Resolution

This resolution was created at the Care Conference 2014.

Before the Care Revolution comes the Care Resolution

From 14 to 16 March 2014, around 500 people who are politically active in various fields of social reproduction - health, care, assistance, education, housing, domestic and sex work - came together for the first Care Revolution action conference. Over the course of three days, we exchanged personal and political experiences - initially mainly from German-speaking countries - and discussed how fundamental changes towards a needs-orientated care economy can be initiated.
From different points of view, we came to the conclusion that this can only succeed through a strong care movement. This was one of the reasons why we took to the streets in Berlin on Saturday afternoon with an action entitled "Making the invisible visible: Taking care to the streets" in Berlin. At the end of the conference, we agreed on joint theses and demands, on the basis of which we will continue to work in the Care Revolution network in the future.

From the crisis of social reproduction ...

1. everyday experiences in the crisis
In the current crisis, many people are living and working under pressure: everyday life is characterised by time stress and fear of an uncertain future. Some have to work more and more, others can't find jobs or don't have enough to live on despite having a job. Added to this is the worry about themselves and others: Children, the elderly, the sick, friends, relatives. Rest, leisure and the opportunity to help shape society seem unattainable for more and more people, and the austerity measures that are presented as the only alleged solution to the crisis of capitalism are undermining the achievements of queer feminist and other emancipatory struggles.
Many are affected by poverty, violence or structural and individual discrimination. For people without secure residence status, almost everything is subject to reservation. Dominant ideas of how people should be interfere with their lives. People who do not conform to this experience insecurity and are excluded from social participation. A good life definitely looks different!

2 The market is squeezing out the social: services and relationships under pressure
Public services such as day-care centres, schools, medical care, assistance and care, but also housing, are increasingly having to be privately financed. Good quality services are becoming a privilege of the rich. Two-class medicine and a privatised insurance system decide on the health of individuals - sometimes over life and death. An impoverished public education system allows expensive public schools to spring up like mushrooms. Exploding rents and the privatisation of public space lead to people being pushed out of their residential areas and living environment. This reinforces social exclusion.
The human body is also subject to the capitalist economy's compulsion to optimise. Health is made an individual task and recognised as a personal achievement. People with disabilities who become disabled are devalued as incapable.
Capitalist conditions have an influence on care and welfare: time pressure and material insecurity produce violence and destroy social relationships and care relationships.

3. care work: the invisible side of the capitalist economy
There is a lack of time and appreciation for caring for ourselves and others.
Where care work is performed as gainful employment, it is under cost pressure and subject to the capitalist profit logic. Everything is cut: wages are squeezed, time and material security are kept in short supply. (Not only) under such conditions, there are dependencies in care relationships that can lead to physical, sexualised and psychological violence.
The majority of care work is still unpaid and remains invisible to society. Due to the lack of public provision, care work is being shifted back into households. Here too, however, the interpersonal quality of care work has to assert itself against time and financial pressure and excessive demands. This makes it a double and triple burden.
Who cares for whom, how well someone can care for themselves and others, and who receives how much pay and recognition for the care work they do - all of this is organised according to power relations:
For example, due to patriarchal relations, paid and unpaid care work is still more likely to be assigned to women*(1), supposedly comes more or less 'naturally' to them. This devalues specialised skills and disregards what is done as a matter of course. Low wages in care professions and an elitist education system also lead to social inequalities in care work becoming entrenched. The same applies - based on global wage differences - to a racist division of labour: migrant care workers can be recruited in the global North for low wages without social security. Asylum, labour law and discrimination determine access.

... to the Care Revolution!

4 Bring on the good life
A good life is at odds with the competition and profit logic of capitalism. We no longer want to accept this subordination. People and their living conditions are at the centre of the Care Revolution. Together, we can create conditions in which different individual, collective and social needs and interests can be realised: A good life for all - worldwide!

5. valorising care work - safeguarding a culture of caring
Care work is a condition of human existence and a prerequisite for the development of a democratic community. Its economisation must be stopped.
Instead of pushing care work into the invisible private sphere and imposing it on those who are most isolated and least able to defend themselves, it must be made a central object of political negotiation. Care is a fundamental right and a social responsibility.
Discrimination and violence associated with care work must be dismantled: Care is not a matter for women*; society's needs must be met by all people. Our care crisis must not be solved at the expense of the Global South.
If care work is performed as gainful employment, it must be carried out by well-paid and well-trained professionals who have sufficient material and time resources at their disposal. This is in the interests of care workers and care recipients. Nevertheless, conflicts of interest can arise that need to be negotiated and dealt with democratically.
People who need assistance, care or support must be able to decide for themselves on their character and institutional forms. Respecting the self-determination rights of the sick, those receiving care and those receiving assistance, as well as children and young people, is the top priority of all care work.
Anyone who wants to carry out care work individually or together with others must be
working time models and social regulations to provide material and temporal security.
time must be secured. This also includes being able to switch flexibly and independently between
between different activities (gainful employment, care work, political work, leisure and education).
and education.

6. gaining time
The time needed to produce the necessary goods and food has decreased by about half in the last 50 years. However, the result is not a reduction in working hours and a redistribution of gainful employment, but rather the neoliberal regime is focussing on division: while some are working longer and longer, others are being made redundant into unemployment or precariousness. A radical shortening of gainful employment is essential for the care revolution. This is the only way to give everyone the time they need for caring and nurturing work as well as for looking after themselves and the community.

7 Housing is a human right
Affordable and dignified housing and living space must be available to everyone. This includes the abolition of camp accommodation for refugees and the abolition of compulsory residency. No profit should be made from housing. Cities and communities must be designed with their residents in mind.
Opportunities to spend time in public spaces, leisure facilities, sports facilities and space for children and young people as well as accessibility must not be a question of money. Public infrastructure worthy of the name must also be created in rural areas. In addition to high-quality healthcare, education and childcare, this primarily concerns a dense network of free public transport.

8 Education is a right for all people - democratise education
Learning must be a moment in the development of a just society, which includes training educators in a way that is sensitive to power. Education must be available to all free of charge and must not be subject to economisation. Extracurricular and autonomous educational processes must be recognised and strengthened.

9. strengthen the common public sphere
We call for an expansion of the common public sphere. High-quality social infrastructures are a prerequisite for a life free of fear and social participation. And social services must be available to everyone without restriction. We demand a right to rights for all.
This means - where it existed - no return to the old welfare state, which was not only often paternalistic and repressive, but also patriarchal and racist. The common public sphere encompasses social redistribution as well as diverse forms of self-organisation by people in different places. Both belong together!
New models of social infrastructures need to be developed in which social wealth can be utilised in democratic processes in such a way that the interests and needs of different groups and individuals are taken into account. We need a variety of different care arrangements and social services.

10 Let's go
In order to fight for all these demands, we have come together from different experiences, professional backgrounds and political spectrums. A care movement must combine concerns and join forces. For the Care Revolution!

(1) The * is intended to emphasise that the category 'woman' is not a biological one, but a socially constructed one that conceals different life realities and experiences. The use of this linguistic marker in the resolution was controversial.