The Committee on Globalization and Social Change Present Public at the CUNY Graduate Center presents:

"Strategies for social change: Movements with, within, against and/or beyond the state?"

With Dario Azzellini (Sociology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

The question of the relationship of social movements to the state is one of the most pressing of our time. The Occupy Movement, as well as those in Greece and Spain, organize around goals but often without specific demands on the state. Historical experience shows that Autonomy of social movements is necessary when aiming for social change. At the same time the state controls important resources, is in a more powerful position than the movements and tends to control or repress them. How can this dilemma be approached beyond a simple total rejection of the state or a cooptation of the movements. Can autonomy be constructed while in a relationship with the state?

Dario Azzellini will facilitate a discussion using Venezuela, and in particular the local self administration structures Communal Councils and Communes, as a frame for this conversation.