Current Affairs: Housing Rights of Workers

There are moves afoot to change things in the housing rental sector across Europe and especially in Berlin, Germany. There are moves afoot to block the changes suggested for housing rental properties in Berlin, Germany. What is especially interesting about these two actions is that they are political, and partially from the same political parties. The main political party elected to govern the City of Berlin, Die Linke, has been forced into building a coalition with two other political parties, the Sozialdemokratische Partie Deutschlands (SPD) and Bündnis 90 / die Grünen, in order to gain a parliamentary majority. Whether a working coalition will come to be remains to be seen, regardless of any agreements or contracts which might be signed.

One of the sticking points for the political parties not involved in the negotiations, is the plan put forward by the left-wing Die Linke to nationalise housing property companies owning or operating more than three thousand rental apartments, a move which has gained widespread support from people renting, and especially from younger voters. This target has, however, already been watered down in negotiations to form the ruling body in the Berlin parliament to any company operating or owning more than ten thousand properties, of which there are several, a decision which has caused some anger on the streets. And while it still targets several of the main property companies controlling the market and abusing their position with filthy living conditions and high rental prices, it is a good move forward.

The main ruling political parties in Germany, outside of the local parliament of Berlin, do not see it this way. Still trapped within the grip of capitalist financial dependency, and in contrast to their claimed political and social aims, they are now discussing ways of preventing the Berlin City government from effectively legislating and doing its job. Whether this will be constitutionally allowed or not remains for the courts to decide, should the main political parties pursue their plans, but the problem of housing has been around since well before some of them were even created:

Those who closely follow the development of ideas among the workers have noticed that a consensus is emerging among them, almost imperceptibly, on a very important issue: the housing question. It is undeniable that in the major cities of France, and in many smaller ones as well, the workers are increasingly concluding that housing should by no means be the property of those whom the state recognises as its owners.

This development is taking place in people’s minds, and it will no longer be possible to convince the workers that owning their homes is a just thing.

Peter Kropotkin (Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин) (1842 – 1921), The Conquest of Bread (1892)

This is a similar action to what we have seen elsewhere, where the leaders of the Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU), a right-wing conservative sister party to the Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU) in Baveria, have demanded sanctions against Die Linke and the cutting back of federal funding, but supported the extreme right-wing Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) being funded after election successes in former East German States. It must also be noted that the CDU, ruling party in Germany at present, is following a reform process which cuts back on education, health care and welfare support; their attack on the plans of the Berlin City government falling well within their proposed anti-citizen cutbacks and attacks against the poorer levels of German society.

Following the mainly peaceful demonstrations by followers of the Gen Z regelt movement, it will have been noted that the government pointed their fingers not to the problems which the younger generation were demonstrating about, but to the small incidents of violence at the periphery, and decided to address these rather than social needs. With a German Chancellor completely blind to anything but his own desires, and needless of the people he was elected to care for, it will come as no surprise to anyone looking into German politics and society when the younger generation, and many others caught within the spiraling costs of rising property prices and rent, go back out onto the streets to vent their frustrations. The government, it will clearly be seen, is incapable of reading the room, has only its own interests at heart, and no one else to blame when political parties such as Die Linke and AfD are elected in their place. The time of the so-called social parties, and especially of those parties claiming Christian values, are numbered.