Casting roles, moving crowds: strategic memory in the GKN mobilisation 1

On 11 August 2021, Florence’s civic bell—the Martinella—was rung by workers from the GKN plant in Campi Bisenzio, reactivating a Resistance-era call to “rise up”. The slogan Insorgiamo! quickly became the rallying cry of a broad-based movement of protest against the announced factory closure. Using the GKN campaign as a strategic case, this article shows how labour disputes, local context, and the politics of memory intersect in contemporary Italy, where precarious work and the declining presence of parties on the ground make workplace conflicts key arenas for wider political claims. We develop a mechanism-centred account of strategic memory work: mnemonic cues—above all Insorgiamo!—connect working-class and civic memories within a shared interpretive frame, casting heroes, victims, and villains, sharpening “we/they” boundaries, and shifting emotions from resignation and fear to indignation, pride, and resolve. Empirically, we analyse 465 Facebook posts (9 July 2021–5 May 2022) and seven interviews (ten actors). Logistic and log-linear models test whether posts containing Insorgiamo! are more likely to display emotional expression and within-message emotional transformation, and whether they generate higher engagement (likes, reactions, comments, shares). Results support both expectations. We argue that, in Italy, memory-based protest action can scale workplace conflict into civic coalitions contesting industrial policy, demanding public accountability, and advancing a politics of the “just transition”.