Instead of going on Demos, is Katja Barthold today as a trade Union Secretary in the early morning with workers:inside the warning strike.
Katja Barthold accompanied the warning strike of employees of the company epsa GmbH, Saalfeld, photo: Roger Hagmann
SAALFELD taz | Katja Barthold has the curly hair and to the back plugged in, how boxers do it. “I come from Karl-Marx-Stadt!”, singing along loudly to the Song from the car stereo. Three people walk on the other side of the street snake-lines. “Coming from a Party, we will drive to the warning strike. Man, my life has changed.“ It is ten minutes before five on a Thursday morning in December.
Katja Barthold actually comes from Karl-Marx-Stadt, which was in the Childhood of Chemnitz. You went away from the decaying grafters city to the University, from the village of punk, running away from “fascists”, the intellectual Left, which deals with racism, and identity politics. Today, she struggles with the workers, but the interior in the Thuringian Hinterland.
“When we say white workers and Nazis think it is, then we can stop now,” says Barthold. So they pushed to the limits of tolerance of the Antifa. It has solved, has returned to her people. This provides, in turn, your tolerance to the test. And: It is working.
increases As a Barthold at half past six from the car, the Thermometer three degrees below zero. She puts on a red Anorak and stuck a big stack of paper in front of the narrow chest. In the commercial area, in Saalfeld, it is pitch dark, only a yellow small car lights. Two women spun a silver antifreeze on the windshield. “Morning!” they say a cigarette to light up before you go to the factory. “Well, ma give me a piece of paper,” says one. Out fat, in black and in Arial: “The peace obligation is: warning strike!”
A quarter of an hour later, the Parking lot in front of the work of “EPSa”, the electronics and precision construction Saalfeld, full. A skilled worker with a Goatee and gegeltem hair called out to his College:inside: “Today is the day of days! You’re here?“ Without a hat or gloves, he distributed Bartholds piece of paper, while the thick-Packed from one foot to the other tippelt. “Here in front of it goes to administration, and the office to Work is because in the back”.
Some take the leaflet to be shy, while others run past. “I don’t know how many participate. You can’t compare with other Establishments. This is like a dictatorship,“ says a young man with a baseball cap. He pulls a cigarette out of a Maxi-pack and told.
When they started more pay, there had been a campaign of Intimidation of the management. The collective contract had been recently terminated, even the works Council was fired.
“The Shit is really about to hit the Fan, the hunt on the Individual” justifies the man, his desire for anonymity. For eight years he has worked here. Every Morning, around 6’s, 38 hours per week. He and his College:women earn significantly less than it is in the Region.
on this day of the required 7 percent wage increase announced the Board of EPSa in an “economically predictable” approach. There is a lack of a “common understanding” for a trial, it says on request. The boss parks his BMW recently, not in front of the factory, said the other Morning in the Parking lot.
Then crows actually a rooster, in Saalfeld, the Church hit the bells six. The start of the shift. Suddenly it is quiet.
While the workers:to the inside of the machine high, sits Katja Barthold in a bakery in the village. In front of her, a Cappuccino and a chocolate croissant are available. “I’ve already thought about whether this is a real Job for me. You never get to the point where everything is good.“ It was unclear how the day runs out today. “And if you don’t know in advance how many are coming, then you have a badly organised!” Today it should be at least 50.
Originally was going to be, Katja Barthold journalist. In addition to his studies and left-wing activism, she was editor-in-chief of the newspaper editor his Junior year in Jena. A focus is put on people from abroad, and socially Active. “That was so 2008. At the time we Left concerns us much with refugee questions and had success.“ Hartz-IV protests, you would have to participate but failed to.
strike in Saalfeld, photo: Roger Hagmann
The “Outlaw”, as she says herself, was Barthold, as the antifascists came in the 1990s, of the street, “from the Milieu, where Nazis hang out”. The new additions “have not worked well with people, you find yourself well,” she recalls. “I understood then that I was far too chavvy’m for the Left.”
“It was marked by the fear of saying the wrong thing.” This escalated when she interviewed for the newspaper editor his Junior year together with a colleague, a Nazi fellow traveler, “to find out how such people of cadres to be captured”. The Antifa had the Newspapers in exchange for a Club Mate to collect and you threw torn on the University campus. “That was my first break with the left of the scene.” Barthold laughs bitterly.
“strike! What a wonderful day. I don’t do what you tell me“, sounds like Rio Reiser by boxes on the forecourt of the commercial driveway in Saalfeld. The sun stands out, in the meantime, through the cold air, the sky is blue. It’s a quarter of ten: Breakfast break. In front of the factory gate of EPSa Katja Barthold boxes has built up a long folding table with brown package tape, a banner attached: “warning strike. Our good law.“ The table is covered with gingerbread, Spekulatius and whistles.
“Felt I am a steel worker, but here we are Studying”
On the other side of the road, nine people in a car, on the Luggage compartment lid a Böhse-Onkelz is a scarf. You looked around with frowning. At half past ten Katja Barthold makes the music quieter, and reaches hesitantly to the microphone. Suddenly, the small group begins to applaud, because behind the corner of the house, more and more people come forth. In blue man, bobble hat, Anorak, white boots, baseball cap, sneakers. Women and men, young and old, from the factory and the office.
“Thank you, that you are all here. The management has tried to divide you,“ says Katja Barthold through the microphone. The strikers support their words with whistles. 62, is one of Barthold. Above them, a cloud of warm air and cigarette smoke is.
“are not It now only link voters out here,” says works Council Christian Hübner about his dark eye circles. Usually go on strike, rather, the “middle hands”, says a man in a black leather jacket.
The four women next to him wearing pearl earrings, accurately ambitious hairstyles. One of them, Marion Gollub is. Like the other women she works with the hands. “What is political plays here no role. It comes to the operation,“ she says. Together with your College:the inner you keeps the red trade Union in a transparent, smiling into the camera of a local journalist.
“you are proud of what they do. You will not be rewarded for it,“ says Katja Barthold. Since the starting point of the Rights. “Say not: We are not hostile to foreigners, come here. They say: We are here for you. So, it has managed the AfD: the appreciation that you get from us academic Left never.“
The Job as intellectuals is to create a platform, says Barthold. “Felt I am a steel worker, but in the plant we are Studying. First of all, no one wants to talk to us. Someone who has studied, even a enemy, because people have experienced it just never that someone else is using his education to do something for you.“
This all costs time and energy, it is educational work, says Barthold. “If someone argues really right, then I’m wasting not a second. But I can’t say: ‘We must all be perfect and then we can fight’.” A good access is a historical reference. So you can make Barthold clear: “participation in the operation you can check, if the AfDler are in Power.”
“Why are you here?” Barthold asks in the round. “Collective bargaining agreement, that is what we want!” answers the worker:indoor. Soon the three hours that you are out here. Toes are immobile, but the voices are loud, the atmosphere is solved. “How much percent do we want?”, ask Barthold. “Fuffzehn!”, stands out from the crowd.
As the next day your phone rings, sits Katja Barthold back in the car. She listens again to “Karl-Marx-Stadt”. At the other end of the line a staff member of EPSa is. He thanks you for the warning strike. “Now, people say Hello also, finally, again!” And in the new year, we wanted to make a warning strike, then with even more people.
