---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Birgit Daiber <[email protected]> Date: Mon, May 6, 2019 at 1:49 PM Subject: [CommonGood] Berlin Awakening To: [email protected] <[email protected]>, [email protected] <[email protected]
Dear Friends and Colleagues, I'm working on an article "The Right to the City" for the Transform-Seminar 31.5./2.6. in Zagreb, but as I just was interviewing activists in Berlin running a wonderful campaign on housing, here a short information: *Berlin awakening* Every year about 40 000 people arrive in Berlin and try to find a living. Beyond the hype of glamour and politics Berlin is a working-class city. Traditionally most of it’s citizens do not own houses. Still today 86 % live in social housing ore privately rented flats. As in all globalized cities real estate run by hedge-fonds became one of the big businesses in Berlin. In the last five years rents increased about 50 % - means traditional tenants are evicted and no “normal” family is any more able to find a place to live. In this extremely tense situation activists remembered a wonderful and never practised article in the German Constitution: Art. 15 says *“**Land, natural resources and means of production may for the purpose of socialisation be transferred to public ownership or other forms of public enterprise by a law that determines the nature and extent of compensation.”*Since March 2019 now activists campaign for a referendum to expropriate big private housing-companies, and it’s going rather well. Until mid-June they have to deliver 20 000 signatures (already completed), after proof by Berlin-Senate the Referendum can be started. The referendum needs the mayority of 35 % of the eligible voters to be successful. Already now the campaign provoked extensive political debates all over the country – because the situation is not better in other cities. And for sure, the traditional political scene is deeply shocked. Yours, Birgit *[email protected] <[email protected]>* *www.birgitdaiber.eu <http://www.birgitdaiber.eu>* *Mobile: 0039-366-4207762* *Casella Postale No. 28, * *Uff. Posta, Via Vittorio **Emanuele* *I-98055 Lipari* _______________________________________________ CommonGood Mailingliste JPBerlin - Politischer Provider [email protected] https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/commongood -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/