The Left Berlin News & Comment

This is the archive template

Category: Articles

In memory of Ozzy Osbourne

Looking back at Ozzy Osbourne’s incredible and notorious legacy


02/08/2025

He built the foundation for an entire musical genre so beloved by its fans that it has taken on many of the characteristics of a religion. His show The Osbournes established the template which created, for worse or for worse, reality TV as we know it. He urinated on the Alamo resulting in a decade-long ban from San Antonio, snorted ants up his nose, and, intoxicated beyond belief, “mistakenly” bit the heads off of two doves which he had intended to dramatically release during a meeting with record label executives. He left us with such memorable quotes as “I am Burrito Man” and “Who the fuck is Justin Bieber?”. He was one of the world’s most beloved performers whose influence transcends genres and styles. After years of struggling with Parkinson’s disease, after surviving a quad accident, and after decades of substance abuse, Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness, has made his last bow sober and surrounded by love. His funeral procession was accompanied by tens of thousands of devoted fans crying “Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy oi oi oi!” through the streets of Birmingham. Ozzy’s final performance raised over 190 million dollars—to be split between Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Acorn’s Children’s Hospice, and Cure Parkinson’s—surpassing every other charity concert in history, including 1985’s Live Aid—a truly rock’n’roll exit to the man who exemplified the rock’n’roll life.

John Michael Osbourne was born to a working-class family in Birmingham, England on 3 December 1948. Raised in an area where the only possible futures seemed to reside in factory labor, “Ozzy” met bass-player Terence “Geezer” Butler after posting an ad in a local music shop (“Ozzy Zig Needs a Gig”). The two musicians eventually united with guitar player Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, forming the Polka Tulk Blues Band, then the band Earth, before finally settling on the name “Black Sabbath”. Inspired by the effect horror films had on people, the band crafted an image that was ominous and frightening, with Ozzy bringing a fitting dash of comedy into the mix.

Known for his showmanship and stage antics—from hoisting the late-great guitar hero Randy Rhoads into the air mid-solo to the silly but somehow contagiously energetic jumping jacks and clapping of his later years—an Ozzy concert was a spectacle indeed. A man of contradictions, Ozzy Osbourne always seemed comically out of place surrounded by the wealth and privilege he enjoyed for much of his adult life, resulting in hilarious moments like this gem where he reflects on his working-class character and determination to do his own chores from his Beverly Hills mansion while being served meals that look like they should be in an art gallery instead of on a plate.

Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath!

Formed by Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward, Black Sabbath laid the foundation for heavy metal music while surrounded by the tense and constant beats of Birmingham’s industrial machinery. In fact, industry played more than a symbolic role in the development of Black Sabbath’s sound—guitarist Tony Iommi lost bits of his fingers in an accident on his last day of work at a sheet metal factory. Persevering with a set of plastic fingertips he made for himself, the new difficulties of playing led Iommi to detune his guitar, slackening the strings, resulting in a much darker tone. Combine this with Bill Ward’s swinging drumbeats, Geezer Butler’s bluesy baselines and ominous lyrics, and Ozzy Osbourne’s melodies and incredible vocals, which managed to haunt even as they soared, and you have the perfect recipe for a heavy metal origin story.

Black Sabbath released a total of nineteen studio albums with numerous lineup changes between 1970 and 2013, though it is the original Ozzy-fronted lineup that produced the band’s most successful work. The band’s self-titled debut was a groundbreaking mixture of horror-inspired blues and rock’n’roll. The artwork on Black Sabbath perfectly captures the mood of the album, with a menacing figure gazing directly at you against a busy and unsettling background. The title track opens to the sound of rain and is premised on a tritone, the so-called “devil’s interval”. Osbourne’s haunting voice enters with fearful questions:

“What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn ‘round quick and start to run
Find out I’m the chosen one
Oh no!”

Heavy metal was born.

The band’s sophomore album Paranoid featured what would become some of the band’s most famous songs, the title track becoming a radio hit. Fueled by the growing sentiment against the invasion of Vietnam, “War Pigs” continues to serve as a powerful protest anthem and has been covered by artists ranging from Faith No More to T-Pain. Then there is “Iron Man” (no, not the Marvel character), with its thundering riff that, to this day, is often the first thing new guitarists learn to play (making it the bane of music store employees around the world).

The Ozzy-fronted Sabbath continued to release a number of now classic albums including Master of Reality, Vol. 4, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. However, after the release of the band’s eighth album Never Say Die! internal frustrations, drug abuse, and accusations against Osbourne’s notorious unreliability reached a pinnacle. Osbourne was kicked out of the band and replaced by Ronnie James Dio, who would eventually reform the band as Heaven and Hell.

Ozzy Zig needs a gig (again)

Following his dismissal from Black Sabbath and a stint of coke-fueled melancholy, Osbourne got back on the horse and began putting together a band for his solo debut with the assistance of the notorious music manager Don Arden and his daughter Sharon Arden (now Sharon Osbourne). The album Blizzard of Ozz featured the talents of Don Airey on keyboards, Bob Daisley on bass, Lee Kerslake on drums, and Quiet Riot’s Randy Rhoads on guitar. Daisley’s excellent writing and Rhoads’ blistering guitar skills, which injected an element of high-speed “classical” music into Osbourne’s blues-rock style, paved the way for success. Blizzard of Ozz would eventually be certified 5x platinum in the United States and contained several of Osbourne’s greatest hits—what rock playlist is complete without “Crazy Train”?

Osbourne’s solo success continued with the followup album Diary of a Madman and its creeping but mesmerizing title-track, alongside more bombastic hits like “Over the Mountain” and “Flying High Again”. Then tragedy struck. In 1982 the band’s tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, offered to take Rhoads and Rachel Youngblood (who was in charge of make-up and costumes) on a flight in a small airplane. Behaving recklessly, Aycock clipped the tour bus with the wing of the aircraft, where Ozzy and Sharon were then sleeping, breaking the plane’s wing and leading to a fatal crash that killed Aycock, Rhoads, and Youngblood. Rhoads’ tenure with Osbourne, his display of musical genius and his charismatic showmanship which meshed so perfectly with Osbourne’s stage persona, have become permanently sewn into the tapestry of heavy metal mythology.

A long farewell

Those who have been following Osbourne’s musical career for a long time have likely seen the musician’s “last” show a number of times. From the “No More Tours” tour in 1992 (undone by the 1995 “Retirement Sucks Tour”) to the comically titled “No More Tours II” in 2018, plus Black Sabbaths’ “The End” tour in 2016-17 (following the band’s release of 13, the first album with Osbourne since 1978) one might be forgiven for thinking that Ozzy Osbourne would go on playing forever. And in a way, he did—living up to the principles of heavy metal excess, Ozzy quite literally rocked right to the end.

Osbourne’s final show, the “Back to the Beginning” charity event in Birmingham, was an homage to heavy metal history and Ozzy’s defining role in it. The event brought together a veritable “who’s who” of rock royalty. Hosted by the guitar legend and socialist activist Tom Morello, band after band took the stage showcasing the development of the genre pioneered by Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates over five decades ago. Each band was afforded time to play some of their own hits plus covers of Ozzy or Black Sabbath songs (Halestorm’s rendition of “Perry Mason” and Slayer’s performance of “Wicked World” were notable highlights). Metallica’s James Hetfield praised metal’s founding fathers, stating “without Sabbath there would be no Metallica” during a set which saw metal’s largest act dish out some Black Sabbath deep cuts.

Osbourne took to the stage on a throne and, despite his physical impairments, still managed to exude a tremendous amount of energy and emotion from his seated position. Seeming to tear up during his final performance of “Mama I’m Coming Home”, Ozzy thanked the audience proclaiming “you have no idea how I feel, thank you from the bottom of my heart”. It was an incredible farewell, and before the fun got underway Ozzy was even able to witness Slipknot’s Sid Wilson make a marriage proposal to his daughter Kelly Osbourne (in typical fashion, Ozzy didn’t miss a beat, joking “Fuck off! You’re not marrying my daughter!”). After his passing, Sabbath cofounder Tony Iommi acknowledged the mounting challenges to Ozzy’s health and remarked that Ozzy likely “just held out to do that show”, determined to say one final goodbye.

A career of controversies

Unfortunately, the “Back to the Beginning” event was not without controversy. A recorded appearance by Marilyn Manson, the infamous shock-rocker embroiled in a number of sexual assault and abuse allegations, brought boos from the otherwise jubilant crowd. Further booing emerged with the appearance of Disturbed frontman David Draiman, a notorious Zionist who has been photographed signing Israeli artillery shells as that state continues its genocidal campaign against the people of Palestine. A number of pro-Zionist writers have attempted to claim Ozzy himself as one of their own following the singer’s death. An op-ed by one Nicole Lampert celebrates Ozzy’s “defense of Israel” on the grounds that he has twice performed there and that his wife Sharon has regurgitated Zionist talking points, for example through her ridiculous criticism of Kneecap.

Ozzy sometimes remarked on his distance from political matters, a privilege for someone whose luxurious life was largely managed for him. While it doesn’t seem sufficient to accuse Ozzy of holding any specific beliefs purely due to Sharon’s remarks (and while the conflation of Ozzy’s and Sharon’s actions has been a frequent source of sexist accusations within the discourse of the metal community), it is also insufficient to use his notorious irresponsibility as a shield from criticism. Sharon arrogantly dismissed criticism over Ozzy’s playing in Israel on the grounds that “we play where we want to play”. Equally frustrating is the presence of Ozzy and Sharon’s signatures on a letter demanding an inquiry into the BBC over a documentary it released on Gaza, alleging “bias against Israel”. Those attempting to claim Ozzy as a “fierce Zionist” through appeals to the beliefs of his wife seem to reject both the agency and responsibility of both individuals. Whatever Ozzy’s views might have been, it is sad that his actions were such that they provide Zionists with any claims at all—and hiding behind Sharon is no excuse.

Moreover, many aspects of the “rock ‘n roll” lifestyle were notoriously problematic and Ozzy was emblematic of many of them throughout his long career. Sadly, it is still common for fans of the genre to brush many of its worst excesses under the carpet as “just how it was”. Arguably the darkest chapter in Osbourne’s life was the attempted murder of Sharon after the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989. Having completely lost his mind and any semblance of self-control to the various substances he was abusing (“God only knows what combination he was on”, recalled Sharon) he allegedly stated “we’ve come to a decision that you’ve got to die” and attempted to strangle his wife, who was able to fend him off and signal for help. He woke the next morning in jail, completely oblivious to what he had done. Sharon dropped the legal charges against him with the insistence that he cease drinking—her dedication to rehabilitating her husband probably saved his life.

Ozzy’s legacy

Throughout his life, Ozzy played a huge role in launching the careers of many other musicians—Mötley Crüe is perhaps the biggest example. Then, of course, there was the legendary Ozzfest which Ozzy and Sharon kicked off in 1996 and continued more or less annually until 2018. The festival generally had a main stage, headlined by either Ozzy or Black Sabbath, with support from a number of heavy metal heavyweights like Slayer and System of a Down. Then there was a second stage to provide space for smaller bands to carve out a name for themselves. This proved fortuitous for a largely unknown nine-member ensemble out of Iowa during Ozzfest ‘99: Slipknot is now one of the most successful metal bands of all time. That is Ozzy’s legacy—not just the invention of an entire genre, but his love of shining the spotlight on others, ensuring that the party he started back in ‘68 never stops.

That party is now a global phenomenon. From its roots in Britain’s industrial heartland, metal has spread around the world and, as it developed, bands began to integrate the genre’s basic elements with their own cultural influences. Across Latin America, the rebellious nature of the music found new life as a way to express outrage at dictatorial regimes and the intense feelings of alienation shared by so many. Brazil’s Sepultura, arguably the most prominent band emerging from such circumstances, came from an impoverished working-class background and grew to become one of heavy metal’s most successful acts. The band formed the same day that founding member Max Cavalera heard Black Sabbath’s 1972 release, Vol. 4, for the first time.

Metal has also been the subject of academic inquiry—a collection of scholarly work on metal history titled Metal Rules the Globe is full of interesting analyses about the genre’s development in China, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Singapore, and more. The genre Ozzy helped birth has been analyzed in a number of ways regarding its relationship to class, gender, power, mysticism, and nationalism. It has also exploded into countless metal subgenres (and sub-subgenres, and sub-sub-subgenres, like “Polish Blackened Death Metal” which under no circumstances should be confused with “Atmospheric Black Metal”, “Swedish Melodic Death Metal”, “Speed Metal”, “Symphonic Metal”, or “Stoner Metal”). Ozzy’s legacy has evolved in so many directions that metal-loving anthropologist Sam Dunn produced several documentary series cataloguing the ever-evolving “Heavy Metal Family Tree”.

You can’t kill rock’n’roll

One of Ozzy’s most charming characteristics was his unassuming simplicity and the fact that, despite being a bona fide rock’n’roll god, he never stopped being a fan. Watching him onstage, as his health deteriorated over the years, he simply radiated energy and passion for what he was doing. When he could no longer run around the stage he began to run in place, doing jumping jacks and clapping his hands. When he was confined to a throne for his final performance, struggling with Parkinson’s disease and unable to hoist himself up, he rocked back and forth, tapping, stomping, anything he could manage. Whether one looks at Ozzy’s earliest performances or those of his later years, it is always clear that no matter how much fun the audience was having—he was having even more.

Rest in Power, John Michael Osbourne.

Brandon Warner is a Marxist activist with a background in philosophy and sociology. He is based in Berlin.

Germany, and Israel’s Existenzrecht

Germany’s support for Israel exposes legal hypocrisy and weaponized memory in post-Holocaust foreign policy


01/08/2025

Since October 7, 2023, relations between Germany and Israel have come under renewed scrutiny. Alongside the United States, Germany has been one of Israel’s strongest supporters since its founding in 1948. Last year, that support led to Germany being accused of complicity in genocide before the International Court of Justice.

Although Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity in Gaza were recently criticized by Chancellor Merz—who stated, “It is not acceptable what they are doing anymore”—the unique friendship between Germany and Israel remains unwavering. This relationship is the foundation of German Middle East policy: the uncompromising defense of Israel’s “right to exist” (das Existenzrecht Israels) as a matter of national raison d’état (Staatsräson).

This principle is shared across the parliamentary spectrum and underpins both the current and previous governments’ policies. Chancellor Scholz repeated it during his visit to Israel on October 18, 2023. Israel’s “right to exist” is defended tooth and nail by the Anti-Deutsch—a significant force within the extra-parliamentary left—as well as by government officials tasked with combatting antisemitism (Antisemitismusbeauftragter). To question this “right” is to end all polite discussion. Amen. It has become the civil religion of Holocaust remembrance in Germany, and Israel’s right to exist is an unquestioned article of faith in that catechism.

However, the “right of a state to exist” is not codified in international law. It is a pseudo-legal concept, better suited to Ernest Renan’s apologia for the nation (“the nation, that moral consciousness created by men of sound mind, is legitimate, it has a right to exist”). Outside of nationalist prose, state formation, like marriage, is largely a matter of will and opportunity.  In Israel’s case, its founding stemmed from UN Resolution 181. States do not possess a legal right to exist; their creation results from political claims. Even if German defenders of this concept cite various legal articles, states are formed and dissolved without any legal framework that ensures their existence. The long list of former sovereign states, such as the DDR or the Weimar Republic, bears this out. Israel’s supposed “right to exist” is unique because of its exceptional status as a result of the Holocaust.

In truth, the phrase “the existence of a state” is a metaphor—one that merges biology and politics. States do not “exist” in the living, breathing sense. They are constructs with real-world consequences, but speaking of their existence is rhetorical. A state does not cry when it is struck—not even Israel. It is people, actual human beings, who exist and are protected under international law. States may collapse, as with the Third Reich, or undergo historic defeats, but these are metaphors. Personifying a state, as if it were a sad-face emoji, is meant to elicit emotional identification. My poor little State!

In a recent communiqué, the party Die Linke (The Left) criticized a map of Palestine posted on Twitter as an unacceptable attack aimed at the “annihilation” (Auslöschung) of Israel. This reflects a purely symbolic realm of wordplay—while in reality, Gaza is being physically destroyed. Israel is not under existential threat, despite repeated claims to the contrary. Rather, since its founding, it is Israel that has threatened the physical existence of the Palestinian people. Unlike the supposed “right to exist” of a state, the rights of the people of Gaza are explicitly protected in international law, most fundamentally, the right to life.

The concept of Existenzrecht, a mix of flowery metaphor and fictional right, serves to justify Israel’s crimes: a state that claims to defend its “right to exist” by attacking unarmed civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Existenzrecht recalls another metaphor once used by a different German government. The biopolitical idea of Lebensraum (“living space”) was instrumental in justifying territorial conquest and ethnic cleansing. The German state’s demand for Lebensraum was invoked during both World Wars, notably by Hitler in the second, to legitimize expansionist violence. Similarly, the Existenzrecht metaphor is now used to excuse Israel’s occupation and war crimes in the name of an exclusively Jewish state. Germany’s version of the two-state solution.

The German government has made the defense of Zionist Lebensraum its raison d’état. But raison d’état is not a legal term—because a state’s highest values are set out in its constitution, and Israel does not appear there. Staatsräson exists in a parallel moral universe. Since Machiavelli, the concept has been defined as a moral justification for the state to do whatever is necessary for its survival. A license to kill. Like the state of exception, raison d’état represents a self-declared suspension of legality, justified by force majeure. It permits the commission of “lesser evils” (crimes) in pursuit of a higher good; for example, in the fight against terrorism. The Italian government invoked the concept during the Aldo Moro case, as documented by Leonardo Sciascia. In the German case, the higher good is unwavering support for Israel.

Clearly, there is no need to invoke raison d’état unless one must justify the commission of a crime. Supporting Gaza requires no Staatsräson, but financing a state that commits war crimes does. Inviting politicians wanted by the International Criminal Court violates Germany’s obligations under international law. To invoke Staatsräson is, in effect, an admission of guilt.

Chancellor Merz admits as much when he describes Israel’s attack on Iran as Germany’s Drecksarbeit (“dirty work”)—a phrase that conjures both an implicit admission of criminality under international law and the disturbing image of Jews performing demeaning labor on behalf of Germans. The German state not only provides moral and financial support to a regime committing heinous crimes against humanity; it also openly admits to operating outside the bounds of legality (Staatsräson), justifying this through its defense of a supposed higher good: Israel’s Existenzrecht. This justification is presented as the moral lesson Germany has drawn from its own history.

Rather than warning against its own hubris and acting as a moral conscience, Germany has allowed the memory of the Holocaust to be used in the service of justifying another genocide. The complicity of the entire parliamentary spectrum, from die Linke to the AfD, reveals the failure of German remembrance culture and casts serious doubt on the completeness of Germany’s denazification.

Riders without rights

The workers who deliver and don’t get paid


30/07/2025

For three freezing months over the winter of 2022, Sharmila, an international student from India, biked across Berlin delivering food for Wolt. She followed every ping on the app, waited outside restaurants in the cold, and messaged support when things went wrong. “I was tracking hours like an employee would,” she later said, but unlike an employee at virtually any other job, Sharmila was never paid.

Between November 2022 and January 2023, Sharmila worked through Wolt’s app, navigating a digital interface that issued orders and scheduled her shifts. But the job wasn’t with Wolt directly, at least not on paper. 

Instead, she had been routed through a third-party subcontractor or so-called ‘fleet partner’ Mobile World, a phone shop on Karl-Marx-Strasse run by a man named Ali Imran. It was Imran who collected her documents, set up her rider profile, and promised regular payments. When the first payday passed without wages, she was told there were delays. A month later, the same excuses followed. By January, Sharmila was owed over €3,200 and still hadn’t received a single cent.

She wasn’t alone.

Ashish, another international student from India, first joined Wolt in 2021 on a direct contract. He was hired through a recruitment ad, issued gear from the company’s Ostbahnhof office, and trained to use the app. The work started off steady at €4.70 per delivery, plus tips and bonuses. But over time, the bonuses were removed, the base rate was cut, and the number of orders shrank. Eventually, access to shifts disappeared completely, so Ashish left the platform, only to return months later but this time through Mobile World. By January 2023 he was owed €1,800.

Javed, a Master’s student from Pakistan, also worked directly for Wolt before his contract ended. In October 2022, he responded to a Facebook ad that led him to Mobile World. Imran told him he was recruiting for Wolt and assured him that everything—the app, the hours, the payments—would function as before. “The process was exactly the same,” Javed said. “When I asked why Wolt wasn’t doing this directly, I was told, ‘they want to hire a lot of people and use our services.’” Javed began delivering orders in good faith, but like the others, his wages also never came.

By mid-January, dozens of workers had flooded the WhatsApp group Mobile World had set up asking about their missing wages. Some shared that their rents were due. Others said they were owed even more than Sharmila or Ashish. Then came a final message from Imran: Wolt hadn’t paid him, so he wouldn’t be paying them. Any work after January 15th, he said, would be at their own risk. After that, he disappeared.

Some riders, increasingly desperate, attempted to contact Wolt directly through support chats, email, and even by showing up at the company’s office. But their appeals were met with silence or deflection. Wolt insisted it bore no responsibility, referring all complaints back to the subcontractor.

“The scale of the deception didn’t immediately register,” Javed said. “This is such a big company. We still thought the amounts would come because this was Germany.” But Germany, it turns out, is exactly where a multinational can hide behind layers of legal opacity and leave its workers unpaid.

What began as a student job to make ends meet soon turned into a fight for wages, recognition and justice. In June, Sharmila brought her case to Berlin’s labour court. She argued that the subcontracting structure Wolt had built was not a genuine partnership with independent operators, but a deliberate system to avoid labour law while retaining control over the work.

The court disagreed and Sharmila didn’t receive her owed earnings. It found there was insufficient evidence to prove a direct employment relationship with Wolt. The decision underscored how platform companies can design their operations to escape responsibility while still directing every part of the job.

According to workers’ collectives supporting the case, more than 120 couriers have reported similar experiences, with over €100,000 in unpaid wages linked to subcontractors operating under Wolt’s name.

A business model designed for distance

Wolt’s defence, like many digital labour platforms, depends not just on the physical distance between rider and office, but on legal distance. They essentially create a chain of subcontracting that separates them from liability. In the courtroom, lawyers for Wolt insisted the company had nothing to do with Sharmila’s employment. She had signed a contract with IMOQX GmbH (trading as Mobile World), and any failure to pay was theirs to answer for.

But Sharmila’s daily reality told a different story. She received orders through Wolt’s app, responded to Wolt’s support system, and was bound by its shift-booking rules and geofenced delivery zones. When the company had previously employed workers directly, the interface was identical. As were the tasks. What had changed was not the job, only the line on the contract where the employer’s name appeared.

Aju Ghevarghese John, a Berlin-based lawyer and researcher has been supporting many of the riders’ cases. He believes it’s not a bureaucratic accident or loophole, but a designed legal architecture meant to obscure accountability, saying, “The subcontractor model is built to make workers disappear from the platform’s responsibilities.” The couriers, he explained, operate in a legal twilight zone, hired and managed in practice by Wolt, but not recognised in law. “Even when the platform decides everything about the job—where the worker goes, how fast, how much they get paid, the company can say: ‘we are not the employer.’”

Germany’s labour protections, but not for everyone

The case against Wolt exposes more than one bad subcontractor. It lays bare how Germany’s legal framework, while robust on paper, fails to protect those most dependent on it: migrant workers operating on the fringes of formal employment.

Sharmila, Ashish, and Javed weren’t undocumented. Like hundreds of others, they arrived in Germany on student visas or skilled worker pathways—legal, regulated, and vetted. But once inside the country, the system that brought them in left them to navigate a digital labour market with no oversight. “These workers are being brought in through formal schemes,” explains John, “but once they arrive, they’re not integrated into any institutional systems. There is no training or language support, no workplace induction, no orientation to their rights.”

In that vacuum, subcontracting thrives. Fleet partners often charge illegal onboarding fees of up to €500, skim wages, and pay workers in cash. Riders are routinely left without payslips, proper contracts, or any legal documentation of what they’ve earned, making it nearly impossible to file a claim later. 

It’s also not just lost wages that riders are burdened with. Equipment used for deliveries—e-bikes, charging kits, thermal bags—is often leased in the rider’s own name. “It’s a system where the platform doesn’t own the equipment, but it’s leased out in the rider’s name,” said John. “So if anything goes wrong, the liability falls entirely on them.”

And when things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong. In at least two cases, faulty lithium battery chargers for the e-bikes sparked fires in workers’ apartments, destroying not only the bikes but also their homes, documents, and belongings. No compensation or support was offered. “The risk is completely shifted onto the workers,” said John. “The company designs the structure, profits from the labour, but the worker is the one who’s legally and financially exposed.”

Paper rights, no reinforcement

Germany has some of the strongest labour protections in Europe, but many of them function more as theoretical safeguards than enforceable rights when applied to migrant gig workers. That’s not because the laws are weak, but because they depend on enforcement mechanisms that barely exist in sectors like food delivery.

For John, the problem isn’t the law, it’s who the law listens to. “Implementation of labour law in Germany is dependent to a large extent on union density,” said John. “In a sector such as this, where there is such low union density, the actual implementation of labour law will also be very minimal.”

And that union density is low for a reason. Many workers in this industry don’t join unions—not out of apathy, but because the work is so precarious. For international students and newly arrived migrants, the job is seen as temporary, a way to survive between semesters or status transitions. Platforms exploit that short-termism to keep workers atomised and disposable.

Without unions, workers lack not just bargaining power, but access to legal advice, grievance channels, and collective visibility. It’s not that riders are outside the law, it’s that the law doesn’t follow them into the app-based gig economy.

The EU has recognised this gap. In 2026, the Platform Work Directive is due to take effect, introducing a presumption of employment and holding companies jointly liable for abuses by subcontractors. But until then enforcement will depend on what Germany chooses to do with the laws it already has. And right now, the platforms are still a step ahead.

What you can do

It’s easy to forget that behind every food delivery is a person pedalling through traffic, in rain or snow, to bring a meal they might never afford themselves. And while the apps promise convenience and efficiency to customers, they conceal a system where the people doing the hardest work are also those with the fewest rights.

Workers like Sharmila, Ashish and Javed are not anomalies. They represent a growing share of the platform economy, where flexibility often masks exploitation, and where a missed paycheck can mean unpaid rent, mounting debt, or even legal jeopardy. These aren’t problems the algorithm can solve. They require public attention, legal pressure, and solidarity.

It may be tempting to respond with a boycott. But for many riders, these jobs are among the only ones available. International students and migrant workers face restrictions on working hours, language barriers, and unstable residency, all of which limit access to more secure employment. As flawed as the platform economy is, it often remains one of the few entry points into paid work. Boycotting it won’t fix the structure and might only make life harder for those already struggling in it.

But if you are ordering food through one of these platforms, there are ways to support the people delivering it for you: 

  • Start by tipping in cash when you can. Many riders — especially those working under subcontractors — never receive tips added through the app, as those earnings are often withheld, miscalculated, or quietly siphoned away. A cash tip goes directly into their hands.
  • You can also support the grassroots organisations stepping in where the law has fallen short. Groups like Berlin Workers Support, Lieferando Workers Collective, and the Migrant Workers Solidarity Movement offer legal aid, organise demonstrations, and help riders challenge the systems that keep them invisible. These organisations are often the only shield between precarious workers and the full weight of legal and corporate indifference.
  • And perhaps most importantly, talk to the riders themselves. As John put it, “If you want to know what’s really going on, talk to the workers, ask them how they’re being paid, how they got the job, who they report to.” Listening to their experiences cuts through the abstraction and makes the system visible. Then sharing what you learn is a first step in pushing back against the silence these companies rely on.

So, the next time a delivery arrives at your door, consider the labour that made it possible. Not just the ride across town, but the ongoing fight for recognition, dignity and a fair wage that too often remains invisible.

Please note, all the riders’ names mentioned are aliases.

Filipinos, solidarity allies hold People’s SONA outside PH Embassy

Report from an action in Berlin, 28th July 2025


Filipinos and solidarity allies gathered outside the Philippine Embassy for the Filipino People’s State of the Nation Address (SONA)—a bold counter to the official narrative delivered annually by the Marcos-Duterte regime.

Organized by ALPAS Pilipinas, Gabriela Germany, Migrante Germany, Bayan-EU, and RESBAK Germany, with support from BPSO (Berlin Philippines Solidarity Organisation) and ICHRP (International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines) Germany, the protest was one of over 30 actions worldwide exposing the truth behind the glossy government address.

Speakers condemned the Marcos regime’s neglect of national crises, its deepening foreign dependency, and continued repression. ALPAS slammed Marcos’ recent U.S. visit amid deadly monsoon rains and flash floods in the Philippines. “While the Filipino people were literally drowning, Marcos was breaking bread with the likes of Donald Trump and selling off […] our sovereignty,” said ALPAS Pilipinas. They noted how Marcos has been accommodating foreign military interests, and how Germany, too, is complicit through the signing of a recent Germany-Philippines defense agreement.

Gabriela and Migrante spotlighted worsening conditions for women and migrant workers, linking mass migration to poverty and systemic injustice. Gabriela renewed its urgent call for a national minimum wage of ₱1,200/day, saying it’s a step toward “economic justice and dignity for every Filipino worker.” Migrante added that “Filipinos face backbreaking workloads, racism, and discrimination abroad, and this is the direct result of poverty and joblessness at home. Migration is a right, but it should never be forced by desperation.”

RESBAK and solidarity allies decried human rights abuses and the expansion of U.S.-led military influence in the region. BAYAN-EU exposed elite impunity, denouncing dynastic rule, corruption, and militarized governance. “He upholds the very machinery Duterte built—one that silences the people while protecting dynasties and plunderers.” 

As Marcos enters his his fourth year in power, Berlin’s People’s SONA echoed a growing global call: Marcos Singilin, Duterte Panagutin!

Photo Gallery: Internationalist Queer Pride 2025

Berlin-Neukölln, Saturday 26th July 2025


29/07/2025