Stop payment card!
December 4th, 2024, 7 p.m.: Against the unequal treatment of people in the city of Freiburg
- 2 min read
What can we do about the payment card even though it has already been passed by law? Not everything is wrapped up yet. The Freiburg municipal council could speak out politically against the compulsory payment card in order to send a clear signal against racist exclusion. Which he hasn’t done yet. Furthermore, the reasonableness of a payment card must be checked in each individual case - and this is the responsibility of the municipal services authority. Even if the introduction of the payment card is not officially a matter for local self-government, the city still has options for intervention. Since November, the Ministry of Justice has issued a decree to implement the payment card in Baden-Württemberg. The country wants nationwide enforcement. Now it depends on the political mood in the city whether the payment card can be prevented. Aachen and Bielefeld voted NO in the city councils. Leipzig also said NO politically. Potsdam is shaking and in Berlin the payment card partially contradicts the principles of the Berlin Anti-Discrimination Act.
Politically, the introduction of the payment card is not about money transfers, but rather about establishing and enforcing a mechanism of exclusion against refugees and building an authoritarian parallel social system. The attacks, restrictions and cuts in social funds do not happen by chance. They are an expression of a crisis and transformation process that manifests itself in the restructuring of the social system and is carried out on the backs of refugees with racist resentments. We can’t allow that.