Anti-kapitalistisch leben, wie?

Berlin hat 2021 den Mietendeckel aus den Augen verloren. Spätestens seit dem Krieg in der Ukraine ist das tägliche Bezahlen von essentiellen Produkten schmerzhafter geworden. Die Löhne steigen nicht, dennoch haben zu wenige Menschen den Volksentscheid zum bedingungslosen Grundeinkommen unterschrieben. Was kann man in dieser Stadt tun, ohne viel Geld auszugeben? Was bedeutet Kapitalismus? Könnte die Welt auch ohne den Kapitalismus funktionieren?

In dieser Workshopreihe wird versucht, den Kapitalismus aus einer intersektionalen Perspektive zu verstehen.

Am Ende der Reihe soll es eine Radiosendung mit den Inhalten der vergangenen Workshops auf Cashmere Radio geben. Dafür werden die Gespräche beim Workshop audio aufgenommen. Mit der Teilnahme erklären die Teilnehmenden das Einverständnis zur Aufnahme und Verwendung für die Radioshow.


How can we live anti-capitalism?

In 2021, Berlin has lost the rent cap and since the war in Ukraine at the latest, paying for essentials on a daily basis has become noticeably more painful. Our wages are not rising but not enough people have signed in favour of the referendum for an universal basic income. What can you do to live in this city without a lot of money? What is capitalism anyway? Would the world work without capitalism?

In this series of workshops, we will therefore first try to understand capitalism from an intersectional perspective.

#1 : In the first part, participants will be invited to share their concerns and wishes and later make dumplings together with akko (ROKU Berlin).

akko is a vegan chef who has been running her food project ROKU since 2005. ROKU is about combining flavours in new ways and creating the deeper umami that can make people healthier and happier. After the Fukushima disaster, akko was disappointed with both the Japanese government and the population, who rarely took to the streets against nuclear power and its dangers. So she came to Germany and lived at OLiB Farm, a community-run farm in Brandenburg, until 2024. There she learnt the practical side of the market economy. Today she lives in Berlin again and does catering for various events and offers homemade food at the market on Maybachufer.

#2 : Thinking about the power of cash

In the second episode of “Living Anti-Capitalistically, How?” we reflect on the importance of cash with Julio Linares, the researcher of universal basic income.

At the latest from the coronavirus pandemic, card and mobile payments have become commonplace, and the state is increasingly forcing us to make digital payments through Bezahlkarte and the like. What’s behind this? With the economic anthropologist and activist Julio Linares, we learn about the power of cash and how to slow down capitalism.

Julio César Linares is a Berlin-based community organizer and economic anthropologist born in what is now Guatemala. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics, where he studied and worked on projects with David Graeber. He works as a public relations officer for the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). His latest book, “Decolonizing Money,” will be published next year by Pluto Press, in which he presents a democratic vision of money that goes beyond the free market and the state.

#3 : Framing Rest, Care, and Desire through an Anti-capitalistic Lens?

Capitalism breeds anti-capitalists, writes Erik Olin Wright. But what does that actually look like not just in theory, but in how we live, relate, and organize together?

Capitalism thrives on exhaustion, isolation, and control. It tells us our worth is measured by productivity. Patriarchy and capitalism together shape how we care, how we rest, and even what we desire.

We are taught to care in ways that reproduce inequality, to rest only when we’ve „earned“ it, and to desire within the limits of what can be bought or owned.
Inspired by thinkers such as Angela Davis, who reminds us that class, race, and gender are inseparable, this workshop explores how these intimate spheres of life are political, and how rethinking them might open space for collective resistance and liberation.

We’ll move from the personal to the collective: asking how practices of rest, care, and desire can inform how we imagine and build anti-capitalist worlds.

Please come in comfortable clothing (Changing rooms available). This will be an open discussion and relaxation session.

Magda El Sayed is a sociologist, political scientist and a librarian-archivist at the Black archive of the community-based empowerment project EOTO. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Intercultural Conflict Management, where her research focuses on anti-colonial resistance movements and the politics of liberation, with a particular focus on Sudan.

At the end of the series, there will be a radio programme on Cashmere Radio with the content of the past workshops. The conversations at the workshop will be audio recorded for this purpose. By taking part, participants agree to the recording and use for the radio show.

Aiko Okamoto sees herself as a medium to bring people between the street and art closer together. She works in Vierte Welt as a technician and realizes the wishes of various artists from all walks of life.

At the end of the series, there will be a radio programe on Cashmere Radio with the content of the past workshops. The conversations at the workshop will be audio recorded for this purpose. By taking part, participants agree to the recording and use for the radio show.

In deutscher, englischer und japanischer Lautsprache

Konzept: Aiko Okamoto

Gefördert durch Projektfond Kulturförderung Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg