Care postcards – to look at, find inspiration from and send

“Without care, everything comes to a standstill” – Here, the organisers are encouraging people to lie down together for a while and do nothing, and to reflect on this experience, which is rarely possible, particularly for people with extensive care responsibilities – that is, women* in particular. On 3 May, a women’s strike will take place in Austria, which aims to put this into practice in public spaces.

‘Otium for the people’ – The similarity between the term ‘otium’, Latin for leisure, and Marx’s description of religion as ‘the opium of the people’ is intentional. Whereas Marx argues in one of his early writings that religion is a reaction to living conditions that leaves those conditions unchanged, the postcard suggests that leisure is something we all truly need. And like so many of these essential resources, it is distributed unequally across the system. On the reverse side, there are suggestions as to how we might attain this leisure.

“Care for the Planet. Care for the People” – Human life is part of ecological cycles; what is often isolated and seemingly uncritically referred to as the “economy” is part of the planet’s metabolism. Every single person is just as dependent on the functioning of these processes as they are on other people, and is, in turn, physically integrated back into them. On the back cover, you will find suggestions for further reading on the intertwining of care and ecology.

You can view the postcards here. If you like them and would like to order them – particularly to use on book displays or to send greetings to friends – please contact us at info[at]wirtschaft-ist-care.org.