An Important Communication From Ex-GKN Factory Workers In Italy

by Insorgiamo (originally published by Notes from Below)

Since July 9th 2021 – when over 400 workers were informed they were to be illegally dismissed – comrades have been in permanent assembly of the GKN factory in Campi Bisenzio near Florence. Workers seized the factory, and have been taking direct action not only in defence of their own jobs, but to forge a new path between working class and environmental struggles in Italy. As explained in a previous piece on GKN, the factory represents “one of the most advanced sites of workers’ organisation in Italian manufacturing, and possibly Italy as a whole.” In unity with both workers from local industries and the Solidarity Research Group, a national network of researchers and scientists, workers at GKN have elaborated a sophisticated plan to repurpose the factory, ultimately deciding to start producing cargo-bikes and solar panels. With support from mass crowd-funding over a million euros, the workers at GKN have pursued a path of collective, democratic practice to reach an ecological vision they hope can fundamentally re-orient production.

However, time is running out.

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