This event is organised by the EUI Working Group on Palestine.
This event brings together workers and researchers who actively support labour movements to discuss how academic knowledge and skills can be meaningfully mobilised in support of workers’ struggles. This event will not focus on how to research social movements, but rather on how to put academic skills and knowledge in service of them.
In the first part of the event, guest speakers will introduce the movements they are part of or support, and describe how they have contributed to them. The event will host representatives from Viome, a worker-run factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, and researchers who worked for the ex-GKN Collettivo di Fabbrica, a collective of workers repurposing their factory towards solar panel production in Campi Bisenzio, Italy (Francesca Gabriellini, Giulia Frosecchi and Leonard Mazzone). Viome and the Collettivo di Fabbrica are two worker collectives that responded to mass layoffs by occupying their workplaces and building self-managed cooperatives. We will also welcome Paolo Tomassetti, professor of labour law actively involved in strengthening Italian trade unions, including through training, and the research team of Sudd Cobas, a grassroots trade union based in Prato and active across Tuscany and beyond. Sudd Cobas organises primarily migrant workers in the textile, fashion, and logistics sectors, particularly through strike action.
A roundtable discussion will follow, addressing the DOs and DON’Ts of activism in academia. Speakers will share practical guidance on what to do, what to avoid, and what to remain attentive to when engaging with labour movements. A Q&A session will conclude the discussion. Afterwards, we will gather at Fiasco for drinks and food for a fundraising event in support of Sudd Cobas.
Register