Working for Free

There is a recent, quickly growing movement among freelancers to withdraw unpaid labor. Others have well and extensively written about this, including Ed Ward and Suzanne Moore. Barney Hoskyns facebook group called Stop Working for Free is quickly gaining membership. This is mostly driven by freelance journalists, musicians and other “creatives” (sorry, Ed) who have had to watch helplessly over the last decade as the products of their labor became freely available online content, with no accountable monetary value attached.

Working for free - nothing new to those of us in the nonprofit sector, where for a long time now the nonprofit poverty mentality has condoned exploiting and glorifying free labor. We call it volunteerism.

For example, my favorite nonprofit news source, the Nonprofit Quarterly, (itself a nonprofit organization) recently proudly announced additional writers who are volunteers. Sure, more writers add to the diversity and interest of the publication, but should NPQ be all that proud? To me, volunteer writers, along with the annual NPQ fundraising panic, show that NPQ, formerly a paper subscription magazine, still has not found a sustainable business model in the internet economy.

But the worst system of exploitation might be the much lauded AmeriCorps, and its related programs administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Disclaimer: I am a known perpetuator of volunteerism. I started the AmeriCorps Program for Southwest New Mexico. In 2011/12 we “utilized” a VISTA volunteer at the Nonprofit Resource Center I directed. I have contracted with the New Mexico Commission on Community Volunteerism (that’s the state entity administering the federal AmeriCorps Programs), helping the Commission to get the word out to rural communities about its mission. In 2013 I did the presentation on the history of national service to hundreds of new “Members” at the statewide AmeriCorps launch conference. I helped found the Volunteer Center in Grant County. I was a member of the Silver City Rotary Club, with the motto ‘Service Above All”. Most people congratulate me on all those things. I am not so sure right now.

I see the merits of AmeriCorps: AmeriCorps graduates are believed to be on a straight pathway to employment or more education. They gain workplace skills and confidence. Civic engagement is a great thing, developing young people into empowered, engaged participants in their community. (Except….they can’t really participate in the political process, since AmeriCorps programs have very strong limitations on “lobbying”). Many members address real needs and get things done (Although there is no good impact data on the program, just outputs and a lot of feel good anecdotes).The education award is a nice little carrot, but it hasn’t kept up with exploding cost of college education. It’s a drop in the bucket.

VISTA, specifically, was created in the 60ies as part of the War on Poverty. But by sustaining an economy of cheap/free labor, aren’t we creating more poverty? VISTAs are not allowed to have any employment income during their year of service. They subsist on about $900/month. Which is why I always, happily, paid for every coffee and lunch of our VISTAs, because there was no way they could afford it. Likewise, AmeriCorps member living stipends are just above poverty level.

Really what we are doing by promoting instead-of-work-volunteerism and encouraging unpaid labor of all kinds is creating precarious employment situations for more people. We sustain a labor market, in which it is ok not to pay workers, or pay them very little.

This is especially prevalent, ironically, in the social sector. For example, nonprofits that engage AmeriCorps members are not supposed to supplant their employed positions with members. Everyone who has ever worked with or for National Service programs knows that that’s bullshit. Members are cheap labor, and a way for nonprofits to save scarce budget dollars. And often, unfortunately, an excuse for nonprofit leadership to justify low quality, fragmented services, lackluster resource development and shaky sustainability of programs. Members turn over after a year, when the organization could have gotten 3-5 years out of the professional who really should have performed the job. And I have seen many a member who, lacking the supervision and support needed to do a good job, just spent their hours playing pool or who quit early. Strangely, I couldn’t find any aggregate data on the National Service website on member retention rates. They probably suck.

Being a postwar West-German, I have always had a hard time with the military flavor of AmeriCorps. Swearing in ceremonies, uniform clothing, creating a group identity, getting things done! All the shirts and spirited slogans do not change the fact that we are creating more people in poverty.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence: In post-war western Germany, civic service (Zivildienst) was the alternative to getting drafted into the military. In 2009 for example, over 90,000 young men conscientiously objected to military service and instead spent 12 -15 months changing bedpans in nursing homes, or working with young children, disabled people and at-risk youth. Then in 2011, military draft ended, and so did Zivildienst. Now young people can participate in Soziales oder kologisches Freiwilliges Jahr, (a volunteer year working on a social or ecological project) and people of all ages can join the new Bundesfreiwilligendienst (Federal Volunteer Service, known as Bufdi). The latter was created to keep the cheap labor flowing to the social sector. 35,000 people joined in 2011, the first year. Service pays 200 E/month. AmeriCorps members are wealthy compared to that!

In German, Volunteer translates to “Freiwilliger”, but another term, “Ehrenamtliche” is used as well – that means something like honorary officer. It changes the meaning somewhat – and I think here lies the crux of the issue. If you are a volunteer these days, here or in the US, the term seems to imply a voluntary choice to engage in service. But what if you live in an impoverished community and there are no alternatives?

An honorary officer, on the other hand, may be understood as more of a donor – I am thinking of Rotary Club members – someone who donates their time, in addition to, or instead of money. Maybe when we talk about volunteers it would be helpful to start distinguishing between donors and precarious employees.

Bringing this argument home: after 20 years, I am coming back to a drastically changed labor economy in Germany, and I need work. But many paid jobs have been replaced with internships and other fancily titled but unpaid employment relationships. There is the 400 Euro job, the Praktikum, paid and unpaid internships, Bufdi etc. Before any degreed person can land a real job, apparently she/he is expected to go through several unpaid gigs, gaining experience and building a resume. I am approaching 50, but have a blank employment history here. Should I participate in this precarious economy? A recent article in the Atlantic rebuffs the notion that internships are worth the while for college graduates in the US. Unpaid internships do not help when it comes to getting job offers.

The AmeriCorps program we started in southwest NM is now shrinking, due to sequestered funding. The Grant County Volunteer Center leadership has realized some years ago that matching volunteers with needs is an activity, but not a mission, and has moved on to the important mission of eradicating poverty and hunger. I expect to see the organization’s name change shortly. Meanwhile, I am looking for work in Germany, and pondering whether I should offer to work for free for a while, in order to get my foot in door. But what if the foot remains all I ever get in the door?

Berlin on the Move

P.’s girlfriend is excited. She just got the acceptance letter from the university in the U.K. She will get her Master’s degree in London! “You are going with me, right?” she asks her boyfriend P., and it’s all decided. P. is not so sure about this. On her way to work, she waves around their little 4th floor Tempelhof apartment, where for each room she had created a theme color, theme name and a mural: “Put all this stuff on ebay.”, she tells P.

Berlin currently has the highest online start-up company growth rate in Germany. All of these happen in low-rent apartments around town. Babbel, a language learning website and app created by a company called Lesson Nine, for example, was started in '07 by four guys in a little apartment on Bergmannstrasse. Today, Lesson Nine has nine employees, and their app just hit the 10 million downloads mark. L. is part of the same wave: She came to Berlin from Bulgaria and is now helping to start another web-based company: Footstep Ventures. In her mid-twenties, she speaks perfect German and English. Among other apps for visitors of Berlin, Footstep is creating an online concierge app for hotels, that shows guests events in town, including flash mobs and rallies. Another app can be tailored to events and conferences. To do all this, together with three other young entrepreneurs, L. rents a beautiful roof apartment on the Kreuzberg banks of the Spree River. L. sleeps and works at the office for nine months. Then, as things start to gel at the company, she gets really sick of sleeping at the office, and finds her own place. She puts all her furniture on ebay.

C. lives with her husband and 12-year old son in a small fourth floor Seitenfluegel apartment on a side street in Neukoelln. Seitenfluegel - that's the backyard side building of turn of the century Berlin apartment complexes - stairways distinguished from the spiffier front buildings by smaller size, basic colors, no carpet on the stairs, leading to crammed apartments for the working class, originally without bathrooms. C.'s apartment gets some good light thanks to its elevation, and she tries to make it cheerier by painting the wood floors and all furniture white. C., a first generation German from a Turkish family, carries a lot of weight on her small frame, and the four sets of stairs are hard on her, carrying up groceries and trying to make the place look nice. The men in her family are no help, spending most of their time watching TV and playing videogames. Then, a few months ago, she suffers a miscarriage. She decides that she needs to find a better place, and that she needs to move on. She puts all her stuff on ebay. As Maddy and I carry off her couch, the men don't look up from their screens.

Y. is from China, and is working hard on her degree and her job in Berlin. She moves into a small apartment in Schmargendorf and furnishes it with bright, happy and clean Ikea furniture. As soon as her place is all pretty and equipped, she meets the love of her life, L. He is gentle, respectful, helpful and dedicated. Now she spends all her time at his place, and her pretty apartment stays empty. Finally, they decide to get a place together, with room for the kids they know they will have soon. They find an affordable three-bedroom close to the Botanical Gardens. Y. asks L. to put all her stuff on ebay. He stays home from work and helps us carry the washer and dining room set.

The Z-A family’s Berlin apartment is on the ground floor of an old house on the other side of the Botanical Gardens from Y. and L.’s new place, on a hill called Fichtenberg (elev.68!). It has a little back deck and yard, four bedrooms and a little park down the street for Lucy the dog to run around. The house is now furnished with four beds, four shelves, a washer, a couch, a dining room set, a kitchen sideboard, nightstands, tables and numerous household items - all purchased on ebay for less than 700 Euro.

History

Ireland’s history has certainly been tumultuous, violent and complicated.  And learning about it made us think about how history is conceived, perceived and how historical knowledge is best transferred.  

In our family we are all breathing, telling about and questioning history all the time. I am currently enjoying Tony Judt’s “Memory Chalet”, while Rory is reading Zinn’s “People’s History of the US”. Charlie and I studied the history of Southern Italian migration as we uncovered the stories of his grandparents. 

Ten years ago my sister Katinka wrote her diploma thesis about the utilization of time witnesses in German history perception (paraphrasing the title). Today she uses her craft of documentary filmmaking to record the oral histories and lives of people who were affected by the Holocaust. 

In Berlin, walking around town you’ll discover “Stolpersteine”, little brass plaques in the ground that remind you of the name of a person who lived at the address and who was killed by the Nazis. 

The Holocaust memorial in downtown Berlin is much more abstract: a huge field of stone slabs designed to make you feel uneasy and lost. The Obama family tried the effect the other day.

Back to Ireland. In Dublin, we went to Dublinia - a museum “to lose yourself in Viking and Medieval Dublin”. It is located where old and new Dublin meet, close to a site known as Wood Quay, which was where the Vikings first settled the town in 841. In the early 1970ies, the city’s government decided to build new civic offices right there. Once they had cleared the site to ground level, they discovered the origins of the Viking town.  

Yet the government never realized the archeological wealth and importance of the site, and despite years of protests from Dubliners who wanted to protect their Viking heritage, in 1978 excavations were stopped, the whole site bulldozed and the new buildings erected. Today the “Save Wood Quay” campaign itself has become part of Dublin’s history and the subject of documentaries. Even though it failed to preserve the Viking site, it has helped raise awareness of historical preservation.

Back to the Dublinia museum - I guess museum experts would call the style “interactive multimedia.” You could touch stuff, things talked, moved, lit up or made noises. Including a Viking going noisily to the bathroom. The Vikings used moss to wipe their butts, in case you were wondering.

 Museums have come a long way from the traditional glass vitrines with rows and rows of arrowheads. Today they want you to feel like you are right there and to get a sense of what life was like. Yet, it comes across a little too “bemueht”. Curators (or are they now designers?) work too hard to hammer all your senses constantly, and strain (like the shitting Viking) too much to help you “lose yourself”. I am just glad the medieval exhibit didn’t have an olfactory element to it. The coughing mannequin dying from black death was enough.

Then in Drogehda, we visited the little museum at the foot of the Millmount tower. If you had walked through the place on your own, it would have been a somewhat random collection of local artifacts donated to the museum from private collections. But we walked the exhibition and the tower accompanied by three different narrating guides. They brought Drogheda and its past alive, even to me who had not studied much of Irish history to date and who was overwhelmed by all the dates and names.

They told fascinating stories of the life of factory workers, revolutionaries, Henry the VIII, Cromwell’s siege of 1649, Irish freedom fighters, a hand ball player and a boxer migrating to Canada (the boxer’s Olympian outfit, unwashed after the fight as per his request, is displayed). They explained 1800’s guild banners’ symbolism, and how a Boyne River boat was built from sticks and leather, and what happened in 1922 when Irish Republicans and Irish Treaty supporters fought it out in Drogheda and destroyed part of the Millmount tower in the process.  

The Millmount guides were like that great teacher some of us were fortunate to have, very knowledgeable and passionate about their subject, able to make it personal, interesting and close to the heart. Now I’ll always remember Drogheda and its turbulent history.

The word history means “knowledge from inquiry”. I think telling stories is still the best way to transmit history. Our kids often prompt Charlie… “Tell the story when the Hippie House got shot at!”, or any of his numerous other stories they have heard many times. Driving through Berlin last week, a place were 20^th century history is in your face all the time, Ruby asked me: What was Berlin like when you were a kid? I’ll have some stories to tell….