Report from the Care Revolution network meeting - spring 2022

On 2 April, we held our bi-annual supra-regional network meeting. At the beginning of planning the meeting, the preparatory team was concerned about how many people would take part. After all, after a good two years of the pandemic, experience has shown that the desire for online meetings is really waning. In the end, however, there were always around 25 participants from 9.30 a.m. to 3.15 p.m., with a slight fluctuation. A big advantage of the online meetings is that activists from many (13!) different cities come together and the hurdle for interested people who want to get a taste of the network but don't have a regional group in their city is not so big. As usual, we combined the introduction of the participants with reports from the respective cities. You can read much of what was reported on this website. But it also came to light again how much happens in the groups in the network that remains unknown if it is not sent to the website. Examples: The Dortmund initiative for citizens' councils, an initiative for a collective agreement to reduce the workload of nursing staff in six hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia, an event organised by the Heidelberg regional group on experiences of racism by nurses, a care conference planned in Berlin in May. We ask everyone to report on what you are doing! And also to the network's cooperation partners: send us reports on what you are doing and what is relevant in the context of the Care Revolution! The input from Barbara Fried (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung) on the topic "From a carefree to a caring community. Care infrastructure in the hands of society." Her key message: socialising care facilities does not only mean forcing profit-oriented companies out of this sector or expropriating them and promoting care infrastructures built up through self-organisation. In addition, local democratic decision-making bodies - care councils - are required so that all those affected can have a say in decision-making. In this way, the interests of care workers and people in domestic care situations or the wishes for newly organised care relationships can be combined. Examples of such projects can be found in Barcelona and Madrid, for example. Barbara's ideas can be found in an essay written with Alex Wischnewski. After the break, working groups continued to discuss this topic, as well as the network's public presence, the links between unpaid work and the climate, and the importance of utopias for care activists. We then discussed various ways of facilitating and stabilising Care Revolution activities through financial support. We were supported by the taz newspaper, among others. You can find more details here. And very important to note: The next network meeting will take place on 19.11.22. Both the limitation to one - well-filled - day and the online format have proven their worth. We look forward to seeing you there again or for the first time!