Developing the care movement together

A report from the workshoporganised by fair sorgen!, Care Revolution and Wirtschaft ist Care

The world needs the care movement more than ever, at least that's how it seems to many of us who are active in it. So how can we develop the movement further instead of resigning ourselves to current challenges? A good start is definitely to bring together different groups and activists. This happened online on 16 June 2025, organised by activists from fair sorgen!, Wirtschaft ist Care and the Care Revolution network.

Care movements in the DACH region

With Care Revolution, Wirtschaft ist Care and fair sorgen! three care movements from German-speaking countries came together. Wirtschaft ist Care describes itself as a "post-patriarchal workshop for thought and action", which is represented in Germany and Switzerland. They advocate placing care at the centre of trade for a sustainable economy. fair sorgen! is active as an alliance in Austria and stands for a "caring, nurturing and preventative economy".

In order to get to know each other better, the evening began with an input on the respective movement, its focus, structure and history. There was then time for joint reflection: What is different in our approach, how are we similar? What inspirations and questions arose from the inputs? Recurring topics included the question of how and whether the effectiveness of our activities can be meaningfully measured and the relationship between activist care movements and parliamentary structures and representations.

The care movement in the midst of political change

We then approached the core topic of the evening with impressions from the movements on the current political situation and the role of care. Elisabeth Klatzer for fair sorgen! criticised the lack of a public space for rational discussion, the monopolistic structure of the Austrian media landscape and pointed to the increasing masculinisation of society and the precarisation of care work and care professions.

Elfriede Harth from the Care Revolution network spoke about a prevailing form of feminism that supports the (capitalist and exploitative) system instead of changing it. She pointed out that care is by no means just a women's issue, but affects everyone. That is why it is important to initiate change from below and to focus on togetherness instead of loneliness and individualisation.

Ina Praetorius from Wirtschaft ist Care began with the observation that there is also a counter-movement to the counter-movement: Countries in which right-wing parties did not achieve success in elections, the founding of the Global Alliance for Care, many demonstrations worldwide and also that the care movement itself had grown as its importance became more visible during the pandemic. Finally, she referred to some theoretical approaches that helped her not to give up.

Together for the good life!

All this input provided a valuable basis for a lively discussion, first in groups (divided according to the participating movements) and then in plenary. It became clear that many of the participants are motivated to organise joint, larger actions. At the same time, the balance between grassroots movements and supra-regional networks was important to many. Likewise, everyone should be able to pursue the form of action that they enjoy and that they can implement well.

The different assessments of the care movement and its current position were also exciting. While some activists see the movement as becoming stronger and more significant, others fear that the topic of care is being lost in the current political situation. Similarly, there are numerous different approaches to advancing care-centredness in society, which show how diverse the movement is. From focussing on local politics to spreading our ideas in the media or lobbying, there was a lot involved. Of course, this also raises the question: as a care movement, do we want to focus on changing mindsets or on becoming more effective in and with other social movements with our goals? Is a professionalisation of the movement worth striving for or does it also involve pitfalls and exclusions?

We will leave this evening invigorated, with the joy of exchange and new ideas. How would it be, for example, if we networked even further and joined existing plans for a major care strike in Germany and Switzerland? Or learning how to defend ourselves with media complaints about one-sided reporting on the topic of work that completely ignores care? Or make a contribution to political education with cultural programmes?

The discussion has shown that we still have a long way to go to put care at the centre of society - but we have many fellow campaigners with whom we can fight together for a different life. How nice it would be to come together regularly (perhaps annually) in such an exchange!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the preparatory team (Elisabeth Klatzer, Gertrude Peinhaupt, Ina Praetorius, Elfriede Harth, Angie Weikmann) of the workshop and all participants for the valuable exchange!

A contribution by Silvia Klein.