WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.399 Over the first weekend of April twenty twenty five, over 2 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:07.879 seven thousand people attended the third annual Working Class Literature Festival, 3 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.240 held at a former car Parks factory on the outskirts 4 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.359 of Florence. The opening day of the festival was the 5 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:17.679 one thousand, three hundred and sixty seventh day since the 6 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:21.079 workers first seized the plant in opposition to the company's 7 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:23.879 attempt to shut it down. In the days before the 8 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.239 festival was due to begin, workers received their third and 9 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:31.679 now final redundancy notice. Yet despite this news, the festival 10 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:35.079 remained both a buoyant and militant occasion as the workers 11 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:38.439 push ahead with their plans to reopen their factory as 12 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:43.799 a worker cooperative building ecological goods. This is working class Literature. 13 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.239 Before we start, a quick note to say that we're 14 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:14.439 only able to continue making these podcasts, both Working Class 15 00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:17.560 History and Working Class Literature because of the support of 16 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:20.400 our listeners on Patreon. If you like what we do 17 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:22.719 and want to help us with our work, join us 18 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:25.920 on patreon dot com slash working Class History, where you 19 00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:30.000 can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus content, 20 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:34.519 discounted books, merch and more. For instance, Patroon supporter has 21 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:37.200 got early access to this episode with our ads, and 22 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.560 they also get exclusive access to our two Patreon only 23 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:45.040 podcast series, Radical Reads and Fireside Chat link in the 24 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:48.480 show notes. You might remember that back in February, we 25 00:01:48.599 --> 00:01:51.680 put out two episodes about the Working Class Literature Festival 26 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:55.000 in Florence. For the past three years, this festival has 27 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:58.239 taken place at the former GKN car parts factory that 28 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.439 in twenty twenty one was taken over by its former 29 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:04.879 employees after they were made redundant, and has been under 30 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.120 their control since. To get a fuller understanding of how 31 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.159 the festival got started and the GKN struggle itself, we 32 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:13.960 recommend you go back and listen to those episodes first. 33 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.199 But as part of making those episodes, the author and 34 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:21.560 festival organizer Alberto Brunetti, who we interviewed for those episodes, 35 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:25.520 suggested that I attend this year's event. I should note that, 36 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:29.199 unlike normal episodes, the interviews used here were recorded on 37 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:32.520 site at the festival itself, so apologies in advance for 38 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.039 the quality of some of the audio, which can vary 39 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:38.280 quite a bit. As such, in April, I made my 40 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:41.360 way out to Florence to experience it for myself, a 41 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:45.479 weekend of music, talks, discussions, and performances, not to mention 42 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.080 food and beer that brought together over seven thousand people, 43 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:52.360 making it easily the biggest working class cultural event in 44 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.639 Europe and perhaps even the world. But more important than 45 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:57.639 the scale of the event was the way that it 46 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.240 was different from pretty much any other literary event that 47 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:03.639 I'd been to, even though specifically about working class writing. 48 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.159 As we touched on in the previous episodes, this festival 49 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:10.680 is not just about increasing working class representation in middle 50 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:14.960 class dominated areas of society, like publishing in academia. It's 51 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.639 about transforming society itself, something that was evident in the 52 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:22.599 slogan of this year's festival, We will be Everything. The 53 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:25.360 result of this is that while there were professional writers 54 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:28.240 and scholars who are from working class backgrounds or writing 55 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.520 about working class issues, there are also many talks by 56 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.360 people who write and research but might not think of 57 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.159 themselves primarily as writers or researchers. 58 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:41.439 My book is about it's some kind of chronicles, it's 59 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:44.680 some kind of a memoir. It's my first year in 60 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:47.479 Sweden and they so if you want to know my background, 61 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:50.680 I'm at high school dropout. I come from Poland. 62 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:55.199 This is Daria Bogdanska, a union activist living in Malmo, 63 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:58.960 southern Sweden, and the author illustrator of the graphic novel 64 00:03:59.159 --> 00:03:59.879 Wage Slaves. 65 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:01.719 I don't come from. 66 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:06.439 A union tradition, you know. I'm now thirty something. When 67 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:09.280 I grew up, I was kind of maybe considering myself 68 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:13.080 a leftist, but I have no idea of actual union work. 69 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.479 You know, I was a part of the precarreat and 70 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:21.160 in this way you read about union traditions, you read 71 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:25.040 about left wing history, but it's very apps right. 72 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:25.839 It's the past. 73 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.079 You don't see, at least me being the like young 74 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:34.920 millennial leftist. I couldn't relate to this in my daily life. 75 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.720 Just working shit jobs and a way of changing your 76 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:43.279 conditions would be changing a job instead of taking a fight. 77 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.399 Your European Union opens to Poland, where I go, of 78 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:50.639 course London, where I did the bike messager work for 79 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:51.279 a few years. 80 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:53.439 I consider it a shit job. Absolutely. 81 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.560 I did some bike mechanic jobs, I did some waiting, 82 00:04:57.800 --> 00:04:59.920 I did any any kind of shit job you can 83 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.560 imagine in Spain, in the UK. And I'm kind of 84 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:10.519 a typical European EU nomad, going and doing different ship 85 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:15.800 jobs and just finding means to to live, and then 86 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:18.600 I end up in Sweden. That's actually a fun story 87 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:23.959 because there is those schools people schools FORCA schooler. It's 88 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:28.079 some kind of vocational schools for people who didn't finish 89 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:32.079 high school. So if you don't have a high school diploma, 90 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:34.920 you can apply for such a school. And I got 91 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:38.000 information that you could maybe apply to this kind of school. 92 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.000 I always did writing and drawing, so I applied to 93 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.879 comics school. Actually I just want to try something, and 94 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:49.920 iled that I knew Swedish and my application and I 95 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.160 got in and I was okay, then I'm going to Sweden. 96 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:56.399 Basically me in my backpack and I've, you know, a 97 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:00.480 few hundred euros in my pocket. The whole book kind 98 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:03.399 of depict my first year in Sweden and kind of 99 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:07.360 my classes with the Swedish system, the clashes of my 100 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:11.920 imagination of Swedish system as a kind of orderly, bureaucratic 101 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:17.920 welfare paradise where everybody is equal and you know, the 102 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:22.199 land of social democracy where maybe shitty jobs would be 103 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:26.240 less shitty, and what I found out during this first 104 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:31.120 year that I work in a restaurant there. I work illegally, 105 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:33.959 even though I'm from EU and I have right to 106 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:39.399 work in Sweden. I found in some kafkan situation where 107 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.279 you have to apply for this personal number in Sweden, 108 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.680 like social security number in order to have a like 109 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:48.560 legal job. But in order to get this number, you 110 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.040 have to have a job. So it's a catch twenty 111 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:52.319 two situation, you know. 112 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:54.319 So I work illegally. 113 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:57.399 I work at a restaurant. It's an Indian restaurant, and 114 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.439 I'm the only white person working there, and I earn 115 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.680 like five years an hour and this is shitty, but 116 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:06.199 I'm used to shitty, you know. I just need to 117 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:10.240 pay my rent and I go to work before and 118 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.600 after school. But what I realized is that there's people. 119 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:19.279 There's a whole karaokee of workers there. And I earn 120 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:24.000 five euro, which for a Swede is slave wage. But 121 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:27.639 there is people from Bangladesh who work earn four and 122 00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:30.000 a half a euro. But there is a guy from 123 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.079 Pakistan who earns three euro. And there's you know, well, 124 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:36.199 I call it a letter of desperation that you know, 125 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:40.399 more desperate you are for a job for money than 126 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.160 then the last like the last he get paid, and 127 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.120 this is something that pisces me off really and this 128 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:49.160 is something to push me to try to organize, which 129 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:52.480 I do formally for the first time in my life. 130 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:56.839 So this is a story of me going through this 131 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:04.279 journey kind of awakening in that sense into trying to organize, 132 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:07.360 trying to organize the kind of precarious situations, try to 133 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.160 also navigate how to organize when there's so much at stakes, 134 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:17.160 like people who have working visas and risk a lot, 135 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:20.879 or like some shady connections with the owner who lends 136 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.000 them money or they live at his place, or they 137 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.279 live at the restaurant, you know, and how to organize 138 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:28.040 in those conditions. That So this is a parallel story 139 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:31.279 of the union organizing and also me finding my way 140 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:34.279 in Sweden, finding my life in Sweden, kind of observing, 141 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:39.559 trying to understand what's going on around me, what's this 142 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:40.399 country about. 143 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:43.879 After this period in her life, Darry began organizing among 144 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.960 market workers with a number of different unions, something that 145 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.840 she continues to do to this day. But one thing 146 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.639 she mentioned was how her writing and her activism are 147 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:54.919 often in tension with each other when it comes to 148 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:56.440 competing for her time. 149 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:58.399 After I wrote a book. 150 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:00.519 I mean, there was a lot of interest in the 151 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:04.759 book because they don't have an immigrant woman talking about, 152 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.639 you know, our own conditions, you know, which I understand 153 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:12.879 the interest because I prefer to speak about myself. We 154 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.720 migrants speak with our own voices. Then somebody else tells 155 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:19.399 you about how we have it. So there was a 156 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.399 lot of interest. But I noticed also one thing that 157 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:25.720 I would be like invited by the major unions to 158 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:29.279 talk about both the culture sector, and then the unions 159 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:32.639 would would invite me and I would talk about my 160 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:36.200 situation in my book, but they like to hear how 161 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:39.799 terrible it was. But as soon as I came with 162 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:44.000 some criticism or solutions, as soon as I was showing 163 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.120 some agency, they were not interested anymore. 164 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:48.720 And after some years. 165 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:50.840 Of doing this kind of being being like a I 166 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:55.200 don't know, a spokesperson for migrant in like culture sphere, 167 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.840 like you know, by being a writer, I just got 168 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:01.600 tired of it and I realize, like shit, I just 169 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:03.559 want to do organizing. I want to help also other 170 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:05.679 people who are in a situation like me. So I 171 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:08.919 started getting more involved with the union. I struggle with 172 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.440 this because sometimes you know, we have this kind of 173 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:15.559 idea of a successful person who's like both and the 174 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:21.000 activist and the brilliant thinker and also fantastic organizer and 175 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:23.919 writer and everything. And I'm like, you know, I'm not 176 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:28.639 so smart, I'm not so fantastic. Like maybe I cannot 177 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:31.639 manage to do be everything at once, and right now, 178 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:35.600 I mean I would manage to do both, and right 179 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.320 now I just out of way. I'm more of a 180 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:41.759 practitioner right now than talker. But I still think it's 181 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:44.559 valuable to talk about those things, and I'm really happy 182 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.120 that I did, but I just kind of got impatient, 183 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:48.960 but just talking. 184 00:10:49.799 --> 00:10:52.399 Daria was just one of the many excellent speakers that 185 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:55.000 I met over the fest of a weekend. But another 186 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:57.799 that I had a chance to speak to was Luca Leijang, 187 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:01.600 postdoctoral fellow at the University of Macau in China, an 188 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:05.759 editor of the anthology Asian Workers' Stories. In many ways, 189 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:08.960 Luca's research picks up where Dari's graphic novel left off 190 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:12.039 in terms of giving a voice to migrant workers, though 191 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:14.519 in Lucas case, her focus is on those who are 192 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.519 further down what Daria calls the ladder of desperation. 193 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:23.440 I wrote my PhD on working class literature in China 194 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:29.200 and Singapore as a comparative study. One important part of 195 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:35.480 my research focuses on micro worker writings in Singapore and China. 196 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:39.039 So in Singapore, just put it briefly, there are a 197 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:44.080 lot of migro workers come from less developed countries such 198 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:49.639 as the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh, and they work there in 199 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:56.200 those three D jobs such as domestic helpers and construction workers. 200 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.720 Three D jobs here refers to the three d's used 201 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:05.039 to describe the work done by market workers that is dirty, dangerous, 202 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:05.840 and demeaning. 203 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:11.759 So that's all basically the magrant workers do in Singapore, 204 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.519 but Singapore is not the unique case. They are also 205 00:12:14.600 --> 00:12:21.519 in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan 206 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.919 and China too. In China, I mean slightly different, they're 207 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:29.960 not transnational workers, but the nature of the work is 208 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.639 the same. So along with my research, I have met 209 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:38.639 a lot of worker writers who are writing a lot 210 00:12:38.679 --> 00:12:42.679 of things about their life, their job. And I have 211 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:47.799 also read a lot of older working class literatures from 212 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:52.159 this region, for instance, those who are actively writing in 213 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.919 the nineteen seventies, and I found it is very different 214 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:00.720 that how those older group of workers write their life 215 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:05.279 and work as a working class writers and the contemporary 216 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:11.039 domestic workers. So after I did my PhD, I was like, Okay, 217 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:16.440 I really wanted to collect those worker writers to put 218 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:21.159 them together in one book. I really want to highlight 219 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:27.919 this kind of collective way of framing workers writing, not 220 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:33.039 only as individual workers. For instance, a lot of magan 221 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:39.840 worker writers in Singapore has been framed as migrant writers, 222 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:44.559 and I have a trouble with that term because in general, 223 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:49.480 when they talk about magnant writers, it seems worker identity 224 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:55.320 has been raised or downplayed. So there are a lot 225 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:00.159 of literal events and activities about megan worker writings in 226 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:04.200 this region, for instance Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but 227 00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:10.000 I'm always worried about how they downplay the worker aspect 228 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:13.120 in these writings. And there are a lot of things 229 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:19.159 also happened within this writing community. For instance, when migrant 230 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:24.840 workers are writing about their home lives, their personal emotions, 231 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:29.759 they are very welcomed by the local government's literary events. 232 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:35.360 But there's a line where when they started writing about 233 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:39.200 their working conditions as workers, or when they want want 234 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:43.720 to have some improvements in their life conditions, they are 235 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:50.360 no longer walcomed in this kind of writing practices. So 236 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:54.320 I wanted to do a book where I didn't encourage 237 00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:57.919 them to write about their working conditions, but I really 238 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:02.240 want to put this working class literature class perspective in 239 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.679 this book, and certainly maybe the last one is I 240 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.279 want to kind of I want to the writers know 241 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:15.039 they are not writing alone. They are workers in different 242 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:19.639 parts of Asia writing about the writing. So I want 243 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.360 to kind of bring this book to them and let 244 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:26.399 them know, see, you're not working alone. We have a 245 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:30.080 lot of people writing on their lives. They are writers 246 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:33.320 in these collections who are very experienced writers, they have 247 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.120 been writing for years. But the fact is some of 248 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:40.559 the writers are very experienced ones and they are published 249 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:43.360 that they are recognized, but some of them are very 250 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:48.080 very new. And there is also a relatively older worker 251 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:52.360 writer from Malaysia in this collection, so I found he's 252 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:57.559 very interesting because he was connected with the older working 253 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:02.919 class writing in Malaysia in the nineteen seventies. So in 254 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:06.799 Malaysia in nineteen seventies, Malaysia and Singapore in the nineteen 255 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:11.080 sixties and seventies, there was a very active working class 256 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:16.039 writing group who basically of the factory workers or bus 257 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:21.399 drivers or plantation workers, because there was a very active 258 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:25.679 working class culture at that time, but now they are 259 00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:30.960 kind of forgotten or marginalized because they're not a lot 260 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:35.320 of working class literature studies or institutions in that region. 261 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:39.600 So I read his books. He self published to a 262 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:43.879 collection of his writings in Chinese, and I read it 263 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:47.519 and I kind of approached to I asked him, do 264 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:51.080 you want is that okay if I translate one or 265 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:54.200 two of your stories to this collection, and he said, 266 00:16:54.279 --> 00:17:00.440 of course. So that's again one of my kind of 267 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:06.400 hope that I can historic size those writings. And because 268 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:10.599 those writings are not you know, like speaking of from 269 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.599 working class writing perspective, it's not something that new. 270 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:18.319 One of the interesting things about Asian workers' stories is 271 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:21.759 the range of different jobs and nationalities of its contributors 272 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.880 and how these interact with various literary traditions that inform 273 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:26.559 their writing. 274 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:31.000 There are a lot of domestic workers. They live in 275 00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:36.920 the households, and it is exactly very hard to draw 276 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:40.680 the line between life and work in a sense where 277 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:44.440 they work at where the employers live, and they live 278 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:48.039 there right, so you can see a lot. Their stories 279 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:56.039 are very kind of centered this household. So it's also 280 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:01.880 kind of no longer the traditional working class life where 281 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.400 you go to a factory or you go to a 282 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:09.599 place to work. Maybe Stephanie's story is a very good 283 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:15.079 example where Stephanie's story the Autobiography of the Other Lady 284 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:19.279 Gaga is particularly interesting in terms of the form or 285 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.960 the round word she uses. Her stories in this collection 286 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:29.680 is drawn from this form called dectly in the Filipino 287 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:37.160 literary tradition, where I think it's similar to flesh fiction 288 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:42.440 or mini stories or mini fiction in English terms, and 289 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:47.920 those writings. This genre started at the beginning of twentieth 290 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:52.160 century in the Philippines after the Philippines in the US War, 291 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:58.240 and people wrote in this form they published on local 292 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:03.920 magazines newspapers in their vernacular languages. So she also used 293 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:08.599 this form for her writings, which I find very interesting. 294 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.960 The Autobiography of the Other Lady Gaga is a contribution 295 00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:17.599 to Asian workers' stories by Stephanie j Alfarez, a trans Philippine, 296 00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:20.559 a migrant worker who works for almost fifteen years in 297 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.640 Saudi Arabia. As Luca mentioned, the dagli form that she 298 00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:27.279 uses in her story has its roots in the anti 299 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:31.799 American newspapers and magazines that proliferated after the Philippine American 300 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:34.799 War at the turn of the twentieth century, But as 301 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.920 the translator's note in the anthology makes clear, the dagli 302 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:41.480 is also a former vignette or sketch for expressing romantic 303 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:44.839 love for a woman. This context feels very present in 304 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:48.000 Alpharez's story, not just in terms of the political origins 305 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:51.359 of the dagli, but also its roots as a romantic genre. 306 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:55.759 But those romantic roots contrast starkly with the multiple depictions 307 00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:59.680 of sexual harassment and violence in Alvarez's story and in 308 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:03.400 dou and So Alvarez powerfully twist those routes into a 309 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:08.000 sick parody of themselves. Like Lucas says, for domestic workers, 310 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:10.799 the line between life and work is often hard to draw, 311 00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:14.279 and as can be read in Alvarez's story, the same 312 00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:16.920 can be said about the line between workers issues or 313 00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:21.400 the issues of migrants, women, or LGBT plus communities, particularly 314 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:25.039 in places like Saudi Arabia, where their vulnerability as oppressed 315 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:29.599 groups is made worse by the conditions of their employment. However, 316 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:32.039 Alvarez is not the only writer in the collection to 317 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:34.559 use form and genre in interesting ways. 318 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:40.119 Speaking of form, I'm very interested in, for instance, the 319 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:45.799 form of journal or how they document their factory life 320 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:51.519 or construction workers life. So I mean those other forms 321 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:55.160 for other boushease writings or middle class writings, but they 322 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:57.960 I find those kind of writing from those worker writers 323 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.799 gave a new meaning to those roundwolks. For instance, diary 324 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.279 caeping might be a very kind of I mean, most 325 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:10.559 of the times we read a diary from writers write 326 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:16.160 famous writers Virginia vol for others, but they also for instance, 327 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:19.880 the writer in this book, the last one, M. D. 328 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.880 Shari Fooding. He's from Bangladesh and he used to work 329 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:29.039 as a migrant worker in Singapore in constructions, and he 330 00:21:29.079 --> 00:21:33.400 published actually two books on his life in Singapore, and 331 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.759 those two books are named as Diary of a Migrant 332 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:43.519 Worker in Singapore. And again, in terms of form, maybe 333 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:46.759 keeping a journal or diary was supposed to be very 334 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:51.039 intimate personal writing, but his writing was meant to be 335 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:56.359 read by others, others in terms of Singaporean people and 336 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.640 other fellow workers for other different purpose. 337 00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:03.799 Last year on the working Class Literature podcast. We published 338 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:06.759 a three part series on migrant worker poetry in China, 339 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:10.519 with a significant focus on the poetry anthology Iron Moon. 340 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:14.119 One thing that came up during my conversation with Luca, however, 341 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:17.039 is that those Chinese mirgant worker poets who have been 342 00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:21.680 translated into English themselves often reflect the biases of Western 343 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:24.960 scholars and translators. If you'd like to listen to our 344 00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:27.960 series and Chinese market worker Poetry, we'll include a link 345 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:30.319 to it on the web page for this episode link 346 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:31.319 in the show notes. 347 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:38.319 So in China, everything's very complicated, even when it comes 348 00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:42.319 to workers' writing. There are so many workers are writing 349 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:46.000 in China today or in the past, and I find 350 00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:51.039 this is very interesting in terms of who God translated. 351 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:55.319 Irol Moon did a great job in terms of how 352 00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:01.039 collectively poets are translated, but there is also a trend 353 00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:07.720 that they are certain type. I would say worker poets 354 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:13.720 got translated into English, and it's really sometimes I even 355 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:18.599 feel it depends on who was discussed or written by 356 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:27.440 Western academics. And maybe this point is controversial, but what 357 00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:31.960 I wrote in my PhD is that there is a 358 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:39.000 group of underground worker writers or poets. I mean, they're 359 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:43.000 not like popular in China, but their work are not 360 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:49.160 talked about by overseas readers or even scholars. So the 361 00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:54.720 first one I found it's extremely important and interesting that 362 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:02.200 they have a very radical class consciousness. And they secondly, 363 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:06.640 they write and they want to publish, and they organize 364 00:24:06.680 --> 00:24:11.160 this collective because they want to build up a working 365 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:17.519 class culture. And that's also paradoxically the reason they stay 366 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:21.200 largely unknown by most of the people, because they don't 367 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:25.920 want to get to know by the mainstream media or 368 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:32.880 mainstream middle class publishing houses. Because in their publication, they 369 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:37.279 have published three collections of their own works and they 370 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:43.720 wrote very clearly that so our aim of those writing 371 00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:50.200 and these publications is to build up a working class culture, 372 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:54.359 and it is from the working class, the workers, the 373 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:59.559 Chinese workers, and it is for the working class. So 374 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:05.599 I've found that is extremely interesting and very important if 375 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:09.160 we want to talk about working class literature, because from 376 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:13.279 my perspective, a lot of worker writers are consumed today 377 00:25:13.400 --> 00:25:17.640 by the middle class taste and middle class or mainstream 378 00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:24.319 publishing industry, and those writers are very radical also in 379 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:29.200 terms of why do they write. They see a political 380 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:33.079 potential there in their writing. They want to change, right, 381 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:39.039 They want to kind of call for a more collective 382 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:43.920 way of writing and building up a culture of their own, 383 00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:51.799 and certainly they want kind of working class solidarity from below. 384 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.599 So even in the very beginning, when I approached to 385 00:25:55.640 --> 00:26:01.119 the poet out and writer, he's very kind of suspicious 386 00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:03.640 of me, which is okay. He was like, okay, who 387 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:03.920 are you? 388 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:04.960 Like? 389 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:07.759 You can feel he has a sense like I don't 390 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:11.599 want to be studied, right, So I spent years or 391 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.559 sometimes talk to him and explain my views and build 392 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:22.000 up these kind of connections with him and as well 393 00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:26.039 as other few writers from this collection. I found that 394 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:30.160 that's really really important, even in China or in Asia today, 395 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:35.000 that you know how the worker writers are approached and 396 00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:38.759 how we collaborate with them as academics or translators or 397 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:43.599 published industries. A lot of worker writers, as far as 398 00:26:43.640 --> 00:26:47.400 I know, are consumed. And I also I wrote about 399 00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:51.160 this in Singapore, like how a worker writer are made 400 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:58.359 and am made by middle class writers or that industry 401 00:26:58.359 --> 00:26:58.920 in general. 402 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.279 There's about to be a quick ad break here. If 403 00:27:02.279 --> 00:27:04.759 you'd like to listen to our episodes without ads, then 404 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:07.599 do support us on Patreon for ad free episodes, as 405 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:10.119 well as a bunch of other Patreon only content at 406 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:15.079 patreon dot com slash Working Class History. Luca and Daria 407 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.519 were just two of the incredible speakers at the festival 408 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:20.359 this year, but there were numerous others in both English 409 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:24.119 and Italian, and always supported by a seemingly endless network 410 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:29.039 of volunteer interpreters. More than any one particular talk or performance, however, 411 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:32.440 what really made the festival so unique was its connection 412 00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:36.519 to the ongoing struggle at GKN, which, as we've mentioned before, 413 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:40.640 goes beyond the everyday struggle of work and wages towards 414 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:44.839 something more fundamentally transformative. Over the years that this struggle 415 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:47.599 has been going on for workers have put together an 416 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:51.039 industrial plan to reopen the factory as a worker's cooperative, 417 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:54.559 but not making car parts as they were before. In 418 00:27:54.599 --> 00:27:57.880 the new industrial plan, the GKN workers intend to restart 419 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:01.839 production making ecological goods like a range of cargo bikes 420 00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:05.880 for fossil fuel free delivery services and solar panels, both 421 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:08.400 to sell as a product in and of itself and 422 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:12.079 also for the factory to produce cheap, renewable energy for 423 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:15.480 the local community. This is all part of the Factory 424 00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:19.680 Collective's plan for what they call a socially integrated public factory, 425 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:22.240 a factory that will be at least fifty one percent 426 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:25.680 owned by the workers themselves and responding to the needs 427 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:28.440 of the local area. To help bring this about, the 428 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:32.680 GQN Factory Collective proposed a law on public industrial Consortiums, 429 00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:35.839 which will allow public bodies to buy up industrial sites 430 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.880 once companies shut down production. In December twenty twenty four, 431 00:28:40.119 --> 00:28:43.319 this law was approved by the regional government in Tuscany. 432 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:49.079 Now, the next step we are struggling for the city 433 00:28:49.079 --> 00:28:52.480 halls and the regional government to airy up in the 434 00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:56.440 process of creating this public consortium that is the one 435 00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:00.440 that they can create in Othersinga, is the season on 436 00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:04.559 our law, in order that maybe in June July they 437 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:08.440 can start to prepare game with the ownership in order 438 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:09.720 that this building becomes a. 439 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:13.880 Public This is Daria Salvetti, the spokesperson for the GKN 440 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.000 Factory Collective, speaking to a group of international attendees this 441 00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.200 year's Working Class Literature Festival. Longer term listeners might remember 442 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:24.920 that we also spoke to Dario in our previous episodes 443 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:27.200 on the festival. And the struggle at GKN. 444 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:31.799 The right wing parties in Toscany are attacking us. They 445 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:34.599 say that our law of public consul is a law 446 00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:35.960 that brings you back to the. 447 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:37.799 Soviets in Toscany. 448 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:42.720 I would like to, but it's not the case. It's 449 00:29:42.759 --> 00:29:46.240 a very very moderate law that is simply allows a 450 00:29:46.359 --> 00:29:50.359 public government to say, if there is a factory, you 451 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:53.960 have to be like that is a factory. You cannot 452 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:57.680 treat a factory like a real estate investment. This is 453 00:29:57.680 --> 00:30:01.000 the basic purpose of the law, not less, not both. 454 00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:04.839 And we have a fear that the Democratic Party want 455 00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:08.559 to invest in this law because they want to use 456 00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:12.960 it into the electoral field. But we won't succeed because 457 00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:16.359 their will is not what they sometimes do. Because a 458 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:20.039 party that has been formed in us and ars in 459 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:24.400 privatizing everything now that they have to a public. 460 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:27.599 Feing to those so fail. So there could be also. 461 00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:31.119 The shot very want to let us win, but they're 462 00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:35.480 not able because they don't have the real mind to 463 00:30:35.960 --> 00:30:38.319 be created something public, so that there would be the 464 00:30:38.359 --> 00:30:42.039 worst scenario that is that in September, when September October, 465 00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:46.200 when the election comes, the right wing attacked us because 466 00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:51.839 we have Richard, no nothing. They attack the Democratic Party 467 00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.319 because of Foreman has formed the public consortion that is 468 00:30:54.359 --> 00:30:57.359 not functionate, and that could be the word sinnaty. 469 00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:01.400 The Democratic Party that Darius were into here is not 470 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:04.359 the one from the United States, but the main center 471 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:07.759 left party in Italy, but one which, like many center 472 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:10.880 left parties across the West, has been firmly near liberal 473 00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:14.640 now for decades. And as Dario explains why the law 474 00:31:14.680 --> 00:31:17.559 itself will open up space for workers to finally take 475 00:31:17.559 --> 00:31:20.640 control of their factory, it cannot simply be left up 476 00:31:20.680 --> 00:31:23.640 to a political party that for years has been dedicated 477 00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:27.119 to privatization. Rather, the plan will have to be fought 478 00:31:27.160 --> 00:31:30.480 for by the GKN workers and their supporters, and as 479 00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:33.559 a result, the plan also includes space for other groups 480 00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:34.319 to be included. 481 00:31:35.160 --> 00:31:40.079 That moment proposal will be that it's not part will 482 00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:43.480 remain such a part of the factory, so that these 483 00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:48.039 activities will become a regularly and that will be founded 484 00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:53.079 a permanent office of the working class culture, not only literature, 485 00:31:53.160 --> 00:31:55.920 but everything and the other part of the factory, in 486 00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:59.680 the first part producing solar planets, there will be a 487 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:04.480 part that won't be used by us because our industrial 488 00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:08.640 plan media nine thousand square meters. This is eighty thousand 489 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:13.640 square meters of the area and thirty five square meters 490 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:14.279 the fund. 491 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:18.519 This permanent office for working class culture that Dadiol mentioned 492 00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:21.119 is part of a plan to start a working class 493 00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:24.200 cultural hub on the site of the former GKN factory. 494 00:32:24.799 --> 00:32:28.079 This cultural hub would include a museum, social and labor 495 00:32:28.119 --> 00:32:31.720 movement archives beginning with that of the Tuscan Metal Workers Union, 496 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:35.960 are permanent headquarters for the organization of European working class 497 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:40.240 literature festivals, and an audio visual center including training for 498 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:44.039 aspiring filmmakers. This is just one of the projects that 499 00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:46.359 will be developed on the site, which will be run 500 00:32:46.400 --> 00:32:49.279 by a cooperative made up not only of the former workers, 501 00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:54.079 but climber and migrants rights campaigners, mutual aid associations and 502 00:32:54.119 --> 00:32:58.000 social centers. The plan is incredible, almost too good to 503 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:00.640 be true, But as with all the other obstacles that 504 00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:03.359 have gone in their way, the factory collective has a 505 00:33:03.400 --> 00:33:07.359 strategy for overcoming it and turning their plans into reality. 506 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:12.440 For or less, we need twelve million euros okay, six 507 00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:16.680 hundred thousand can come from our unemployment benefit, because we 508 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:18.920 can shift our employment benefit in. 509 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:25.119 The properatives we have some ethic financial fund that would 510 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:30.480 make two millions in loop and ethic bank that make 511 00:33:31.240 --> 00:33:34.079 to two million euros. And then we have another public 512 00:33:34.200 --> 00:33:39.000 sector that would bring into the project like half million. 513 00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.640 And then we have like five million that should come 514 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:44.799 from the bank. Okay, and we are burgaining with some bank. 515 00:33:44.839 --> 00:33:48.359 And as I was saying, they're not yeah because they 516 00:33:48.359 --> 00:33:51.200 are clever or because they won't that our struggle win, 517 00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:53.839 but because this druggle is so popular that it's an 518 00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:56.200 occasion also for the bank to the social wash. We 519 00:33:56.279 --> 00:33:58.960 know this is the game. But it's impossible to start 520 00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:01.720 a factory without alone. 521 00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:01.359 From a bag. 522 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:05.880 Unsurprisingly, the plan hasn't been well received by the business community. 523 00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:09.199 What it's been clear in the last months is that 524 00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:13.079 very is total skeaticism from the industrial sector in Italy 525 00:34:13.079 --> 00:34:14.880 little least, but I think it's something that is zero. 526 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:18.719 There is total scadism in the chance to produce solar 527 00:34:18.760 --> 00:34:21.880 panels here. The want to leave the technology to China. 528 00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:25.039 And you could say, well, it's better if someone will 529 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:27.519 do solar panel. I don't mind if we are China 530 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:31.199 and Italy. Yes and no, it would be better to 531 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:35.639 produce solar panel with a short chain of value because 532 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.079 of course more kilometers the solar panel do and later 533 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:42.960 will be the recovery of the energy that the solar 534 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:43.920 panel produces. 535 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:46.239 We had to change a lot of things in the 536 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:47.039 industry plant. 537 00:34:47.599 --> 00:34:50.960 For example, we don't want to produce classical solar panel 538 00:34:51.159 --> 00:34:54.400 like the Chinese one or what is We can also 539 00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:56.719 produce those one, but the kind of solar panels that 540 00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.239 we want to produce will be solar panel that are 541 00:34:59.320 --> 00:35:03.840 contr customers. I said, in order to be involved in 542 00:35:03.880 --> 00:35:09.320 the existing buildings and not to waste other square meters 543 00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:12.679 of a free ground, for example in the countries. So 544 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:16.800 everything was difficult, but going quite okay from a day 545 00:35:16.840 --> 00:35:20.880 to another. We started to feel that every private investor 546 00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:23.920 was trying to find an excuse to wit the project. 547 00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:28.400 And the real reason is that then those aspects of 548 00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:33.079 banks are saying it's possible in solar panel in and 549 00:35:33.159 --> 00:35:37.159 they say Mario Draghi, that is the former Prime Minister 550 00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:40.800 of Italy in a recent interviews, say you know, we 551 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:44.440 have lost the technology, leave solar palet to the Chinese 552 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:46.880 and we went to our other fie. So it's not 553 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:50.920 a question that we want to steal solar panelts to Chinese. 554 00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:54.519 We don't want to steal to anybody. We want to cooperate, 555 00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:55.920 not to compete. 556 00:35:56.599 --> 00:35:59.559 This context of struggle of work has taken over a 557 00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:02.800 fanct and reimagining what they could do with it filled 558 00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:06.239 the Literature Festival with so much energy, and as in 559 00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:09.400 previous years, one of the ways that this energy manifested 560 00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:13.000 itself was in a demonstration of thousands of attendees through 561 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:16.639 the streets on the outskirts of Florence, singing as always 562 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:21.679 the GKN workers anthem occupiamola, which in English translates to 563 00:36:21.880 --> 00:37:04.039 let's occupy it. Not that final chant siamo tuti g 564 00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:10.280 capa translates as we are all GKN. This was something 565 00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:13.559 more than a simple literary festival. Of course, It was 566 00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:16.960 also that, with the kinds of interesting speakers and discussions 567 00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:19.159 that you would expect at such an event anywhere in 568 00:37:19.199 --> 00:37:22.079 the world. But it was also something else as well. 569 00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:25.280 It was working class literature as an active part of 570 00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:28.960 working class struggle, which gave the event a totally different 571 00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:33.119 energy and atmosphere. And of course that energy and atmosphere 572 00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:36.320 was in a huge part down to the attendees themselves, 573 00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:40.519 often activists and organizers from across Italy and beyond. 574 00:37:40.760 --> 00:37:41.960 Hi I'm Francisca. 575 00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:43.679 Hello, I'm Gabrielle. 576 00:37:44.519 --> 00:37:45.599 Hi I'm Bianca. 577 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:51.679 We come from Turin in the northwestern Italy and we 578 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:58.239 represent Quomunette, which is a collective and must realistic association 579 00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:02.960 which had a role in the gk and struggle in 580 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:07.840 the past four years. Many of our comrades helped in 581 00:38:07.960 --> 00:38:12.639 many different ways, some of them with the industrial plan. 582 00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:19.280 We also helped with the communication, doing graphic design and 583 00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:24.039 helping with the media. We also helped with the legal 584 00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:28.000 part of the struggle, especially in the first years. 585 00:38:29.239 --> 00:38:32.559 Two three years ago we slept inside the factory. We 586 00:38:32.679 --> 00:38:36.880 passed a lot of time with collective, the fabrica and 587 00:38:37.039 --> 00:38:43.119 with a lot of association, and so it's like the 588 00:38:43.159 --> 00:38:47.039 memory of the place and the fact that we each 589 00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:50.840 time we knew, we know new people and we meet 590 00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:55.000 some people that we already met in the past. 591 00:38:56.239 --> 00:39:01.440 Turina we had a very great history of workers that 592 00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:07.360 made the very great struggle. But this is something new 593 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:12.480 also because it's not a struggle for that struggle and stop, 594 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:16.360 but it's a struggle for a better future that for 595 00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:22.760 that reason cannot stand only on to fit and has 596 00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:26.559 to go with all the society. So all the parts 597 00:39:26.599 --> 00:39:31.239 of the struggle, like the transfeminist movement, the ecological movement, 598 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:35.480 all the kind of work and struggle in society are 599 00:39:35.519 --> 00:39:40.599 involved in the rendiustrialization in an ecological way, in a 600 00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:46.000 new way that made the factory not an isolated the place, 601 00:39:46.360 --> 00:39:50.840 but a place of work and of reproduction of life 602 00:39:51.159 --> 00:39:53.639 that is connected to all the parts of society. 603 00:39:54.599 --> 00:39:58.639 I think it can all be summarizing two words. It's 604 00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:01.920 building autonomy, okay, man I mean's David. I'm one of 605 00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:05.840 the funder of the editorial project Chronicle Rebelli, which is 606 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:08.079 a project that was born on social media in twenty 607 00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:12.440 sixteen to talk about history from a prospective and talk 608 00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:16.960 about the history of come people and minorities and their 609 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:20.800 struggles the way, you know, the history of GPN has 610 00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:23.880 been an history of as many others have been in Italy, 611 00:40:23.920 --> 00:40:26.800 but i'd say in Europe and general is speaking, and 612 00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:31.639 in North America as well, of the industrialization, and you know, 613 00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:38.880 of basically taking down all the industrial what is called 614 00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:43.079 you know, Western countries to relocate them and the way 615 00:40:43.079 --> 00:40:46.679 it can be stopped from below because many many workers 616 00:40:46.719 --> 00:40:50.320 made probably the mistake they're to say that of trusting 617 00:40:50.360 --> 00:40:53.880 too much of the traditional parties and Indians and trying 618 00:40:53.960 --> 00:40:57.280 to think that they would have, you know, solved the 619 00:40:57.320 --> 00:41:01.559 creases from above. But actually Jkian, it's a clear example 620 00:41:01.639 --> 00:41:05.800 and now constructing something you know that starts from below, 621 00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:09.280 from the low level is actually the first step in 622 00:41:09.559 --> 00:41:11.079 gaining unsustainable solution. 623 00:41:12.760 --> 00:41:13.800 Hi, I'm Kuzma. 624 00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:17.679 I'm from Germany, from a South of Germany tied guide 625 00:41:19.039 --> 00:41:22.000 and I'm here with some friends and especially in the 626 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:26.639 context of the campaign We Drive Together and German Defensisam. 627 00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:28.519 My name is Julia. 628 00:41:28.719 --> 00:41:31.639 I live in Leipsis and I'm a PhD student there 629 00:41:32.519 --> 00:41:36.360 actually working on the GK and struggles in some years. 630 00:41:36.880 --> 00:41:39.880 So I'm also here as part of the solidarity network 631 00:41:39.960 --> 00:41:43.599 from Germany and as a scientist. 632 00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:50.199 I always wanted to come to see GIKEN and especially 633 00:41:50.440 --> 00:41:53.360 because on the last years we as we said, we 634 00:41:53.400 --> 00:41:56.480 did the campaign we Drive Together and germ DEFERANCISAM. 635 00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:58.760 Which is a campaign between the Climate Justice. 636 00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:02.599 Movement and workers from the public transport and the union Verdi, 637 00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:08.119 and doing that campaign and especially the bargain and campaign 638 00:42:08.199 --> 00:42:12.320 the workers had the beginning last year we had a 639 00:42:12.360 --> 00:42:16.119 first climate strike where it was also a warning. 640 00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:18.599 Strike of the workers. 641 00:42:18.760 --> 00:42:22.400 And during all that time, I think I was very 642 00:42:22.440 --> 00:42:26.719 inspired by the struggle the workers are fighting year and 643 00:42:27.440 --> 00:42:29.840 so it was always on my mind to one day 644 00:42:29.960 --> 00:42:32.719 come here and to see it all. 645 00:42:33.960 --> 00:42:36.639 I mean, I tried to come here as often as possible. 646 00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:40.119 But at the moment, I'm here because some months ago 647 00:42:40.360 --> 00:42:43.639 they rode and passed or it was passed, this regional law. 648 00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:46.880 So they now hope that. 649 00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:51.440 The regional government will expropriate this building so that they 650 00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:54.599 could start their cooperative not in any place, but in 651 00:42:54.639 --> 00:42:58.360 their factory right here. And on the same time they 652 00:42:58.360 --> 00:43:01.519 were fired again someday years ago. So it's a very 653 00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:05.639 contradictory moment at the moment, and this is how you 654 00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:08.760 always feel being part of the struggle, that it could 655 00:43:08.840 --> 00:43:12.519 be the last moment to be here, to be part 656 00:43:12.559 --> 00:43:15.880 of that struggle in that place, really in the factory. 657 00:43:16.199 --> 00:43:17.840 So this is why I thought, Okay. 658 00:43:17.559 --> 00:43:21.360 Before they could be really finally evicted, everyone should come 659 00:43:21.360 --> 00:43:25.199 here to support and this is actually part of their 660 00:43:25.239 --> 00:43:30.320 struggle and how they make history that whatever attack is arriving, 661 00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:32.400 they kind of have a counteraction. 662 00:43:32.599 --> 00:43:35.079 And I see this literature festival as a part of it. 663 00:43:35.639 --> 00:43:40.920 To do something to mobilize people to yeah, make sure 664 00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:44.719 that the police doesn't come to victim. And to me, 665 00:43:45.079 --> 00:43:49.719 the introduction yesterday was already quite touching because Dadio, one 666 00:43:49.719 --> 00:43:53.920 of the workers, he said something like, okay, it's important 667 00:43:53.960 --> 00:43:56.000 that we tell our story and that we do this 668 00:43:56.119 --> 00:43:59.920 literature festival because as working class people, we don't have 669 00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:02.880 a lot of institutions or a lot of power resources, 670 00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:03.920 at least when we. 671 00:44:03.880 --> 00:44:06.440 Are not in a working factory anymore. 672 00:44:06.519 --> 00:44:10.199 So we cannot go on strike and stop production for example. 673 00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:11.800 So what we have is our. 674 00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:14.679 History and our stories, and this is how we can 675 00:44:14.719 --> 00:44:18.280 shape society and how we can build our alliances. And 676 00:44:18.320 --> 00:44:21.559 they are thought, okay that moment of like, as Marxists, 677 00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:24.320 we like to talk about the structures, right, but they 678 00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:28.400 really remind us the whole time that also our stories 679 00:44:28.440 --> 00:44:34.880 and ideas they do shape class consciousness enormously. So and 680 00:44:35.079 --> 00:44:38.039 this is why I really think how they talk about 681 00:44:38.039 --> 00:44:42.440 their struggle and how also poetic it is. It's quite important. 682 00:44:43.079 --> 00:44:45.719 One central question is how the climate movement and the 683 00:44:45.800 --> 00:44:51.280 labor movement can fight together, and there are so many difficulties, 684 00:44:51.320 --> 00:44:54.760 and here they show how even industrial workers, even in 685 00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:59.519 this situation of dismissals can with all their dignity, be 686 00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:04.679 part of also climate movements and shape climate politics and 687 00:45:04.760 --> 00:45:07.559 their way and show that there would be a way out. 688 00:45:08.119 --> 00:45:11.000 And they do not show it only ideologically, but they 689 00:45:11.079 --> 00:45:14.280 really with that new law for example, they could really 690 00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:16.880 be an example of how also in other regions of 691 00:45:16.920 --> 00:45:21.639 the world this de industrialization could be answered in an 692 00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:22.679 ecological way. 693 00:45:22.760 --> 00:45:24.400 That's really impressive. 694 00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:27.840 I think, yeah, I think it's just in general, it's 695 00:45:27.880 --> 00:45:33.679 so important and inspiring in order to have this eutopia 696 00:45:33.800 --> 00:45:37.280 here for us in Germany, for example, to know where 697 00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:41.400 we have to go to, as you said, democraticize union structures, 698 00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:46.079 to work on the climate, labor turn in a climate 699 00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:51.039 movement as well as in unions, and to yes, just 700 00:45:51.159 --> 00:45:56.039 have this example of how it could be. I think 701 00:45:56.039 --> 00:45:59.280 it's very important also to have hope and to look 702 00:45:59.400 --> 00:46:00.360 up to it. 703 00:46:00.760 --> 00:46:04.519 And then this really the cultural place where which really 704 00:46:04.559 --> 00:46:05.960 feels like a. 705 00:46:05.599 --> 00:46:06.880 Small real utopia. 706 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:10.400 I think that everyone can go to an industrial sphere 707 00:46:10.440 --> 00:46:13.960 where it's only a shopping mall and some trees left, 708 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:17.320 and otherwise that the factory. That you can come here 709 00:46:17.400 --> 00:46:23.719 and see how people are jointly fighting, eating, discussing about politics. 710 00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:26.320 That's just something I've never. 711 00:46:26.280 --> 00:46:29.400 Seen like, it's really a social movement in an industrial 712 00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:33.719 area which connects kind of new social movements and the 713 00:46:33.920 --> 00:46:38.239 tradition of workers councils from the last one hundred years, 714 00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:41.280 and you can really feel it that this is something 715 00:46:41.400 --> 00:46:42.440 very special. 716 00:46:43.360 --> 00:46:45.440 These are just a few snapshots of some of the 717 00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:48.400 conversations I managed to record while I was at the festival. 718 00:46:48.840 --> 00:46:51.559 But one conversation I had, which in many ways summed 719 00:46:51.639 --> 00:46:53.800 up everything from all the others that I've been having 720 00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:56.679 over that weekend, was with a trade unionist from the 721 00:46:56.719 --> 00:46:58.239 nearby city of Prato. 722 00:46:59.239 --> 00:47:05.880 I am I am a union organizer, and I'm organized 723 00:47:05.880 --> 00:47:10.880 with this union called SUD COBUS SU double D COBBAS. 724 00:47:12.079 --> 00:47:17.480 It means union, unity, democracy and dignity, and then cobus 725 00:47:18.079 --> 00:47:22.239 means like base committees, because we are an autonomous union 726 00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:26.440 and we think that the core of a union organization 727 00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:30.360 should be the workers and the group of the workers 728 00:47:30.400 --> 00:47:33.159 that organize inside the workplaces. 729 00:47:34.079 --> 00:47:35.840 We are here as volunteers. 730 00:47:36.239 --> 00:47:42.760 I have been translating the panels in English, and I've 731 00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:44.119 been doing security. 732 00:47:44.199 --> 00:47:46.079 I did a shift at the bar. 733 00:47:46.960 --> 00:47:49.880 Yeah, so various various jobs. 734 00:47:50.199 --> 00:47:55.519 We knew comrades from GKN even before the ninth of 735 00:47:55.599 --> 00:47:59.159 July twenty twenty one. They were among the first to 736 00:47:59.239 --> 00:48:04.639 always come to the strikes we were doing in the factories, 737 00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:08.039 mostly in the textile district in the Prato area, which 738 00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:11.559 is one of the biggest textile district in Europe, and 739 00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:16.360 GKN workers were always among the first to come to 740 00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:20.320 take their solidarities to cook meals for the workers who 741 00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:24.159 were on strike, and so we during these years we've 742 00:48:24.519 --> 00:48:28.519 developed these strong connections and we try to help the 743 00:48:28.639 --> 00:48:32.599 struggle as much as possible because we feel the. 744 00:48:32.639 --> 00:48:33.880 Struggle as our own. 745 00:48:34.159 --> 00:48:41.440 Somehow, the majority of workers we organize with our migrant workers. 746 00:48:41.519 --> 00:48:45.440 They come mostly from Pakistan, but also from other countries 747 00:48:46.199 --> 00:48:49.280 because the majority of people who work here in the 748 00:48:49.400 --> 00:48:55.199 area and have problems at work and work in exploitative conditions, 749 00:48:55.239 --> 00:48:57.400 like a lot of people work. 750 00:48:57.400 --> 00:49:00.880 Twelve hours per day, seven days a week. 751 00:49:01.679 --> 00:49:08.079 And one of the most important things that we try 752 00:49:08.199 --> 00:49:11.679 to do organizing together is to be a megaphone for 753 00:49:11.840 --> 00:49:18.440 their voice and their experience and their desires to struggle 754 00:49:18.480 --> 00:49:23.039 for a better life. And so I think that the 755 00:49:23.079 --> 00:49:27.239 Working Class Literature Festival can really be a vector for 756 00:49:27.320 --> 00:49:33.480 this because it's one of its goals is to tell 757 00:49:33.519 --> 00:49:37.280 the working class, but also to let the working classes 758 00:49:37.320 --> 00:49:42.079 speak and tell their own stories and talk about the 759 00:49:42.119 --> 00:49:47.440 condition the working class experiences at work, but also what 760 00:49:47.639 --> 00:49:54.000 kind of alternative people think it's necessary and want to 761 00:49:54.079 --> 00:49:59.599 commit to build together. So yeah, that's why I think 762 00:49:59.639 --> 00:50:04.639 this space is really something needed for the working class 763 00:50:04.639 --> 00:50:10.320 to tell its own stories and to share its own perspective. Yes, 764 00:50:10.519 --> 00:50:13.679 just now, it's a podcast so you can see what 765 00:50:13.719 --> 00:50:16.920 we are seeing. But just looking in front of a 766 00:50:17.039 --> 00:50:21.800 DKN factory. On the left, we have an hotel. Inside 767 00:50:21.800 --> 00:50:28.039 this hotel, a group of female workers is organizing. They 768 00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:33.559 do cleaning for the hotel rooms and they are basically 769 00:50:33.639 --> 00:50:37.639 paid for the rooms they clean and not for the 770 00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:41.480 hours they work. That's a big problem in the tourism 771 00:50:41.559 --> 00:50:43.440 sector in this line of work. 772 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:47.599 And on the right we have a. 773 00:50:47.199 --> 00:50:52.119 Warehouse of a furniture logistic company called the Mondo Convenianza. 774 00:50:52.639 --> 00:50:54.039 They also work. 775 00:50:55.320 --> 00:50:58.079 In a subcontract. 776 00:50:57.880 --> 00:51:00.920 Company in the Mondo Conveny and soa warehouse. 777 00:51:01.559 --> 00:51:05.719 And we were able to change this kind of condition 778 00:51:05.960 --> 00:51:09.840 with five months of strike, sleeping in front of the 779 00:51:09.920 --> 00:51:15.119 factory for five months. And yeah, but workers are still 780 00:51:15.199 --> 00:51:19.679 organizing there. Yes, because new problems emerged. Even if we 781 00:51:19.840 --> 00:51:23.880 won that struggle and people got a regular contract, but 782 00:51:25.280 --> 00:51:29.440 we now are fighting for security at the workplace. And 783 00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:32.880 in front of us there is a supermarket called the 784 00:51:32.920 --> 00:51:37.920 Panorama and the workers are struggling there against the layoffs. 785 00:51:38.440 --> 00:51:42.360 On the side of the Mundo convenience warehouse, there was 786 00:51:42.440 --> 00:51:47.880 a sub supplier factory who worked for the brand mont Blanc. 787 00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:53.360 Pakistani workers were working there doing mont Blanc bags twelve 788 00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:56.000 hours a day, for six days a week for one 789 00:51:56.039 --> 00:52:00.960 thousand euros per month. And when the union and they 790 00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:06.039 conquered their rights and their right to an eight hour 791 00:52:06.559 --> 00:52:11.840 five days time table, mont Blanc decided to take away 792 00:52:11.960 --> 00:52:16.840 the work from this factory and so they found themselves 793 00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:20.920 without a job basically, and so they're struggling since twenty 794 00:52:21.079 --> 00:52:25.000 twenty three to be reinstated in the mom Blank supply chain. 795 00:52:25.199 --> 00:52:28.840 Because made in Italy and fashional luxury is a sector 796 00:52:29.840 --> 00:52:33.159 that we often think it's a good sector for people 797 00:52:33.199 --> 00:52:39.599 to work in that because clothes or bags are so expensive, 798 00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:43.639 then the working conditions must be good. 799 00:52:43.760 --> 00:52:46.159 But actually it's a sector. 800 00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:51.480 Where multinational companies and fashion brands try to extract the 801 00:52:51.519 --> 00:52:55.559 maximum profit possible from the workers. So yes, the Working 802 00:52:55.599 --> 00:52:59.840 Class Literature Festival is in front just for example of 803 00:53:00.119 --> 00:53:06.920 all the situation, and we think that gkyn as an experience, 804 00:53:06.960 --> 00:53:11.719 as a project of socially integrated public factory could really 805 00:53:11.760 --> 00:53:15.840 be an important poll for the workers to meet, to 806 00:53:15.880 --> 00:53:20.119 recognize theirselves, and to build a collective way to tell 807 00:53:20.159 --> 00:53:21.000 their own stories. 808 00:53:21.880 --> 00:53:24.199 This for me, really sums up so many of the 809 00:53:24.239 --> 00:53:27.440 things that made the Working Class Literature Festival so special. 810 00:53:28.280 --> 00:53:33.039 Partly that blurring of boundaries between attendees, volunteers and speakers 811 00:53:33.360 --> 00:53:36.599 that meant a union organizer might do security in the morning, 812 00:53:37.039 --> 00:53:39.960 translate in the afternoon, give a talk in the evening, 813 00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:43.039 and work the bar after dinner. But also the way 814 00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:45.239 the festival was not just a platform for the GK 815 00:53:45.360 --> 00:53:48.840 and workers, but also how it brought together the struggles 816 00:53:48.840 --> 00:53:52.000 of so many others. This is what gave the factory 817 00:53:52.039 --> 00:53:55.280 site the feeling of being a small utopia. As Julia 818 00:53:55.320 --> 00:53:58.559 and Kusuma put it, the quality of the conversations you 819 00:53:58.679 --> 00:54:01.679 had and the connections you made with people felt different 820 00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:04.719 to those you have in normal, everyday life. You really 821 00:54:04.719 --> 00:54:07.559 brought to mind a line from the novel Disneyland by 822 00:54:07.559 --> 00:54:10.760 Scottish author De Ed Johnson, who he interviewed in Working 823 00:54:10.760 --> 00:54:14.920 Class Literure Episodes five and six, where he writes, quote, 824 00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:19.760 shared endeavor is the basis of meaningful conversation end quote. 825 00:54:20.280 --> 00:54:23.360 What made these conversations, not to mention the singing and 826 00:54:23.480 --> 00:54:27.480 marching and chanting, so meaningful was that they took place 827 00:54:27.559 --> 00:54:30.840 in a setting where people weren't just talking about social transformation, 828 00:54:31.440 --> 00:54:35.679 but one in which transformation was actually happening. Truth be told, 829 00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:38.679 I'm almost embarrassed at how significant an experience it was 830 00:54:38.719 --> 00:54:40.800 for me, because I feel like it makes me sound 831 00:54:40.840 --> 00:54:44.039 like a born again religious fanatic. But it's like Hemingway 832 00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:47.199 once wrote about Paris, if you're lucky to have lived 833 00:54:47.199 --> 00:54:49.639 there as a young man, then wherever you go for 834 00:54:49.679 --> 00:54:52.119 the rest of your life, it stays with you. For 835 00:54:52.280 --> 00:54:56.000 Paris is a movable feast. Unfortunately for me, I'm no 836 00:54:56.079 --> 00:54:59.599 longer a young man anymore. But regardless, my brief visit 837 00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:03.360 to Pubsensio was an experience that absolutely will stay with 838 00:55:03.400 --> 00:55:06.800 me for the rest of my life. As I'm recording this, however, 839 00:55:06.960 --> 00:55:10.159 the struggle remains in a state of flux. As mentioned 840 00:55:10.239 --> 00:55:12.719 right at the beginning of this episode, the workers were 841 00:55:12.760 --> 00:55:15.679 made redundant for the third and final time, just before 842 00:55:15.719 --> 00:55:18.440 the festival. There is now a fear that they could 843 00:55:18.440 --> 00:55:21.599 be evicted at any point. At the same time, they're 844 00:55:21.639 --> 00:55:25.360 waiting for the Industrial Consortium to become operational to allow 845 00:55:25.400 --> 00:55:29.000 their socially integrated public factory to take shape. Yet the 846 00:55:29.039 --> 00:55:33.079 Factory Collective and their supporters are not resting. Events continue 847 00:55:33.079 --> 00:55:36.639 to be organized throughout July to celebrate the fourth anniversary 848 00:55:36.679 --> 00:55:39.480 of their struggle. Plans continue to be drawn up for 849 00:55:39.519 --> 00:55:43.159 the new factory, and financing continues to be broken in 850 00:55:43.239 --> 00:55:46.719 order to make it a reality. The Working Class Literature 851 00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:50.280 Festival and the struggle with the former GKN workers highlight 852 00:55:50.360 --> 00:55:54.039 what literature and politics fundamentally have in common. That in 853 00:55:54.079 --> 00:55:57.679 the end, both literature and politics are about producing stories 854 00:55:57.719 --> 00:56:01.159 to understand both ourselves and the world, and they both 855 00:56:01.199 --> 00:56:05.199 involved imagining new worlds. And ultimately, a group of workers 856 00:56:05.239 --> 00:56:08.119 taken over their factory and fighting to transform it into 857 00:56:08.159 --> 00:56:11.480 an ecosocialist co op against a background of rising far 858 00:56:11.599 --> 00:56:15.639 right reaction sounds like the stuff of fantasy, of science fiction, 859 00:56:16.199 --> 00:56:19.800 even mythology, and yet there it is in an industrial 860 00:56:19.840 --> 00:56:23.280 suburb on the outskirts of Florence. While I was at 861 00:56:23.280 --> 00:56:25.719 the festival, I shared a sleeping area with about five 862 00:56:25.719 --> 00:56:29.039 other people. One of them was a retired firefighter and 863 00:56:29.159 --> 00:56:32.800 veteran of numerous Italian social struggles who said something that 864 00:56:32.840 --> 00:56:35.639 has since stayed with me. He said, when you're in 865 00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:37.760 the desert, you need to know where the oases are 866 00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:39.760 if you want to survive. But if you don't look 867 00:56:39.800 --> 00:56:44.079 after your oases, even they will dry up. The GKN 868 00:56:44.119 --> 00:56:46.800 struggle is one such oasis, and it's down to all 869 00:56:46.840 --> 00:56:49.599 of us to help cultivate it and to cultivate new 870 00:56:49.639 --> 00:56:52.400 oases if you want to survive the moment we're in. 871 00:56:53.360 --> 00:56:57.519 I think j kn's struggle is significant because from the 872 00:56:57.559 --> 00:57:05.000 first moment they put their struggle at service of every struggle. 873 00:57:05.599 --> 00:57:12.719 Somehow they started this struggle against the layoffs and the 874 00:57:12.760 --> 00:57:16.000 closure of the factories, saying, yes, we are fighting for this, 875 00:57:16.599 --> 00:57:20.480 but there is more to fight for, and we want 876 00:57:20.519 --> 00:57:25.719 to put this struggle at service for the change of 877 00:57:25.719 --> 00:57:29.719 the whole system of all the problems in the society 878 00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:34.719 that we experience, but not only to struggle against all 879 00:57:34.760 --> 00:57:38.920 these problems, but also try to build an alternative, and 880 00:57:39.280 --> 00:57:43.320 in this sense, the project of the social integrated public factory. 881 00:57:43.719 --> 00:57:48.000 I think it's a fundamental example of the necessity of 882 00:57:48.440 --> 00:57:53.000 struggling against the problems we face, but also in the 883 00:57:53.079 --> 00:57:57.920 meantime already beginning to build an alternative because we cannot 884 00:57:58.079 --> 00:58:04.679 wait the final victory to start questioning ourselves about what 885 00:58:04.760 --> 00:58:05.400 do we want? 886 00:58:05.639 --> 00:58:06.440 What do we need? 887 00:58:06.679 --> 00:58:11.159 But we should start from now to build the world 888 00:58:11.280 --> 00:58:12.360 we want to live in. 889 00:58:12.599 --> 00:58:39.440 So different society, that's all we've got time for in 890 00:58:39.480 --> 00:58:40.159 this episode. 891 00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:42.360 If you want to learn more about the Florence Working 892 00:58:42.400 --> 00:58:46.159 Class Literature Festival and the GKN workers struggle, we recommend 893 00:58:46.199 --> 00:58:49.440 you check out our Working Class Literature episodes ten and eleven. 894 00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:52.000 You can also find out more info on the web 895 00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:55.440 page for this episode link in the show notes. It's 896 00:58:55.480 --> 00:58:58.159 only support from you, our listeners, which allows us to 897 00:58:58.199 --> 00:59:01.840 make these podcasts, So if you appreciate our work, please 898 00:59:01.880 --> 00:59:04.840 do think about joining us at patreon dot com slash 899 00:59:04.880 --> 00:59:08.679 Working Class History link in the show notes. In return 900 00:59:08.719 --> 00:59:11.280 for your support, you get early access to content, as 901 00:59:11.280 --> 00:59:15.199 well as ad free episodes, exclusive bonus content, discounted merch 902 00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:18.119 and more. And if you can't spare the cash, absolutely 903 00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:20.800 no problem. Please just tell your friends about this podcast 904 00:59:20.880 --> 00:59:23.039 and give us a five star review on your favorite 905 00:59:23.039 --> 00:59:26.719 podcast app. Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this 906 00:59:26.760 --> 00:59:30.320 podcast possible, and a special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando 907 00:59:30.360 --> 00:59:34.360 Lopez Ojeda, Nick Williams, and Old Norm. Our theme tune 908 00:59:34.360 --> 00:59:37.559 for this episode is Okupiamola, as sung on a GK 909 00:59:37.719 --> 00:59:41.280 and workers demonstration in twenty twenty four. Many thanks to 910 00:59:41.360 --> 00:59:43.679 Real News for letting us use their recording and you 911 00:59:43.679 --> 00:59:46.119 can find a link to the documentary it's taken from 912 00:59:46.280 --> 00:59:49.679 on the web page for this episode. This episode was 913 00:59:49.800 --> 00:59:53.639 edited by Jesse French. Anyway, that's it for today. Hope 914 00:59:53.639 --> 00:59:55.760 you enjoyed the episode and thanks for listening.