The event is a cooperation between Academy
of Fine Arts (IKW/ MA Critical Studies), University of Applied Arts (Art and Communication Practices), System Change not Climate
Change and Arbeiterkammer Wien
GKN is a guest in Vienna! The former automotive supplier factory
GKN in Campi Bisenzio near Florence became a European symbol for socio-ecological transformation from below. Not only did
the approximately 500 workers refuse to accept their sudden layoff in the summer of 2021 and have been occupying the factory
for over two years, by holding a work meeting ever since. They also established a wide alliance with Fridays for Future, scientists
and many other social movements, with which they jointly developed a plan for the social-ecological transformation of the
factory. Instead of car components, the future plan is the production of cargo bikes and solar panels - as long as the financings
are secured. A shareholder model that would enable workers, the local population and the global climate movement to make joint
decisions would be a laboratory for democratic production under ecological conditionst.
In a panel discussion we want to learn about the example of GKN, but also find out what the situation
is regarding current labour struggles in Austria. Together with Dario Salvetti (works council representatives and worker at
GKN), and works council representatives in the fields of social sector and industrial production, we want to seek out possibilities
of linking climate and labor struggles, and alliances with science and art, discuss challenges and contradictions, understand
the situation of employees in fossil fuel companies and get inspired by the example of GKN.
organized
and financed by: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (IKW/ MA Critical Studies) and University of Applied Arts (Art and Communication
Practices), System Change not Climate Change and Chamber of Arbeiterkammer Wien.
The event takes
place in the framework of Rehearsals for Resistance
–
On extractivism in art-based research and its
socio-eco-political formations between the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Kunsthalle Vienna, and the Academy
of Fine Art, Vienna.
When: Wednesday 15.11.2023
Where: University
for Applied Arts, Auditorium, Vordere Zollamtstraße 7, 1030 Wien
Time: 19.00 - 21.30
