A-Infos (en) Germany, Ruhr, Die Platform: May 1st Doesn't Mean: "Celebrating What We Have!" - But "Fighting for What We Need!" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Today isn't just a holiday  today is International Workers' Day. A day 
that reminds us that our rights were never given to us. They were fought 
for  by people like you and me. People took to the streets, were 
arrested, or shot for them. ---- A day that reminds us: Our rights are 
the result of organizing, resistance, and countless struggles against 
the ruling class. The eight-hour day, the right to strike, continued 
wage payment  these are not gifts, but victories against the logic of 
profit. And these very victories are under attack again today.

The center-right coalition government is preparing to erode the 
boundaries of working hours  under the guise of "flexibilization." 
Employers will be able to agree with employees on when and how long they 
work  in reality, this means: More work. More stress. Less protection.

While the eight-hour workday now needs to be defended, for many people 
this "standard" has never been a reality. Millions work multiple jobs, 
temporary and precarious  often not by choice, but out of necessity. 
Women, INTA* people (intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender), 
migrants, and queer people in particular work in sectors that are 
lower-paid, less secure, and often invisible: care work, cleaning, 
education, assistance, retail, and hospitality. These are jobs without 
which our society cannot function  yet they receive hardly any 
recognition. Those who do this work often live close to the poverty line 
 even with full-time employment.

In addition, there is a higher proportion of unpaid care work  cooking, 
caring for others, looking after children, relatives, partners, and 
neighbors. This work holds our lives together. But it is not treated as 
work  but rather as a "natural role." And it is hardly considered in 
statistics, collective bargaining agreements, or public debate.

Prices rise, but wages don't. You work more, but have less left over. 
Whether you're a salesperson, caregiver, warehouse worker, or office 
worker, you notice it every day. Rent, food, energy  everything is 
getting more expensive while the rich get richer. And what is the 
government doing?

As always, the government isn't improving the situation at all. On the 
contrary: While billions are flowing into armaments and corporations, 
social services are being cut. Child benefits have been reduced to a 
minimum. Citizen's income is being penalized. Migration is being 
criminalized. Homophobic attacks are on the rise, partly because 
right-wing rhetoric has long since permeated the political mainstream. 
The coalition government (SPD, Greens, and FDP) and the CDU/CSU-SPD 
coalition are using racist narratives, relying on populism and division, 
while the AfD is increasingly openly inciting hatred  against the poor, 
against migrants, against LGBTQ+ people, against feminists. And these 
attacks are happening more and more often in the streets  with violence, 
with approval, with frightening normalcy.

This right-wing mobilization is no coincidence. It is the result of a 
political vacuum that arose because left-wing alternatives were too 
rarely concrete, militant, or visible. The unions also bear some 
responsibility here. Although there have been labor disputes in recent 
years for example, at the postal service, the railways, or in social and 
educational services these were often not pursued with any real 
determination. Instead of building solidarity and strengthening their 
own base, many union leaderships rely on symbolic actions, short warning 
strikes, or compromises that fall short of inflation. While the lived 
reality of many colleagues is characterized by precarious contracts, 
overtime, psychological stress, and structural discrimination, large 
parts of the unions function like cumbersome bureaucracies, operating 
far removed from the needs of their members.

Decisions are made from the top down, instead of with the rank and file. 
Large segments of the union leadership have resigned themselves to the 
status quo to co-management, to the logic of location-based 
decision-making, to "social partnership."

We cannot trust the state and capitalism; we must begin to organize 
collectively in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our networks, 
otherwise nothing will change. The state will not save us. Elections 
will not fix it. The crisis is real and it is affecting us in different 
ways. But that is precisely why we need collective solutions.

Organizing begins where we are. Solidarity begins where we live. 
Feminism begins where we decide to no longer fight alone.

This May Day belongs to us, the ones without a lobby. To everyone who 
has to function day in and day out under shitty conditions. To everyone 
who fights against exploitation, against division, against patriarchal 
power structures. We have to do it ourselves. Together, from the bottom up.

Let's unite our struggles. For a good life for all not just a few. For a 
society where work doesn't make you sick. For a world where solidarity 
is the foundation, not profit. Let's organize in our workplaces but also 
beyond! Let's fight for co-determination where we work, live, love, and 
fight! Let's transform our unions from passive administrative bodies to 
active, grassroots democratic tools for the class struggle!

Let's ask feminist questions! Who does unpaid work? Who becomes 
invisible in the system? Whose concerns matter and whose don't? Let's be 
uncomfortable  in solidarity with care workers, with strikers, with 
people in precarious jobs, with queer youth, with migrants at the borders!

Let's become collective again. Loud. Uncomfortable. In solidarity.

https://ruhr.dieplattform.org/2025/04/29/1-mai-heisst-nicht-feiern-was-wir-haben-sondern-erkaempfen-was-wir-brauchen/
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