On Friday, June 26, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume announced the elimination of 100,000 jobs worldwide and the closure of four plants in Germany alone. This announcement was preceded by a personal meeting with Chancellor Merz. VW’s announcements were immediately followed by drastic measures at Mercedes. The government is attacking social gains in pensions and healthcare, as well as workers’ rights. These attacks are state-monopolistic capitalism in action! Monopolies and the state are intensifying exploitation to drive up the rate of profit.

 

VW is Europe’s largest automaker and the second-largest worldwide, with a 20% state stake. In 2025, it generated an operating profit of €8.9 billion. VW is a typical global player among the international super-monopolies: it manufactures in Slovakia, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Mexico, the U.S., Brazil, and especially in China, India, and South Africa. Plants have already been closed in other countries (Belgium, China, …) and more are under threat. Up to one million jobs depend directly or indirectly on the approximately 290,000 employees, who form a core of the industrial proletariat in Germany!

 

Internationally, as many as 600,000 people work for VW. That’s all VW workers worldwide combined!

 

With its ruthless all-out attack, the corporation aims to secure maximum profits and maintain—or regain—its leading position in international competition at the expense of the workers and their families. After years of feigning co-determination and class collaboration, it is now launching an open attack.

 

Just how nervous the monopoly bosses are is evident from the police harassment, threats, and temporary arrests of members of the German ICOR organization, the MLPD, and its representative Lisa Gärtner—carried out at the behest of VW’s top management—who were expressing their solidarity in front of the plants and discussing issues with the workers. Those in power know that for decades the MLPD has been the only party in Germany working among VW and Mercedes workers, firmly rooted there and possessing the know-how for the tough struggles ahead. ICOR protests against the criminalization of workers’ solidarity!

 

As a way out, workers are being advised to switch to the arms industry! All monopolies are shifting to a war economy. All monopolies—whether in auto production or other sectors—are launching fierce attacks on the workforce in numerous countries in order to hold their own in capitalist competition.

 

All of this serves as a signal not only to automotive workers but to the working class around the world, demonstrating the ruthlessness with which even—and especially—the largest monopolies and the bourgeois state operate. It is the leading force in the revolutionary overthrow of the decaying imperialist world system and against the exploitative system of capitalism.

 

That is why the struggle of the automotive workers is the struggle of workers all over the world! And also of their families, the rebellious youth, and every progressive person.

 

Fight against the dictatorship of the monopolies and the imperialist states that serve them!

For the unity of the international working class!

Your struggle is our struggle!

Together against job destruction, the dismantling of hard-won social and labor rights, against fascism and imperialist war!

This decaying system offers humanity no future—for a liberated socialist society!

 

Status of the signatories 05.07.2026. Further signatures possible. Current list of signatories at www.icor.info

1. CPSA (ML)   Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)

2. SPB   Socialist Party of Bangladesh

3. NDMLP   New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party, Sri Lanka

4. CPA/ML   Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

5. Krasnyj Klin   Аб'яднання беларускіх камуністаў «Чырвоны Клін» (Association of Belarusian Communists «Red Wedge»), Belarus

6. БКП   Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)

7. PR-ByH   Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)

8. MLPD   Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)

9. UPML   Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France

10. KOL   Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)

11. RM   Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands

12. MLGS   Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)

13. MLKP   Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)

14. PCP (independiente)   Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan  Communist Party (independent))

15. PC (ML)   Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic

16. PCR-U   Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay (Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay)