Running time: 62 mins 29 secs
Here is the complete discussion from the meeting in London with Dario Salvetti on Monday June 2, from the remarkable ex-GKN autoparts factory collective in Florence fighting to produce solar panels and cargo bikes under workers control. He spoke to a hybrid meeting of rank and file workers – organised with RMT London Transport region, UK GKN Solidarity Network and the Climate Justice Coalition.
Dario explains how the struggle, incredibly, now has a real chance of winning.
In December 2024, the regional government voted in favour of public intervention to buy the factory off the current owner and hand it to the workers. The consortium to do this will be ready in July – so production under workers control could start soon afterwards.
BUT – the workers have now all been sacked, and are still in danger of being evicted before July – and the general push towards rearmament means capital is less interested in funding “social/green products”.
So the popular share ownership scheme – pledge to buy shares to raise the capital to start production – has been relaunched, with a new target of 2 million euros. You, your union branch/organisation, or a group of people can buy shares at insorgiamo.org; if you do you will not only be helping to keep the pressure up, but will become part of the assembly that will run the factory collectively.
If they manage to pull off a victory against all the odds, it could change everything; but even if they fall at the final hurdle, they have already created the blueprint for the rest of us to follow.
So as Dario says, don’t wait for your jobs to be at risk to start making plans for ecological and productive transition. And if your jobs are already at risk, maybe look at what the ex-GKN workers have done and follow their example.
