WCL10: Florence Working-Class Literature Festival

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Transcript

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0:00.0	In July 2021, over 400 workers at the GKN Carparts factory on the outskirts of Florence were told that they would lose their jobs.
0:08.0	In response, workers seized the factory and in the past four years their demands have developed beyond just stopping the redundancies,
0:16.0	but to restarting production under workers' control, building ecological goods and promoting green,
0:21.7	community-controlled energy. And, as if that wasn't enough, since 2023 the factory has also become
0:28.6	the site of the annual Festival of Working Class Literature. The third instalment of this festival
0:34.1	will take place this year in April 2025. This is working class literature. Before we start, just a quick note to say that we're only able to continue making these podcasts,
1:12.5	both working class history and working class literature, because of the support of our listeners on Patreon.
1:18.3	If you like what we do and want to help us with our work, join us on patreon.com slash working class history,
1:24.5	where you can get benefits like early access to episodes, exclusive bonus
1:28.8	content, discounted books, merch and more. For instance, Patreon supporters can also listen to both
1:34.9	episodes about the festival of working class literature now, and also have access to our two
1:39.8	Patreon-only series, Radical Reads and Fireside Chat. Link in the show notes.
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