https://znetwork.org/author/thomkklikauer/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 08 May 2026 19:12:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/thomkklikauer/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/50-years-of-co-determination-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/50-years-of-co-determination-in-germany/#respond Fri, 08 May 2026 19:10:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297868 Much of Germany’s labor relations system is governed by the idea of a social partnership between capital and labor – camouflaging the stark asymmetry between both by pretending labor and capital are, somehow, equal “partners” under capitalism. One of the clearest expressions of this hallucination is Germany’s much admired system of co-determination. In recent weeks, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/50-years-of-co-determination-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-day-2026-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-day-2026-in-germany/#respond Sat, 02 May 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297667 One of the rituals repeated annually is the criticism of Germany’s government by workers and trade unions during the Labour Day rallies held on 1 May. This year, Germany’s trade unions, union apparatchiks and, at times, even union members celebrated big wins wherever trade unions concluded collective agreements. This year, German trade unions had reasons [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-day-2026-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/byds-slave-cars-made-in-brazil/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/byds-slave-cars-made-in-brazil/#respond Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:55:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297142 While the corporate press has successfully confined itself to the past, the past is never truly past: slavery still exists on our planet—even in the 21st century. The ILO estimates that there are 30 million people held in what is euphemistically called “bonded labor.” Yet old and modern slavery are nothing new in Brazil. Between [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/byds-slave-cars-made-in-brazil/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/8-lessons-from-3-tesla-unions-in-3-countries/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/8-lessons-from-3-tesla-unions-in-3-countries/#respond Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296900 In 2023, mechanical engineers – members of the Swedish Industrifacket Metall (IFM) union – dared to walk out of a Tesla repair shop. This set in motion what was to become one of the country’s most significant industrial disputes in recent history. Yet, the number of workers on strike remained rather small – just 45 [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/8-lessons-from-3-tesla-unions-in-3-countries/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladeshi-fashion-workers-and-a-german-law/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladeshi-fashion-workers-and-a-german-law/#respond Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296871 While the original whitewashing was simply the painting of a surface – such as a house – with a lime-based mixture for sanitation, more recently whitewashing has come to mean the covering up of corporate scandals to make them appear better. This is why corporate public relations – evil heretics call it corporate propaganda – [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladeshi-fashion-workers-and-a-german-law/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hormuz-shipping-unions-sailors/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hormuz-shipping-unions-sailors/#respond Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:24:20 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296755 Corporate media prefer to talk about Donald Trump at a daily rate that has long surpassed other entertainers: the war of the USA and Israel against Iran, oil – where those who helped put Trump into the White House receive a handsome return on their investment – global shipping, and the Strait of Hormuz. Yet [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hormuz-shipping-unions-sailors/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-win-works-council-elections-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-win-works-council-elections-in-germany/#respond Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:35:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296641 In spring 2026, elections to German works councils took place in which workers voted as workers and not as trade union members – paradoxically. Even though, at least in Germany’s all-important car industry, the vast majority of workers are union members. Cunningly, Germany’s post-war labour relations system separates workplaces from industry-level labour relations. At the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-win-works-council-elections-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagens-works-council-panzers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagens-works-council-panzers/#respond Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296402 Legend has it that tanks – the Germans call them  Panzer – were introduced during World War I as Britain’s armoured vehicles, now known as tanks. At that time, they were also called landships or water tanks to conceal their true nature from the enemy, the Germans. The name tank stuck. As a little sideshow [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/volkswagens-works-council-panzers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-philosophy-and-politics-of-habermas/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-philosophy-and-politics-of-habermas/#respond Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:12:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295833 Among the many things that remain of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died on 14 March 2026, are two things: firstly, that the crisis of capitalism – a word the social-democratic master philosopher hardly used – is the normal state of affairs; secondly, that Jürgen Habermas retained a strong belief in reason, particularly in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-philosophy-and-politics-of-habermas/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-home-state-of-porsche-mercedes-greens-afd-won/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-home-state-of-porsche-mercedes-greens-afd-won/#respond Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295626 In the recent state election (8 March 2026), Germany’s environmentalist “the Greens” and the exact opposite – the neo-fascist AfD – won big time. By an extremely narrow margin, the Greens are once again the strongest force in the 11.5-million-people-strong south-western state of Baden-Württemberg – the home of, for example, the electronics maker Robert Bosch [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-home-state-of-porsche-mercedes-greens-afd-won/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/musk-wins-against-workers-at-tesla-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/musk-wins-against-workers-at-tesla-in-germany/#respond Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:25:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295591 The really bad news is that the elections to the works council at Tesla in the 9,000-people-strong East German town of Grünheide are over. The bitter result is that Elon Musk won and workers lost. Candidates of Germany’s metalworkers’ union IG Metall (IGM) fell back to second place in the vote at Grünheide. While management [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/musk-wins-against-workers-at-tesla-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:09:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295500 The DS3D – Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – is a complicated, highly convoluted, hyper-legalistic invention, but it “can” help workers worldwide. Despite its unpronounceable name – even for Germans – Germany’s so-called Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz “can” deliver good things for many workers, potentially. And even after its European version was seriously watered down when cashed-up corporate [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-supply-chain-law-corporate-lobbying-wins-over-the-defenseless/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-tesla-works-councils-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-tesla-works-councils-in-germany/#respond Thu, 05 Mar 2026 01:06:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295426 Once — and particularly from an anarcho-syndicalist perspective — works councils were seen as revolutionary institutions for democracy and against capitalism and war. Today, the German model of social-democratic works councils as co-managers prevails. It allows companies to function smoothly, leaves capitalism untouched — or better, supports it — and gives workers the right to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-tesla-works-councils-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sleazy-afd-germanys-far-right-loots-the-state/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sleazy-afd-germanys-far-right-loots-the-state/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2026 16:01:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295280 For weeks, allegations of sleaze, nepotism, and corruption inside the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have dominated local media in Germany. Nepotism within the AfD has occurred at both state and federal level. The neo-fascist AfD is not known for being a political party free of infighting. Unsurprisingly, what triggered the emergence of widespread nepotism was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sleazy-afd-germanys-far-right-loots-the-state/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/#respond Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294968 In Germany’s recent election – held in February 2025 – the AfD managed to become the second-strongest political force, winning 21%. Four years earlier, the neo-fascist party’s share had been 10.4%. In East Germany, it even reached 32%. The AfD thus succeeded in doubling its share of the vote. Worse, this is not because fewer [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:16:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294835 By mid-February 2026, and after nationwide strikes, Germany’s public service trade union, Ver.di, announced the end of the strikes. Germany’s public sector workers will receive more money. After three rounds of collective bargaining negotiations between Ver.di and public sector employers – covering bus, tram and train drivers, among others – a pact was concluded. Ver.di’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:18:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294686 Perhaps ever since the dawn of capitalism, when the first workers were – literally – whipped into factory work and converted from life on a farm with a natural day and night rhythm and adjusted to the factory clock on the wall of a Satanic Mill, workers have known that working hours have a huge [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/work-until-you-drop-german-style/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/work-until-you-drop-german-style/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294631 Despite the fact that many workers in Germany are already working while sick, the push by conservative politicians, businesses, and Germany’s corporate media to further torment workers is relentless. The attacks of the three headless riders of the apocalypse – reactionary politicians, businessmen, and corporate media – on Germany’s system of sick leave continue unabated. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/work-until-you-drop-german-style/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/#respond Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294559 Recently, the staunchly anti-communist supporter of neoliberalism, ex-BlackRock hedge fund manager and now Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told Germans to work more – that is what Germany needs. But rather than being aligned with most Germans, conservative Merz seems to be off the mark. Meanwhile, the hard-working businessman Merz — who last took the rubbish [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/#respond Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294430 On a cold, freezing, windy, and snowy morning in late January 2026, Germany’s nationwide collective bargaining for public transport workers started under the union motto “Mobility for all and good working conditions for public transport workers.” It set the tone for collective bargaining in all of Germany’s 16 federal states. But even before the mass [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:54:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294355 As one of the most time-honored truths goes: wherever there is capitalism, there is labor, and wherever there is labor, there is organized labor. Yet not all organized labor is on our side. There are yellow unions – even in Germany. A yellow union is a fake or “pretend-to-be” worker organization. It is dominated, unduly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/#respond Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294309 Barely half a year after the Amazon boss’ lavish wedding in Venice in “The Great Gatsby” style, surrounded by 250 guests, just one hour’s flying time away — in Bezos’ private jet, the Gulfstream G700, of course — a lonely Amazon worker died, abandoned in a rather non-tasteful Amazon toilet at Jeff Bezos’ East German [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/#respond Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294119 Conceivably, nobody has ever expressed the view of right-wing and Neo-Nazi parties towards the democratic state better than Hitler’s minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, when acknowledging: “It will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed.” While the neo-fascist AfD has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-people-vote-for-trump-10-ideologies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-people-vote-for-trump-10-ideologies/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293842 One of the most challenging questions of democracy might indeed be: why did so many people vote for Adolf Hitler even though he acted against their interests? Virtually the same can be said for those who voted for Brexit in the UK, voted for Germany’s neo-fascist AfD – even when Germany’s capital side openly stated [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-people-vote-for-trump-10-ideologies/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-neo-nazi-threat-to-unitary-unionism-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-neo-nazi-threat-to-unitary-unionism-in-germany/#respond Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293428 With the rapid advance of Germany’s extreme right and adjacent neo-Nazis, a serious challenge for Germany’s trade unions – organized within Germany’s peak body, the DGB – has emerged. The outlook for German trade unions will be even more grim in the upcoming works council elections to be held in spring 2026. German trade unionists [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-neo-nazi-threat-to-unitary-unionism-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-market-trends-in-germany-in-2026/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-market-trends-in-germany-in-2026/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293006 What is commonly known as the labor market remains an inevitable feature of an economic system that converts everything into a commodity. Not surprisingly, the economist who understood this system better than many others started his three-volume seminal opus with “commodities” – the defining element of capitalism. In capitalism, two features are attached to every [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-market-trends-in-germany-in-2026/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-germans-think-about-ai/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-germans-think-about-ai/#respond Sun, 21 Dec 2025 12:17:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292582 In a recent AI study (November 2025), slightly more than 1,000 Germans were asked about artificial intelligence (AI), online security, deepfakes and democracy. Overall, there is a strong increase in the uptake of AI in Germany. Roughly two out of three Germans use AI (65%) in one way or another. Given that ChatGPT started to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-germans-think-about-ai/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-germany-strike-at-avnet-usa/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-germany-strike-at-avnet-usa/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292419 It is October 2025, and one room in southern Germany was in a rage. The discontent of workers over the loss of industry-wide collective bargaining had escalated at a local technology company. Workers at Avnet and Tria had been excluded from Germany’s traditional collective bargaining regime covering the entirety of the metal industry. Avnet’s management [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-germany-strike-at-avnet-usa/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-jobs-for-union-organizing-in-german-europe/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-jobs-for-union-organizing-in-german-europe/#respond Thu, 11 Dec 2025 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292246 German trade unions, like any form of unionism, can be viewed from three political perspectives. From a unitarist viewpoint, trade unions are irrelevant – merely disturbing management’s self-appointed “right to manage.” Their demands are irrational, as workers and bosses supposedly share the same interests. Set against such hallucinations is the pluralist perspective, which sees trade [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-jobs-for-union-organizing-in-german-europe/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/germanys-far-right-reinvents-its-youth/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/germanys-far-right-reinvents-its-youth/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:03:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292141 Somewhere between a renaming and a re-founding – deceptively labelled “Generation Germany” (GG) – Germany’s far-right, or neo-Nazi, AfD has given itself a new youth organization. The cunning, innocent, and thoroughly deceptive name – “Generation Deutschland” – clearly could not be “HJ 2.0” or the more modern version of the HDJ – Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/germanys-far-right-reinvents-its-youth/feed/ 0