Action alliance against housing shortage and urban destruction, Newsletter 174
Protest against vacancy of GAG apartments,
27.01.2024 , 11 a.m., Ricarda-Huch-Str.31,
For the fifth time, we will stand in front of the GAG service office on Saturday and walk to the vacant apartments in Elias Gut Straße. On Monday, the Mülheim district council will discuss the issue again in a topical hour at the request of the Left Party.
In his speeches at the rallies, Kalle Gerigk has called for new expert opinions because there are considerable doubts as to whether the demolition of the houses is necessary. An expert who worked for GAG himself then sent us this note: Serial refurbishment: Solutions from construction practice
Rumor has it that the Bethe Foundation is also intervening. GAG claims: “The effort required to prepare the apartments for this is disproportionate and not economically viable.” The Bethe Foundation is prepared to cover the costs of moving into the apartments and is also prepared to buy the houses outright in order to make them accessible to homeless people as quickly as possible.
In view of the protests against the AfD, Rainer Kippe recalls the speech given by Gerhart Baum, the former Minister of the Interior and alternative honorary citizen, on 13 August 2023 at an event on Wiener Platz against growing homelessness: “Cologne has a serious problem and it’s time it was tackled, otherwise it will play into the hands of the AfD”
January 27, 2024 – Commemoration of the victims of the National Socialists
This year, at 6 p.m. in the Antoniterkirche, the more than 70,000 prisoners who were forced to wear the green or black angle on their clothing in the concentration camps will be remembered. On 13 February 2020, the Bundestag adopted a motion by the CDU/CSU and SPD entitled “Recognition of those persecuted by the National Socialists as ‘asocials’ and ‘professional criminals'”. With the exception of the AfD, which abstained, all parliamentary groups voted in favor of the motion.
Klaus Jünschke was invited to speak on behalf of Aktionsbündnis gegen Wohnungsnot und Stadtzerstörung about the historical analysis of the stigmatization and persecution of marginalized groups and the current situation of homeless people in the city.
“No one is asocial”
How the term “asocial” came about: “It emerged around the turn of the century in 1900, initially in a rather unspecific way. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim says that the child is born asocial and must first be socialized. Or Sigmund Freud said that the dream was asocial because it was only for oneself.”
The association of the term with the underclass began around 1910, when the word appeared in connection with social work.
“But it was not yet in common usage. It did not appear in the spelling dictionary until 1929. And is used for the lowest class of welfare recipients.”
At the time, welfare institutions not only wanted to provide makeshift care for the so-called asocials, but above all to educate them: to lead the asocial elements back into mainstream society.
From 1933, according to Wolfgang Ayaß, the National Socialists then used the term for all kinds of people who did not fit into their world view.
“So asocial were then the beggars, the vagrants, also groups that were referred to as gypsies, but also destitute alcoholics, people who were in arrears with maintenance payments. And, in particular, all welfare recipients who were considered work-shy.”
And all these people were no longer to be put back on the right path, but eradicated.
To read
Oxfam – Report on social inequality
“Asocial” – On the genesis of a Nazi term
Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Situation Report 2024
Broadcasts, reports, news
Cologne tenants’ association sees more terminations for personal use
Rents in North Rhine-Westphalia have been rising continuously for years. Now the tenants’ association fears even higher prices for social housing and sharply criticizes the state government.
Rent rebels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rygcs6XvreM and https://mietrebellen.de/
To the. Places. Shelter – Go
Concept of a needs-oriented living and housing space for homeless people
Berlin emergency shelter for women “Evas Obdach” loses its home
The social department store from minute 14:15
Will the Otto-Langen-Quartier be developed with a public welfare-oriented approach?
Porz ghost house: GAG breaking its word?
Cologne tenants’ association calls for high-rise buildings for apartments
On-site visit: The “rent rebel” used to live here
Geywitz refuses to accept new housing study on TV: “Colleagues made it up”
Geywitz on housing construction. Construction target to be achieved by 2024 at the earliest
Eviction due to legal advice error?
Dates
27.01.2024 , 11 a.m., Protest against vacancy of GAG apartments, Ricarda-Huch-Str.31
27.01.2024, 18 – 19:30, Day of remembrance for the victims of the Nazis. Antoniter Church
28-01.2024, 5 pm, Current hour on the GAG vacancy in the Mülheim district council
29-01-2024, Film screening: ALTERLAA Forever. About the largest social housing park in Austria’, named Alterlaa. Filmhaus, Maybachstr.111
30.01.2024, 10:30 – 16:00, Day of action for homeless people for the right to housing Düsseldorf, Bahnhofsvorplatz & FFT
31.01.2024, 7 pm, Housing keys instead of handcuffs, reading of “Gefangen & Wohnungslos” with Dr. Nicole Bögelein, Christina-Maria Greve, Klaus Jünschke, and another former prisoner. TH Cologne, Ubierring 48, Room 201
05.02.2024, 7 pm, “M’r welle en neu Stadt baue”, Historical Archive, Eifelwall
06.02.2024, 3.30 pm, Council
01-07.04.2023 Housing Action Week 2024
07-09.06.2024 The 10th Right to the City Forum in Berlin https://rechtaufstadt-forum.de/
10-11.06.2024 Assisted living after release from prison
11.09.2024 Day of the homeless
For a city without homelessness
For a city without evictions
For a city without drug-related deaths
For a city without violence against women and children
For a city without deportations
For a city without poverty
January 27, 2024
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
PS
Appeal for donations
We need money to further improve our public relations work:
Donation account MachMit! e.V. IBAN: DE53370501981011342704
Purpose: Action alliance
To discuss further actions, we will meet on Monday, February 5, 2024 at 7 pm at “Recht auf Stadt Köln” in the open meeting place of the Bürgerzentrum Alte Feuerwache
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
