Aktionstag 21.8.2021

On 21 August we will make our demands heard in as many places as possible. From Freiburg to Hamburg, from Leipzig to Hagen. And that’s why we need your support. Would you like to become active right where you live in order to take a firm stand for social justice and the redistribution of wealth from the top to the bottom? Get in touch via: werhatdergibt (at) riseup.net

WE CANNOT AFFORD THE RICH ANY LONGER – Our call to action

A mansion in the Bahamas, Bermuda or Saint-Bathélemy? Should I keep my billions in Malta or Luxembourg? Which lobby group protects my assets best and should I sell my shares in Deutsche Wohnen?

Sounds familiar to you? It doesn’t to us either.
Our lives do not revolve around private jets, tax havens and securing power. The rich can ask such questions because we go to work for them. We produce their wealth in factories and offices that they own. We pay outrageous rents in flats that they use to increase their wealth. We are kept in line with the narrative that we can all succeed, that hard work pays off; it all depends on you, on your diligence and discipline. And thus, we find ourselves forced to toil for the Uncle Scrooge fantasies of others – in order to survive.

Why is that?
Only recently, scientists have mathematically proved that social inequality is inevitable in our current – supposedly stable – economic system. Even if all people were equally rich at the beginning, within the foreseeable future wealth would be concentrated in very few people – a global flow of wealth at a massive scale. In Germany, 45 hyper-rich individuals currently own as much as the poorer half of the population.

Instead of counteracting this reality, politicians favour the rich. Wealth is not taxed effectively and tax dodgers are protected. The missing revenue is siphoned off from the general population. We all have to pay more taxes and suffer from cuts in spending for public goods. The rules of Capitalism’s favourite game are obvious: take from the poor and give to the rich.

The consequences are dire. In urban areas, rents are skyrocketing because our homes are not just living space, but investment property for housing corporations and their shareholders. Thus, an increasing part of our salary goes into the untaxed pockets of the few. At the end of the day, thanks to gentrification we are watching our neighbourhoods increasingly turn into retreats for the rich.

With regard to the ongoing climate catastrophe, we are also facing an existential threat in which social inequality plays a part: the lion’s share of Germany’s CO2 emissions is caused by the rich, as shown by recent studies. While the consequences of global warming such as storm tides, droughts and floods mainly affect the world’s poorest, the rich have enough dosh to easily adapt to climate change. If your Sylt holiday home goes under, just hang out in your luxury property in the foothills of the Alps. Instead of tackling the climate catastrophe with effective measures, politicians continue to act in the interests of climate-damaging corporations and the rich. They are trying to make themselves look good by presenting pseudo-solutions – such as a coal phase-out which can only be described as too little, too late – they could not care less about the rights of future generations.

What’s more, those of us who already experience massive disadvantages through racist, sexist or other types of discrimination suffer the most. Whether at the till or out in the field, whether as a bicycle courier or a cleaner: exploitation proves particularly effective with the socially disadvantaged. No amount of diversity advertising will remedy this.

The pandemic has further exacerbated social inequality. On the one hand people were pushed to their breaking point and forced into existential hardship. On the other hand, the biggest heaps were shat on some more. The assets of German billionaires grew by 22%, that’s a cool 100 billion euros. It is also clear that the coming government will go in search of money under the self-imposed obligation of not incurring new debt. It is not unlikely that we will be asked to foot the billion-euro COVID bill. There have already been corresponding moves, such as discussions on raising the retirement age and lowering maternity pensions. But we are not going along with this. We will no longer be ignored, because:

We can no longer afford the rich and their lavish lifestyles!

The social crisis remains as unsolved as the COVID-19 crisis. We oppose the world of the rich that only benefits the few, with our world of the many: the employees and workers, the precarious, the migrants, the illegalised and marginalised, the queers, the students and pensioners, the disabled, the superfluous, the freaks and artists. We will rise up as one class.

Let’s go and get what’s ours already – with some loud, shrill, colourful and wild protests!