Rent Protest or Revolutionary Neighbourhood Work? How We Organize Solidarity on the Ground

Kaminzimmer (Kiezraum)

Rent initiatives fighting rising housing costs are tackling a problem that affects broad parts of the population - albeit in different ways. The initiatives focus on the housing issue, but also hope to broaden the politicization of experiences of injustice. A different approach is chosen by initiatives that describe their actions as revolutionary neighborhood work. Right from the start, they focus on a whole range of problems, which besides rent issues might be trouble with the job center and cases of police violence. Both approaches share an interest in improving the lives of local people and in organizing experiences that enable solidarity between groups of different ages, backgrounds and political positions. During the workshop, we want to discuss our experiences in building solidarity in neighborhoods.