The working-class offensive is born – Starting July 8, co-determination through strikes! Fight the criminalization of worker solidarity!

But for several months now, the struggles of the working class and the broad masses have been increasing. In recent weeks, colleagues from the core of the international industrial proletariat in Germany have organized many smaller protest actions, independent strikes, demonstrations, or statements.

On July 9, the VW Supervisory Board will meet to decide on the closure of four plants and the layoff of 100,000 workers. The VW Management Board declares in an extortionate manner that it will not accept a “no” from the Supervisory Board. Those affected are not allowed to participate in the Supervisory Board meeting. They must therefore exercise their right to co-determination through a group-wide strike. All social forces, industrial workers, union members, women, young people in schools and universities, and immigrant organizations are called upon to make July 8 a joint day of strike and struggle of the working class. This will then mark the beginning of further struggles and strikes.

Automotive monopolies like VW, Mercedes, and Tesla are leading the attack. If they get away with this, there will be similar attacks in other industries and in small and medium-sized businesses as well. They want to introduce a new style, openly flouting established practices such as negotiations with works councils. That is why it is important for all working people to join this struggle.

To this end, we are organizing international solidarity against division and the ethnic-nationalist mode of thinking propagated by the modern fascists of the AfD.

Class consciousness has awakened on a broad front among industrial workers as part of a worldwide process of pre-revolutionary ferment, and continues to develop. The realization that workers must fight together across the boundaries of locations, plants, and corporations is spreading even to leading union bodies. The struggle in the workplaces increasingly combines with diverse social and political struggles. The German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and the metalworkers' union IG Metall are refusing to go along with the government’s attack on social security and labor laws. This is what the Ruhr Rebellion stands for. Here, workers and unions are taking the lead in the fight against government policy and are consciously involving the socialist youth movement. The struggles of the environmental movement are reviving. The antifascist movement is mobilizing for a mass demonstration against the AfD’s national party convention on July 4 in Erfurt and is protesting the acute danger of a fascist government in Saxony-Anhalt. Social polarization is intensifying. The fascist enemies of the working class in the AfD are dropping their social mask and openly supporting the Volkswagen Group. There is still a great deal of confusion among the people, though. This makes it all the more important to untangle this confusion, to carry out the struggle over the mode of thinking and adopt a clear class viewpoint, which is increasingly gaining ground.

There is a growing awareness that the working class has fought hard for its social and democratic gains and will now, as a class, fight to preserve and expand them. Politicization is on the rise, and the full range of social issues is being discussed also among workers. They take a stand in statements against the war economy or against the acute fascist threat, such as fascist workplace groups and the AfD. They oppose the government’s crisis programs.

Protests are also taking place in response to the heat wave caused by the climate catastrophe. The working class is increasingly moving to the center of social events. Since 2024, strikes, protests, and rallies have reached a new peak in German history, with nearly 17 million participants from January 2023 to March 2026.

Many workers are outraged by the brutal police assaults and arrests targeting the MLPD and the workers’ newspaper Vorwärtsgang at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm on June 29 and 30. This broad solidarity must send a clear signal against the criminalization of worker solidarity. In other plants as well, such as at Daimler in Düsseldorf, there is increasing repression against protest actions.

In this situation, the prestige and importance of the revolutionary workers’ party, the MLPD, are growing. For months, it has been warning about the planned attacks and plant closures at VW. Every word has proven to be correct. Now the MLPD’s factory groups must be significantly strengthened.

We also call on all friends and allies to get involved now in organizing the strikes and solidarity efforts, and to strengthen the MLPD and its youth league, REBELL.

The root cause of these problems is the exploitative system of capitalism and its inherent laws. War and fascism are its worst manifestations, but it is fundamentally unjust, cannot solve humankind’s problems, and must be overcome through revolution. By thoroughly analyzing humankind’s experiences in socialist construction, we can build a genuine socialism today. In this situation, this social goal must be widely discussed, and the movement for it must be strengthened.

• Forward against monopolies and the state to the working-class offensive! Starting July 8: co-determination through strike action!

• Against the criminalizing of worker solidarity!

• Strengthen the revolutionary workers’ party MLPD and its youth league Rebell!