Radical action and connections - new texts on (care) activism

We generally refrain from posting reviews on the Care Revolution website. This is based on the experience that academic texts usually have to be "translated" before they can become relevant for care activists. Time and again, however, there are texts that have been written to provide activists with useful knowledge or food for thought. A number of such essays have been written in the last few months by various people who are more or less closely associated with Care Revolution. As it would be a shame if they did not find many readers in the Care Revolution network, here is a collective review. This form was chosen because the individual contributions complement each other in a very exciting way and can enter into dialogue with each other in the reader's mind.

(Three of the five texts presented are freely accessible or have been made available; we have linked to these. We have enquired about free access to the other texts and will provide a link if necessary).

1 Michel Raab: Alles Gute kommt von unten - Radikale Strömungen in der Geschichte sozialer Arbeit. In: Institute for Radicalisation Research at the educational collective BIKO (ed.): Radikalisiert Euch! Contributions to radical theory and practice. Unrast Verlag 2023; pp. 105-123

Michel Raab, active in BIKO in Erfurt, analyses the development of social support and social work over time. He shows that state support measures were repeatedly expanded in response to resistance and self-organisation. This is demonstrated on the basis of three phases: The emergence of the workers' movement, which also organised support funds itself, was responded to by the banning of social democracy and, from 1883, the establishment of social insurance. Similarly, self-help organisations linked to the left-wing parties emerged at the beginning of the Weimar Republic, which were smashed under fascism and then integrated into the mechanisms of the welfare state in West Germany. Finally, in the course of the 1968 movement, self-managed structures such as youth centres and women's refuges were established. In the current situation, these social work structures are in danger of being appropriated for de-radicalisation, for example in the course of the "Democracy Promotion Act". This is Michel Raab's conclusion: social institutions are the result of social struggles. As institutions, they can and should also contribute to changing conditions. In a weak phase of emancipatory movements, the institutions should at least "not stab the movement actors in the back by delegitimising their more radical concerns and forms of action." (120)

2. unemployed self-help Oldenburg: 40 years of ALSO. Spontaneity - continuity - organisation. A review and outlook. In: Anne Seeck et al. (eds.): KlassenLos. Social resistance from Hartz IV to the inflation protests. The bookmakers 2023; pp. 88-109

Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe Oldenburg is an example of what Michel Raab is calling for: A radical political project that combines counselling, especially for the unemployed and migrant precarious workers, with joint action and organising. In the article, the unnamed authors trace the development of the advice centre and the actions initiated by ALSO in the context of economic and socio-political developments. They show how the social movements, in particular the unemployed movement, developed in interaction with these conditions. Against the background of their experiences, the authors argue for a certain degree of institutionalisation in order to ensure the consistency and professionalism that is important for long-term organising. The description of how ALSO reacted to the increase in precarious and ambiguous life situations between unemployment and precarious employment with very different forms of legally generated insecurity is particularly interesting: Unemployment counselling was expanded into general counselling and support in precarious life situations, especially for migrant workers, and alliances were formed with other social groups, e.g. between unemployed people who were affected by the unemployment crisis and those who were not.For example, alliances were forged between unemployed people who have to buy food from their transfer income and farmers who have to make a living from selling their produce, and the centre was developed into a social centre as a place for advice. ALSO firmly rejects any policy that defends its own material achievements at the expense of the global South or marginalised groups here, or even just ignores this connection, and is radical in this sense too. Very impressively described, the core of their argument is that it is not just about counselling, but that places and alliances should be created so that resistant practice can emanate from them. "(There should be) social centres in all cities with many rooms, with modern communication technology, with opportunities to meet, but also to organise everyday life with cuisine and culture by and for everyone. That would be a necessary piece of infrastructure for networking different alternative approaches." (107)

3 Barbara Fried, Alex Wischnewski: Feminist socialisation. Local political strategies for a caring city. In: Communia, BUNDjugend (ed.): Öffentlicher Luxus. Dietz Verlag 2023; pp. 64-89. Also available as a freely accessible PDF: https://dietzberlin.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Oeffentlicher_Luxus_digital.pdf

In the project of caring cities presented by Barbara Fried and Alex Wischnewski, the focus is on "socialising the whole of care work, i.e. taking it into social responsibility in a comprehensive sense". (69) On the one hand, this is done by bringing care infrastructure facilities - daycare centres, hospitals, etc. - back into public hands. But the work that has so far taken place in isolation in small families is also to be reorganised. While the ideas on the de-privatisation of the care infrastructure, including financing and democratic organisation, are quite detailed and are developed using the example of care facilities for the elderly, the reorganisation of the domestic reproduction sector remains quite vague. This can be read as a shortcoming or insufficient criticism of the institution of the nuclear family, but it also points to the need for a common practice that makes such questions discussable in the first place. How important this discussion is to the authors is shown by the fact that the double socialisation is accompanied by a double democratisation: A needs assessment and planning with the participation of all those affected as well as communal, self-organised care settings. In this sense, caring cities would be cities in which care is organised democratically for the benefit and co-decision of all and without exclusions, whose spatial design and use of space changes accordingly and in which processes are set in motion that question existing gender norms. The authors look for entry-level projects and emphasise the interlinking of local and other levels of government. They also emphasise, albeit more cautiously than the first texts, that it depends on the practice of the projects "whether such realpolitik interventions develop a transformational or merely reformist character". (79)

4 Gabriele Winker: Solidarity instead of competition. Social relations as the centre of emancipatory politics. In: Anne Seeck et al. (eds.) 2023; pp. 194-199 (PDF here)

The importance of a comprehensive and determined social movement for progressive projects to retain their emancipatory character has been repeatedly emphasised in the texts cited so far. ALSO also drew the conclusion that appropriate cross-movement alliances should be established in the agricultural sector or in view of the loss of real income due to inflation. In the anthology, in which ALSO's text also appeared, Gabriele Winker, who is involved in the Freiburg regional group of Care Revolution and author of books on the subject of 'Care Revolution', argues that social movements are ultimately faced with a common task by the capitalist mode of production: Neither the climate catastrophe nor the overburdening of care workers, the growing poverty of many people and the wars over spheres of influence and resources can be permanently countered within the framework of this social system. In order to gain strength for even the first steps, a joint approach is needed; this joint approach in turn requires projects in which activists and outraged people can come together. These projects should be relevant to the concerns of several movements, and they should directly improve the situation of those affected and at the same time point beyond capitalism. The socialisation of social infrastructure, employment-independent security, a reduction in working hours and self-organisation in commons are central components of Care Revolution as a transformation strategy that has this claim of revolutionary realpolitik. Gabriele Winker is also concerned with connection; where ALSO focuses on places, she focuses on political projects. This means a different focus, but not a contradiction: demands were and are raised and actions organised from social centres; political alliances meet in specific places and occupy them, as in the 'Platz für Sorge' campaign.

5 Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie: Building blocks for climate justice. 8 measures for a future of solidarity. Oekom Verlag 2023, also available as a freely accessible PDF: https://www.oekom.de/buch/bausteine-fuer-klimagerechtigkeit-9783987260735

Given the limited space in the contribution to the anthology, Gabriele Winker's text only touches on how the proposed transformation strategy addresses the issues of various movements. This is developed in more detail in her current book. The conceptual work Neue Ökonomie (New Economy) has pursued the same question, focussing on how an improvement in living conditions can be combined with the goal of a globally shareable way of life. At its core are eight measures, ranging from a reduction in working hours, tax policy and land policy to basic income and housing distribution. The contribution on reducing working hours, for example, shows that the limitation of the production of goods and the fair distribution of unpaid care work are also considered. Other topics, including healthcare, have also been added to the building blocks. This contribution somewhat loses sight of the interplay between paid and unpaid workers and patients, so that only employees in hospitals and outpatient clinics appear to be agents of change. But here, too, it is stated: "Similar to the implementation of a reduction in working hours, the feminist and care movement, the climate justice movement and trade unions are active allies." (290)

Without this connection and without transcending scene boundaries, this is what the texts have in common. Places of emancipation are dependent on a lively movement, on tangible places and projects in which an initially abstract alliance can become a living practice and in which joint resistance and mutual support are practised. The contributions contain - implicitly or explicitly - different analyses and proposals for action, which certainly no group can tackle in parallel. But all the contributions together open up a space in which a care movement would be in good hands.