Our second Open Assembly

Our second open assembly took place on October 20 – it is open to all interested people, members and active members of the neighbourhood union. We were very pleased that we were able to get together with almost twenty-five people, including many who joined our organization for the first time. First there was a round of introductions in which we learned about each other, who we are and what motivates us to organize in the district and why we are here. It was nice to hear from each other and to realize that we have many things in common in our everyday lives here in Lobeda and Jena – wether its too high rents, being “at the mercy” of landlords, stress with authorities and the will to change something.

And in order to be able to change something, we first need to know what the specific problems are. That’s why we then split into three discussion groups and talked about stress with landlords, problems at the Jobcenter and injustices surrounding the asylum and residence laws.

We talked about how landlords (for example Jena Wohnen) make profits by owning apartments. How this gives landlords a lot of power, for example by simply making rents more expensive because there is no rent cap in Germany. It made us angry to see that basic needs – such as housing – become a thing that other people earn a lot of money with and that the dependency that arises is heavily exploited.

We talked about low social benefits, the precarious housing situation for refugees and structural racism at the authorities, as well as the complicated bureaucracy at the jobcenter and the extremely long waiting times before money is paid out, even though people are entitled to it, causing them unnecessary existential worries.

In the end, we asked ourselves the question: What can we do about this as a local neighbourhood union? What do we want to change? Where can we start? It was very encouraging to come together again in the large group and to hear the many ideas and suggestions on how we want to defend ourselves against injustice.

Are you curious? Then come to our next open meeting or to the consultation and become part of us – become part of LOS!