WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, UCADI #185 - "WE ARE STILL HERE" (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 These are the words with which Dario Salvetti, of the ex-GKN Factory

Collective[1], began his extraordinary closing speech at the event on
Saturday 18 May in Florence. ---- Three years of demonstrations, three
years of struggle but also of politicians' catwalks. In the middle: a
financial speculation with a view to further speculation, construction.
Workers who have not received their salary for a long, long time, and
whose defection, surrender, would be incomprehensible from any point of
view, but we ask ourselves how we have been able to resist up to now
(and resistance is not about "resilience ", an overused word that is
very fashionable in the era of the "end of class conflict").
But, whatever happens (and it should be a moral imperative that it does
not end, neither today nor tomorrow) the experience of the ex-GKN was a
unique affair and not only in our country.
What started out as one of the usual (unfortunately) events of
industrial closures, linked to the financialisation of the economy, to
the inaction of politics, to the laissez-faire of the union-Europeanist
ideology, perhaps seasoned with the tears that our postmodern media like
so much, has instead it became a whole other story.
The workers, conscious, unionized and not at all inclined to throw
social conflict out the door, have taken the bull by the horns. A
strong, very strong bull, because not only does he have "law and police"
but he has conquered bodies and minds with a narrative that has now
become a faith.
Already the narration. This is what the fighters from the Campi factory
did. They took it and turned it upside down, using the same weapons as
the class enemy. The media, communication. And on this scaffolding built
with extreme care (also because it is full of content) he has created
what is truly a real hegemony: self-management, democracy,
environmentalism, gender issues, international situation. And always a
very large participation. It's truly incredible what these "rough"
workers managed to do. No political party, not even the most radical or
the most organized (if there were any, beyond the proclamations) has
succeeded in this.
And now the fight gets really tough. Once the catwalks of the
politicians of the moment are finished, what has been built really risks
being truly dangerous. Dangerous as in the 60s, as in 2001. When issues
and generations are linked and welded together, when we move from a
working-class history to a social history, repression is around the
corner. The postmodern State may have privatized everything that can be
privatized, but certainly not force against the internal enemy. It
doesn't take much for a gang of criminals to become a social revolt. The
mainstream media is lurking there. They wait for the misstep, the stone
thrown, the word too many.
They should not be left alone, ever.
The former GKN remains a key beacon. For the first time, in recent
decades, the social conflict has manifested itself in a public,
rational, clear way and without whining, tears and personal reality stories.
With this story the postmodern era, the narrative of pacification, ends
forever. The many young people alongside the older ones are there to
demonstrate that, even if things change over time, the class struggle
will exist as long as Capital exists.
The battle continues, perhaps for a long time. But nothing lasts forever
and neoliberalism, having become a kind of religion, could also end
sooner than expected and return to being a tiny particle in world
economic history.
Which is ultimately the position it deserves.

Andrea Bellucci

https://www.ucadi.org/2024/05/22/noi-siamo-ancora-qua/
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