On 11 October 135 workers in the bicycle factory Bike Systems in Nordhausen, Germany, and their anarcho syndicalist union, the Freie Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter Union (FAU), made history. Never before in east Germany has worker controlled production from an occupied factory taken place.
Anarcho syndicalism arose as a direct form of anarchist thought in the 1920s. Syndicalists place great emphasis on the labour movement and radical trade unions as a revolutionary force for social change, ultimately replacing capitalism and the state with a democratic society self managed by the workers.
Workers at the Biria subsidiary Bike Systems predicted the closure of Germany’s largest bicycle producer when US investor Lone Star Funds acquired the Biria Group and sold the sister factory in Neukirch to competitor Mifa AG. Rather than merely going on strike at this news, the workers decided to occupy the factory and take over the manufacturing themselves with the Strike Bike.
For the manufacturing of the Strike Bike to be feasible, the workers needed to have 1800 orders for the Strike Bike. The support and solidarity was phenomenal with more than 1800 orders coming in within two weeks from all over Europe as well as Egypt, Israel, the USA, Canada and Australia.
In the mean time, the bike parts have been ordered and production starts on the 23rd October. Visit http://www.strike-bike.de to see if the workers are taking any more orders or ask your local bike shop to order the Strike Bike in.