Who are we ?
We are a group with an alliance character in which different individuals and initiatives from diverse contexts, such as feminist or urban political groups, climate and socialization movements, the Left Party and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, come together to drive a campaign for the conversion of shopping malls into care centers.
We represent an eco-socialist-feminist perspective for the city and society. The Sorge ins Parkcenter! initiative is a member of the Urban Practice network and feels connected to the movement against the demolition of real estate.
The great model for our project is the concept of the Caring City, which was largely shaped by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
The location of the caring city
In the Caring City, the residents and their needs are the focus. The Caring City is a city of short distances, in which infrastructures for public services, caring institutions and healthy green places for recreation are located in close proximity. Mutual care in neighborhoods, circles of friends, society and the environment are the principles of a Caring City. They are open to all participating initiatives.
The principle of the Caring City is a declaration of war on and a clear counter-model to capitalism, the profit logic of our time and a car-friendly, predominantly male-controlled city. The Caring City as a proposal for a world after fossil capitalism is eco-socialist-feminist. Because care work - historically and to this day - is largely carried out by women, queer and increasingly migrant people. As reproductive work that "keeps the system running", it usually takes place in the background under poor working conditions, poor pay or even unpaid. Care work thus goes hand in hand with other life-sustaining activities in the reproductive sphere. Just as people are exploited along power hierarchies, nature as an indispensable basis for life for all people is often disregarded and is not considered to be at the center of a collective life on this one planet.
We want to change that and give care work the appreciation it deserves: financially, socially and spatially. Because solidarity practices, which also include care work, need open, collective and non-commercial spaces. We want to implement the Caring City, which already has great examples in Spanish-speaking countries - in cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Rosario (Argentina), Santiago de Chile, Bogotá, etc. - in Berlin too. The transformation of the ParkCenter Berlin-Treptow shopping center into a care center is intended to create a model example to show what a care center can really mean. This is intended to be a model for many other care centers, within walking distance in the city of short distances.
More on the concept of a Caring City: https://www.rosalux.de/sorgende-staedte
The goal
Our project is also feminist because we are not talking about a big abstract idea in the future, but want to implement the alternative in the everyday "here and now". In doing so, we are creating a tangible entry-level project for an eco-socialist-feminist life. If our idea is utopian, then it is not in the sense of a detached theory, but because we are preparing the concrete implementation of our idea step by step. This means that we work with the people on site to determine their needs and the resources available and develop a feasible concept from this.
Our aim is to strengthen society as a community and to fight against individualism. We want to promote reproductive and resilience work and recognize mutual dependence and vulnerability. We want to create a meeting place for everyone. With our project we want to: change discourse, transformation and social-ecological sustainability - now.
Our Care Center
The private owner intends to partially demolish the ParkCenter in Treptow and replace it with new buildings that he believes will be profitable in the long term. A preliminary building permit has been issued and the preparation of a building permit has been commissioned.
Implementing this plan would be a huge mistake from an ecological and social perspective. Instead of more offices, we are calling for local amenities and uses that serve the common good - in other words, what the people here really need! We want to build and consolidate care structures in the existing ParkCenter.
Our care center will be geared to local requirements and will bring together a variety of services that are needed for a solidarity-based and fossil-free life in the city: from community kitchens, childcare, repair sites, libraries or advice (for example on rent, residence status, experiences of sexual violence or solidarity-based economics), to networking of caregivers, food suppliers and people who make their environment and everyday life climate-resilient, or people who are simply looking for a place to celebrate.
The long-term security of such places only works in a public interest-oriented ownership structure. Care centers must therefore be run by local authorities or public interest-oriented people and managed democratically. Our project is therefore also fighting against demolition and the investor's presumed current speculative intentions.
Instead, we are working with like-minded initiatives and public multipliers across the country to build up the political pressure needed to persuade political decision-makers to rethink and to get property owners to abandon their profit-oriented plans.
Our demands are
- Bring back local supplies - once there, everything on site! Give space to caring work: take care of ourselves and the environment together and focus on people's needs. Preserve buildings - prevent demolition! Meeting without pressure to consume - ParkCenter for everyone!
