Right2TheCity was launched on 16th December 2020 as an English-speaking working group of Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen (DWE). The idea for the working group emerged from within DWE and through discussions with other activist organisations including Brazilian tenants, Unidas Podemos and Berlin Migrant Workers.
The topics of the working group are open. Some ideas have been collected in the process already: translations, building a coalition with other migrant organizations and the collection of “political” signatures from the 25% of Berliners who do not have a German passport and are therefore ineligible to officially sign in support of the referendum.
People attending Wednesday’s launch meeting said that they were interested in the following topics: addressing housing precarity, tackling homelessness, socializing housing, fighting gentrification, removing housing from the market, working on strategy and coalescing with housing movements in Europe.
The group plans to be engaged in the following actions:
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Mass canvassing of housing estates
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Argumentation training (in English, already exists in German)
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Supporting Kiez teams that don’t exist yet
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Translations of argumentation texts and the website
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Scandalizing the fact that because you need to have a German passport to vote in the referendum a quarter of people renting have been disenfranchised
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Scandalizing the topic of “Anmeldungen”
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Improving the internet and social media presence of DWE
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Addressing intersections: racist society, capitalist housing market, covid-19 effects
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Engaging with faith groups to get them to join the campaign
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Collecting data in order to clarify how unequal access to housing is
Links are available to a Telegram group and an extra group for translators. Meetings will be every second Wednesday at 7pm, starting on 30th December. For more information, contact right2thecity@dwenteignen.de.
