Everything new, makes the May….
The flags stay at home, the whistles have a break. The familiar TV images of masked demonstrators from Berlin on Labor Day will probably look different. Masked indeed already, and for completely different reasons, but demo? For the first time since its inception, the Federation of Trade Unions organizes a livestream for Labor Day, motto “In times of Corona means solidarity: keep your distance with decency. So does May make everything new? Yes, I guess that’s the case. After years of economic boom, just in time for Labor Day, it is becoming clear to many that Corona’s consequences can and will lead to an economic recession. Extent unknown. The future of work will look markedly different from the recent past and from any forecasts made more than six weeks ago.
…. Makes the soul fresh and free.
So we celebrate into an uncertain May, a May in which important numbers will be announced on the labor market, on the return to whatever kind of daily routine, and on further easing of the shutdown. We keep our distance with decency, of course! Our near future, the 31 days of the month of Wonn, unclear! But isn’t that also an opportunity? To think about what was before the standstill, what could come after? How we can defy the crises? Maybe one or the other old problem is no longer there? Or so strong there that something breaks apart what was not stable for a long time? “Character shows itself in the crisis,” Helmut Schmidt said many years ago. So, I’m celebrating May, are you? Yours sincerely, Anita Gödiker
