Sascha Lübbe mit »Ganz unten im System. Wie uns Arbeitsmigrant:innen den Wohlstand sichern« (GEGEN DEN STROM)

Reading & discussion
as part of the political series AGAINST THE CURRENT

They toil on German construction sites, clean offices and toilets, make hotel beds, wash people in need of care in old people's homes, sit in trucks or toil in slaughterhouses: workers from abroad support our economy and our society. Today's guest workers are often exposed to the arbitrariness of their employers. Vacations, accidents at work and illness are often at their own expense. In recent years, economic, political and social conditions have developed almost imperceptibly, enabling precarious employment and undermining social justice. This has created a "working class" where hardly any money is paid for work: at the very bottom. Sascha Lübbe shows which factors contributed to its emergence and that it is high time to put an end to resentment. He is concerned with nothing less than the question: what kind of society do we want to live - and work - in?

Press reviews

"Sascha Lübbe tells with great accuracy about those who are usually overlooked: Migrants who work on German construction sites and highways and in slaughterhouses. A very special story of the working class."
(Julia Friedrichs, journalist and author)

"The great strength of 'Ganz unten im System' is that the author opens up the parallel world of the invisible to the reader." (Benedikt Peters, Süddeutsche Zeitung)

"one of the most important books of the year"
(Nils Schniederjann, Deutschlandfunk)

"'Ganz unten im System' is an important book that focuses on the invisible and often forgotten workers in our economic world. Lübbe succeeds in telling the stories of the people concerned in an empathetic way and at the same time analyzing the structural problems that lead to their exploitation." (Ekrem Şenol, Migazin)

"very dense and informative" (Ole Nymoen, Podcast "Prosperity for All")

"The whole book is a single stimulus to think about the basis of our prosperity." (Ralf Julke, Leipziger Zeitung)

"Lübbe does not deliver a dry string of statistics and facts, but gets right up close." (Johannes Greß, Augustin Magazine)

Sascha Lübbe works as a reporter and author in Berlin. He has been nominated for the German Reporter:innen Award, the German Journalist Award and the Alternative Media Award. His articles appear in Zeit Online, taz, NZZ, Welt am Sonntag, stern.de and other publications. His main topics are migration, integration and social inequality.

Esat Mogul (education officer, focus on human trafficking, Arbeit und Leben DGB/VHS NRW e.V.) will moderate Sascha Lübbe's reading.

After the reading, Hakan Severcan (Chairman of the Hagen Integration Council) and Stefan Marx (Regional Managing Director of the DGB Ruhr-Mark region) will take part in the panel discussion with Sascha Lübbe and Esat Mogul.

The reading is organized by Gegen den Strom. The political series has been promoting political education for over 20 years and offers a free lecture and discussion format in Hagen. Gegen den Strom - these are: Arbeit und Leben Berg Mark, DGB Region Ruhr Mark, Integrationsagentur des Caritasverbandes Hagen, Kulturzentrum Pelmke, Sozialistische Jugend Die Falken UB Hagen and VHS Hagen.

Supported by Arbeit und Leben Berg Mark.