The boards cannot help everyone.
Photo: dpa/Christophe Gateau
Get to the prices, the profits, the inequality, get to the root! Keep rents and energy costs affordable, tax excess profits, increase pensions and social benefits! No more bottom-up redistribution! Bring on a fair tax system! These are keywords that the new Brandenburg alliance “Justice now” is using to advertise its first large-scale demonstration on October 15 at 2 p.m. on the Alter Markt in Potsdam. In addition, there will be other campaigns in many places in the state of Brandenburg later on. The alliance does not want to simply take part in the well-known Monday demonstrations – if only because in many cases there is no clear demarcation to the right.
The alliance includes the unemployment association, the people’s solidarity, the tenants’ association, the industrial union IG Metall, the service union Verdi and others. When it presents itself on Friday, the left state chairman Sebastian Walter says: “The alliance is broad and strong enough to ward off right-wing disruptors.” He also says: “I’m very proud that we founded this non-partisan alliance.” Apart from his own party, no one else is there. But there is hope that more will join. After all, the Arbeiterwohlfahrt, which is traditionally close to the SPD, is also involved, albeit only with its Potsdam district association, and also the German Federation of Trade Unions, albeit only with the Spree-Neiße district association. You can be found among the first signers of the founding appeal.
»The only thing that is always talked about is loss of prosperity. Many people in Brandenburg no longer have any prosperity. Their livelihoods are at stake,” Walter describes what was triggered by the Russian attack on Ukraine and the stock market speculation that went with it. The alliance does not want to tinker with the symptoms, but solutions.
The food banks, which provide the needy with donated food and other things for a small fee, have been experiencing an increase in demand for some time and are noticing that the incomes of more and more people are no longer sufficient for a normal life, as Kai Noak, the vice chairman of the Association of Food Banks in Germany. “We’re always ready to help,” assures Noak. But the panels are not able to compensate for everything that is wrong in society. The food banks are also affected by the price explosion. “The gas costs kill us,” says Noak. But the vehicles are needed to pick up the donated food from the shops. Tafel head Sabine Werth praises the fact that the state of Brandenburg is making 120,000 euros available for investments. But she complains that the panels are not allowed to fill up for this money. After all, what use is investment if the food bank system collapses? There is not enough food for too many people in need.
Kai Noak is demanding €600 a month on Hartz IV, and energy bills should fall below the cost of housing, which the state pays extra for the long-term unemployed. So far, 36.43 euros for energy have been included in the standard rate, but this is not enough even after an increase to 502 euros from January, explains Inga-Karina Ackermann from the unemployment association. She says: “It’s bitter if you don’t have the bare essentials.” Sepp Träthner from the Tenants’ Association denounces the fact that rents have risen, but the housing allowance has not been adjusted and many who need it have been denied.
justice-now.org
