Oldenburg - A city for all. Drawing a utopia together!

We are documenting a speech that was held on 1 May 2022 by Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe Oldenburg (ALSO) in front of an Oldenburg job centre. ALSO is a cooperation partner in the Care Revolution network. The speech addresses issues that perhaps only have to do with care work at second glance: The treatment of poor people in the corona pandemic, the different treatment of refugees depending on their origin, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, also with regard to a shift in gender roles. ALSO's speech relates these topics to the organisation's political and advisory activities. They make it clear that the conditions for life and social relationships created by those in power also determine the conditions for caring for one another. Social, migration and war policies have a far-reaching impact on caring relationships.[caption id="attachment_5082" align="alignleft" width="120"] ALSO logo[/caption]We need to talk about Oldenburg and corona. More than 17,000 people in Oldenburg still have to live on a basic income that does not deserve the name and has long since ceased to cover the minimum subsistence level. Every fifth child under the age of 15 lives on Hartz IV. Half of all benefit communities with children are single parents. More than half of the unemployed have been with the job centre for more than four years. Almost 40 per cent do not have German citizenship. In the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the doors of the authorities were closed. This has exacerbated the linguistic and structural marginalisation of people without a German passport in particular, but has also made it more visible. Instead of a welcoming culture, multilingualism and empathy, they experience mistrust and prejudice. Mistrust that is also fuelled by so-called "working aids" issued by the authorities. In these guidelines, entire groups of immigrants are accused of organised benefit abuse and gang crime, and the coronavirus pandemic has exposed many scandalous working and living conditions. Migrant workers are allowed to produce our cheap food, cook, wash up and serve in restaurants under the worst working and living conditions. They are allowed to deliver parcels and food around the clock, care for the elderly and sick and keep offices and buildings clean. They are allowed to pay taxes and social security contributions. But when they themselves become ill and in need of help, when they become unemployed and would be dependent on social benefits, life is often made difficult for them. Then they should leave again! They should not appear in public and they should not raise their voices under any circumstances.We need to talk about how to deal with refugees.Immigration and flight will further increase the proportion of people who are dependent on basic welfare benefits but do not have a German passport. We welcome the fact that refugees from Ukraine are being helped quickly and unbureaucratically. We are delighted at the great solidarity and willingness to help shown by the population. It is good and right that they are quickly granted residence and labour rights and immediately receive basic income support instead of asylum benefits. But this treatment must apply equally to everyone! Roma and black people fleeing the war in Ukraine are being pushed back at the borders. Hunger, cold and violent push-backs are the inhumane reality for refugees at the Belarusian-Polish border. Thousands of people in Afghanistan are not flown out and are subjected to violence, torture and rape. Thousands are drowning on their way across the Mediterranean with the scandalous involvement of Frontex. And the effects of the Turkish army's current war of aggression against the PKK in northern Iraq are being reported just as little as the consequences of the ongoing war in Syria.We need to talk about change through war. Putin's army has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for more than two months. Innocent people are dying, cities and infrastructure are being destroyed, millions of people are having to flee. Whatever position we take on Ukraine's right to self-defence and the supply of weapons: What is certain is that they will prolong and extend the death and destruction. What is certain is that more than 7 million people are already fleeing and young men are not allowed to leave the country. But it is not clear whether they can help Ukraine to defeat the Russian army or lead to a nuclear world war. We admit we are at a loss. But we should not only listen to the voices of the warmongers. We should hear the voices of the Ukrainian and Russian people who are opposing war and oppression in their countries under the most difficult conditions. We should hear the voices of the 5000 Russian teachers who publicly protested against the war a few days ago. And it is not only truth that is the first casualty of any war. The long and hard-won liberation from archaic gender roles is set back by the heroising images of men in combat gear and on war equipment that are presented daily. Injured and traumatised young men have to be cared for by women. And disembodied and brutalised war veterans will hardly be able to rebuild a humane society with equal rights.What does this have to do with our work?The effects of this war already mean rising food prices, growing inflation and the threat of energy poverty. They mean setbacks in climate policy. And they mean even more refugees. And we know exactly who will be hit first and hardest by these effects, who will have to make up for the billions of euros spent on armaments and economic aid.We need to talk about what we can do. What can we do? To give a voice to all those who are the first to perish in wars and crises, whose livelihoods are jeopardised, who lose their jobs and freedom of movement, who can no longer pay their rents and heating costs, who are marginalised and discriminated against. A city for all? At ALSO, we will continue to advise all people who come to us, help them to help themselves and support self-organisation. Our utopia? We have invited our Ukrainian neighbours for breakfast, we want to call for an Oldenburg Energy Poverty Conference, we want to campaign for the assumption of costs for school books, we are holding a workshop at the "Dissolving the NSU Complex" tribunal in Nuremberg, we are planning a campaign on child benefit, we want to expand our shop into a social centre. If you are at a loss and don't know where to go: we are happy to welcome committed comrades-in-arms! ALSO homepage: www.also-zentrum.de