The ownership question is back but what does that mean exactly? How can we think about central concepts such as expropriation, socialization, and economic democracy, for example, and open them up for concrete politics and social movements? How can or should socialization be implemented in order to fulfill the potential that theoretically and strategically lies in the question of ownership? And: What is actually the relationship between progressive movements and critical theorizing? These and many other questions are the focus of this panel.

In many places, people are fighting back against the devastating consequences of the privatization of public infrastructure. For example, in recent decades, grassroots initiatives have fought to keep vital resources such as water, electricity, waste management and housing in public hands or to buy them back. Despite impressive successes, the movement faces major challenges. This is because buybacks do not always mean that the neoliberal reorganization of services of general interest and thus the structural conditions of privatization are reversed. Thus, at worst, municipalizations can also become part of privatization cycles. We want to discuss these pitfalls and their ways out, using concrete examples, in order to open up a strategic perspective for remunicipalization.

Double whammy and bazooka. In the crisis, economic policy is back in the political field. As a result, the economy is also becoming more political again. The event will be about how a political economy can look like that does not only react in the crisis, but can seriously point beyond the existing and work on a democratization of the economy. For this purpose, three current theoretical and economic-political currents will come together in (dis)conversation with each other and a focus on socialization and democratization.

In this workshop, we share ideas about the decay of the colonial
paradigm and the promise of repossessing the commons for our collective future. Seeds and living systems are not freehold systems to be privatized, patented, or exploited. Rather, the commons are central to all of life. The workshop will address the threat to the commons from corporations, the brilliance of indigenous seed crops and breeding, the toxicity of GMO crops to our bodies and the planet, the benefits of agroecological agriculture, and the need for diversity in our ecosystems and justice movements. The workshop will question the green-tinged aspirations of tech barons and connect them to the legacies of colonialism and imperialism as a similar “civilizing” mission. Up to 30 people can participate in the workshop led by Jessica Valdez (FairBindung e.V.).

Google, Amazon & Co combine lobbying power and market power to an extent that is detrimental to democracy. This is not least because the platforms have now become part of the public sphere with video portals such as YouTube (Google) or the world’s largest online search engine. The EU has recently passed new rules for overpowering platforms with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). Are these new rules enough to limit the power of Big Tech? Or should the tech corporations be broken up or even socialized? Can regulation, unbundling and socialization complement each other, and what would be democratic platform alternatives? We will discuss this in a panel discussion followed by a plenary debate.

The property question is at the heart of a politics that can unite climate, feminist, anti-racist and trade union struggles. How do ownership structures relate to different perspectives and experiences? How can socialization unite the interests of the wage-dependent class? Which actors and projects lead to a broad and strong socialization movement and what are the next steps? The format of this event will be a panel discussion.

Since Corona, it has become even clearer: health care is too essential to be left to the market. However, the political path to a public instead of profit-oriented health care system is complex and strategically difficult with the per-case flat rate system and also the underfunding of even public hospitals. This event will focus on how the current dynamics in the labor struggles for a relief collective agreement can be linked to other health policy initiatives and whether the socialization perspective can be a politically meaningful intensification in the hospital sector. The format of this event will be a panel discussion.

The social movements have submitted: In September 2021, Deutsche Wohnen wins the referendum on the socialization of large housing corporations. A year later, we are in the midst of an energy crisis and the Left Party is making ambitious demands for the socialization of energy companies. In this event, Malene Gürgen from the taz leads a conversation with Janine Wissler (Party Chair, DIE LINKE) and Rouzbeh Taheri, one of the first activists at Deutsche Wohnen and co enteignen about socialization in Berlin and beyond, as well as the relationship between social movements and parliamentary parties and strategies against the current energy crisis.

With Hamburg enteignet! and RWE and CO. expropriate, make themselves, already further local participants and campaigns on the way to place the property question in the housing sector now also in Hamburg and to focus also the energy problem so essential for the hot autumn. In short, the political moment of a supra-regional socialization movement that DWe has fought for is in the air anyway. However, the necessary further networking, strategic considerations, and organizing perspectives are still in their infancy. In this slot, we want to compile the results of the Saturday afternoon’s “Networking for a Socialization Movement” slot and think further about how to build a socialization movement in a workshop format.