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Vivantes Hospital Strike: Workers Victorious After Month-Long Walkout

An outline agreement will see nurses compensated for understaffed shifts with cash payouts and time off


14/10/2021

The healthcare strike in Berlin is over. After one month, the state-owned hospital owner Vivantes on Tuesday said it was ready to lighten the load on its nursing staff. Vivantes was following the lead of the university hospital Charité, which had agreed an outline deal with the service union Verdi last week. Both sides now aim to hammer out a “Relief Pay Agreement” (Entlastungstarifvertrag) for nursing staff by the end of November.

Heike von Gradolewski-Ballin, lead negotiator from Verdi, said on Tuesday: “With the agreement on key points, we are a big step closer to our goal of achieving lasting workload relief for workers at Vivantes.” She said it had been possible to reach this goal “because the workforce had stood up firmly for its interests: with protests, with determination, and with stamina.” She said the agreement had not only made the healthcare profession more attractive, but also made patient care significantly safer.

Movement successful

Sylvia Bühler, member of Verdi’s national committee, also welcomed the agreement. “Today’s agreement with Vivantes is another important success for our movement for more staff and workload relief in German hospitals,” she was quoted as saying in a press release on Tuesday. She said there were now similar agreements in place for 18 major hospitals in Germany. “Once again workers in the healthcare system have shown that they will no longer be fobbed off by politicians and bosses, but will push through their demands for more staff through workplace struggle.”

The stated aim of the pay agreement is to reduce the workload of workers in nursing above all – clearly, measurably and for the long term. Among other things, the agreement sets out how many patients will be looked after by how many staff in each shift. Should this guideline later not be adhered to, workers will receive clearly defined time off in lieu.

For this purpose, so-called “Vivantes-Freizeitpunkte” (time-off points) will be given out. For example, a nurse will get a point if they have to work on an understaffed ward for one shift. From 2022, for each 9 accumulated points nurses will get one shift off or a payout of €150. A year later, this compensation will be given for just 7 points; in the year 2024, for 5 points.

There won’t, however, be an unlimited number of days off. In 2022, the number will be capped at 6, in 2023 at 10 and in 2024 at 15 days off. After that any further points will be compensated by payouts.

There should also be more support for those who want to train in nursing. Among other things the minimum duration of on-the-job training will be set out. As well as that, trainees will be given a laptop computer, for both work and personal use. At the end of the training it will then become the property of the trainee. Furthermore, trainees will get a job offer by the end of their second year of training.

Strikes as self-defence

In the end Bühler held federal health minister Jens Spahn (CDU) responsible for the strike. She said it was shameful that he had made it necessary for workers in the health system to strike for weeks on end for better staffing levels. “The strikes of hospital workers for workload relief were self-defence, because Mr Spahn has failed to set adequate staffing for hospitals into law,” said Bühler. She said the new federal government must quickly make binding arrangements for adequate staffing. A first step would be to implement the “PPR 2.0” staffing level measurement system – which was put forward by the German Hospitals Association, the German Nursing Council and Verdi at the start of 2020 – in the governing coalition agreement, she said.

Although the basic agreement has been reached with the nursing staff, the workplace struggle is not yet over. Verdi is still aiming for the public sector pay scale (TvÖD) to be applied to all employees of Vivantes subsidiaries. The negotiations will continue today, moderated by the former mayor of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck (SPD).

The Berlin Hospitals’ Association (BKG) had already warned against this last Friday. If workers of the service companies of the state-owned hospitals were paid according to the public sector pay scale, it argued, competition might be distorted at the expense of other Berlin hospitals. It said service workers in cleaning, logistics and catering, for example, are paid according to pay scales that are typical for the respective sectors. If they were instead paid according to the public sector pay scale, workers at other hospitals might move to the state-owned ones, or make similar pay demands. The other hospitals would not be able to afford that, because their costs are not underwritten by the state.

This article appeared in German in Junge Welt. Translation by Tom Wills.

Greece. One Year After the Conviction of Golden Dawn, the Struggle Continues

The continuing crisis in Greece and the failures of the New Democracy government have caused Nazi violence to rise. But anti-Nazis are still vigilant.


11/10/2021

October 7th marked one year since the historic verdict which sent the leadership and cadres of Nazi Golden Dawn (GD) to jail, and ruled that the entire party is but a criminal organization disguised as a legitimate political party. As written on this webpage, it was “a clear victory for the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement, but the struggle still goes on”. This seems to be correct, as approaching the anniversary it became clear that Greek society is deeply polarized, socially and politically.

The events in Thessaloniki…

Let’s take the facts: September 17th, 8 years after the murder of anti-Nazi rapper Pavlos Fyssas by GD thugs, saw a powerful demonstration in his neighborhood, Keratsini, commemorating Pavlos and all the victims of fascist and racist violence and supporting refugees and immigrants. Anti-racist organizations had already announced various mobilizations to take place between October 7th and 10th in order to celebrate the victory over GD. At the same time, the remnants of the criminal organization, tiny (but armed and dangerous) fractions made an effort to take the streets.

On September 22nd, students leafleting outside the Technical Secondary School in Stavroupoli, a suburb at the west of Thessaloniki ,were brutally attacked by a group of Nazis calling themselves “The Sacred Band”, armed with knives and sticks. An anti-fascist protest called outside the school, one week after this attack, by university associations was met with unprecedented violence by the Nazis, who escalated with Molotov cocktails, sticks and stones. Two students were hurt.

This sparked an anti-fascist outburst across Thessaloniki, as trade unions (including teachers, and food delivery workers), anti-racist organizations and political parties of the left condemned Nazi violence and called for resistance to the menace, both in the schools and in the streets. On the 29th of September, a massive protest was organized at the central square of Stavroupoli, where 4000 protesters denounced the Nazis and defended the students.

This was a critical moment. The Golden Dawn webpage rushed to declare support “to the school students who resist Marxists and communists”. At the same time the Ministry of Education issued a shameful statement, claiming that there is an issue of “extremes” in the schools, which has to be managed and criticizing the teachers as incapable of imposing law and order!

The answer came from the local teachers union (ELME), which denounced the ministry during a press-conference they gave outside the school on October 1st, and announced that the 7th of October would be a day dedicated to anti-Nazi activity in all schools.

The following days saw an effort of the “Sacred Band” to re-locate their focus to the near-by neighborhood of Evosmos, only to find themselves isolated by new anti-fascist demonstrations. Losing the battle of the streets, what they finally did, was to corner a group of Communist Party (KKE) members, who were leafleting in another area (Ilioupoli) the following day and attack them, injuring one of them, before some passers-by noticed and chased them out of the place.

…and in Athens

The same day, Sunday, another tiny group of Nazi thugs, namely “Pro-Patria” attacked KEERFA members (Movement United against Fascism and the Fascist Threat), this time in Athens at the neighborhood of Neo Iraklio, while the latter were preparing a local open meeting on the GD defeat anniversary. The attack was of a military type as well: A gang of fifteen thugs beat 4 KEERFA members, sending 2 of them to hospital, then tried to open a banner with the slogan “Anti-Antifa”(!) and grab the microphone, without success.

Calling for solidarity to the anti-fascists, the neighborhood rushed to show solidarity and stopped them. Police forces showed up 20 minutes later, confessing that they had orders “not to get involved in any fights”. Nevertheless, because of the immediate mobilization, the leader of the gang was arrested a few hours later and brought to court for assault! The meeting finally took place.

Following all these provocations, one can figure that the mobilizations planned on October 7th outside the court and on October 9th in the center of Athens and in several other cities were massive and successful, despite repression by the police. This time it was the riot police who did the dirty work. I was at Saturday’s demo, organized by KEERFA in central Athens and I witnessed unexpected assaults with teargas against activists and refugees who had come with their little children to the demonstration! But they could not stop us from holding the speeches and then marching to Parliament.

Are the Nazis back?

Following the events, it is reasonable to consider that there is a comeback of the Nazis on the Greek political stage. The threat is obvious, as all conditions are still here: Greece is deeply indebted since the austerity (aka stabilization) programs of 2010-15 and, despite payment extensions because of the COVID crisis, it is hard to conceal that the economy is in trouble. Stagflation is here, prices are soaring and the bosses demand more sacrifices.

The government of New Democracy has given everything to the capitalists. For the first time since being elected prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his cabinet, which includes three (not so) redeemed far-right ministers, do not enjoy acceptance in the polls. On the contrary there is open discontent and resistance all over the country; here lies the cause of polarization.

Salaries are stagnating and the unemployment rate is one of the highest in Europe, but Greece is buying “Rafale” airplanes and frigate battleships and playing the racist card against immigrants and refugees. Greek border police, in collaboration with the notorious Frontex, have faced confirmed accusations of kidnapping and pushing refugees back to drown in the Aegean Sea. The government is building new camp-prisons, exclusively for refugees! This is the perfect racist fuel, it has assisted the Nazis in coming out of their isolation and demanding space in the streets and neighborhoods. They want to profit from political crises, nevertheless this is not 2013.

It is vital to see that since the convictions of the leaders of Golden Dawn, and despite the juridical system being soft on them (some have already been out of jail on parole), Nazi groups have been fractured and marginalized. It’s the nationalist and racist policies of the government of New Democracy that help them find supporters in the right wing audience.

Narratives like the “theory of the two extremes” (implying far-right VS far-left) have been engaged by the mainstream media against the anti-fascist movement. So far it has not worked. Trade unions, anti-fascist organizations, left parties, despite their differences have managed to stand in solidarity with each other, defend democracy and stop the menace.

This is no time for complacency, but for intensifying the political struggle against racist politics, prison camps and the policies of the government of New Democracy which pave the way for the Nazis.

The people of Berlin have spoken: it’s time for expropriation!

The referendum on the expropriation of large real estate companies exceeds expectations and achieves a large majority with a historic turnout.


10/10/2021

It was a long election night in Berlin on the 26th of September. There were four simultaneous elections: to the Bundestag, to the Abgeordnetenhaus (Berlin Chamber of Deputies), to the district councils and also the referendum Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen (DWE). The latter aims to expropriate and socialise the homes of those real estate companies that own more than 3,000 units, meaning the socialisation of some 240,000 homes across Berlin into public hands. During the count, the last data to be published were those of the referendum. The first results and the first estimates made the activists jump out of their chairs: the referendum obtained broad support, which was confirmed as the hours went by, while a historic turnout (75%) gave the referendum a strong legitimacy.

The final result was 59.1% support for the referendum on the valid vote (56.4% counting the invalid vote) and 40.9% against (39% with the invalid vote). The message of more than one million Berliners was clear. It is time to expropriate the big real estate companies, socialise housing and return it to public hands, stopping the real estate and financial capital that has plundered Berlin in the last decades.

This result does not take into account that almost a quarter of Berlin’s adult population, could not vote. That is those without German nationality, but who are particularly unprotected from a predatory market due to their precarious situation, and are especially discriminated against in the housing market with xenophobic and racist practices. In this sense, within DWE, the group ‘Right to the City’ for all has managed to involve and mobilise a part of the population that was on the margins of the campaign. This was the migrant communities who often do not feel they are appealed to. They now demanded both the right to housing for all and the right to vote for all. Because fair socialisation cannot happen without the support of a quarter of the population.

What next?

However, the referendum is non-binding and therefore depends on the will of the deputies sitting in the Abgeordnetenhaus and the new Berlin government. That will emerge from the negotiations to implement and enforce the referendum. The Berlin elections resulted in a Social Democratic victory for the SPD (21.4%), several points ahead of the Greens (18.9%) and the Christian Democrats of the CDU (18.1%). Behind – Die Linke, the left, with 14% and far behind, the far-right AfD (8%) and the liberals of the FDP (7.2%). The political chessboard forces a tripartite government, or at least a three-way negotiation to form a government (even if one of the actors in the negotiation later decides not to enter the government).

In this context, the SPD is piloting these negotiations with a candidate for mayor, Franziska Giffey. who had already in the campaign refused to expropriate the real estate companies regardless of the result. But who after the DWE’s resounding victory and internal pressure in her party, she has had to moderate her words and speaks of respecting the referendum, albeit in a vague way. The Greens will be a certain travelling companion in this new government. During the campaign, they showed reserved support for DWE, arguing that expropriation should be a last resort to control the housing market. It is worth remembering that we are at a last resort today, in a highly stressed market. Recall the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe overturned the “Mietendeckel” law of the previous left-wing coalition government where Die Linke housing senator Katrin Lompscher, had frozen price rises for five years and lowered rental contracts above €/m2 price limits. The housing situation in Berlin, a favourite city of finance and real estate capital for rapacity, is now at a point where only radical measures such as expropriation can be applied.

The SPD and the Greens are in a three-way negotiation, where the third partner is unclear. That could be Die Linke, the only party that has supported the referendum from the outset and without “buts”. But it could also be the liberals of the FDP, a party that strongly rejects the implementation of the referendum. In this context, in which the SPD sometimes seems more inclined to govern with the FDP, the pressure to re-establish a left-wing government is growing. The youth organisations of the parties, JUSOS (SPD), Grüne Jugend (Die Grüne) and Linksjugend (Die Linke), have issued a statement in favour of a left-wing coalition. This is the government formula that is considered to be the only one that can implement the referendum. Die Linke is considered to be the only guarantee of pressure to push through the law on the expropriation and socialisation of the large real estate companies.

That is why the DWE campaign is also increasing pressure on the SPD to ensure that, on the one hand, the will of the people as expressed at the referendum is fulfilled and, on the other hand, that the SPD does not throw itself into the arms of the FDP, because that would be a very bad message. However, even if a left-wing government is formed, expropriation and socialisation are not guaranteed. The SPD or even the Greens can empty a law of its content which then does not really express the will of the people and the DWE movement. At this point, the compensation that the real estate companies should receive for the expropriated houses comes into play, and here, Die Linke. is the only party that is prepared to support the sums proposed by DWE, i.e. those that guarantee that the expropriation will be below market price. DWE and Die Linke simply want Article 14.3 of the German Constitution to be complied with regarding compensation for expropriation, which has to be aimed at the common good and be a balancing of the interests of the parties involved. Any compensation based on market value would only and exclusively defend the interests of the real estate companies and their shareholders, not those of the tenants and public administrations.

In short, an uncertain scenario is now opening up. The referendum, even if it is technically non-binding, does bind with its result the entire policy that will be developed in Berlin in the coming years. It determines the political and social agenda of the city, forces the parties to take a stand and take off their disguises. This keeps the city in a state of tense calm. A city that will not accept that the referendum is not implemented or that it is emptied of its content. Failure to implement the referendum opens up an uncertain future with unimaginable consequences. The mobilisation and the strength that DWE has generated will not be lost overnight, and betraying the will of the people could have an effect that multiplies both the strength and the scale of the struggle for decent housing.

Photo Gallery: Demonstrating to Support Striking Health Workers, 9th October 2021


Zeit der Verleumder – review

A new film offers real insights on the discussion of Palestine in Germany


09/10/2021

“On 10 February 2018, German, Israeli, British and US-American researchers, journalists, artists and political activists met in Berlin. At a conference with the title “Zur Zeit der Verleumder” (“At a Time of Slanderers”), following a poem by Erich Fried, they, together with around 250 visitors, analysed the ideological instrumentalisation of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish catastrophe to legitimize right wing power politics, anti-Communism, historical revisionism and (anti-Muslim) racism in the Western world.”

So read the opening titles of Dror Dayan and Susann Witt-Stahl’s new film Zeit der Verleumder, subtitled “An ideological-critical intervention”. As one of the 250 visitors present, I have a particular interest in this documentary.

The line-up is impressive: actors Rolf Becker and Jürgen Jung, historian Moshe Zuckermann, British Jewish-Black activist Jackie Walker, theologian Hans Christoph Stoodt, Palestinian activists Fouad El Hay and Ali Abunimah, philosopher Moshé Machover, and many more spoke at the conference and are featured in the film.

Different speakers discuss the current debate on Israel/Palestine in the context of the international developments. In recent years we have experienced the rise of parties like the AfD, and of the Evangelical Right around politicians like Donald Trump. Both Zuckermann and Abinumah discuss how one sort of racism – antisemitism – has been reproduced by another – Islamophobia, allowing for prejudice to remain, just wielded against a different group.

The Accusations

For Walker the timing of the conference is important; it took place while Jeremy Corbyn was still leader of the British Labour Party, between the 2017 and 2019 elections. It was during this period that false accusations of antisemitism against Corbyn and his party reached their apex. Walker speaks eloquently about how such accusations were weaponized against the Left, both in Britain and internationally.

We are later reminded that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre called Corbyn “the biggest global threat to Jews.” In Britain, as in other countries at the time, accusations of antisemitism were used as a political weapon aimed at silencing both solidarity with Palestine and the growth of a new Left.

Becker argues that the instrumentalization of the Holocaust is not just about Palestine: Joschka Fischer of the Green Party used his stated fears of a second Auschwitz to justify the bombing of Yugoslavia – the first German post-war military intervention – which he ordered when he was foreign minister.

Zuckermann cites a “specifically German problem” which he calls the “extended arm of Hitler” and talks of an “almost hysterical solidarity with Israel”. He speaks of a German philosemitism which fetishizes Jews, removes their individuality, and has the same roots as antisemitism. This, he argues provocatively, is not so far from how the Nazis treated Jews.

The Wrong Sort of Jew

Geographer Christin Bernhold explains how accusations of antisemitism work in practise. One year before, the bank account of the German Jewish organisation Jüdische Stimme (JS) was closed by their bank. The reason given was that the JS supports the BDS campaign and opposes Israel. As JS board member Shir Hever remarked, this was the first time since the Nazi regime that a German bank had blocked the bank account of a Jewish organisation.

Many of the speakers – most of them Jewish – list personal attacks waged against them. Jewish journalist Judith Bernstein was accused of “not being a real Jew”, Walker of being a Holocaust denier, and Becker a “Jewish eyewitness who relieves antisemites from their guilt”. Of course, none of these allegations is true, but the hope was that, if enough mud is thrown, the sense that something is not quite right will stick. This was, in the end, exactly what happened to Corbyn.

A section of the film looks at the definition of antisemitism as put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). These parameters were fully adopted, among others, by Corbyn’s Labour Party. David Feldman of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism finds that the IHRA definition was “imprecise and isolated antisemitism from other forms of bigotry”.

Yet the lack of response from the political Left continue to allow vague and ungrounded accusations of antisemitism to take hold because no one is opposing them.

Identifying the Problem

For me, the film dedicates too much time to discussing the so-called “Antideutsche” (anti-Germans), as was the case at the conference. The criticism of this strange pro-Israel group which considers itself to be part of the German Left is correct, but exaggerates their influence. Outside some universities and the ultra-Left scene, very few people know that they exist.

Similarly, there were many valid criticisms of both the German Left as whole and the party die LINKE in general. Becker remarks that the LINKE Berlin culture senator Klaus Lederer has claimed to stand “for a quite new Left which doesn’t see the central contradiction as being between Capital and Labour but the inner contradictions inside Capital relations”. This is, Becker argues, a clear attempt to justify joining capitalism and is linked to Lederer’s pro-Israel stance.

I don’t disagree with his analysis, but would argue the problem is less that the Antideutsche and Lederer are opposing Palestinian rights, but that – because of German history – the majority of German Leftists are reluctant to take a stand at all. This leads them to not acknowledge the crimes which are being carried out against Palestinians. I find that this lack of debate is a far greater obstacle to building solidarity with Palestinians. The question is, how can we open up this debate?

Without offering an alternative, criticisms like Becker’s have the danger of leading us into the cul-de-sac of apportioning blame without seeing a way out. Zeit der Verleumder offers plenty of ammunition to demonstrate why Palestinians don’t just deserve but require our support. Yet we must deliver this support in the form of concrete actions, aimed at involving more than a small minority of German society.

How can we respond?

Becker concludes by quoting Bertolt Brecht: “We must say that torture must happen, because the structures of ownership must remain. If we say this, we will lose many friends who are against torture because they believe that the structures of ownership can be maintained without torture. This is not true.”

Machover draws the following conclusions: “Ultimately, Zionism can be overthrown and will be overthrown by unity of the working class of the whole region, that is to say of the Arab East and Israel.” While I don’t share Machover’s illusion that the Israeli “working class” has something to gain here, it is refreshing to see a solution offered that does not depend on the actions of Western powers.

Zuckermann’s conclusion is that “everything which has happened historically can be overcome historically. There is nothing in human history that can’t develop in some way into a turning point.” Becker says, simply, “Show which side you are on”. Following this logic, Machovar calls on German activists to campaign against their government supplying Israel with nuclear submarines.

The film concludes with a statement by musician and Holocaust survivor Esther Bejarano, who unfortunately recently died. She says:

“Regarding the inhumane politics of the Netanyahu government in Israel, my companions Moshe Zuckermann and Rolf Becker have comprehensively explained our criticism. What Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists did to the Jewish people – the extermination of 6 million people, the Holocaust, must not be Israel’s justification for the discrimination against the Palestinian people. It is particularly important that everyone in Germany in whom a human heart beats finally recognise that criticism of the politics of Israel cannot be compared with antisemitism. I did not survive the Extermination Camps Auschwitz, the Concentration Camp Ravensbrück and the death march, to be insulted by so-called Antideutsche and consorts as an antisemite.”

Zeit der Verleumder – the film, and the conference, show why it is necessary for those of us who live in Germany to tirelessly raise the issue of Palestine in all progressive organisations and movements. It also provides us with arguments which we can use. The next step is with us.

The online premiere of Zeit der Verleumder will be on Sunday, 10th October at 6pm, Berlin time. To watch the film, follow this link.