Campaign newspaper - for a (transport) industry with a future

dossier

Aktionszeitung – für eine Verkehrsindustrie mit Zukunft Where does the future of the auto industry lie? In job cuts, factory closures or switching to defense production? Or in switching to the production of individual to public transport? We want to start the discussion about this with the campaign newspaper for a transport industry with a future. The “Action Newspaper” appears irregularly, but always in connection with larger moments of movement surrounding the transport industry: days of action, demonstrations, meetings, strikes…

Campaign newspaper – “for industrial jobs with a future and without armaments” – No. 4 can still be ordered for the autumn campaign and is now also available for download
- From the content: Without a strike nothing will change - solidarity politics is anti-fascism - fight back now! - VW Osnabrück There is a lack of political will for socio-ecological restructuring - Voices from companies and unions fight together - In solidarity with the school strikes against compulsory military service - Experiences from the past are worth fighting
- No. 4 for download
- See the ordering details below
“The Autumn of Attacks” (working title): Campaign newspaper for an industry with a future No. 4 will be printed on September 14th - please pre-order now
“Dear colleagues,
This fall it's coming in quick succession:The federal government's attacks on the health system, basic pensions, old-age pensions, working hours, wages and collective agreements are accompanied by massive job cuts, especially in the automotive industry including suppliers: We are talking about more than 100,000 jobs this year alone, after 144,000 last year - but the reduction plans extend into the 1930s.
At the same time, there are further collective bargaining negotiations coming up in successive areas: ports, metal and electrical industry, VW, steel industry - and the employees at the Charité will also not accept the termination of their collective relief agreement so easily.
The course towards converting production facilities into defense plants has gained momentum, especially in supplier companies. The energy transition is falling victim to increasing militarization and the red pencil.
Last year we published in three editions of the “Aktionszeitung–for a transport industry with a future" against this tendency and explained why converting our industry to ecologically sustainable production would not only significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but could also secure jobs on a massive scale. At the time, we argued this for the transport industry. Now this can also be said for areas of the energy industry, the chemical industry, etc. Added to this are the job cuts that are a result of social cuts.
The editorial team of the campaign newspaper therefore met in August and is planning a fourth edition of the campaign newspaper. Of course, it has to react to the changed situation and cannot just target the transport industry. We are therefore changing the subtitle to: “For an industry with a future”–Because we are concerned with maintaining locations with changed production.
And of course we are taking up the protests that have already taken place throughout the summer and which will increase in the fall.
Several nationwide action dates are coming up immediately: the DGB rallies on September 26th, the student strikes against conscription on September 25th, the peace movement demonstrations on October 3rd. But hopefully that won't be everything - in any case, our colleagues in parts of the auto industry are already making a lot of noise.
We are therefore designing the campaign newspaper so that it can be distributed throughout the autumn. We reiterate the view that social cuts and rearmament are two sides of the same coin. We let colleagues from different companies have their say with their plans and suggestions about what needs to be done to stop the attacks. An initial statement from the Mercedes plant in Stuttgart Untertürkheim summed it up:“There must be a general mobilization against a general attack.”(…)
The connection between the ability of militant colleagues to fight back decisively in conjunction with concrete alternatives and the fight against the further rise of the AfD is obvious–This should also be discussed in the newspaper.And we want to remember some of the successful battles over working hours and social security.
The campaign newspaper No. 4 will again have 4 pages. It will be printed on September 14th and delivered the next day, so that it will definitely be in time for IGM's car campaign day on September 21st. and the social protests on September 26th. will be available.
The conditions are the usual: you only pay postage and shipping.
However, we are also asking for donations because it is not certain how many costs the funding applications we have submitted to various foundations will actually cover.
We (…) ask that you place orders quickly so that we can determine the number of copies…”
- Contact address:kontakt@aktionszeitung.deor about thatOrder form for the campaign newspaper
- Donation account:
  Association for Solidarity Perspectives (VsP e.V.)
  Keyword: action newspaper
  IBAN: DE07 3701 0050 0006 0395 04
  BIC: PBNKDEFF
Campaign newspaper No. 3 for a transport industry with a future is now online and can be ordered
From the content:
– Disarm Rheinmetall makes the mark with a call to sabotage the war economy (p.1).
– Jürgen Bönig explains how the militarization of infrastructure fuels climate change (p.2).
– GKN is a lighthouse example for conversion projects. Kathy Ziegler was in Florence at the GKN literature festival (p.3).
– Stephan Krull comments on Trump’s customs policy: Neither free trade nor protectionism is his motto (p.4).
– Examples of – also successful – resistance: Conti, Bosch, Boge, Troisdorf, Frankfurt/M. Robin Wood joins in with an action in front of VW Osnabrück.
See thisAction newspaper No. 3 ontheir website - there is all the information about ordering - against war and militarization, against the conversion of the car industry into weapons manufacturers, for trams instead of tanks, for securing jobs through a conversion to sustainable public transport...
Trams instead of tanks: death or life – what are we working for? “Action newspaper – for a transport industry with a future”: 2nd edition available online
“We are at a crossroads: Are we heading towards a war economy, which will inevitably end in war that will then also affect us? Or will we manage to turn our backs on the madness of trade war, militarization and climate catastrophe and use all necessary means to move resolutely towards a socially and environmentally sustainable economy?.." Editorial of the action newspaper No. 2, including: Work less and a good life for everyone; Görlitz wagon construction must remain; Learn from history: Works meeting - a place of resistance; GKN strike in Zwickau 2023: Would activists have made the difference?; At Tesla, Grünheide: Resistance in production hell...Download the 2nd edition on their homepage
Action newspaper No. 2 will be published on April 24th. appears and should be ordered for May 1st by April 23rd at 4 p.m. at the latest
The second edition will be published with eight pages on May 1st and the subsequent Rosa Luxemburg Foundation conference “Counterpower in the Headwind” from May 2nd to 5th in Berlin. The dispatch of the 8-page newspaper this time (for a shipping fee) begins on April 25th. and should be on April 28th. arrive at the recipient addresses - please use the new order addresskontakt@aktionszeitung.deor the new oneOrder form for the campaign newspaper
The campaign newspaper now has a homepagehttps://aktionszeitung.de/ and contact address:kontakt@aktionszeitung.de
Campaign newspaper - for a transport industry with a futureNo. 1 from March 2025
The first issue appears with 4 pages for the nationwideIG Metall action day on March 15th in Leipzig, Hanover, Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt/M. The second edition will be published with eight pages on May 1st and the followingConference of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation “Countering Power in the Headwind” , from May 2nd to 5th in Berlin... See order address (for postage and shipping costs for distribution), theEditorial of the action newspaper No. 1and now the entire campaign newspaper No. 1 as a PDF to read and distribute:
The promotional newspaper can be ordered for postage and shipping costs. Orders (circulation of 45,000) are still possible until March 6th at 4 p.m.!
LabourNet Germany is one of the co-editors and has the honor of presenting the editorial of Aktionzeitung No. 1:

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Who owns the factories? You own the factories!

The car companies are not a case of restructuring

Personnel costs are not the reason for the problems of VW, Daimler or BMW, nor of Conti, Bosch or ZF. (IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Gröger, October 28, 2024, ZDF) There is therefore no reason to reduce wages in the auto and supplier industries.

But IG Metall has every reason to defend the income and social rights of workers! In the first three quarters of 2024, the big three VW, Mercedes and BMW made profits of around 20 billion euros.

The crisis is being conjured up in order to stir up fears and enforce social cuts. It is incomprehensible that IG Metall still declares: “We are ready to make a contribution.” What reason would there be to swindle many euros from employees if personnel costs are not the problem?

Sacrificing wages does not secure jobs

“Economists” and managers repeatedly claim that wage cuts would secure jobs. But there is no evidence of this - quite the opposite! First there is a waiver of wages, then the job is relocated or eliminated. Anyone who wants to sell their products domestically suffers from declining purchasing power. This in turn costs jobs. For many years, wage increases have lagged behind productivity and price increases. While an ever-increasing portion of the additional income went to capital, wage income fell at the same time - at Volkswagen from 26 percent to 16 percent of total costs over the past 30 years.

For entrepreneurs there is never time for proper wage increases. Not in boom times because things could get worse again, not in the beginning of an upswing because it would then endanger the boom and not in economic downturns anyway. Because then there will be no more money.

Is job security more important than wage increases?

Sacrificing wages can secure employment in an individual company for a short time - but it leads the economy as a whole deeper into recession. Volkswagen wants to increase profits. Wages are now being cut by ten percent according to a collective agreement. As a result, the total wages of the 120,000 employees affected will fall by ten percent. With an average monthly wage of 4,000 euros, this results in a cost reduction for the company of around 576 million euros per year. And at Ford, Audi, BMW and Mercedes, wages should also fall so that the competitive conditions - at a low level - are level again. We don't want to get involved in this downward spiral!

Who owns the factories? You own the factories!
For example: Volkswagen

If Volkswagen wants to reduce capacity without prospects for the workers and without a future for the communities, the question must also be asked who actually owns the store!

The story is quickly told: From the mid-1930s, the Nazis implemented the “Volkswagen Project” with Ferdinand Porsche and the stolen assets of the free trade unions (130 million Reichsmarks). In the spring of 1945, Porsche and son-in-law Anton Piëch left for Austria with Volkswagen's cash register. VW was “masterless”, was managed by the British and handed over to the German federal government in “trustee hands” in 1948. All profits were invested in the business and the company developed splendidly. In 1960, the then CDU government turned the GmbH into an AG. The VW law was passed to break the resistance of works councils and unions. In 1980, the Kohl government put its 20 percent stake on the stock exchange on poor terms. The Porsches and Piëchs immediately began secretly buying shares - Porsche wanted to swallow Volkswagen. Things turned out a little differently, but the result remained the same: the Porsche Piëch clan owns 53 percent of the common shares - without them ever being involved in the actual work.

Legally, it is very clear: 53.3 percent of the voting rights belong to the Porsche Piëch clan, 20 percent to the state of Lower Saxony, 17 percent to the Qatari state fund and 9.7 percent in free float. Historically and morally, however, the company belongs to you, who work there and create all the values. That's why the VW law from 1960 still applies.

Daniela Cavallo is right: "130 million Reichsmarks correspond to today's purchasing power of almost 700 million euros. With an average interest rate, this capital that the Nazis stole from the workers' movement would have amounted to billions over the decades. This money, our money, is now in the VW Group." And that's why it's clear: Turbo capitalism must never take hold at Volkswagen. At Volkswagen, the workers still have a strong influence. Volkswagen must belong to those who actively help secure employment and build production that is sustainable and promising for the future.”

For us this means: Volkswagen will be incorporated in accordance with Articles 14/15 of the Basic Law, and the state of Lower Saxony will retain its shares. At the current share price, compensation costs around 30 billion euros - that's what we'll pay after the takeover as a non-profit GmbH or cooperative, minus the damage caused by management, not from petty cash, but from retained earnings.

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