I'm Marco, I started working on building sites when I was 16,
then worked in various factories,
mobile phones, cars, bicycles, carpets.
I worked in call centres, in India too.
I worked for the railway as a shunting engine driver.
Now I work at the hospital
as Health Care Assistant and in the operating theatre.
We change hip joints, primarily.
For me at the beginning it was more of a survival strategy,
a personal strategy.
That was in the early 90s.
It was a scene of punks and skinheads,
It was very class-divided,
There were people who who grew up in institutions
and then there were others from middle-class families.
And in the time when you are around 16,
then you realise that.
There were two tendencies that pulled this scene apart.
One was of course drugs and self-destruction,
And the other was:
OK, now you have to see where you find your place within the system
and perhaps become a social worker of your own friends.
And I think in that situation
it was a survival strategy, that I try to pull myself out of it
from such a tendency.
I then left school in 10th grade
and started working in construction
and I thought to myself at least I don't have to sell my head.
And then, fortunately bumped into people,
who had a similar political strategy,
a collective called Wildcat.
And then I got to know other comrades
and then the whole thing became a bit more political
and I chose more precisely where I wanted to work,
as part of a collective project.
What does is mean to work strategically?
Going to work strategically,
means that you look for a job according to political criteria.
And in the best case it is political criteria,
that are discussed together with others.
When you talk about social changes
and think that workers
or the oppressed play a role,
then I think you want to be part of it.
And on the other hand you want to understand what is happening.
And not take it all from the press, from the media,
from the books.
For example, if a new industry arises,
or as now in the last two decades in the West
for example logistics has developed
as an important industry, where new battles happen,
even without us being there,
and that one tries to support these tendencies
of fights and also make sure that they perhaps radiate
to other sectors, which have perhaps been less
directly connected to them.
Thus establishing connections within the class.
Sacrifice
Yes, it is often said
that going to work in a factory, from outside,
like it was done in the 1960s, 70s
by a few students, not only students,
that has something of a sacrifice,
that would be very exhausting and alienating.
And yes, I would ask:
What are the alternatives on a personal level?
Can you avoid going to work?
You can't always.
And then you can just think about it.
Looking for niches without alienating yourself
is also becoming increasingly difficult,
in the sense of
you still have to write an application here
or maybe see if you can write a PhD...
And that then becomes very individual.
And people internalise this individual pressure.
That also destroys you in a way.
And I think on the one hand perhaps on a spiritual level
to connect the political,
the political ideas, with one's own life
is actually a good thing.
If you assume that change happens from below.
Being there, is actually a thing
that gives you a bit of fulfilment
Of course it's exhausting, can be exhausting, normal job.
A Collective Effort
I think if you approach a few things more collectively,
if you take the experiences you have there, which are not always positive,
you have arguments with with all kinds of people,
sometimes you just have to do with people,
who betray other people,
- to you talk about it together is helpful.
Organising everyday life together is helpful.
In the best situations we said:
A few people have to work shifts, for example,
if that was in the car industry there are shifts,
that means other people were making sure
that the children were taken to school.
If someone was on a shift where that wasn't possible
or that food is there
and that it rotates in the collective.
Who could do such things just did them.
Then of course it is also more about reflection.
That means that when you start working somewhere,
it's good if you understand a bit more
about the history of the company,
and other companies in similar situations,
perhaps struggles in other countries.
That is a bit of research work, and you can't do that either
if you're working at the same time.
If people can share this work,
that is an advantage.
Then also: You quickly become operationally blind,
which means that you already assume
that you understand your own situation
or that all people know their own situation.
So to tell other people,
for example in the form of diaries,
often helps to sharpen one's own vision.
For this as well a collective is important
and of course if you want to do something.
We are not just there for sociological reasons or
because it's somehow spiritual, to work in a car factory,
but also
to be able to intervene at a point where it is important.
And that happens often spontaneously.
You just have to have a flyer ready the next morning
and it's good, if there are people there,
who can do that and distribute it.
Things like that.
You need a group for that.
A Good Idea For The Climate Movement?
Yes, I think for the climate movement
it's probably important for two reasons
to work strategically.
On the one hand because,
the strategy to get in touch with workers,
especially in the energy sector, the transport or in the automotive sector:
if you rely solely on the trade unions
and the official representatives
then these will be thin bridges,
these are not independent relationships.
So having someone who works there or to work there yourself,
would mean that you can act independently.
That on the one hand.
And on the other hand, it is also about a certain knowledge,
which you can't get from academia alone
or from the books, for example engineering knowledge.
I would also say,
to strategically decide I work in an area,
where I can learn something about modern industry
in the sense of
new energy generation
or better insulation of houses and things like that.
To say that:
We try to obtain the knowledge by working in such areas
is also important.
What Are Strategically Important Workplaces?
I think on the one hand, when you talk about strategy,
there are what we traditionally call the "pulling sectors",
where workers due to objective factors
can develop social power.
But if you now consider the longer term
and a social transition,
a fundamental change, of how things are produced,
a fundamental change in the division between manual and intellectual labour
and the abolition of hierarchies
or to change them at least.
In such a longer-term view,
it is important to have an understanding
of the essential sectors, that is, the sectors,
which are there to survive materially.
And I think,
if you look at the pandemic, for example,
who worked from home
and who still had to work, you can say that 30, 40%
of social labour
is essential in the sense of survival
and 60 % rather to keep capitalism and the hierarchies.
And I think in the long term it is then important to know people
in these essential sectors, that a kind of knowledge develops,
of how these sectors are structured, technically, socially
and that in the struggles that take place,
we see an increase in strikes
especially in these sectors: health, transport, energy,
in a few industries,
that in these strikes this question of control
who actually controls the work,
who controls whether what we are doing makes social sense or not?
That this control is becoming more and more part
and that it is not simply just about wages,
but actually about: Who controls?
And that happens first and foremost in strikes and struggles
and in everyday life.
It doesn't happen in a way that people sit down and think:
"Oh, that would be a good idea" and then tell people that,
it rather happens from the inside out.