WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:03.359 In July twenty twenty one, over four hundred workers at 2 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:05.839 the DK and Car Parks factory on the outskirts of 3 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:09.640 Florence were told that they would lose their jobs. In response, 4 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:12.839 workers seize the factory, and in the past four years 5 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:16.280 their demands have developed beyond just stopping the redundancies, but 6 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.719 to restart in production under workers' control, building ecological goods, 7 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:25.120 and promoting green, community controlled energy. And as if that 8 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:28.399 wasn't enough, since twenty twenty three, the factory has also 9 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:32.000 become the site of the annual Festival of Working Class Literature. 10 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.159 The third installment at this festival will take place this 11 00:00:35.320 --> 00:01:04.159 year in April twenty twenty five. This is Working Class Literature. Sorry, 12 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.760 before we start, just a quick note to say that 13 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:13.079 we're only able to continue making these podcasts, both Working 14 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:16.599 Class History and Working Class Literature because of the support 15 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:19.359 of our listeners on Patreon. If you like what we 16 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:21.680 do and want to help us with our work, join 17 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:25.200 us on patreon dot com slash working Class History, where 18 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:28.560 you can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive 19 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:33.239 bonus content, discounted books, merch and more. For instance, Patreon 20 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:36.319 supporters can also listen to both episodes about the Festival 21 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.439 of Working Class Literature now and also have access to 22 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.560 our two Patreon only series, Radical Reads and fireside Chat 23 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.200 link in the show notes. On the fourth of April 24 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.760 this year, a weekend of readings, discussions and performances will 25 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:53.040 be held in Florence at what will now be the 26 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.159 third annual Festival of Working Class Literature, and as in 27 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.519 previous years, the organizers are encouraging people from all over 28 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.280 the world to attend. However, while literary festivals are usually 29 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:08.039 rooted in spaces linked to publishing or academia, and often 30 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:11.039 bankrolled by businesses looking for nice pr to cover their 31 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:16.000 involvement in genocide or environmental destruction, this festival is very different. 32 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.360 Held at the former GK and Car Parts factory in 33 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:23.159 Campubisenzio on the outskirts of Florence, it emerged from the 34 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.319 struggle of over four hundred workers who were made redundant 35 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:29.199 in twenty twenty one. So to tell the story of 36 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.159 this festival, it's essential first to tell the story of 37 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:33.919 those workers and their struggle. 38 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:40.680 Everything is started in July twenty twenty one, but there 39 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:43.360 is a kind of prep well. In some way we 40 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:46.560 must go back to something that happened not in Florence, 41 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:48.280 but in England. 42 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:52.400 This is Alberto Brunetti, an Italian working class offer and 43 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:54.439 one of the main organizers of the festival. 44 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:58.400 GKN is a British company and they are a corporational 45 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:04.800 working in the automotive field. But in two thoy eighteen, 46 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:11.159 the relevant and productive because they were not really in 47 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:20.000 a bad economic situation corporation was acquired by another corporation, Merors. 48 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:24.560 It is a stranger player because Melros is not really 49 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:31.759 working in the automotive They are more kind of financial player. 50 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:38.319 What they do is to buy companies to relocate plants, 51 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:43.520 maybe in Eastern Europe after firing workers, and then they 52 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:47.680 sell again the factories, so they don't really produce. They 53 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.599 earn money more in finance and real estate. So it 54 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.960 seems as soon as after Merrors acquired the GKN they 55 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.680 started to close the plants in Europe in the UK 56 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:08.960 as well, because they close Berminga and also plants in 57 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:14.439 Germany and also Florence or better cant be business that 58 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.920 is quite close is the industrial area north to Florence. 59 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:23.240 This kind of company which produces nothing but merely invests 60 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:26.160 and speculates around commercial real estate, or acts as a 61 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:31.800 consultant helping companies quote unquote maximize efficiency is an increasingly 62 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.920 common feature in today's global capitalist economy. 63 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:39.839 His main slogan is to buy, to improve, and to resell. 64 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.920 So you have to understand that to improve means cutting 65 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:52.720 jobs closing plants in order to gain financial profits from 66 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:53.879 productive groups. 67 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.160 This is Dario Salvetti, a worker the former GKN factory 68 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:02.519 and spokesperson for the factory active Here, Dario explains how 69 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.160 the company tried to trick workers to keep them away 70 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:07.519 from the factory while they tried to close it down. 71 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:12.839 It was Friday, nine July twenty one. We received a 72 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:18.000 day off, a collective day off holiday. The excuse was 73 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:23.079 that the production of Featle was slowing down a little bit, 74 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:27.800 so everybody could stay at Homb for one Friday. While 75 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:30.000 we were at Homb, we'll receive the mail in which 76 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:35.160 they told us that the plant was shut down suddenly 77 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:41.439 and totally, and that we were invited not to come 78 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:45.959 back to our job place nevermore. After one hour, we 79 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:50.560 decided to gather in front of the factory and retake 80 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:55.759 our presence inside the factory, and we started what we 81 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:01.000 call permanent assembly. We were forty under workers at the time. 82 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:05.439 Now we have remained one hundred and twenty. It's now 83 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:09.720 more than three years that we go on with the 84 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.639 permanent assembly of the workers. So to sum up, the 85 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:16.680 history of kN is a history that contains a lot 86 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.879 of histories. You could say that it's the history of 87 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:24.720 the transformation of a productive factory into real estate investment. 88 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:30.560 Is the history of the loss of jobs inside the 89 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:34.000 automotive sector. Is the history of the impact of the 90 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.000 financial international funds and the finance civization of the economy 91 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:41.959 on the productive forces. 92 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:44.360 Now is also the history. 93 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:49.160 Of the longest workers resistance. For what we know, at 94 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:52.040 least in the history of the Italian working class movement. 95 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:55.680 The workforce at the GKN factory is almost entirely male, 96 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.439 the only woman being Titsiano Dibiazio, who worked with the 97 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:03.319 cleaning tractor. Here she explains how she joined the factory, 98 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.000 her role in disciplining union members, and how the company 99 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:09.199 retaliated when she refused to do so. 100 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:10.360 In da. 101 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:16.519 I started working at CHICKN in twenty twelve, working for 102 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:20.199 an external contractor, and I was the only woman working 103 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.680 in the workshop. I was responsible for coordinating the cleaning services, 104 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.720 so every morning I had to rush to make sure 105 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:32.439 the production areas were sided up, Otherwise the first shift 106 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.240 workers who started at six would complain about finding everything 107 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:38.759 in this array. When I had the interview to join 108 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:42.759 the factory, the managers from GKN and the executives of 109 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:47.800 the subcontracting company were present. My main responsibility was personnel 110 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:51.639 management and acting as an intermediary with a labor consultant 111 00:07:51.879 --> 00:07:57.240 and the GKN management. There were three contracts, cleaning services, 112 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:02.279 goods handling, and quality control. The cleaning services were mostly 113 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:06.120 handled by women, while the other two were almost entirely 114 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:10.720 carried out by foreign workers, mostly Romanian and Albanian men. 115 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.279 They told me it wouldn't be easy dealing with them 116 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:17.000 because before me they had been a man and it 117 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:20.759 hadn't gone well at all. So they thought a woman 118 00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:23.399 might be more suitable because women are supposed to be 119 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:26.600 treated with special respect. No one would say to a woman, 120 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.399 I'll wait for you outside, or i'll beat you up 121 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:32.679 when you go out. At that point in time, I 122 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:35.000 was also useful because they told me they needed to 123 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.360 get rid of a few problematic people. These were the 124 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:43.159 ones who had been unionized so for every minor infraction, 125 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:47.000 I had to report it and issue disciplinary actions so 126 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:50.360 that after the third one they could be fired. At first, 127 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.360 I played that role because I desperately needed paycheck, and 128 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:58.480 especially because they were sexist and misogynistic. They played a 129 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.879 lot of pranks on me. Over time, I got to 130 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:04.200 know my colleagues, and I started to see them not 131 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:07.279 just as men, but as workers, just like my husband, 132 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:10.679 just like my father, workers who if one of them 133 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.200 got fired, would be ready to go on strike all together, 134 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.519 and I had to be on the company's side. I 135 00:09:17.559 --> 00:09:21.519 couldn't strike with them. I began to wonder why they 136 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.759 were so aggressive towards me. Was it because I was 137 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.840 a woman or because I was their boss. I didn't know. 138 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.120 I just knew that I stopped reporting, and those who 139 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:35.080 once didn't even call me by my name, they only 140 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:41.240 called me that woman. Later on started calling me Titiana. Strangely, soul. 141 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:46.519 The factory managers started calling me that woman. So in life, 142 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.440 one way or another, there's always someone who calls you 143 00:09:49.799 --> 00:09:52.720 that woman. Then, after a few years, there was a 144 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:56.440 change in the subcontracting agreement, meaning the services were given 145 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:59.720 to another company. Since I had become a problematic figure 146 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:03.000 for the client. They asked the new company to downsize 147 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.960 me and force me to resign. For a while, I 148 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.559 even cleaned the toilets, but I never give them the 149 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:11.039 satisfaction of resigning. 150 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:14.799 When the layoffs at GKN were announced, Titsiana was one 151 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.840 of the hundreds who lost their jobs. She immediately got 152 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.279 involved in the struggle and is an active member of 153 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:23.559 the factory collective to this day. Speaking at an event 154 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.480 at the GKN factory in twenty twenty four, Titsiana explains 155 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:31.519 how quote, gender discrimination is still strong in our society, 156 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:33.759 and so for me it was important to stay in 157 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:36.399 that place. I don't want to give up, and I 158 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.639 want to continue to represent that world of different genders 159 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:43.759 in this exemplary struggle end quote. Another thing that should 160 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:46.200 be noted is that, unlike much of the coverage in 161 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.759 the mainstream media, the workers at the EXGKN factory do 162 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:55.080 not describe their continued presence inside the factory as an occupation. Instead, 163 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:57.679 they use the phrase permanent assembly. 164 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:00.960 So it's not the question of what we do prefer, 165 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.320 but it's a question of what it is and what 166 00:11:03.399 --> 00:11:03.840 it is not. 167 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.080 If you think about an. 168 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:10.879 Occupation of a factory, you could think about a factory 169 00:11:10.919 --> 00:11:15.120 that is functioning very well and the workers decide to 170 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:18.559 block the factory. This is not our case. We were 171 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:24.480 working and the private capital decided to fly away from 172 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.279 our factory and to leave the factory as a black hole, 173 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:33.720 without any kind of direction, without any kind of productive mission. 174 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:34.360 You could say. 175 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:39.840 So in this case, the Italian work workers movement has 176 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:44.039 tried to define the most legal way in order to 177 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:48.279 put our bodies into the factory, in order to defend 178 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:52.360 the factory from what we call the localization, from taking 179 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:59.120 away the productive means. We are exercising our own right 180 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:04.080 to stay in a trade union assembly inside our workplace. 181 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:08.679 But this is an assembly that is not ending, is 182 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:12.559 a permanent assembly. So it started the nine July twenty 183 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:16.759 one and it's going on till the moment we think 184 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.720 that the job places are safe and we can start working. 185 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:23.519 And indeed, when the workers say that since the ninth 186 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.840 of July twenty twenty one, there's been a permanent workers assembly, 187 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:28.679 they really main permanent. 188 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:32.519 There is the trade union garrison. We are twenty four 189 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:38.240 hours a day, every day, Christmas Day, Easter Day, and yes, 190 00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:41.279 since the nine July twenty one there's always been a 191 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:45.600 shift of people in the garrison from six morning to 192 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.000 two o'clock in the afternoon, from two o'clock in the 193 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:52.320 afternoon till ten pm, ten pm in the night till 194 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:55.480 six am in the morning. We are always there because, 195 00:12:55.559 --> 00:13:00.440 of course, our permanent assembly and our permanent presence to 196 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:06.080 the garrison is at the moment the only guarantee that 197 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:08.440 the factory will not be dismantled. 198 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:11.360 The ability of the workers can be be sent. So 199 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:14.919 to react so quickly and effectively to the redundancies was 200 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.279 because they were extremely well organized, both as members of 201 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.120 the Film Metal Workers Union with a strong history of 202 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:25.000 activity inside the factory, but also in the wider community 203 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:26.240 outside of it as well. 204 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:29.960 There were a lot of links before the shutting down 205 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:31.399 of the factory. 206 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:35.879 Partly it was the result of the tradition of. 207 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:41.399 This area of Italy, very partisan, anti fascist and radical 208 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:45.360 democratic tradition that we have in this area. Partly it 209 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:49.639 was because we succeeded for at least twenty years to 210 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:53.919 defend the social rights of the workers in order that 211 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.919 our degree of exploitation inside the factory was less than 212 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:02.440 another factory. This has got an impact on your life 213 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.480 because if you work from Monday to Friday, and when 214 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:10.879 you stop to work, you're not completely exhausted. You have 215 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:14.759 the time, and you have also enough wage to do 216 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:17.879 other things in your life. So we were a factory 217 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.679 full of active people, active in every direction, football trainers, 218 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:31.080 volunteers in medical assistance, social activists. So when the factory 219 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.720 was closed, there were a lot of people that they've 220 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.600 closed our factory, not just the people that were working 221 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:42.320 inside the factory. There was a whole movement that fought, Okay, 222 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:46.679 they're closing the factory that is supporting us, the factory 223 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:51.759 that is always full of solidarity movements and with social links. 224 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:55.360 These links between the GKN workers and the wider working 225 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.279 class and social movements in the region also had a 226 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:02.919 profound effect on Alberto, who remembers one of those early mobilizations. 227 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:08.519 After receiving the dismissi a letter, workers and the union 228 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:12.960 declared the general strike. They only in two scanny with 229 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:17.799 speeches in Piazza Santa Croatia in Florence. I realized it 230 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:21.600 was something important. I already knew a few of the 231 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:26.559 gk AND workers because they were very active this worker 232 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:30.000 where they still had the reputation. In two scanny for 233 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:36.120 their engagements in politics, and I could earn Dariosti, that 234 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:41.240 is the spokeperson of the workers. He said something that 235 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:46.120 really struck me because it was more or less what 236 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.279 I was already trying to do with my work as 237 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:53.200 a writer. No, it was talking with the journalists and 238 00:15:53.240 --> 00:15:57.919 he said, we are not here to tell you our stories. 239 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:02.960 We are here to our own story. And this drug 240 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:05.360 me a lot. You know. It was my kind of 241 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:10.120 manifesto for a working class. I was something that I 242 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.399 was said for years in my books, and now it 243 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:17.600 was real. It was not something the past. It was 244 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:22.279 something that was real and now, very often i've been 245 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:25.879 I was writing on the blue collars of the past. 246 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:30.240 Like my father that was a welder or not working 247 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.879 in the they had a sanctuary now and now we 248 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:40.399 had he had this conscious self conscious workers strongly engaged 249 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:47.000 in defending their wages, talking especially with the much alive language. 250 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:52.840 It was amazing. They were talking like winner, They were 251 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:57.279 strong and powerful. It was amazing. Absolutely, it was something 252 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:01.360 that doesn't happen very often. I was really strang everybody 253 00:17:01.559 --> 00:17:04.480 in during this summer. It was a kind of summer 254 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.960 or love of the working class after years in which 255 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:11.359 everybody said that the working class doesn't exist, all we're 256 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.039 all middle class, all these kind of rhetorics. You know, 257 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:19.119 it's true that the political imagicary of the working class 258 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:23.400 has been defeated many years ago, in the beginning of 259 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:27.440 the eighties in Italy, and since then there was not 260 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:32.240 a single not such a strike so strong. And it came, 261 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:36.319 and it was amazing because they were really greet these 262 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:42.720 jickn workers all together. Even the school boys in the 263 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:50.119 were singing their hunt them Ocupiamolaamola. 264 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:49.839 Is the song that we played at the start of 265 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:53.799 this episode, and it's frequently sung demonstrations of GKN workers 266 00:17:53.799 --> 00:17:57.000 in Florence. The song is actually adapted from one song 267 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.240 by fans of the local football team Fiorentina, with the 268 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:03.480 lyrics change to be about the GKN workers struggle. The 269 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:07.640 mobilizations of GKN workers and their supporters brought huge numbers 270 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.599 onto the streets, and in doing so they brought the 271 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:13.039 working class back into the public imagination. 272 00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:18.119 September twenty twenty one to bring forty thousand people to 273 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:21.480 march through the street of Florence. It was impressive, forty 274 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:27.200 thousand people for a worker mobilitation I realized that in 275 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:32.480 two months the GKN workers in Florence had reconstructed the 276 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:37.279 working class imaginery. There was the fitty four twenty five years. 277 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:39.680 I was sent to do the same with my books 278 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.440 like a writer, but in ten years I couldn't do 279 00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:48.440 nothing really in relationship to them. Then in two months, 280 00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:52.400 working in a collective way, they have done much more 281 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:56.799 than me, because I was working alone as a writer, 282 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:01.079 even if I'm a working class writer. But this loneliness 283 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:06.000 is the is the loneliness of the long distance writer, 284 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:12.839 while they power is the power of the qualitive action. 285 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:16.640 So it was really powerful for Alberto. 286 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:19.839 The strength of the GKN mobilization allowed for a kind 287 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:22.640 of working class imagination that he had been trying to 288 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:25.839 produce in his writing. This kind of imagination can be 289 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.640 seen and how the GKN workers have more recently gone 290 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:32.039 beyond demanding better redundancy pay or their old jobs back, 291 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:36.000 but rather the wholesale renewal of production under workers' control 292 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:40.440 to build ecologically sustainable goods like pedal powered cargo bikes 293 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:44.519 and solar panels, with a view to promoting democratic, community 294 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:46.160 controlled renewable energy. 295 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:50.160 As that here explains, you don't have to imagine that 296 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:55.319 one day people have gathered in a meeting and have 297 00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.240 started to say, okay, let's reconverse the factory. It has 298 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.880 been a process, in a process in which we have 299 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:06.400 just answered the vacuum that the capital has created against us. 300 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.160 The layoffs were declared in July twenty one. The Italian 301 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:14.640 law gives seventy five days for the conversion of this 302 00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:21.240 procedure of layoffs in a definitive decision. We had time 303 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:25.480 to stop these decisions since till the September twenty one. 304 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:29.400 We call it three big demonstration. The biggest one was 305 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:37.440 with forty thousand people, and the Florence Labor Court declared 306 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:44.039 illegal the procedure of layoffs against us. So the ownership 307 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:48.440 was condemned not to avoid the layoffs, but to repeat 308 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:53.960 the legal procedure of layoffs. But what happened is that 309 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:58.279 they had burned their fingers on the first procedure of layoffs, 310 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.240 so they didn't restart with the layoffs, and they decided 311 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:05.920 probably to leave us in a kind of limbo. So 312 00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:10.559 in September twenty one we were not fired officially. We 313 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.759 were completely arid with all the full rights we also 314 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.279 received for a period of the wage, so we received 315 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:22.079 the wage without working, but we were left in a 316 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:26.160 vacuum because there was nothing to do. They didn't bring 317 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.279 back the production to us. So we were in a factory, 318 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:32.400 a factory that is also a quite new factory with 319 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:36.039 a lot of new machineries, and so in this vacuum, 320 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:40.920 we had to refink on how we could restart the 321 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.559 factory with another industry plan. Our first industry plan in 322 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:49.960 December twenty one was just a proposal general social proposal 323 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.079 in which we told the government, the Telian government, why 324 00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:58.319 don't you nationalize this factory and other factories of the 325 00:21:58.359 --> 00:22:04.039 automotive in order to create a big sector of production 326 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:06.880 of public means of transport, in order to do a 327 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:11.119 real transition from the private automatic sector to a real 328 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:16.000 ecological sector that is not shifting from gas car to 329 00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:20.519 electric car, but it's shifting is shifting from private car 330 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:25.279 to public means of transports. Of course, they didn't give 331 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:29.119 us any answer, and it was not possible for us 332 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:31.680 to achieve this plan by our own because it was 333 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:36.599 a social general plan. In January twenty two, another ownership, 334 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.039 private ownership came a new owner both the factory, but 335 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:44.720 it was something very suspicious in our ideas, because this 336 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:48.880 owner was the former advisor of the GKN, of the 337 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:53.680 whole owner. This owner didn't say I'm firing you. This 338 00:22:53.880 --> 00:22:58.720 new owner said, I don't have capitals, I don't have works, 339 00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:00.839 but in some months I. 340 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:04.000 Will bring I will bring to you new investors. 341 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:09.400 So the trick could be to let us there in 342 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:14.240 the vacuum, waiting for GODO, waiting for something that we 343 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:17.319 don't know who, we don't know what to do. Weit 344 00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:22.160 so in order that the struggle would expire for tiredness, 345 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:27.599 we didn't aspire. We called for other demonstration together with 346 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:30.480 the climate movement. There was another big demonstration in March 347 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:33.680 twenty two with thirty thousand people, and in October twenty 348 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:36.559 two it was quite clear and official to us that 349 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:40.559 there was no industry plan. There was no real intention, 350 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:45.119 probably of this new owner to reindustrialize the factory. So 351 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:49.680 this time we had to create our own plan, not 352 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:53.640 a general plan, but a plan of a standing alone factory, 353 00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:56.839 so not a factory of the automatic center, but a 354 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:01.599 factory as a single productive cell. It was not easy, 355 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:06.400 but we decided to try to produce some finished goods 356 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:10.400 like the cargo bikes and the photogo type panels in 357 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:13.640 order to have some finished goods that we could bring 358 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:17.759 by our own to the market to convert the factory, 359 00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:23.599 a former automatic factory to an ecological factory. Of course, 360 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:26.720 because this plan was made by our own, this plan 361 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:31.480 should be also based on different social forces, not a 362 00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:36.119 new big private owner, but our own co operative. So 363 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:41.039 we formed an embryo, an embryo of a workers cooperative. 364 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:47.559 We called it for a public popular shareholding campaign that 365 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:53.079 collected the bookings of one million, three hundred thousand euro 366 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:59.240 stocks option. But it was not enough because the ownership 367 00:24:59.279 --> 00:25:01.759 of all the area, of all the factory that is 368 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:03.440 a very big factory, is. 369 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:04.720 Something too big to us. 370 00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:07.839 We cannot rebuy the factory and we cannot and we 371 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:11.839 don't want to because it's not our idea that the 372 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:14.039 workers have to reby with their own. 373 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:16.319 Money the factory. 374 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.640 So we have presented a law has been passed from 375 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:23.640 the regional government in which the regional government could create 376 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:28.079 a public consortium to take the control of the area. 377 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:32.440 So this kind of example, this kind of model is 378 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:36.880 what we have called a social integrated factory. Social integrated 379 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.200 factory means the area is public the production is under 380 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:44.720 the control of the cooperative, so of the decision of 381 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:50.160 the workers assembly that is gathering into a cooperative. There 382 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:53.839 is a social kind of control from below, because we 383 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:59.599 have thousands and thousands of popular shareholders that are made 384 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:05.319 by associations, by other cooperatives, maybe by some public institutions 385 00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:09.920 like universities. And also the production is a green production, 386 00:26:10.559 --> 00:26:15.000 and the solar panel production is linked with the energetic 387 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:16.599 communities that we would. 388 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:18.240 Like to spread in the whole country. 389 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:22.920 And the cargo bike production could be linked to the 390 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:27.119 delivery cooperatives that are trying to transform the delivery, the 391 00:26:27.240 --> 00:26:33.119 urban delivery, especially in something that is not so explotting 392 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:37.440 as it is nowadays in our cities. We have arrived 393 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:40.000 with this kind of model, not in one day, not 394 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:43.400 just deciding that this is the model. It was not 395 00:26:43.480 --> 00:26:48.559 a theoretical discussion. It was answering the fact that to 396 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:53.400 let us get exhausted by the struggle, the private capitally 397 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:58.039 has just escaped living a black hole as a factory, 398 00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:02.839 and using against the factor that in this society the 399 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:06.319 private capital is the only one that can decide life 400 00:27:06.759 --> 00:27:08.400 and death of production. 401 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:12.359