The rent has been far too expensive for a long time. Electricity too. Heating costs are becoming unaffordable. Going to the cinema with the children is cancelled. Butter over 3 euros and Döner Kebab as a luxury product … Who is supposed to pay for that! They talk about 8 per cent inflation, but we notice: many prices have doubled. Only our salaries and pensions have not – Hartz 4 has never been enough. We have less and less to live on.
We need higher wages. Instead, the bosses want us to work longer. Are you crazy?! And the government? A little heating subsidy here, a little more minimum wage there, but it’s not enough. Now we’re supposed to pay the gas levy as well. It’s obvious: above all, they are concerned about the interests of large companies. The government coalition is spending 100 billion on armament, but the “Bürgergeld” doesn’t even compensate for inflation. We are supposed to turn over every cent to pay for the rescue parachutes for the corporations: from Deutsche Bank to Lufthansa to Uniper. In Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, 13 million people, with or without a job, were already living in poverty before the price explosion. Now it’s down to the wire for many. Here and even more so in the rest of the world.
At the same time, the climate crisis is in full swing, unmistakable, on all continents. Especially in the global South, the consequences of the unlimited greed for profit of corporations are becoming apparent: the ruthless exploitation of natural resources and people go hand in hand and more and more livelihoods are being destroyed by the climate crisis. But instead of ending this neo-colonial exploitation and creating safe escape routes, Fortress Europe continues to be sealed off. And instead of holding corporations responsible for this, we are told here to take shorter showers and save on heating – why not shut down arms factories like Rheinmetall?
We are angry! All this is the result of an economy that focuses on profits instead of people’s needs. And worst of all, it affects all those who already live in poverty and insecurity. In the global North, for example, people who are precariously employed or in the low-wage sector, i.e. an above-average number of people affected by racism and women. And even harder hit are the people in the global South, who are exposed to even higher inflation rates and much more drastic consequences of the climate crisis and speculation with agricultural goods and raw materials.
We want an end to this policy that leaves us to bear the costs – and wants to play us off against each other in the process. We need equal rights for all people! We want a climate-just society where everyone has enough in their fridge and warmth in their homes! We need higher wages, social benefits and pensions – for a life in dignity. Energy and real estate companies should be under social control. Rents and heating costs must be affordable.
We are the ones who keep things running and we are the ones who can change things. Every collective wage, the pension and health system and all social improvements in the past were fought for from below. No one will give us a better world, we have to take it into our own hands – together and in solidarity! Whether skilled worker or unpaid domestic worker, whether pensioner or student, carer or refugee, whether pupil or apprentice, unemployed or homeless – let’s join forces!
Our demands are:
- Price cap for electricity, heating costs & rents!
- Socialise real estate and energy companies
- Excess profits tax! No poverty for your profits
- No evictions, no gas and electricity blackouts
- Higher wages, higher pensions, higher social benefits
- Tax the rich
- Re-introduce wealth tax
- One-off wealth tax to finance the crisis costs
- Effective taxation of large inheritances
- Free & good local transport!
- Unlimited mobility for all
- Ban on speculation and fixed prices for food!
- Solidarity-based basic services for all
- Economy oriented towards the common good instead of profits for corporations & the super-rich
