Wolfsburg, the car city in Lower Saxony, will become the centre of a campaign for a traffic turnaround in the next few years.
Volkswagen is the world’s largest car manufacturer, the VW headquarters in Wolfsburg is the world’s largest factory site. Volkswagen dominates, controls and directs the city of Wolfsburg, which was created under Hitler specifically for the factory (at that time still under the title “City of the KdF Car near Fallersleben”).
Volkswagen is a highly modern and capitalist company. Like the entire automotive industry, Volkswagen is facing a period of upheaval. The end of the combustion engine has been virtually decided politically. Now VW still wants to build a new car factory in Wolfsburg to put the VW Trinity, an electric limousine, into series production. With the expansion of production to include the construction of electric cars and of the drive alone in the vehicle fleet, Volkswagen is working towards a real change in transport.
The automobile city in Niedersachsen will become the focal point of a campaign for a traffic turnaround over the next few years. Four main elements of this campaign are:
- NO A39: Finally deal the death blow to the A39. The “gap closure” between Wolfsburg and Lüneburg must not and will not happen. The largest area in Germany not dissected by motorways must remain so!
- NO TRINITY WORK: No new car factory – not in Wolfsburg and not anywhere else! VW’s policy actively prevents a traffic turnaround, we prevent Volkswagen’s electric car offensive.
- CONVERT VW into a worker-led collective enterprise where meaningful work is done. Transform VW into a company where the fruits of labour also reach those who do the work and not shareholders and managers. Today, VW still stands for VolksWagen. Soon, however, it can be called VerkehrsWende and build the urgently needed trains and trams instead of cars.
- LOCAL TRANSPORTATION CHANGE: Tear down the car city and build a people- and life-friendly city. Establish car-free zones, build a network of bicycle lanes, trams as RegioTrams, car parks to residential buildings, parking spaces to green spaces.
The fiercest current disputes are over the construction of the new VW Trinity factory. Local and national protests against the Trinity project are already forming. Since mid-September, a group of activists has been occupying the planned construction site of the Trinity factory with a protest camp. Under the motto “No new car factory – not in Wolfsburg and not anywhere else”, the activists are making their goal clear: it is about preventing the construction of the Trinity factory, but also about finally putting an end to the car industry as such – regardless of whether combustion or electric cars are produced.
The camp has been standing as a protest camp on the field since September 2022 and is a contact point for activists, a place for exchange and discussion for active, committed and/or simply interested locals. Regular events take place there on the fields.
Wolfsburg as a new crystallisation point in the struggle for a traffic turnaround
Activists want to create a new crystallisation point in Wolfsburg in the struggle for a traffic turnaround. The dispute over the construction of the Trinity factory is a symbolic one.
The protest is a thorn in the side of VW and the city. There have been smaller and larger protests around VW and Wolfsburg again and again in recent years. Some actions, such as the blockade of a car train in 2019 (blockvw.siehe.website) or an attack on the coal-fired power plant and the gas construction site of the VW plant in 2021 (unplugvw.noblogs.org) were quite spectacular, but all were individual actions lasting a few days at most. Now the resistance in Wolfsburg is settling down, activists want to act in a more coordinated way and with a longer-term strategy. It is no longer just the “eco-activists from outside” who are active. VW employees – up to and including the works council -, local residents, trade unionists, local initiatives and national groups are united in the fight against the new car factory and for a change in transport.
Volkswagen already takes the protests serious. Together with the city, the company tried to prevent a camp on the construction site. The activists had to go all the way to the Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg to enforce their basic right to freedom of assembly in Wolfsburg. Whether at the campsite on the field or at information stands in the city centre – the city of Wolfsburg, as VW’s stooge, is extremely committed to containing the protest and stifling critical voices. But it will not succeed, resistance is growing and criticism of VW’s electric car project is getting louder.
“This is an invitation to support the protest on the ground”. says Sascha from the StopTrinity camp. “This is also an invitation to fight for a traffic turnaround everywhere. An invitation to attack any e-car infrastructure. Let’s join forces now and forever in Wolfsburg and everywhere to usher in the end of the automotive age. Together we will prevent the electric car factory from being built. Then we will rebuild the main plant and produce public transport there. That will certainly keep the plant going for the next 20 years. After that, there will be all kinds of work to do, to clean up properly and to dismantle a large part of the factory – brick by brick. That offers employment prospects in the region for the next century.”
More information on the internet at:
Blog – Camp, actions and information around the construction of the Trinity plant: stoptrinity.blackblogs.org
Website – chic and modern designed website about “Stop-Trinity”, good for quick impressions with colourful pictures: stop-trinity.de
Action and project house in Wolfsburg: amsel44.de
Contact by mail: stop-trinity@riseup.net
Contact by phone: 01784685608