This is the first of four articles in the journal discussing the consequences of the COVID-19-crisis in the light of changing working and living conditions, increasing precarity, rising unemployment and intensifying class struggles. Written as a result of the discussion of a left-wing collective during the first weeks of the pandemic, it sketches the relevance of care work and the health sector in general, but also highlights forms of self-organization as outcome of an increasingly polarized social structure of capitalist society. The text also points to some strategical questions relevant to international discussions: What will be the future role of mediating organizations such as trade unions and how will social movements be influenced by regimes of increasingly authoritarian governance?