ICOG's Statement of Solidarity with Our Colleagues at the Volkswagen Group

June 29, 2026: Dear Colleagues, Now the cat’s out of the bag. The *Bild* newspaper, a mouthpiece for German imperialism, has published the plans of the Volkswagen Group Executive Board. They intend to cut 100,000 jobs and close four car plants in Germany alone. At the same time, the German government is announcing drastic cuts to health insurance, long-term care insurance, and pensions, and plans to abolish the eight-hour workday.

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The backdrop to this is the crisis in international production. Competition from China has surged ahead and is offering rock-bottom prices. This is destroying the Volkswagen Group’s decades-long comfortable position of being able to charge monopoly prices for its cars.

Our final resolution from the Third International Automotive Workers' Conference in Pune, India, states:

“If capitalism, with its international war of annihilation, can only function on the basis of destroying the foundations of human life, we declare war on it as a whole system! In many countries around the world, automotive workers are waging tough struggles and strikes.

It is our task as an International Automotive Workers' Coordination to fight in solidarity with workers fighting for immediate protective measures for our class, linking these struggles into a unitary mass movement for working class power in our respective countries without which we cannot achieve the fundamental changes we desperately need to ensure an enduring quality of life for our generation and future generations and a planet free of exploitation and oppression, without harboring any illusions about the possibility of fundamental change within capitalism

We are waging these struggles as part of the fight for social transformation, for a society free from exploitation and oppression. This requires us to take responsibility for the future of humanity.

Let’s build a global, militant grassroots movement of automotive workers, men and women, young and old together, their families, and friends. Our goal is cross-border coordination and cooperation in struggles, the regular exchange of information and experiences, the organization of international solidarity, and the democratization and strengthening of trade union organization.

No struggle should stand alone in the future! Divided we are weak united we are invincible. The struggles by automotive workers must be rapidly merged and united into a global movement to guarantee a life of dignity for all. We are continuing to expand our corporate cooperation!

The Fight for a Life of Dignity must be fought now, or it will be too late!

Long live the International Automotive Workers' Movement, long live the Coordination of Struggles!” (From the Joint Declaration of the Delegates’ Assembly of the 3rd International Automotive Workers' Conference in Pune, India, on November 23, 2025)

Dear colleagues in the Volkswagen Group,

we will back up our words with action and do everything we can to support your struggle. Those who fight can win and will receive solidarity. The attack on you is an attack on all workers.