Un ambientalismo di classe. Il caso GKN

The closure of lots of industrial plants, such as the GKN Driveline Factory of Campi Bisenzio (Florence) and the related collective dismissals, have been defined as «the natural consequence of the ecological transition», an interpretation reproducing the environment-labour dichotomy. This nonetheless, in a few months of mobilizations of GKN workers succeeded in overturning this paradigm and articulating a new imaginary able to rethink the ecological transition. By means of ethnographic analysis, this contribution how the industrial conversion plan elaborated by the GKN workers and some supporting academics, reflects a just transition conception which is drawn in the (often forgotten) working class ecological tradition, by showing the concrete possibility of a transition from below, driven by the workers' voice and knowledge and by a creative integration between the factory, the academy, and the territory.