Current figures show that 16.8 percent of people in Germany are considered to be low-income (Paritätischer Armutsbericht 2024). At the same time, the richest 5 percent own almost 50 percent of the total net assets (as of 2023). This situation is tacitly accepted, while new material cuts for the unemployed and refugees are currently being planned.

This is all happening relatively smoothly on the social stage, with no resistance from either part of the wage earners or the remnants of the unemployed movement. The social left also appears incapable of action and preoccupied with itself.

Based on this rather depressing starting point, we want to present different analyses and approaches in a panel discussion on whether the confrontation with the suffering of wage labor and poverty contains possibilities but also contradictions for the collective practice of fundamental social change.

Among other things, we want to debate the following topics: Traditionally, unemployment is seen as an act of violence, and wage labor as a place of social recognition. While the former is supposed to lead to withdrawal from politics and individualism, the latter can promote solidarity.

Can this division still be maintained given increasing precarious working conditions and various fragmentation within the working class, but also due to the influence of the welfare state? Is there still such a thing as class consciousness, or has it been replaced by a social consciousness, according to which the subject of change is no longer dependent on any objective position in society? How can we succeed in combining the fight for higher social income for poor people with the fight against capitalist exploitation and racist and patriarchal oppression?

Is it about defending the welfare state, even expanding it, or are there other alternatives, such as the right to a good life with and without wage labor? Is it about the fight for “good work” or for securing one’s existence independent of gainful employment? What can political intervention look like in the face of widespread social unease about inequalities while at the same time clinging to the performance principle that pits employees against the unemployed (hard workers against “lazy” unemployed)?

The panel discussion is organized by Peter Nowak and the editorial team of the book “KlassenLos”, published by Die Buchmacherei. Invited are Christian Frings, Harald Rein, activists from the Oldenburg unemployment self-help group ALSO, and the unemployed initiative basta. The event will be moderated by Anne Seeck and Gerhard Hanloser.

It starts on September 18, 2024, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.