Caring cities - a conference report

From 20 to 22 January, the conference 'Caring Cities - Municipal Strategies for Feminist Socialisation', organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, took place in Bremen. Among the approximately 200 conference participants were a few people from Care Revolution groups who wanted to gain inspiration for their work.

The aim of the conference was to discuss starting points for transforming care tasks into social responsibility, with which companies are currently making a profit or with which people in private households, in fact women in particular, are left alone. The organisers were therefore concerned with a double de-privatisation and socialisation of care: away from profiteering and isolation and into collective responsibility. It was important that socialisation should not be understood as nationalisation. All those whose living conditions are affected by the communal care infrastructure - hospitals, daycare centres, neighbourhood centres - but also by framework conditions such as access to buses or housing, should be able to participate in decision-making and co-determination. The fact that this process will change the care facilities as well as the care relationships and the people in them was also a topic at the conference.

Here, the preparatory team thankfully took care to establish a link between analysing and exploring the political options for action in the three thematic strands of the conference. The strands dealt with self-organised, collective care concepts, requirements for a socialisation process so that it does not lead to a paternalistic measure of state care, and concepts for actually forcing profit-oriented companies out of the care sectors. In addition to the search for well-founded strategies, it was also always about combining activism from the social movements and local politics. Behind this was the urge to design concepts not for a vacuum or academic reputation, but to contribute to social emancipation and better living conditions. For me, this was the best thing about the conference: this serious desire to find viable ways to contribute to better conditions for people with extensive caring responsibilities and to social emancipation at the same time. This also included the willingness to cross scene boundaries - at least mentally for the time being. With the exception of the event on Friday evening on care for the elderly, which was very focussed on options for action in local politics, this concept really worked.

One highlight was the stories told by activists from Barcelona and especially from Rosario (Argentina), where the movements themselves took the step into politics and tried to maintain their roots in the neighbourhoods. What was reported from Rosario - from the joint determination of needs in surveys, discussions in meetings and strategic decisions to political implementation and the simultaneous growth of solidarity - was very inspiring. At the same time, however, it was also somewhat frustrating: we are still so far away from this level; we experienced both the potential power and the current helplessness that pervades care policy. But the discussions focussed on strategies and tools to change this: Organising, mapping, learning and solidarity with each other and much more. The proof of the pudding is in the eating: In Berlin and Bremen, attempts are being made under the heading of the 'caring city'. But activists from women's/feminist strike or care revolution groups, for example, can also take away ideas and contacts.