The film by Johanna Schellhagen is encouraging and could stimulate discussions.
---- Hello, I'm Johanna, I've been filming 20 years of strikes and socialmovements and I was very late to understand what a catastrophe climate changeis." With this personal statement, director Johanna Schellhagen begins her latestfilm "The Loud Spring". ---- Schellhagen is the founder of the platformlabournet.tv., on which numerous social movements and class struggles aredocumented. In 2015, Schellhagen introduced a series of industrial disputes inthe northern Italian logistics industry with her film "Throwing Away The Fear".---- Now she wants to share the experiences she has gained in recent years withthe climate movement. In the first part of her film there are video excerptsabout actions of the climate movement.On the positive side, the film repeatedly focuses on the global South, whereinternational capital uses particularly harsh methods against all protests.Argentine anti-fracking activist Servat explains why even left-wing governmentscan't easily get out of fossil capitalism. They would be overthrown immediately,according to his prognosis. In fact, however, there is another aspect. The socialreforms that left-wing governments under Chavez, for example, pushed through inVenezuela could often only be financed with the money generated by the export offossil fuels such as oil. This basically means that it is the integration ofalmost all states into the capitalist world economy that makes an exit fromfossil capitalism so difficult.WHEN WORKERS AND CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ACT TOGETHERSchellhagen focuses the film on the question of what role workers can play in thefight against the climate crisis. The film is thus also a response to a bourgeoiscurrent in the climate movement that, like the former environmental officer ofthe Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Tadzio Müller, wonders why workers can contributemore to solving the climate crisis than, for example, Beatles fans. Schellhagen'sfilm is a more than 60-minute answer to this position, which is not uncommon inthe middle-class climate movement.The climate movement must find the forces of change, says Schellhagen, thusdrawing attention to the international struggles of workers, which are often noteven noticed in this country. Here, the director can draw on her long contactswith militant wage earners in various countries. It allows activists of theItalian grassroots trade union S.I. Cobas to have their say, as well as themilitant Amazon worker Magda Malinowski from Poznan. "Labour is central anddecisive for the capitalist system of production. If we organize ourselves atwork, we can change the whole system," she stresses. The film makes it clear thatworkers have the power to change their conditions and society. In an optimisticfuture scenario, the climate and workers' movements are fighting together againstdestructive capitalism. There are big strikes, only the workers in the food andcare industry continue to work because they are responsible for vital goods orservices. It shows the establishment of councils, the occupation of radio andtelevision stations and the establishment of public canteen kitchens to providefood. As part of the uprising, factories are occupied, climate and companyactivists get to know each other. On the fourth day of departure, there areeviction attempts by the police and military. Activists call on radio to supportthe workers' occupied and self-managed VW plants in Wolfsburg, where cars havelong since ceased to be produced.After about 20 minutes, the film lands back in reality in 2022, where manyclimate activists realize that the small steps out of the climate crisis are anillusion. You talk about system change. The film is encouraging, preciselybecause the animated scenes from the future seem so unlikely today, but areperhaps the only way to prevent the catastrophe. Silent Spring was the name of abook by biologist Rachel Carson that she published 60 years ago shortly beforeher untimely death and that became a classic of the global environmentalmovement. The title alludes to the lack of song of birds and the chirping ofinsects that have disappeared due to climate change. Johanna Schellhagen hastaken up the title and turned it into a positive one. In her film, it is thecries of protest of the people all over the world who defend themselves againstthe destructive politics that turn the silent into a loud spring. It is to behoped that the film will spark discussions and perhaps even help to bringtogether industrial and climate struggles. A small point of criticism should alsobe mentioned: I missed some references to fights where this has already happenedin recent years, for example in the fight against the closure of a bush in Munichor in the labor dispute in public transport in 2020.The noisy spring. Together from the climate crisis, Johanna Schellhagen, FRG2022, 62min, labournet.tvhttps://awsm.nz/?p=13547_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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