Call to support US Auto Workers' Strike

Written by: ICOG on 13 October 2023

We have received the following appeal from the International Automotive Workers’ Coordination to support the strike by US auto workers. It contains an important message about international working class solidarity, and we recommend it to our readers – Eds.

10 October 2023

Touch one – touch all!
Call of the ICOG for active solidarity with the strike of the UAW in the USA

Dear Colleagues,

Despite a widespread media boycott, the already 4-week strike of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union against the "Big Three" (GM, Ford, Stellantis) has attracted worldwide attention. The list of international expressions of solidarity is long and an important trump card in the "historic strike". There are already 25,000 colleagues in the "Stand Up" strike. Thousands more are ready to fight. The UAW and its members have prepared for a long labor struggle. The strikers' will to fight and their self-confidence are high. A large majority in the USA is still behind them. The bosses of the international auto monopolies of the "Big Three" also know this. Meekly, they have already announced individual concessions to the workers and their union. We call on them to fulfill the justified demands of the UAW comprehensively and immediately. Workers will not be satisfied with crumbs.

In view of the high inflation rate, the demand for 40% more pay over 4 (!) years is more than justified. The transition to electromobility and digitalization will also destroy tens of thousands of jobs in the USA. Therefore, the 32-hour week with full wage compensation is necessary to preserve jobs and create new ones. We have anchored arguments for the 30-hour week with full wage compensation in our International Program of Struggle.

If U.S. President Biden now wants to "join the strike front," we ask, what about 2009, when as then vice president he was involved in the mass layoffs at GM and Chrysler subsidized by billions of dollars. The U.S. auto monopolies are being massively financed by taxpayer money, as with the "inflation reduction act" under the slogan "America First". The strikers are rightly demanding the restoration of the social benefits that were massively cut during the crisis 15 years ago.

From September 5 to 6, 2023, the First World Conference of the International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist United Front against Fascism, War and Environmental Destruction (United Front) took place successfully in Thuringia/Germany. Automotive workers participated in this conference with an Anti-Imperialist Platform within the International Automotive Workers Coordination in the United Front. The message of this conference with 124 international participants from 46 countries is: we take responsibility for each other internationally and no struggle should be left alone. Instead of "my country first", a global anti-imperialist counter-concept against the worldwide rightward development and fascism is being advanced here. This is where the solidarity with the strike of the UAW colleagues comes in.

We call on all auto workers and their families, especially at GM, Ford, Stellantis foreign plants, and their supporters to commit to consistently rejecting and stopping any strike-breaking activity. Take the side of the UAW strikers offensively with statements in your unions and at the workplace, and organize creative solidarity activities up to and including solidarity strikes. Promote support for this important labor struggle of the UAW! Collect donations for the strikers and their families! Overcome any squinting at alleged advantages that might be derived from the UAW strike, for workforces of other corporations and companies on the basis of nationalist or social-chauvinist thinking and acting.

Whether on October 13 at the Europe-wide uniting strike day of the unions in France or at the general strike of the grassroots unions in Italy planned for October 20, include the struggle and solidarity with the strike of the UAW. Unleash other joint unifying struggle actions in your countries, corporations and workplaces.

No workers' struggle should stand alone anymore!
Touch one - touch all! Attack one and you attack all!
Organize and consolidate international workers' and trade union unity!
Long live the international solidarity!

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