Under the motto “Get through the winter warm and full” demonstrated last Friday, the 21.10.2022, around eight hundred people in downtown Kassel for a winter of solidarity and solidarity politics in the crisis.
a guest article by Marlene Lauter
The demonstration marched through the city center, from the town hall via the star and main station. With amplified voices and drums, the demonstrators could not be ignored. They shouted slogans, how “Strike, Strike, Strike is the motto – We are not paying for your crisis!” They criticized the federal government's current handling of the energy crisis, called for a redistribution of wealth to finance the costs of the crisis and the overcoming of capitalism as the cause of such crises.
The demonstrators loudly denounced the current grievances in their speeches. In 13 Speeches from different groups and institutions addressed inflation and the energy price crisis and highlighted them with different focuses. The central topic was the profits of large energy companies, while “pointless pseudo solutions, like one-off payments” those who should calm down, the “keep the system running”, as the grassroots group Communism Kassel criticizes. According to the action alliance, crisis profiteers must be made to pay and relief for society must be introduced: Rent cap, Higher wages and benefits. Cold classrooms and increased cafeteria prices will particularly affect children and young people from poor families. Right at the beginning, well-known protagonists of the local lateral thinking scene tried to provoke the demonstration, However, they were prevented from doing so by attentive demonstrators, continue to participate.
The action alliance “Social protest Kassel” was founded this autumn in view of the impending crisis winter with different groups, including the LEFT party, Climate Justice Kassel, the ver.di Youth North Hesse and the left-wing alliance “Not on our backs” Kassel. This is planning various activities in Kassel over the next few weeks, which are intended to bring people together on the streets and over warm food.
