Working Class History5 Maalis 2025

WCL10: Florence Working-Class Literature Festival, part 1

First of a double-episode podcast about the Working-Class Literature Festival held every year in Florence, at the former GKN car parts factory, which was taken over by the workers after they were made redundant in 2021.

In this episode, we talk to working-class author and one of the main organisers of the festival, Alberto Prunetti, as well as former GKN workers Dario Salvetti and Tiziana De Biasio. We discuss the history of the struggle at GKN from the redundancies to the workers' takeover and 'permanent union assembly' at the factory.

We also dive into how the idea for the Working-Class Literature Festival at the factory began, and how the first two events were organised (despite repeated attempts at sabotage).

Full show notes including further reading, photos, a documentary about the GKN struggle, and a full transcript are available on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wcl10-11-florence-working-class-literature-festival/

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Antonella Bundu for doing the voiceover for Tiziana's audio
Many thanks also to Alberto Prunetti and Edizioni Alegre for giving us permission to reproduce photos from previous years' festivals
Thanks to all our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jamison D. Saltsman, Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez Ojeda and Jeremy Cusimano
Our theme tune for these episodes is ‘Occupiamola’ (or ‘Let’s Occupy It’) as sung on a GKN workers’ demonstration in 2024. Many thanks to Reel News London for letting us use their recording. Watch the documentary it's taken from here
This episode was edited by Tyler Hill

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(149)

E125: Riot dogs - Negro Matapacos

In various countries around the world, as movements against exploitation and inequality exploded, protesters found some unlikely allies – street dogs. In these episodes, we look at movements and riot ...

5 Elo 34min

E124: [TEASER] Fireside Chat - World Cup of Chaos

Fireside Chat podcast available exclusively for our Patreon supporters we invited back Tomas Rothaus (from our Argentina 2001 episodes) to discuss football, politics, and the chaotic mess of the World...

20 Heinä 25min

E123.1 [TEASER]: IWW Starbucks Workers Union, bonus episode

Free preview of the bonus episode to our three-part podcast series about the organising campaign by the Industrial Workers of the World union at Starbucks in the 2000s, in conversation with Daniel Gro...

15 Heinä 10min

E123: IWW Starbucks Workers Union, part 3

Final part of our three-part podcast series about the organising campaign by the Industrial Workers of the World union at Starbucks in the 2000s, in conversation with Daniel Gross, one of the key orga...

8 Heinä 39min

E122: IWW Starbucks Workers Union, part 2

Part 2 of our three-part podcast series about the organising campaign by the Industrial Workers of the World union at Starbucks in the 2000s, in conversation with Daniel Gross, one of the key organise...

1 Heinä 31min

E121: IWW Starbucks Workers Union, part 1

Before the current wave of organising at Starbucks, another group of workers in the early 2000s got together and formed a union at one of the most anti-union corporations on earth. They won better pay...

25 Kesä 47min

E120.1: [TEASER] 1926 general strike, bonus episode

Bonus episode for our three-part miniseries about the UK’s 1926 general strike, in collaboration with the General Strike 100 project and told using interviews with striking workers themselves.In this ...

13 Touko 9min

E120: 1926 general strike, part 3

The final of our three-part miniseries about the UK’s 1926 general strike, which saw one and three-quarter million workers walk out in the biggest single work stoppage in British history. In collabora...

6 Touko 43min