Report on the network meeting of Care Revolutionaries on 19.11.22

The regular biannual Care Revolution network meeting took place on 19/11/2022. 23 people from 13 cities - from regional groups, cooperation groups of the network and Care Revolution activists (still) without a local group - took part. This confirmed the concept of the online meetings. There is also something missing: all the conversations during breaks and meals together, the opportunity for people who have not seen each other for a long time to hug each other or to exchange flyers and brochures; but even at well-attended face-to-face meetings, participants from so many different cities were not present.

We spent a total of seven hours together. At the beginning, there was a short introduction for newly interested people on what the Care Revolution network is all about, how it came about and how it is organised. This was followed by the usual round of introductions with reports from the cities. This again showed the diversity of the network: participation in 8 March, Easter marches, 1 May, climate strikes, the current social protests, support for the wage struggles of hospital workers, engagement with the concept of caring cities, a film project... The Care - Climate - Revolution working group(https://care-revolution.org/aktuelles/arbeitskreis-care-klima-revolution/) and the Care for Future Foundation(https://stiftung-care-for-future.org/) were also introduced in this context. We agreed that we would like to make these activities more visible on our website. If you organise campaigns, if you organise interesting events, tell us about them! If you have given good speeches, created flyers or stickers that could be useful to others, put them on the website!

The second part of the meeting was Annette Schlemm's presentation on the climate catastrophe, on the options for action that remain to us now that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is no longer achievable, and on what this has to do with concern. Annette Schlemm is a physicist, philosopher and climate activist, including at the Jena Climate Emergency Centre. You can find her published thoughts here: https://philosophenstuebchen.wordpress.com/. You can also find the slides from her talk on this page. She emphasised the dramatic nature of the situation, that in view of the current trend of global warming, large parts of the earth will become uninhabitable for humans, ecosystems will be irretrievably destroyed and the hope of reversing global warming once it has been generated through technical intervention (climate engineering) is illusory - depressing, but necessary to know. The ensuing discussion centred around Annette's argument that the fight against social and patriarchal discrimination is a prerequisite for effective climate policy. On the one hand, participants had the experience that people who are left alone with their precarious living conditions will hardly care about the climate catastrophe; on the other hand, it was argued that care-politically meaningful projects such as collective infrastructure and security or a reduction in working hours are also ecologically central. Another central idea of the lecture: caring for one another in solidarity is something that we can not only demand, but must also practise ourselves. At the same time, such principles of solidarity must be supported by the structure of society. A sum of individual decisions will not stop the climate catastrophe.

After the lunch break, the working groups began. After two invited speakers had to cancel the day before and the morning of the meeting, participants spontaneously offered two additional working groups. We can really improvise...

The 'social protests' working group realised that in a situation in which we can neither remain silent nor leave the protests to the right, we can also get involved where we do not fully share the content. It is important to come together with people who are worried and angry about the developments and to contribute our own priorities. In the 'Care as an attitude' working group, the focus was on how important it is to support each other in every respect, especially on a day-to-day basis, and to connect with each other in a mindful way, even where there are differences in terms of content and other issues. The 'Solidarity instead of competition' working group also focussed on connections. This working group took up the topic of our event with Gabriele Winker two days earlier: The topic was a call that is currently being discussed in the Care - Climate - Revolution working group and outlines how different movements can come together if they place the shaping of social relationships at the centre of the good life. According to the text's argument, this claim is inevitably anti-capitalist because this social system necessarily puts us in competition with each other. Finally, the working group on the supra-regional structure of the network prepared topics that were discussed in the final block of the meeting:

There may be an opportunity for the Care Revolution network to set up a small centre with funds to support the work in the network, which has so far been completely unpaid. We discussed the question of what would be particularly important for our effectiveness and visibility as a network and in the regional groups. In any case, the connection between the various groups in the network is of central importance, both for mutual support and for the grounding and connection of a possible centre. Our main focus is therefore on reactivating the network's co-circle, with the participation of as many regional groups and as many co-operation groups and individuals who are members of the network as possible. There will be an initial meeting for this on 11 January 2013, to which invitations will be sent via the network's member mailing list. At the same time, a working group is continuing to work on creating the conditions for a coordination centre. Further information will be provided as soon as something becomes concrete.

Finally: The date for the next network meeting in spring 2023 has been set: We will meet on 15.04.2023. Make a note of the date already! The team from Bielefeld, Freiburg and Rhine/Main that prepared this network meeting is also organising the next meeting. Invitations to the first preparatory meeting will be sent out via the network mailing list. We look forward to welcoming everyone who wants to join us!