Care Revolution

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Care Revolution is a concept with which groups and initiatives advocate fundamental social change and the appreciation of care work . Its aim is to create a social framework under which all people can satisfy their needs, especially those relating to concern for one another. For this purpose, a Germany-wide network was founded in 2014.

Care Revolution strategy

The “Care Revolution” concept describes a political transformation strategy . Building on the findings of feminist theory regarding the social significance of unpaid housework , the fundamental significance of care work (or care work ) is placed at the center of a socially critical analysis and political action. From birth, people need the care of others, without whom they could not survive. However, due to increasing demands in professional life and precarious life situations, many people are no longer able to adequately care for themselves and others. In addition, the support of care activities is made more difficult by neoliberal austerity policies in the health and education sectors. Gabriele Winker sees this as a “crisis of social reproduction”, which she understands as an “acute contradiction between profit maximization and the reproduction of labor”. Care Revolution activists want to approach the goal of good care and a good life with the following steps:

  • Realization of time sovereignty and livelihood security (this includes, among other things, reductions in working hours, an increase in the minimum wage and campaigns for an unconditional basic income )
  • Expansion of social infrastructure (e.g. in the sense of well-equipped, free health and educational institutions, local public transport , the availability of living space, support for self-help networks )
  • Democratization and self-administration of the care area (e.g. through decentralized design, self-organization on site)

The objective of the transformation strategy is a solidarity society without discrimination and exclusions and an economy that is oriented towards people's needs.

Network Care Revolution

The Care Revolution network was founded in 2014 to gradually implement the stated goals. This network is particularly committed to fundamental changes in the area of ​​unpaid and paid care work. In the Care Revolution network, over 70 initiatives and also individuals from different areas of society and with different political priorities are represented.

The aim of the network is formulated:

“[The groups involved] have in common the fight against gaps in public services of general interest, which lead to excessive demands and a lack of time. In the long term, we strive for new models of care relationships and a care economy that does not focus on profit maximization, but on people's needs, and does not distribute care work and care resources according to racist, gender or class-related structures. "

History and activities of the network

The Care Revolution network was founded in 2014 shortly after the Care Revolution action conference that took place in Berlin in March. 500 people from different areas of paid and unpaid care work (parents, caring relatives, educators, carers, employees in social work, assistants, in the field of sexual services and domestic workers) as well as representatives of political initiatives came together. Since it was founded, local groups have been set up in the cities of Berlin, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Lübeck and Thuringia, and nationwide network meetings take place around twice a year. In addition to a regular exchange about the situations of the individual cooperation partners and labor disputes in the care sector, local groups in the network regularly take part in demonstrations on International Women's Day and on May 1st to address the poorly or poorly paid but socially necessary care work to make visible. In order to refer to the crisis of social reproduction, groups from the network took part in the Blockupy actions . In 2015, during the strikes in the social and educational services and in the Charité hospital in Berlin, those involved in the Care Revolution network pointed out how important political cooperation between parents and daycare workers as well as (potential) patients and caregivers is in order for everyone involved to strive for better working and living conditions. Since 2016, an Equal Care Day has been drawing attention to the fact that the lion's share of care work is still done by women, and advocates a fairer distribution.

Cooperation partner

A broad spectrum of groups and initiatives from different (care) areas is represented in the Care Revolution network. Parents' initiatives and immigrant self-organizations, (queer) feminist groups and trade union groups in the field of care and upbringing, initiatives by caregivers and groups of people with disabilities, organizations of social movements and church-based and non-party left groups take part.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julia Dück, Barbara Fried: "Caring for Strategy" Developing transformation out of struggles for social reproduction. In: Barbara Fried, Hannah Schurian (Ed.): Um-Care. Reorganize health and care . (= Materials. No. 13). Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2015, pp. 15–22.
  2. ↑ Gabriele Winker: Care Revolution - a way out of the reproductive crisis . 2009, accessed April 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ Ina Praetorius: Economy is Care. Or: The rediscovery of the obvious . (= Writings on economics and social issues. Volume 16). Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin 2015.
  4. ↑ Gabriele Winker: Care Revolution. Steps into a solidary society. transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-3040-4 .
  5. ↑ Gabriele Winker: exhaustion of the social . 2012, accessed April 6, 2016.
  6. ↑ http://www.care-revolution.org/ accessed on April 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ http://www.rosalux.de/documentation/49691 accessed on May 4, 2016.
  8. ↑ http://care-revolution.org/geschichte/ accessed on May 4, 2016.
  9. ↑ http://care-revolution.org/regionale-vernetzung/ accessed on May 4, 2016.
  10. ↑ http://care-revolution.org/aktuelles/hamburger-netzwerk-soli-erklaerung/ accessed on May 4, 2016.
  11. ↑ http://care-revolution.org/gruppen/ accessed on May 4, 2016.