#jetzterstrecht Demo at Hermannplatz

Demonstration at Hermannplatz

June 28, 2020 at 15:00

Mobivideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-sgZfUO8iw

Since March 2020 the corona pandemic has become part of the political reality in Germany. Defects that politics have enforced for years become more obvious than ever. These defects include among others a competition in the health-care system that the state has fostered, precarization of work, and murderous asylum and migration politics.
The German government has quickly taken first steps to support employers: Right at the beginning, the government facilitated taking out credits and applying for short-time work allowance (German: “Kurzarbeitsgeld”) to provide the employers with liquidity. With some delay, they decided to provide an emergency aid to solo self-employed and to reduce bureaucratic burdens for benefit recipients.

We, the authors of this text, have been linking up in our day-to-day lives for years and we have been supporting each other with concrete problems. Many of the defects that we have been pointing out for a long time are now, in times of corona, more urgent than ever. As a first step, we have formulated concrete and feasible demands to politicians on all levels that are supposed to produce relief.
Moreover, we have collected ideas how all of us can conduct solidary action and support existing groups and alliances. Stand up for your interests—and those of your neighbors and colleagues. We appreciate the solidarity that shows up in many neighborhoods when it is about going for shopping or child care. However, this solidarity, at least, is necessary for maintaining our everyday life and providing basic supplies for each other. Is that all?

We also worry about the time after the pandemic. It is obvious that a severe economic crisis is going to hit us. How can prevent a worsening of apparent authoritarian teandencies in Europe? How are we going to claim that all repressive measures, which the government took for fighting the pandemic, are taken back? How can we prevent that the upcoming economic crisis again—as in 2008—is going to lay on the backs of workers and pensioners? The consequences of the austerity policy after the economic crisis 2008, are still apparent in Italy and Spain: There demaged healthcare systems collapse due to the corona pandemic. It is important to do more than washing (the own) hands in the current and upcoming “crises” of capitalism. Stand up for you interests and keep fighting!

More information: https://www.jetzterstrecht.org/en/