Solidarity-based childcare islands for the daycare centre strike. A field report from Berlin

This article was sent to us by the Care Work Working Group of the Left Party in Berlin-Neukölln. We would like to thank Laura, the author, and the entire working group - for the text and for the practice on which it is based!

The context: The Care Work Working Group of the Left Party Neukölln is a member of the Care Revolution network and has set itself the following goals: to implement concrete improvements in everyday life for Berlin carers, to raise public awareness of the issue and to organise carers.

At a general meeting of the party's district association in December, a motion was unanimously adopted by the working group to anchor these three goals in the work in the district - "making our utility value practical!" The support was to be expressed above all in solidarity-based substitute care during the announced strike days, which was initially planned within the party until the Berlin-wide "care islands" concept from ver.di was adopted.

The aim was not only to show solidarity with parents affected by the strike, but also to offer something practical. Especially in districts with high levels of child poverty such as Neukölln, living space is often limited and families lack alternatives to childcare in daycare centres, especially at such short notice as the strikes were (understandably) announced. In addition, the message of solidarity with the educators' industrial action should also take centre stage. The parallel attempt to approach childcare workers and ask them about their experiences (similar to the concept of the party's very successful door-to-door talks) was sometimes very discouraging, with dismissive rejections from childcare centre managers close to the employer. However, there were also many hopeful discussions and important contacts were made with organised nursery teachers. For organisational reasons, it was more difficult to make contact with parents. The big differences between daycare centre pick-up times, language barriers and how little time most parents have presented us with challenges.

The campaign: It started with a kick-off event in December in party premises in Berlin-Neukölln. Many volunteers responded to an internal party call for help and a new networking group was founded. The framework conditions: Several families were able to join together and bring their children to us with an adult carer, where there was more space and, in some cases, the option of working from home. There was a fresh hot lunch, lots of toys and activities, music, good humour and inspiring conversations... Only there were no children. This was the case for most childcare islands throughout Berlin. Even the island in the premises of the neighbourhood committee nearby, whose employees were invited to lunch without further ado. They discussed what had gone wrong and planned better publicity for the next round of strikes. No sooner said than done, a new round of strikes was announced, Instaposts sent out, a mention in the party newsletter, flyers in front of daycare centres. No children there again. In between, Ver.di offered a networking meeting to exchange strategies and generally rethink the concept together. Unfortunately, there were unpleasant situations in front of a daycare centre whose management wanted to forbid informing parents about the offer at all. We explicitly condemn this lack of solidarity, as does ver.di. The trade union network is also trying to reach the teachers and parents in these daycare centres with a hostile attitude.

On the last day of the strike, we were successful: two parents with three children came to our programme for several hours and had a great time with games, snacks and interesting discussions.

To summarise: the great willingness to help within the party and the enthusiasm in the cooperation with other islands gave us hope. The organisation and implementation of the offers were fun, but of course there was also frustration when they were not used. A similar situation was repeated with the offer of support during the strike on International Feminist Struggle Day on 9 March. The question remains as to whether these islands were perhaps not low-threshold enough, even with sufficient advertising (a contact person still had to be present and we had asked for registration for planning purposes), or whether there was a lack of trust in party-affiliated locations and participants. In addition, the weather conditions were good, which meant that a lot of the events were probably held outside in public spaces. Presumably it also simply took more time for word of mouth in the daycare centres to make the offers better known, and the advertising was only in German. Families with a greater need for help during strikes in particular might have needed to be addressed in other languages. On the third day of the strike, it became clear that we needed "anchor" parents (in this case a party member who could be sure of the quality of our services) who would then bring other families with them. We will take these insights with us into the future, into which we continue to look with hope and vigour.

Laura for the AG Sorgearbeit of the Left Party Neukölln

(Note on the image: The drawing is taken from the linked ver.di flyer. This is also where all rights to the image are held).