Songs and stories to commemorate the labor movement

The district association of the German Trade Union Confederation celebrates various anniversaries with songs by Willi Sommerwerk on the history of the labor movement.

Gelting

– With a matinee with the Geretsrieder Willi Sommerwerk in the Geltinger Ambush, the DGB district association Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, which was only newly founded at the beginning of April, recently commemorated the workers' and works council movement around 100 years ago.

Before the concert, Klaus Barthel briefly looked back on their history and various anniversaries.

The first breakthrough came on November 7, 1918 with the founding of the Free State of Bavaria, according to the DGB district vice president.

"From 1919 to 1933, the workers' councils, which carried the democratization of the time into factories and companies, became the first works councils legitimized by the Weimar Reich Constitution," Barthel is quoted as saying in a DGB press release.

70 years ago, the trade unions in the Federal Republic had again struck for a company constitution, "which was only fundamentally modernized in 1972, i.e. exactly 50 years ago, under Chancellor Willy Brandt in the interests of the workers".

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Sommerwerk's songs during the morning reminded of the long journey of the democratic movements from the late 18th century to a self-composed contemporary song, the statement continues.

“He always embedded this part of working-class culture in the historical context.

Their topicality can only be explained from this context.

The language of the lyrics may seem antiquated to some contemporaries today, sometimes even martial, this was always due to the circumstances of the time, but also, as in other folk songs, to the linguistic usage of the time.” Sommerwerk also pointed out that the National Socialists used the songs of the falsified and misused the workers' movement as well as the folk songs in their sense.

DGB District Vice Barthel praises the new minimum wage

The unusual event also provided an opportunity to celebrate recent union successes.

Barthel recalled the recently introduced minimum wage of twelve euros, from which every sixth employee in the district benefits directly, and the brand new collective agreement in the metal industry.

Just one day earlier, a successful metalworking company in Wolfratshausen had announced a one-off payment of 1,000 euros to its employees.

With warning strikes in the district, IG Metall had meanwhile fought for a total of 3,000 euros plus general wage increases of 8.5 percent over the next two years.

"That's the difference between a union and a non-union," says Barthel. Here, the songs and the story merge seamlessly."

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