Dear friends, comrades, supporters, and fans,
The Initiative for Democratic Labor-Time Accounting (IDA) has now been active for around four years. During this time, we’ve done a great deal to push forward the debate around labor-time accounting as a form of socialist economic organization in the 21st century—across a wide variety of left-wing contexts.
We’ve received attention from numerous German leftist media outlets (Neues Deutschland, Jungle World, express, Contraste, RAV, and coming in July 2025, also PROKLA) as well as from social media platforms (linketheorie, 99zuEins, Wohlstand für alle), where we’ve published articles or given interviews. We’ve also held talks across Germany and are engaged in ongoing international exchange with open-minded academics, members of worker-run cooperatives, and anarchist and communist groups—in places like the UK, Ireland, Spain, Argentina, and the US.
That said, we are still a rather small political group. But we’re ready to grow!
Most recently, we decided to rent our own office in the Neues Deutschland building to create a central hub and lay the foundation for long-term infrastructure over the coming years and decades. With this office, our association now faces monthly costs of around €400, which we’re currently covering through membership fees. Naturally, this adds a financial burden for most of us—but it’s one we’re willing to bear, because we believe deeply in what we’re doing.
Still, we’d like to take this opportunity to reach out to you and kindly ask you to consider making a donation or becoming a supporting member. Even a small monthly contribution would make a big difference to us—it would help cover not only our rent but also travel expenses, venue rentals, and the printing of flyers, brochures, and books.
You are also warmly invited to stop by anytime—whether at our weekly online plenary (Mondays, 6:30–7:30 PM) or at our monthly Stammtisch (every third Friday of the month at Kleinod) to get to know us, engage in intellectual exchange, or simply hang out! We’re always looking for helping hands within the association. We especially welcome people who:
want to organize reading groups
have skills in software development (for our labor-time app)
know web design or are comfortable with social media
can help translate texts into other languages
want to take part in theoretical discussions—written or spoken
enjoy reviewing books and texts
want to contribute creatively (film, design, Photoshop, etc.)
or would like to build and maintain connections with other organizations like unions, parties, or self-managed workplaces.
Just to be clear: all donations and support contributions will be used exclusively to fund our association’s activities. We are also committed to transparency when it comes to the amounts we receive—while, of course, keeping the names of private donors anonymous.
Against the noise and madness of everyday life, we continue to hear quieter voices—voices of people who may have little power or media reach, but who want to live self-determined lives based on social equality, beyond hierarchical and alienated forms of labor. The stark class divisions and the senseless bureaucratic machinery we are all subjected to every day are utterly unjustifiable. Few things damage social relationships, poison people’s spirits, and fuel anger and frustration toward politics and the world as much as having to endure this kind of existence.
We believe that labor-time accounting is currently the only concrete socialist utopia that—due to its egalitarian nature and its conceptual simplicity—has the potential to go beyond the confines of the traditional left and academic planning debates. It can spark a broader political discourse capable of disrupting the bleak coordinates of today’s political-media landscape, by addressing societal transformation at the one level that truly matters to us: people’s immediate material conditions of work and life.
And frankly, the world deserves nothing less.
In that spirit: support us, write to us, or come visit us!
In solidarity,
Your IDA
Bank details:
Initiative demokratische Arbeitszeitrechnung (IDA) e.V.
IBAN: DE30 8306 5408 0005 4450 86
BIC: GENO DEF1 SLR