Weidmüller, a global company based in Detmold, has opted to construct its newest advanced electronics factory in Germany rather than in nations where labor is cheaper, such as China or Romania. This €60 million investment in German production, focusing on circuit boards for control cabinets, reflects a strategic move to decrease reliance on volatile Asian supply chains—a vulnerability that became clear during recent pandemic disruptions. Although Eastern Europe was a less costly option, the company prioritized local benefits like a skilled workforce and closer integration with its research efforts. The highly automated plant will eventually provide up to 300 local jobs, a reassuring sign for workers facing uncertainty in the current capitalist world economy.

This choice by Weidmüller serves as an instructive example of how the contradictions of capitalism can only ever offer temporary and precarious solutions for workers. The system operates in a constant search for ever-greater profits, and for decades, this has meant the relentless export of jobs from high-wage to low-wage regions, driving a race to the bottom in wages and conditions. Only severe shocks—such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which paralyzed the flow of global commodities—have forced capitalists to reluctantly reconsider their ruthless pursuit of cheap labor abroad. Thus, what is lauded as a return of production to Germany is not an act of social responsibility or genuine concern for the working class, but merely a rational response to disruptions and the shifting tides of global markets.

Let us be clear: workers rejoice at the birth of new jobs and local investment, but under capitalism, their peace of mind is always hostage to the next calculation of profit. The praise for automation should not blind us to the reality that technology under the rule of capital is not used to liberate labor, but to shed workers, intensify competition, and ultimately to undermine the very security it pretends to offer. For every job safeguarded today, dozens have been lost to the inexorable drive for efficiency—while profits soar to the hands of a small elite.

Moreover, the call for national “resilience” is a feeble bandage on the deeper wounds inflicted by globalization. As long as the imperialist order endures, with core countries extracting value from the periphery, workers everywhere are set against one another in a system designed for their exploitation. The energy crisis cited by the company is yet another symptom of a society unwilling to plan rationally or collectively for human need—a society in which basic infrastructure is subject to the turbulence of the market and the whims of monopoly capital.

The true lesson here is not that German industry can thrive if only it automates and “decouples”, but that world progress demands a system in which working people jointly control their destiny, production is planned for social good, and capital is banished from the seat of power. The entrepreneurial courage that is celebrated in these decisions is a shadow of the real bravery required: the unity and struggle of workers, in Germany and beyond, to overthrow the chaotic rule of profit and build a world based on solidarity, planning, and dignity for all people.