auWritten by: International Auto Workers Coordination on 5 July 2026
Dear comrades in the International Automotive Workers' Coordination,
The auto industry is intensifying its attacks on auto workers. VW plans to cut 100,000 jobs worldwide. In Germany alone, four plants employing thousands of workers are set to be closed. Mercedes plans to close a plant in South Africa. Two plants in China have already been shut down. Capitalist competition is a battle of annihilation that is to be waged on the backs of us workers.
In Germany, the slogan “Co-determination through strike starting July 8” is gaining traction. The first strike took place yesterday at Mercedes. We are sending you an article from the special edition (3/26) of the newspaper “Vorwärtsgang,” written by and for colleagues at the German plants of VW, Audi, Porsche, and MAN.
It is obvious that VW’s top management is terrified of a workers’ struggle. On Monday, seven distributors of the workers’ newspaper “Vorwärtsgang” were arrested in front of the Audi plant in Heilbronn and led away in handcuffs. This is a repressive measure the likes of which Germany has not seen since World
War II.
The VW and other auto bosses are showing their true colors. They will stop at nothing to maximize profits.
At the 3rd International Automotive Workers' Conference, we resolved: No struggle should stand alone! Let’s throw a wrench in the automakers’ plans!
Please spread this information within your organizations and organize solidarity, especially against police violence targeting workers’ solidarity.
Long live international solidarity!
“Vorwärtsgang“, special edition 3-2026 30.06.2026:
The VW Executive Board’s plans are dead serious! Last Wednesday, VW CEO Blume rallied the Executive Board behind a plan to cut 100,000 jobs and close four plants. If the Supervisory Board meeting on 9 July does not go along with his plan, he intends to push it through against the Supervisory Board’s will at an extraordinary general meeting in August.
Illusions are bursting like soap bubbles: ‘The majority on the Supervisory Board, the VW Act or any contracts will protect us.’ The lifelong lie of ‘co-determination’ has failed spectacularly!
Now there is only one thing that will help: CO-DETERMINATION THROUGH STRIKE ACTION!
The Executive Board must feel, even before the Supervisory Board meeting, what the workforce thinks of these plans. Let’s show them that there is a high price to pay for messing with us! Not a single car, gearbox, axle or spare part will be produced or leave the factory. All workforces across the VW Group must stand together.
Other workforces in the car industry, among suppliers and in other sectors must also show solidarity. Through their attacks, the monopolies and the state are declaring war on us, the working class, across the whole of Europe. We are more united and better organised than these opponents, who can no longer solve any problems.
VW is terrified of our response! On Monday, the Audi management in Neckarsulm called the police. Seven distributors of the Vorwärtsgang and members of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD} were arrested and subjected to hours of identification procedures. What was their crime? They declared their solidarity with the workers’ struggle.
There it is: the dictatorship of the monopolies, operating through a fascistised state apparatus.
Let’s build solidarity on a broader basis! Our response: the VW Executive Board’s plans must be scrapped entirely!
FROM 8 JULY: CO-DETERMINATION THROUGH STRIKE!
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