320 --> 00:20:52,000 At the end of August 338 00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:55,425 it is finally clear that no investor will come. 339 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,840 But we had signed an agreement with the new owner 340 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,307 which said that if the investor doesn't come 341 00:21:01,354 --> 00:21:03,893 and it becomes clear that the new owner 342 00:21:03,940 --> 00:21:06,780 was just another face of the financial fund, 343 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,080 who plays the same game by continuing to stall us, 344 00:21:10,789 --> 00:21:14,709 he had to become the owner of the factory. 345 00:21:15,037 --> 00:21:18,200 He presents a business plan for 50 million euros, 346 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,997 of which, however, 35 would be contributed by the Italian state. 347 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:28,706 The public intervention that we had demanded from the beginning 348 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:33,480 is now demanded by a private entrepreneur to socialise the losses, 349 00:21:33,602 --> 00:21:36,414 in order to use the public funds in his favour 350 00:21:36,453 --> 00:21:38,609 and not in our favour. 351 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:44,351 In fact, he doesn't intend even to ask for these funds, 352 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,689 because he does not even submit the relevant documents to the state. 353 00:21:47,797 --> 00:21:51,447 The investments do not arrive, the factory does not restart. 354 00:21:51,611 --> 00:21:54,751 At this point we appoint again our solidary 355 00:21:54,814 --> 00:21:56,536 technical-scientific committee 356 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:00,320 and declare ourselves a public and socially integrated factory. 357 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,680 Public factory, because GKN cannot restart, 358 00:22:03,769 --> 00:22:06,660 if there is no public intervention, 359 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:09,933 socially integrated, because this factory, our factory, 360 00:22:10,004 --> 00:22:12,660 has been defended from the whole territory 361 00:22:12,731 --> 00:22:14,936 by the whole GKN Solidarity Movement 362 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:18,040 and it is true that the factory belongs to this movement. 363 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,880 So our factory is not only public, in the sense of being nationalised, 364 00:22:21,927 --> 00:22:24,569 but it must be socially integrated, 365 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,760 i.e. it must really be in the hands of the communities and territories 366 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,693 with a participatory democracy from below that decides 367 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,281 what the factory should produce. 368 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,880 Also a guarantee that the factory will produce things tomorrow, 369 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,210 that are actually ecologically and socially sustainable 370 00:22:40,278 --> 00:22:42,078 and won't be another part 371 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,104 of the capitalist Green Washing. 372 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,397 This step and the fact that in November 373 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,131 we are founding a society for mutual aid 374 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,118 and that we call for two more demonstrations - 375 00:23:08,210 --> 00:23:13,240 one in Bologna against the widening of the urban motorway, 376 00:23:15,243 --> 00:23:17,360 together with the suburbs of Bologna. 377 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,840 We workers, who produce private cars, who, together with the suburbs, 378 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,870 protest against the enlargement of a road, 379 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:29,801 which serves the road traffic, private individual traffic, 380 00:23:29,875 --> 00:23:34,036 instead of producing public transport vehicles. 381 00:23:34,301 --> 00:23:37,372 Our suburbs, where the average life expectancy 382 00:23:37,418 --> 00:23:40,308 is on average four years lower than that of the residents in the centre. 383 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:43,920 So it is the difference that we pay as proletarians, 384 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,080 as workers in terms of life, 385 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,359 that we will have, because of our choices, 386 00:23:50,427 --> 00:23:54,250 in relation to the environment, where we live, where we can stay. 387 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,880 And on 5 November we call for another mobilisation 388 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,151 with the unemployed in Naples, in order to create a link 389 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,458 between the workers in the centre and in the north, 390 00:24:04,545 --> 00:24:06,560 and the unemployed in Naples. 391 00:24:06,654 --> 00:24:08,734 Because there is this paradox: 392 00:24:08,792 --> 00:24:11,912 if you are unemployed here they insult you, 393 00:24:12,009 --> 00:24:15,001 because you want an income to survive. 394 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,931 Us, who would like to work again, 395 00:24:18,001 --> 00:24:21,960 they give us an income so that we don't go to work. 396 00:24:26,331 --> 00:24:29,675 All this leads to an even greater attack on property, 397 00:24:29,737 --> 00:24:32,003 and when they realise that they can't wear us down, 398 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,800 because the permanent assembly continues, 399 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,360 also thanks to the convergence with all the social struggles, 400 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:42,373 they start with a tactic which we have called siege in November. 401 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,760 Just like in a medieval siege 402 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,857 you have to burn the earth around the besieged. 403 00:24:48,969 --> 00:24:51,321 They start to slander and say, 404 00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:53,805 that they don't know who is behind this factory, 405 00:24:53,868 --> 00:24:55,703 perhaps a subversive minority, 406 00:24:55,733 --> 00:24:58,336 that wants to start its own political movement, 407 00:24:58,438 --> 00:25:02,719 that frightens investors. 408 00:25:03,977 --> 00:25:07,016 And on top of that you have to 409 00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:08,694 starve the besieged. 410 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:12,704 That is why in November they stop paying us wages. 411 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,280 Now we have been without without wages for six months. 412 00:25:17,196 --> 00:25:20,713 And with the wages they stop paying us all this 413 00:25:20,738 --> 00:25:25,785 that is tied to the wage: Social security contributions, parental leave, 414 00:25:25,972 --> 00:25:28,347 breastfeeding periods. 415 00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,320 To force the workers to resign, 416 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,000 because they are putting us in a kind of hostage situation, 417 00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:39,841 where we are not unemployed and we can't get benefits, 418 00:25:39,881 --> 00:25:43,076 because we are workers, - nobody has made us redundant - 419 00:25:43,216 --> 00:25:44,600 but we have no wages! 420 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,800 To get a salary I would have to quit 421 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,360 and start as a precarious in another company. 422 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,109 It has been going on like this for five, six months now. 423 00:25:55,187 --> 00:25:57,929 And the most frightening thing, most disturbing thing is, 424 00:25:58,045 --> 00:26:02,804 that we have often heard stories from comrades in arms, 425 00:26:03,063 --> 00:26:08,583 often from migrants who work in small textile workshops 426 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,400 in our neighbourhood, or in logistics, where they do illicit work, 427 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,854 where the companies are in the hands of the Mafia, the Camorra, the Ndrangheta, 428 00:26:15,994 --> 00:26:18,560 where you have no contractual rights. 429 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:22,060 But we have contractual rights which have been acquired over 60 years of struggle. 430 00:26:22,122 --> 00:26:24,645 They took them away from us from one day to the next, 431 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,169 under the spotlight of the Italian state. 432 00:26:27,247 --> 00:26:30,480 Because every week we go to the Ministries, to the negotiations. 433 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:34,715 And nobody is shocked that we are not being paid! 434 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,770 To show to what extent we are impersonal numbers 435 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,200 we are in ministerial negotiations and tell them: 436 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,022 "You are not paying, it's illegal!" 437 00:26:45,117 --> 00:26:47,882 - and what they want to talk about is our permanent assembly 438 00:26:47,968 --> 00:26:50,195 and why we are in the factory. 439 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,485 Although we are naturally very tired and bent 440 00:26:59,579 --> 00:27:01,235 from this whole tactic 441 00:27:01,313 --> 00:27:03,282 and from twenty months of struggle 442 00:27:03,923 --> 00:27:06,688 we have launched an industrial project: 443 00:27:06,782 --> 00:27:09,087 The scientific and technical Solidarity Committee has, 444 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,235 together with our Re-Industrialisation Group, 445 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:13,477 worked day and night 446 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,360 and today we see this reality: 447 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:21,601 We have industrial projects, we have a product, the prototype of a cargo bike. 448 00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,804 We would have the possibility to produce renewable energy 449 00:27:25,898 --> 00:27:28,320 because we have start-ups on our side 450 00:27:28,398 --> 00:27:31,768 with interesting patents that could enable us to do that, 451 00:27:31,885 --> 00:27:35,690 e.g. producing photovoltaic panels without extractivism, 452 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,760 namely without using silicon, lithium or cobalt, 453 00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:44,060 and by joining the environmental movement, 454 00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,674 which should help us in this transition so as not to fall into green washing, 455 00:27:47,776 --> 00:27:51,838 not to delude ourselves into thinking that we are doing something ecological when that is not true. 456 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,996 That is why we are thinking about starting again as a cooperative. 457 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,600 We are thinking about starting with a corporate structure, 458 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,000 or a union structure, 459 00:28:01,057 --> 00:28:03,450 where social movements acquire shares in the factory 460 00:28:03,496 --> 00:28:06,863 and can control what happens in the factory. 461 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,248 Of course we don't cherish to illusions. 462 00:28:09,326 --> 00:28:12,795 The factory we are going to restart is a capitalist factory. 463 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,412 And we know from the history of the cooperative movement: 464 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:17,955 You are still an island 465 00:28:18,033 --> 00:28:21,830 in a capitalism that brings you to self-exploitation. 466 00:28:21,908 --> 00:28:26,885 So we know that we are going down a very dangerous path. 467 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,135 But we also know that we have no alternatives, 468 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,667 because on the one hand we have created a new collective imaginary, 469 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:37,683 we have changed the power relations 470 00:28:37,777 --> 00:28:41,605 but unfortunately the balance of power today is still insufficient 471 00:28:41,633 --> 00:28:43,209 to change the overall picture. 472 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,327 This leads to the fact that our experience 473 00:28:46,413 --> 00:28:49,655 resembles that of the occupied factories in Argentina, 474 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,968 with some positive and some negative differences. 475 00:28:53,048 --> 00:28:54,888 So we have the possibility 476 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,880 to create a little social experiment 477 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,029 being aware that the socialist factory does not exist 478 00:29:00,115 --> 00:29:03,680 and that the new system won't be made in a single factory, 479 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,040 we are absolutely aware of that. 480 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,720 But we can go this way and turn GKN into 481 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,405 a little social experiment 482 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,101 if the whole movement accompanies us 483 00:29:16,234 --> 00:29:18,445 through all the phases that we will pass through: 484 00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:21,924 In the phase of mobilisation, because mobilisation is not over. 485 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,240 In the propaganda phase of what is happening at GKN 486 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,744 because we have to let people know what we are doing. 487 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,440 And in the crowdfunding phase, 488 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,200 because obviously we need money. 489 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:37,120 On the one hand to cope with the lack of wages 490 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:41,080 and on the other hand to make the investments 491 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,680 that fund the new production. 492 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,200 Unfortunately, for this kind of production we need completely different machines. 493 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:52,000 It will no longer be the production of axle shafts for cars 494 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,800 but we will, and that will cost money, 495 00:29:55,956 --> 00:29:58,283 have to order completely new machinery 496 00:29:58,307 --> 00:30:00,893 and start with the new production. 497 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:05,873 What for us is an honour, a burden, an effort, 498 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,013 is the banal attempt to keep the wages and and the jobs, 499 00:30:10,146 --> 00:30:12,849 because that is what we are fighting for. 500 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,560 Today we are forced, not because of ideological convictions 501 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,954 but because of the way our struggle has developed, 502 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:27,522 to restart as a European social experiment 503 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,175 where not only we, but all of you can say 504 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,160 that we not only have the best ideas 505 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:38,160 and fight for a different future, 506 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,160 but that there is also a small village - 507 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,160 we jokingly call ourselves the village of Asterix and Obelix. 508 00:30:44,225 --> 00:30:46,162 When the whole Roman Empire was conquered, 509 00:30:46,191 --> 00:30:48,455 there was a small village that still resists. 510 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:50,956 There is a small village of madmen 511 00:30:51,026 --> 00:30:52,956 in which we are able 512 00:30:53,035 --> 00:30:55,534 to challenge the concepts of the capitalists 513 00:30:55,605 --> 00:30:59,269 in an effective, productive way 514 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:01,926 with a really progressive production, 515 00:31:02,036 --> 00:31:03,676 of course only, 516 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,280 when there is a whole movement around this village 517 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,965 that defends it, helps it and move it forward. 518 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,000 In the last five minutes, if I may, 519 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,198 some more general considerations. 520 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,151 Every time during these five months 521 00:31:39,237 --> 00:31:42,971 when we travelled through Italy, and now not only Italy, 522 00:31:43,041 --> 00:31:45,676 we found ourselves confronted 523 00:31:46,027 --> 00:31:47,892 with the peasants, 524 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:51,418 with the textile workers, 525 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:56,145 with those who work in animal husbandry. 526 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:58,200 Each time one sentence stood out: 527 00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:01,530 every time we came into contact with an industry they said: 528 00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:03,140 "You don't know, but that 529 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,116 is the most polluting industry there is." 530 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,520 "Intensive agriculture is the most polluting there is." 531 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:12,440 "You don't know it, but factory farming 532 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:14,480 is the most polluting industry!" 533 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:16,546 "You don't know it, but the textile production 534 00:32:16,585 --> 00:32:18,937 is one of the most polluting industries." 535 00:32:18,980 --> 00:32:20,940 "You don't know but 536 00:32:21,015 --> 00:32:24,480 behind the production of the COIN there is an enormous amount of pollution." 537 00:32:24,656 --> 00:32:27,880 "Behind the digital there is an enormous amount of pollution." 538 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:29,814 The truth is 539 00:32:29,869 --> 00:32:32,560 that the capitalist industry as a whole 540 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,880 as it is organised today 541 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,320 as a whole is harmful to the environment. 542 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,377 We can imagine the ecological transition 543 00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:46,955 not simply as a technical innovation. 544 00:32:47,057 --> 00:32:48,640 Because there is more than just technology. 545 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,113 Technology renews itself through people whom technology renews. 546 00:32:52,222 --> 00:32:57,135 And technology does not renew itself if there is no other social organisation. 547 00:32:57,220 --> 00:32:59,440 There can be no ecological transition 548 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:03,400 if there are no communities of solidarity who know what they are talking about. 549 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,833 And there can be no communities of solidarity 550 00:33:05,927 --> 00:33:08,327 in hierarchical power and in exploitation. 551 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:12,520 So the truth is, as we have often said, 552 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:13,905 and not only us: 553 00:33:14,038 --> 00:33:16,975 You cannot fight against the end of the world 554 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,131 if you don't make it by the end of the month. 555 00:33:19,175 --> 00:33:21,775 You can't expect while millions of people 556 00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,840 are sinking into poverty, into extortion, in the exploitation of the precariat, 557 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,228 at the same time a mass environmental movement can develop, 558 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:33,556 which succeeds in preventing the end of the world. 559 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:37,120 Because inside the production plants we must have our people, 560 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,320 who know how the production can be transformed 561 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:45,240 and who explain to us how much and why this industry pollutes the environment, 562 00:33:45,357 --> 00:33:48,280 how much and why this value chain 563 00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,381 is organised in a way that is harmful to the environment 564 00:33:51,451 --> 00:33:54,880 in order to achieve maximum profit. 565 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,400 But at work we can't have that, 566 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,640 when we are threatened by redundancies, threatened by the precariat 567 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:06,148 as in the case of millions of others, of low wages, of inflation. 568 00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:12,253 If we have to choose between paying the bills or the rent 569 00:34:12,341 --> 00:34:17,361 and at the same time we can't care whether the bills are right, 570 00:34:17,468 --> 00:34:20,027 we can't care about the war, which inflates them, 571 00:34:20,095 --> 00:34:22,732 about the natural gas, which is part of the bill, 572 00:34:22,796 --> 00:34:25,491 and everything else that is part of the bill. 573 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:31,243 We are convinced of this connection, 574 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:33,360 we will try to maintain it. 575 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:35,995 I don't know, not even since 9 July, 576 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:38,730 how long we can go on with our struggle. 577 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:42,440 Let's hope that when we stop, that it at least remains an example 578 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,321 and that if they manage to bury us, 579 00:34:45,371 --> 00:34:48,144 we can at least be seeds for future inspiration, 580 00:34:48,212 --> 00:34:51,830 for future plants, that will grow 581 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:54,240 and I also know 582 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,973 that the trade union movement, 583 00:34:58,061 --> 00:35:00,896 understood as purely corporatist defence, 584 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,480 does not hold up. 585 00:35:02,742 --> 00:35:07,517 Because in a collapsing world you cannot defend your wages, 586 00:35:07,614 --> 00:35:09,782 and you cannot defend your your wages 587 00:35:09,822 --> 00:35:12,283 if you do not face the end of the world. 588 00:35:12,371 --> 00:35:14,129 Also because in the end 589 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:19,600 for these 1,500, 1,800, 1,200, 1,000 euros, 590 00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:22,248 which we bring home. 591 00:35:22,345 --> 00:35:28,020 It is useless if one day you have to spend it on medicines 592 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:33,401 for respiratory diseases, for nervous diseases 593 00:35:33,457 --> 00:35:37,082 because the health system was broken up, 594 00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:38,800 or if what is being built 595 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,428 or if what you build is destroyed in the next storm, 596 00:35:42,516 --> 00:35:44,664 or by the next pandemic, 597 00:35:44,723 --> 00:35:49,225 which is only discussed in terms of when it will come, not if it will come, 598 00:35:49,264 --> 00:35:51,334 or by a worldwide escalation of war. 599 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,816 There is no defence of your terms, 600 00:35:54,895 --> 00:35:56,698 nor any trade union, 601 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,139 if you don't join this struggle for everything. 602 00:36:00,198 --> 00:36:01,478 And vice versa: 603 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,320 it is not possible to stand one's ground in the struggle against patriarchy. 604 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,200 in the ecological, anti-fascist, pacifist struggle, 605 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:13,131 if one does not dare to tackle the main contradictions of capitalism 606 00:36:13,248 --> 00:36:15,660 and workers are obviously 607 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:21,539 in the front line of the struggle against these contradictions. 608 00:36:21,643 --> 00:36:22,770 Thank you. 609 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,000 What about Fridays for Future? 610 00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:36,280 What is the status of the movement? 611 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,800 As I said, quite interesting, also for people internationally, 612 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,840 what was that dynamic in Lützerath that we observed there? 613 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:45,819 And maybe you just want to 614 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:48,561 report for ten minutes about the climate strike yesterday. 615 00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:52,120 And what you would say where we are right now, 616 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,499 both in our struggle against the end of the world and 617 00:36:56,080 --> 00:37:00,078 perhaps in combination with the fight against 618 00:37:00,352 --> 00:37:03,280 not making ends meet at the end of the month. 619 00:37:03,812 --> 00:37:05,972 The floor is yours. 620 00:37:17,019 --> 00:37:21,600 First of all, I can only agree with the previous speaker and above all, 621 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,807 as far as the last part is concerned. 622 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,034 The fight against the climate crisis must be intersectional 623 00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:32,840 and that's why I think it's incredibly important that we unite, 624 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,160 that we do not bring together only one part of society 625 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,600 and take it to the streets. 626 00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,480 That is why Fridays for Future regularly tries to establish 627 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:52,405 alliances with other groups, also with other target groups. 628 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:58,000 Lützerath was now the last example before the strike yesterday. 629 00:38:02,705 --> 00:38:06,666 I'll start to tell a little bit about it. 630 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,480 I don't know now who knows how much about it, 631 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:13,800 if there are any questions feel free to contact me, 632 00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,395 or if something isn't clear yet. 633 00:38:16,544 --> 00:38:21,926 Lützerath is a - was a small village in Germany 634 00:38:22,052 --> 00:38:24,528 in North Rhine-Westphalia 635 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:29,286 and near the open-cast lignite mine 636 00:38:29,403 --> 00:38:33,637 of RWE, a large coal company. 637 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,201 It was to be destroyed and dredged, 638 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,233 so that RWE can expand the open-cast mine 639 00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:47,873 and not only Lützerath but also other villages. 640 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,120 At the same time however 641 00:38:51,424 --> 00:38:54,184 the coal phase-out has been decided, 642 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:58,240 Germany-wide and also for the state of NRW. 643 00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:02,520 However, the problem is that this was all a negotiation 644 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:08,000 between the government of North Rhine-Westphalia and this company 645 00:39:08,101 --> 00:39:13,301 and it was negotiated that there would be a coal phase-out in 2030 646 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,360 in North Rhine-Westphalia. 647 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,757 At the same time Lützerath 648 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:25,155 may be destroyed by RWE. 649 00:39:25,272 --> 00:39:28,160 That was more or less the result of the negotiations. 650 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,603 But from a climate point of view 651 00:39:31,669 --> 00:39:36,389 and from a from a point of view concerning justice absolutely pointless 652 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:40,299 because the coal that lies under that place, still lying there, 653 00:39:40,524 --> 00:39:43,402 that hasn't yet been excavated isn't needed. 654 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,020 Also not for energy security. 655 00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:49,240 Even if the government claims other things. 656 00:39:49,349 --> 00:39:51,684 RWE too, of course. 657 00:39:51,864 --> 00:39:57,280 And that means that the destruction of this place was in the end 658 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:01,840 quite pointless and actually only happened 659 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:05,440 to wrench something from the RWE Group 660 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,440 in these negotiations. 661 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:13,120 Yes, and there are some climate activists, 662 00:40:13,229 --> 00:40:16,669 who went to this place years ago, 663 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:19,235 occupied it, built something, 664 00:40:19,306 --> 00:40:22,368 after most of the villagers 665 00:40:22,610 --> 00:40:25,770 were resettled, were forced to resettle. 666 00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:27,813 The pressure has continued to increase, 667 00:40:27,891 --> 00:40:29,920 so that the people gave in more and more. 668 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:36,711 A structure of its own was established 669 00:40:36,805 --> 00:40:39,640 in which was attempted 670 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,440 to implement climate justice actively in everyday life 671 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,537 - many also speak of a small utopia - 672 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:51,040 and that has held until this January. 673 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:55,000 And then the eviction started and the activists were evicted 674 00:40:55,189 --> 00:40:58,120 from this place and unfortunately Lützerath was also 675 00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:01,600 destroyed relatively quickly. 676 00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:05,000 Despite this my impression is 677 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,935 that many activists 678 00:41:08,091 --> 00:41:11,849 and also other people who participated and supported 679 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:14,497 went out with a lot of motivation. 680 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:19,020 Because we managed to bring a large part of society together. 681 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,625 Of course many climate justice groups 682 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,316 but also many former residents 683 00:41:26,398 --> 00:41:29,678 of Luckerath and also of the surrounding villages, 684 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:33,520 who perhaps weren't necessarily active before 685 00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:37,600 and were able to experience a different approach to the subject. 686 00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:41,745 And Lützerath was on the one hand a symbol 687 00:41:41,776 --> 00:41:44,360 but of course also quite factual 688 00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:51,420 a place where Germany failed to meet its climate targets. 689 00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:55,615 But as I said, also a very strong moment 690 00:41:55,716 --> 00:41:57,720 for a great, broad alliance. 691 00:41:57,837 --> 00:42:01,758 We had a very, very big demo on 14 January. 692 00:42:01,817 --> 00:42:07,426 And I think that a lot of people go out of this struggle 693 00:42:07,754 --> 00:42:10,120 and are motivated to make more alliances 694 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:14,360 and continue to exert pressure from the street. 695 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,640 Of course there was also a certain challenge, 696 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,280 which also continues to be, 697 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:26,871 namely that RWE and coal companies have employees. 698 00:42:26,957 --> 00:42:30,512 And the big question that's always in the room is, of course, 699 00:42:30,554 --> 00:42:33,434 if we demand that there should be a coal phase-out 700 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,483 or a phase-out from fossil fuels, 701 00:42:36,578 --> 00:42:40,335 what happens to the workers? 702 00:42:40,655 --> 00:42:43,350 And that is exactly why 703 00:42:43,444 --> 00:42:46,298 we also form alliances with trade unions. 704 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,181 I think that is also a long way to go, 705 00:42:49,237 --> 00:42:52,033 that we have to go. 706 00:42:53,009 --> 00:42:56,634 But that is the reason why we 707 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:58,960 went on strike in Germany together with ver.di yesterday. 708 00:42:59,893 --> 00:43:04,480 Yesterday the twelfth global climate strike took place, 709 00:43:04,596 --> 00:43:09,400 worldwide, in hundreds of places, 710 00:43:09,503 --> 00:43:13,960 on six continents; more or less simultaneously 711 00:43:14,380 --> 00:43:17,951 people striked for climate justice. 712 00:43:18,135 --> 00:43:21,560 The international slogan was "Tomorrow is too late" 713 00:43:21,646 --> 00:43:23,552 and "End fossil finance", 714 00:43:23,617 --> 00:43:26,657 so clearly against fossil capitalism, 715 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,120 against the financing which is behind it 716 00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:32,920 and which in the end 717 00:43:33,938 --> 00:43:38,250 puts profits and steady growth always above human lives, 718 00:43:38,383 --> 00:43:42,756 above the fight against the climate crisis. 719 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:46,460 And in Germany we have decided 720 00:43:46,574 --> 00:43:48,674 to strike together with ver.di, 721 00:43:48,758 --> 00:43:52,190 especially with workers from public transport 722 00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:58,240 and to explicitly put pressure again and to demand a change in transport 723 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:03,595 from the government or especially from Volker Wissing 724 00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:07,520 who doesn't necessarily stands for progress 725 00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:11,760 and not necessarily for socially just measures in every respect. 726 00:44:11,919 --> 00:44:14,966 I think that is clear to most people. 727 00:44:15,078 --> 00:44:19,983 Unfortunately, he now has the decision-making power in this area. 728 00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:22,976 Together we demanded 729 00:44:23,092 --> 00:44:26,127 massive investment in public transport, 730 00:44:26,228 --> 00:44:28,868 improvement of working conditions for the employees, 731 00:44:28,975 --> 00:44:33,020 higher wages and that prices have to go down. 732 00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:35,080 Because we need public transport 733 00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:38,600 that is there for everybody and above all affordable for everybody. 734 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,880 So that mobility doesn't remain a luxury (unfortunately it is at the moment). 735 00:44:54,314 --> 00:44:58,482 Unfortunately it is the case that the transport sector 736 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,080 is massively lagging behind. 737 00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,440 So much for that. 738 00:45:08,277 --> 00:45:11,800 In Germany only we were 739 00:45:11,895 --> 00:45:15,117 on the streets in over 250 places yesterday. 740 00:45:15,248 --> 00:45:17,400 And we also managed 741 00:45:17,591 --> 00:45:19,570 to bring together different groups 742 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:24,414 of employees and often young people, 743 00:45:24,492 --> 00:45:28,529 who do not yet have so much contact with the working world, 744 00:45:28,590 --> 00:45:31,080 to trade unions, because they still go to school, 745 00:45:31,209 --> 00:45:34,137 study, some of them also do an apprenticeship. 746 00:45:34,870 --> 00:45:39,880 I think that is an important step and we want to pursue it further. 747 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:44,800 In Germany we had over 200,000 people on the streets. 748 00:45:45,061 --> 00:45:48,301 Of course, people often talk about the fact that there are no longer so many 749 00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:50,796 as a few years ago at Fridays For Future 750 00:45:50,892 --> 00:45:52,446 That is true 751 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:55,677 but I would say what is important 752 00:45:55,749 --> 00:45:58,109 is that the climate justice movement 753 00:45:58,195 --> 00:45:59,992 continues to be very strong and growing. 754 00:46:00,060 --> 00:46:03,260 New groups are emerging with new fields of action. 755 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:07,520 And I think it is also important here, that we continue to unite, 756 00:46:07,577 --> 00:46:10,421 support each other and that also happens, 757 00:46:10,538 --> 00:46:16,230 just like with other groups who fight for social justice. 758 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,920 I think that is the most important thing that we have to look at. 759 00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:21,713 And that's what we see. 760 00:46:23,867 --> 00:46:27,427 And that is also our goal that we continue to pursue. 761 00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:30,200 We were also with an insane number of people, 762 00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,440 different groups on the street yesterday 763 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:36,760 and our aim is to build even broader alliances, 764 00:46:36,890 --> 00:46:40,200 to network further and to build a common 765 00:46:40,264 --> 00:46:43,624 intersectional struggle against the climate crisis. 766 00:46:58,116 --> 00:47:04,520 Thank you for this general overview on FFF and the climate movement in Germany. 767 00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:06,760 The numbers are definitely stark, 768 00:47:06,852 --> 00:47:10,252 even if you can see the movement downswing 769 00:47:10,509 --> 00:47:13,669 we are still represented in such a great number of cities. 770 00:47:13,720 --> 00:47:17,208 And the mobilisation continues to work well as we have seen in the photos 771 00:47:17,265 --> 00:47:20,353 so that's definitely a pretty good starting point. 772 00:47:20,586 --> 00:47:23,386 Franzi will now report a little bit 773 00:47:23,654 --> 00:47:29,337 on this alliance of public transport workers and Fridays for Future. 774 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,558 I think it's particularly interesting 775 00:47:32,608 --> 00:47:35,503 what especially leftists like to do, to say: 776 00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,789 "This convergence there in Italy or somewhere else, 777 00:47:38,831 --> 00:47:41,880 in Barcelona everything is everything so great" et cetera. 778 00:47:41,993 --> 00:47:46,181 And if you now look at the pictures from yesterday, 779 00:47:46,317 --> 00:47:49,726 there were also goosebumps moments for many. 780 00:47:49,820 --> 00:47:53,820 There were pictures from Cologne, for example, where the climate strike was led 781 00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:57,240 by colleagues from Cologne public transport 782 00:47:57,440 --> 00:47:59,972 and how it could come to this, 783 00:48:00,071 --> 00:48:04,800 - at the beginning of the FFF movement "Strike at school, strike at work" - 784 00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,748 was a leftist slogan 785 00:48:07,811 --> 00:48:10,971 that you heard from the side 786 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,240 that was what the commis wanted 787 00:48:13,331 --> 00:48:18,080 - and now suddenly there was this cooperation in really many cities. 788 00:48:18,257 --> 00:48:22,120 And Franzi will tell you about it now, how it came about 789 00:48:22,227 --> 00:48:24,520 and what potential lies in it propably 790 00:48:24,690 --> 00:48:29,264 and how these meetings should go on. 791 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,040 Yes, hi, I'm totally happy that we're building bridges 792 00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:37,220 from the climate strike yesterday to and with you today. 793 00:48:37,688 --> 00:48:38,796 Hold me back please, 794 00:48:38,875 --> 00:48:42,246 I tend to rave over this matter. 795 00:48:42,455 --> 00:48:45,255 Maybe I'll start with: What connects us actually? 796 00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:49,376 In my mind, what connects the struggle you are fighting in Florence 797 00:48:49,454 --> 00:48:54,120 with what happened on Germany's roads yesterday, 798 00:48:54,248 --> 00:48:58,108 namely the joint strike of workers and the climate movement? 799 00:48:58,161 --> 00:48:59,841 Last summer, 800 00:48:59,920 --> 00:49:03,170 I had another moment in this climate movement 801 00:49:03,265 --> 00:49:05,960 when I thought, now it's really over. 802 00:49:06,060 --> 00:49:07,759 This is the next wave 803 00:49:07,787 --> 00:49:10,762 when a bunch of frustrated people stop doing climate activism, 804 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:12,452 a bunch of people who say: 805 00:49:12,503 --> 00:49:14,880 "It's over, we didn't get it right." 806 00:49:14,935 --> 00:49:19,375 And sometimes you do things like watching labournet.tv videos, 807 00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:20,520 for whatever reason. 808 00:49:20,581 --> 00:49:21,925 And this is what I did 809 00:49:21,972 --> 00:49:25,399 and there I heard about the fight of the workers 810 00:49:25,494 --> 00:49:30,298 in Campi Bisenzio at GKN for the first time. 811 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,160 Conveniently I was on holiday a few weeks later and thought: 812 00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:35,648 "Great, I know where I'm going." 813 00:49:35,703 --> 00:49:39,623 And then I was standing there sometime in the industrial area 814 00:49:39,711 --> 00:49:41,056 near Campi Bisenzio, 815 00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:42,563 got lost 13 times 816 00:49:42,597 --> 00:49:45,111 and then followed Dario a lot, 817 00:49:45,135 --> 00:49:47,823 to ask him what is actually going on here 818 00:49:47,884 --> 00:49:50,786 and somehow in the evening got into a meeting in the evening, 819 00:49:50,859 --> 00:49:53,440 where on the one hand the workers met in the factory 820 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:56,680 and on the other hand groups from the community, 821 00:49:56,780 --> 00:50:01,580 from the neighbourhood, who were simply there to wage this struggle together. 822 00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:05,661 And I sat there the whole time and I was completely stunned 823 00:50:05,700 --> 00:50:07,267 and thought, it cannot be, 824 00:50:07,307 --> 00:50:10,245 that we can't manage to build something like that, too. 825 00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,320 And for me this kick-off of the joint climate strike happened yesterday, 826 00:50:14,682 --> 00:50:16,009 a moment 827 00:50:16,106 --> 00:50:18,755 when for the first time I really had the feeling 828 00:50:18,826 --> 00:50:20,426 "Well, why shouldn't it work actually? 829 00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:22,602 Maybe we can do exactly that, too." 830 00:50:22,659 --> 00:50:25,627 Because actually, as Julia just said, 831 00:50:25,677 --> 00:50:28,720 this motto "Strike in school, university and company, 832 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,578 that is our answer to your politics" was true for me 833 00:50:32,612 --> 00:50:34,640 for the first time on this climate strike yesterday. 834 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,083 Because school and university, we have always been on strike there in the movement, of course. 835 00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:40,708 But that the company was also involved, 836 00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:42,648 we have not really had that yet. 837 00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:46,400 And insofar it became true for the first time. 838 00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:48,920 And it is a moment that can totally give hope 839 00:50:48,974 --> 00:50:51,346 but it is also just a moment of departure 840 00:50:51,376 --> 00:50:53,976 and of the first step and many must follow. 841 00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:57,415 And so now I would like to give a little report on how this could come about. 842 00:50:58,082 --> 00:51:00,838 But I want to let it be understood as an appeal first of all, 843 00:51:00,869 --> 00:51:02,400 that it is up to all of us 844 00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:04,964 to fight these battles together and to carry on, 845 00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:07,412 because otherwise we won't win them. 846 00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:09,760 Because this joint strike 847 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,280 did not start yesterday morning at 3 o'clock at the picket line 848 00:51:12,345 --> 00:51:13,520 in the transport company. 849 00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,400 And it didn't start the day before at the banner painting. 850 00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:20,160 That this alliance was formed in so many cities yesterday, 851 00:51:20,243 --> 00:51:22,951 that climate activists picked up workers in the middle of the night 852 00:51:23,004 --> 00:51:24,096 from the picket line, 853 00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,200 that they went go together to the climate strike 854 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,963 and that workers lead a climate strike demonstration, 855 00:51:29,032 --> 00:51:33,869 because it is just as much about them as it is about the expansion of public transport. 856 00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:36,360 It is just as much about their wages, about their working conditions 857 00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,483 as it is about more buses and trains. 858 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,840 This did not start the day before yesterday, 859 00:51:41,913 --> 00:51:45,233 but is the result of months of work 860 00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,893 that activists on the on the ground have done. 861 00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:51,865 It started with the first walk to the depot, 862 00:51:51,943 --> 00:51:55,224 the first mail to to the shop stewards, to the works council, 863 00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:56,856 to the trade union secretaries, 864 00:51:56,880 --> 00:52:01,000 and in the vast majority of cases also much, much scepticism. 865 00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:04,880 Because it is not the case that this alliance 866 00:52:04,936 --> 00:52:08,256 came about yesterday or usually comes about, 867 00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:11,720 because suddenly everybody says: "Exactly, climate crisis, that is the topic, 868 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:13,773 we always wanted to to do something about it 869 00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,174 but in the first place something comes together, 870 00:52:16,226 --> 00:52:20,507 that is the fight against the climate crisis for climate activists 871 00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:24,023 but for workers in public transport, or even in the car industry, 872 00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:26,193 perhaps first of all a fight against their own job loss, 873 00:52:26,241 --> 00:52:28,360 against the shitty working conditions, 874 00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:30,160 against the fact that everything is getting worse and worse 875 00:52:30,236 --> 00:52:32,467 and that there's no perspective after all. 876 00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:35,600 That's not immediately unity, that's not immediately common ground, 877 00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,910 but as a rule networking started a few months ago 878 00:52:38,954 --> 00:52:42,040 with the first talks about - and many, many question marks - 879 00:52:42,197 --> 00:52:43,997 about what actually connects us. 880 00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:48,040 What the bus driver at five in the morning has in common with us climate activists, 881 00:52:48,040 --> 00:52:51,853 who might be coming home at that time and want to sleep. 882 00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:54,800 It begins with the Immediate, I would say. 883 00:52:54,836 --> 00:52:57,508 It started with the frustration about the working conditions. 884 00:52:57,543 --> 00:53:00,638 It started with the clarity that it can't go on like this. 885 00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:02,200 And then piece by piece just 886 00:53:02,260 --> 00:53:06,462 also with the discovery of the 90% common ground that we have, 887 00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,601 namely clarity, 888 00:53:08,626 --> 00:53:10,784 that a traffic turnaround won't work 889 00:53:10,827 --> 00:53:12,446 with just more buses and trains, 890 00:53:12,516 --> 00:53:14,951 but that it also needs people who drive them. 891 00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:20,000 That it's just connected how a bus driver is being paid, 892 00:53:20,025 --> 00:53:22,034 how someone who works in a garage, 893 00:53:22,073 --> 00:53:23,821 under what conditions this takes place 894 00:53:23,846 --> 00:53:27,966 and ultimately how the mobility turnaround in Germany works or does not work. 895 00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,400 And this discovery was a process that took place 896 00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:33,240 in joint meetings, that has taken place 897 00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:36,520 at works meetings, which has taken place 898 00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:40,080 also at the depot and the very end on the picket line. 899 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:42,880 And of course the picket was the target, 900 00:53:43,139 --> 00:53:45,911 but of course not the beginning and not the end either, 901 00:53:45,946 --> 00:53:47,173 but a first step 902 00:53:47,197 --> 00:53:50,630 to think and to develop how it can actually look like, 903 00:53:50,669 --> 00:53:53,612 when we say we are doing common cause. 904 00:53:53,673 --> 00:53:55,455 We ride together and we strike together 905 00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:59,369 and we fight for these changes that it needs, together. 906 00:54:07,670 --> 00:54:09,040 And I think it's very crucial, 907 00:54:09,103 --> 00:54:12,640 that this is not a foregone conclusion. Because Julia has just reported from Cologne: 908 00:54:12,775 --> 00:54:14,295 Until a few weeks ago 909 00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:17,760 the employees of the Cologne transport company wanted to have nothing to do 910 00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:21,320 with climate activists, they had the feeling that they are somehow foreign. 911 00:54:21,368 --> 00:54:23,360 They want to do do their thing 912 00:54:23,394 --> 00:54:25,570 and now they want to have us in the photo. 913 00:54:25,595 --> 00:54:28,349 And one could have thought, yes, then it's over now 914 00:54:28,392 --> 00:54:30,277 with the common traffic turnaround, what a pity, 915 00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:33,240 but one has not understood each other. 916 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:35,760 Instead, climate activists continued, 917 00:54:35,817 --> 00:54:37,400 continued the conversation, 918 00:54:37,465 --> 00:54:40,710 collected signatures of support in the urban community, 919 00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,600 from people who say: "I support the workers' demand, 920 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:47,320 the immediate, more money in the account at the end of the month", 921 00:54:47,587 --> 00:54:50,427 and so, bit by bit built up trust, 922 00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:52,645 a common language, and a clarity about it, 923 00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:55,680 this is not about to somehow talk someone into it, 924 00:54:55,745 --> 00:54:58,185 that any problems are connected for whatever reason 925 00:54:58,317 --> 00:55:02,040 but they've made it clear that this is what it is really about, 926 00:55:02,169 --> 00:55:06,025 to support in the immediate and then to fight for what is urgently necessary 927 00:55:06,072 --> 00:55:09,106 on a much, much larger level. 928 00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:12,200 And this has led to the fact that a fortnight ago the workers 929 00:55:12,251 --> 00:55:15,731 of the Cologne public transport company said "we are in", 930 00:55:15,792 --> 00:55:19,480 and that they led the climate strike yesterday, 931 00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:23,542 and on this climate strike there was the decisive question, 932 00:55:23,710 --> 00:55:26,569 whether the climate activists and the workers, 933 00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:28,473 who are standing together right there 934 00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:32,295 are prepared not to let the whole thing degenerate to symbolism, 935 00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:34,000 but to further develop this alliance 936 00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:37,892 over the next few months, over the whole next year. 937 00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:40,360 And you will perhaps stumble across this video of it 938 00:55:40,406 --> 00:55:42,985 somewhere on the internet. 939 00:55:43,040 --> 00:55:46,087 Check it out, because the answer is a really loud yes 940 00:55:46,142 --> 00:55:48,204 and that's exactly what it needs. 941 00:55:48,267 --> 00:55:50,137 And it is an example how it can be done, 942 00:55:50,173 --> 00:55:52,053 how we can make common cause with each other. 943 00:55:52,082 --> 00:55:53,920 The truth is also: 944 00:55:53,990 --> 00:55:57,113 it takes a lot of really, really hard work to make that happen. 945 00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:00,520 It takes really a lot of people and it's about that now: the strikes 946 00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:04,249 in the transport companies, the strikes in the public sector continue to escalate. 947 00:56:04,319 --> 00:56:07,900 Are we still there tomorrow or was it yesterday's business? 948 00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:10,120 And that's exactly why it's the perfect time, 949 00:56:10,210 --> 00:56:12,040 that we meet here today. 950 00:56:20,538 --> 00:56:23,385 The employers' side then said yesterday: 951 00:56:23,447 --> 00:56:25,400 Ver.di, this is crossing frontiers. 952 00:56:25,525 --> 00:56:27,765 You combine collective bargaining with politics. 953 00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:29,120 Yes, of course it is about that, 954 00:56:29,244 --> 00:56:32,804 turning political issues into disputes of trade union struggles. 955 00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:36,640 Because of course every trade union struggle and every struggle for more wages 956 00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,920 and every struggle for fair working conditions 957 00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:42,160 is a question of politics and a question of distribution, 958 00:56:42,214 --> 00:56:45,372 a question of justice and a question of the world we want. 959 00:56:45,442 --> 00:56:49,607 And that is what we can and should build up in the coming months. 960 00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:52,040 And when employers talk about transgressions, 961 00:56:52,125 --> 00:56:55,812 then they are absolutely right. That crosses a line, 962 00:56:55,848 --> 00:56:59,008 because there are boundaries being broken between activists and workers, 963 00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:02,440 between those who otherwise might even fight against each other 964 00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:05,000 and then suddenly the opponent is a common one, 965 00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:06,753 namely the one with really a lot of money, 966 00:57:06,798 --> 00:57:08,678 Those who don't suffer under 967 00:57:08,747 --> 00:57:11,136 but gain in every crisis. 968 00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:24,241 And there was a very funny Tagesthemen commentary yesterday, 969 00:57:24,804 --> 00:57:27,874 from a woman who said: "Where are we going with this? 970 00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,460 Do the climate activists possibly even want to 971 00:57:30,522 --> 00:57:32,360 make common cause with the Industrial Union of Metalworkers? 972 00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:34,600 The answer is a very, very clear yes. 973 00:57:34,709 --> 00:57:37,629 And that is why we fight today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow side by side, 974 00:57:37,661 --> 00:57:39,701 and this here today is a warm invitation, 975 00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:44,840 firstly, to support the colleagues and comrades in Florence, 976 00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:47,320 secondly, to do the same here 977 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,311 and thirdly, in perspective, maybe to win one day.