For Care - Feminist Education Week in Leipzig

From 29 February to 8 March 2020, the Care Team of the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie Leipzig organised a feminist education week for a different economy in cooperation with numerous local and national organisations and individuals. At the end, the education week turned into a feminist strike and struggle day, during which many people took to the streets loudly and in large numbers. In the days that followed, the news about the corona virus was all over the place. The devastatingly rapid spread of Covid-19 worldwide and its life-threatening effects on so-called at-risk groups brought the consequences of a healthcare system that had been running on empty in Germany and around the world for years to a head. Exacerbated by the pandemic, precarious and poor living and income conditions as well as the unequal distribution of all paid and unpaid care activities along class, gender and origin are becoming more visible than ever. Inequalities in access to medical healthcare depending on social and legal status are also currently being addressed more in the media and society, but these issues have long been acute: for years, carers have been fighting for more staff in hospitals, family carers have been fighting for better care in private households and women have been fighting for a redistribution and upgrading of care work. Initiatives across Germany have been campaigning for adequate healthcare and livelihood security for all people, regardless of their residence status, in some cases for several decades. All of these topics, struggles and demands were also reflected in the programme of the feminist education week. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to look back at what happened during the education week and what we experienced. Not least because many of the speakers and participants are important actors for a change towards a better healthcare system, fairer care relationships and a socio-ecological economy - because this is more urgent than ever in times of the coronavirus pandemic.The aim of the feminist education week was to make care more visible as a political issue in Leipzig and to network actors from care movements. To this end, we organised numerous events over 7 days at 3 different locations.Care encompasses many areas - cooking, cleaning, looking after children, caring for people, being there for each other, self-care. All activities that are done both paid and unpaid. The players in this sector are correspondingly diverse. This was reflected in the start of the education week on the occasion of Equal Care Day on 29 February 2020¹. In a well-attended world café at Frauenkultur Leipzig, the participants discussed with six guests from various care sectors (Nachbarschaftspflege Buurtzorg, Medinetz Leipzig, CABL e.V. Leipzig and others) what we actually mean by care work and under what conditions it takes place ...You can find the entire article with reports from the more than 11 events, further interviews and podcasts here: https://konzeptwerk-neue-oekonomie.org/fuer-sorge-ein-rueckblick-auf-die-feministische-bildungswoche/¹ More information about Equal Care Day, an initiative of klische*esc e.V., on the website: https://equalcareday.de/