Experiences in dealing with classism in a collective of political education and project work.
Our contribution in the book “Solidarity against Classism – Organize, Intervene, Redistribute,” edited by Francis Seeck and Brigitte Theißl, from page 117.
The basic idea of a collective is that everyone has equal say, everyone has the same rights—everyone counts equally. But what if everyone never has the same prerequisites to thrive in self-organized, grassroots democratic collaboration and to find their own role? If a collective takes its mission seriously, then it means perceiving differences and acknowledging that people have different levels of privilege and are discriminated against—classism being one of many forms of discrimination. Then it's about practicing dealing with these differences in solidarity. It sounds plausible, but it's challenging in practice, but there's no way around it.
In the article, Charlotte and Nadine talk about how we at Konzeptwerk are trying to deal with classism together in solidarity and sensitivity.
On the one hand, it is about how challenging it was – or is – for people who come from working-classhouseholds and/or are discriminated against in the context of classism. A seemingly casual conversation about politics over lunch is natural for some – stressful for others, for some something they have been used to since childhood – for others it is unsettling and has never been part of their world. Although the workersEven though all the children at Konzeptwerk have studied, this difference still exists. And it has many facets: Who can actually explain to their own parents what we do at Konzeptwerk? Who often questions whether their own work is actually good enough? Who catches up on the occasional political debate at home after work so they can really participate? Who finds it easy or difficult to talk about money within our wage model? And so on.
Since around 2016, we at Konzeptwerk have been actively addressing various forms of discrimination—including classism—partly as part of a power-critical process. We have identified who is affected by these issues and created empowerment spaces for this group, provided internal training, and shared books, podcasts, etc.
An important element is how we try to talk about money in the concept workshop. For example, we know not only everyone's wages, but also their wealth and class background. We talk about how our background and current financial situation shape our relationship with money. This is also challenging, and we learn a lot together in the process – and it can also be empowering to discuss the often taboo topic of money together.
Building on this, we strive to structure our salary model as solidarity-based as possible. This means that our salary doesn't primarily depend on qualifications or "performance." Instead, we try to consider what people need to feel financially secure. To this end, we have a model that we use to first classify ourselves and then discuss our salary expectations in small groups, before deciding on them as a group.
As a third element, we also strive to collaborate with organizations that explicitly represent groups discriminated against by classism, and we intend to pay even more attention to accessible language in our public relations and project work in the future. We're continuing on this path. And for us, there's no question that political solutions are always needed in addition – for a redistribution of wealth at the level of society as a whole.