http://www.azzellini.net  -  facebook: Dario Azzellini

Sep 2018, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English  
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0. Before

1. New Books (English, German, Turkish): 

"The Class Strikes Back. Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century," BRILL, January 2018

"Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below," paperback by Haymarket, January 2018.

"Vom Protest zum sozialen Prozess. Betriebsbesetzungen und Arbeiten in Selbstverwaltung". VSA: Verlag, eine Flugschrift. Hamburg. März, 2018.

"Bizi Temsil Edemezler! Yunanistan'dan Occupy'a Demokrasinin Yeniden İnşası". Istambul: Amara Yayıncılık. Temmuz, 2018. 

2. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English, Spanish, Portuguese)

3. Videos/Audios: "Occupy, Resist, Produce - Scop Ti" (English)

4. Interviews and press articles (English, Spanish, Catalan, French and Turkish)

5. Reviews (English, Spanish, German)

6. Events (Linz, Austria)

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0. Before

Hello!

I started a new job at Cornell University, Development Sociology, Ithaca, NY. I am enthusiastic about the job, my wonderful colleagues and very engaged students!

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I am happy to announce several new books in different languages. If you are interested in reviewing any of my new books (see 1), please send me a mail with your address and where you want to review the book (the publishers want to know). I will then contact the publishers and let them know.

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"Occupy, Resist, Produce - Scop Ti" - the fourth film in the series on recuperated workplaces in Europe produced together with Oliver Ressler will be available in October. We are still in the editing process. The film on the former Unilever tee packing plant in Southern France will be available (for now) with English and German subtitles (see 3). If you are interseted in showing it, please contact me.

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Also in October Haymarket books will publish the affordable paperback of  "The Class Strikes Back. Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century" (Brill) I edited together with Michael G. (siehe 1 and a review under 5).

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Best,

Dario

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1. New Books (English, German, Turkish):

Dario Azzellini and Michael G. Kraft (Eds.): The Class Strikes Back. Self-Organised Workers`Struggles in the Twenty-First Century.BRILL, January 2018. Historical Materialism Book Series, volume 150. Pages, Illust.:xii, 321pp. 

In October 2018 an affordable paperback edition will be published by Haymarket!

"The Class Strikes Back" examines a number of radical, twenty-first-century workers’ struggles. These struggles are characterised by a different kind of unionism and solidarity, arising out of new kinds of labour conditions and responsive to new kinds of social and economic marginalisation. The essays in the collection demonstrate the dramatic growth of syndicalist and autonomist formations and argue for their historical necessity. They show how workers seek to form and join democratic and independent unions that are fundamentally opposed to bureaucratic leadership, compromise, and concessions.

Specific case studies dealing with both the Global South and Global North assess the context of local histories and the spatially and temporally located balance of power, while embedding the struggle in a broader picture of resistance and the fight for emancipation.

http://www.brill.com/products/book/class-strikes-back

http://www.azzellini.net/en/buecher-von-dario-azzellini/class-strikes-back

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Dario Azzellini: Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below. Paperback by Haymarket, January 2018, pages: 266, $28

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Dario Azzellini: "Vom Protest zum sozialen Prozess. Betriebsbesetzungen und Arbeiten in Selbstverwaltung". VSA-Verlag, eine Flugschrift. Hamburg. April 2018 / EUR 12.80

www.vsa-verlag.de-Azzelini-Vom-Protest-zum-sozialen-Prozess.pdf

Betriebsbesetzungen mit dem Ziel der Produktion in Selbstverwaltung sind seit der Jahrtausend­wende aus Lateinamerika, vor allem aus Argentinien, bekannt. Im Laufe der aktuellen Krise haben Beschäftigte auch in Europa und Nordamerika erfolgreich Besetzungen von Betrieben durchgeführt, die von der Schließung bedroht waren. Sie zeigen nicht nur auf, wie in Zeiten der Defensive der Arbeiter*innenbewegung und Gewerkschaften offensive Kämpfe geführt werden können, sie bieten auch praktische Lösungen und zugleich eine konkrete Utopie an. Der Betrieb wird demokratisiert, Produktion, Arbeitsprozess und soziale Beziehungen verändern sich, und die Ware Arbeitskraft wird in Richtung Commons transformiert. Dabei sehen sich die Arbeiter*innen mit einer Vielzahl von Problemen konfrontiert, für die es keine vorgefertigten Antworten gibt. Die Tatsache, dass die ehemals Beschäftigten – jenseits ihrer vorherigen politischen Orientierung – zusammenkommen und im Kampf solidarische Erfahrungen sammeln, unterscheidet diese Betriebe auch grundsätzlich von traditionellen Genossenschaften. Mit all ihren Widersprüchen zeigen sie auf, wie ein Weg zur Emanzipation der Arbeit und zu einer anderen Gesellschaft aussehen könnte.

www.azzellini.net/buecher-von-dario-azzellini/vom-protest-zum-sozialen-p...

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Dario Azzellini ve Marina Stirin: "Bizi Temsil Edemezler! Yunanistan'dan Occupy'a Demokrasinin Yeniden İnşası". Istambul: Amara Yayıncılık. Temmuz, 2018, sayfalar 312. 

David Harvey'in önsözünü yazdığı bu çalışma, Yunanistan, Türkiye, Arjantin ve ABD gibi farklı lokasyonlarda, kitlesel protesto hareketleri nihayetinde demokrasinin ne anlama gelmesi gerektiği sorusunu gündeme getiriyor. Occupy da dâhil olmak üzere bu yatay hareketler, devrimci sosyal değişimin temeli olarak katılımcı demokrasiyi uygulama rolünü üstlenmekte ve bunu talep etmekte.

Uluslararası düzeyde iki aktivist-aydın tarafından kaleme alınan ve İspanya, Venezüella, Arjantin, ABD, Türkiye ve diğer noktalardaki hareket katılımcıları ile yapılan geniş çaplı röportajlara dayanan bu kitap, meclislerin, doğrudan demokrasi forumlarının ve yeni hareketler ile savunulan örgütsel biçimlerin geniş bir portresi olmasının yanı sıra, Atina'dan Zuccoti Park'a kadar geçen tarihsel süreçte doğrudan ve katılımcı demokrasinin analitik yapısını inceliyor. Ayrıca bu yeni hareketler, liberal demokrasinin günümüzde veya daha öncesinde demokratik olmadığının da altını çiziyor.

Keep reading:: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3081

http://www.amarayayincilik.com/urun/bizi-temsil-edemezler/

Turkish translation of: "They can't represent us" (http://www.azzellini.net/node/2745) and: "This is a process not a protest" (http://www.azzellini.net/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/%E2%80%9E-proce...)

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2. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English, Spanish, Portuguese)

Dario Azzellini (2018): "The Legacy of Workers’ Councils in Contemporary Social Movements." In: Muldoon, James (ed.): Council Democracy. Towards a Democratic Socialist Politics. Routledge. 228-248. 258 pgs.

"The return to public assemblies and direct democratic methods in the wave of the global "squares movements" since 2011 has rejuvenated interest in forms of council organisation and action. The European council movements, which developed in the immediate post-First World War era, were the most impressive of a number of attempts to develop workers’ councils throughout the twentieth century. However, in spite of the recent challenges to liberal democracy, the question of council democracy has so far been neglected within democratic theory. This book seeks to interrogate contemporary democratic institutions from the perspective of the resources that can be drawn from a revival and re-evaluation of the forgotten ideal of council democracy.“

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3093

https://www.routledge.com/Council-Democracy-Towards-a-Democratic-Sociali...

Dario Azzellini: Book Review: Living on the Margins: Undocumented Migrants in a Global City by Alice Bloch and Sonia McKay. ILR Review, Vol 71, Issue 4, pp. 943 - 945, July 2018

"The book offers interesting insight into the everyday life of undocumented migrants without portraying them as helpless victims. Ample quotations from the interviews underline their agency and the complex and contradictory conditions they experience in the ethnic enclaves they are forced to rely on. Bloch and McKay shed light on the circumstances, motivations, and conditions of ethnic enclave employers, who, in most of the literature on undocumented migration, are not a subject of research. This approach helps overcome simplistic accounts that portray those employers merely as ruthless exploiters who take advantage of the undocumented, as it brings to light a wide range of motives and contradictions they face themselves, while it does not deny that the undocumented are usually underpaid, work overtime in precarious conditions, and have practically no labor rights. (…) The book’s clear structure and the vivid firsthand testimonies make Living on the Margins accessible for undergraduate and graduate students. It is a valuable resource for a wide range of courses in labor and migration sociology, inequality, citizen rights, law, and ethnic and cultural studies.“

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0019793918775716

http://www.azzellini.net/articles

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Dario Azzellini: "The Commune in Venezuela: A Utopian Prefiguration," in: Latin American Utopias: Past and Present. Edited by Juan Pro. Sussex Academic Press. 235-261.

"In an age in which fears about the future predominate (in the form of dystopias, ecological catastrophes and terrifying Sci-Fi scenarios), utopia is reappearing as the bearer of hope for the fate of humanity. Latin America has historically been a fertile ground where utopian projects, movements and experiments could take root and thrive, and this constitutes one of the region's major contributions to world history."

http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/latin_american_studies/pro.htm

Pdf file available with index and book introduction: https://utopia.hypotheses.org/1027 

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Dario Azzellini: "Toma de empresas y gestión bajo control obrero en Europa como respuesta a la crisis." En: Movimentos Sociais e Crises contemporâneas. Vol. 3/ Rogério Fernandes Macedo, Henrique Tahan Novaes, Paulo Alves de Lima Filho. Editora Aramarani, São Paulo, 2018. 139-168. 

"Poderíamos dizer que este volume trata dos processos de transformação social sob o capital, contra ou a favor dele, das suas transições socioeconômicas no sentido da emancipação da classe trabalhadora quanto do capital, neste quadrante histórico de reversões conexas e complexas. A captura desses três ricos processos se dá em grande estilo, possibilitando ao leitor e alunos uma rica e apaixonante leitura de tão vitais processos. Os autores foram muito felizes em seus trabalhos, assegurando com eles um mergulho inédito, multifacético e instigante na tão mal compreendida história contemporânea, fora dos clichês dominantes. Ou seja, ousamos dizer que a ciência, ou a teoria, estão aqui muito bem representadas em suas várias vertentes interpretativas sob a batuta da luta comum pela emancipação da humanidade."

File pdf available with "Summary, Preface and presentation of the book" available in:http://www.azzellini.net/node/3066

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Construyendo utopías concretas: el movimiento comunero en Venezuela. Convergencia. Revista de Ciencias Sociales. Núm. 76 (2018): enero - abril 2018. pp 191-241.

En el transcurso de la historia las utopías han jugado un papel importante en la construcción de alternativas sociales. En este artículo se analiza al mecanismo de autogobierno local venezolano de las comunas como prefiguración utópica o como "utopía concreta". 

Continuar leyendo: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3040

Disponible en: https://convergencia.uaemex.mx/article/view/4664

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3. Videos/Audios (English)

"Occupy, Resist, Produce - Scop Ti."  34 min. / English. A film by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler. Release: October 2018.

Scop Ti is located in the small town Gémenos near Marseille, in Southern France. The plant belonged to Lipton (Unilever) and produced herbal and fruit teas and the 120-year-old local French black tea brand Thé de l’Éléphant. In September 2010 Unilever decided to relocate production and machines to Poland, closed the plant and left 182 workers without their jobs. The workers immediately occupied their workplace, supported by the union CGT. Initially all 182 workers participated in the occupation; after three years 76 were still active. They demanded from Unilever to get the factory, the machines and the brand name Thé de l’Éléphant. They planned to build a cooperative, switch production to natural and organic herbal teas using mainly regional products. 

Continue reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3096

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Dario Azzellini at the Asia Europe People's Forum. "The case for commons and social commons". Barcelona, June 2018

Practical implications of adopting a commoning approach to social protection – options for activism and policy development

What are commons? Who can develop commons? Is commoning based on harmony? Building and preserving commons is a struggle against capital and its history of preying on the commons. Nevertheless, not all commons are automatically anticapitalist, some are also functional to capital. Moreover it is important to also rethink reproduction. The commons cannot be based on gendered labour division...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mujmRXO1MNQ

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4. Interviews and press articles (English, Spanish, Catalan, French and Turkish)

"Challenging capitalism through workers’ control" / INVESTIG'ACTION / Ricardo Vaz, 09.04.18 

A common feature in every crisis situation, from the upheavals of the early 20th century to the neo-liberal re-structurings of the late 20th century, is the emergence of workers’ control – workers organising to take over their workplaces in order to defend their jobs and their communities. We interviewed Dario Azzellini* to talk about this issue in depth: the emergence of new values and social relations not just in the recuperated workplaces but also in the communities, the need to re-orient production, the overcoming of the separation between political, economic and social spheres, and the role of workers’ control in the larger struggle against capitalism.

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3064

https://www.investigaction.net/en/challenging-capitalism-through-workers...

"Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela" / INVESTIG’ACTION / Ricardo Vaz, 18.04.18

“The communes should be the space in which we are going to give birth to socialism.” – these were the words of Hugo Chávez in one of his famous presidential broadcasts. To discuss the Venezuelan communes and the new forms of participation, as well as its successes, difficulties and contradictions, we have interviewed Dario Azzellini*. He has investigated and documented theses issues throughout the Bolivarian Revolution. His book Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela has recently been released in paperback by Haymarket Books.“

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3065

https://www.investigaction.net/en/communes-and-workers-control-in-venezu...

Also available in:

Monthly Review Online: https://mronline.org/2018/05/02/communes-and-workers-control-in-venezuela/

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"Desafiar al capitalismo por medio del control obrero" / INVESTIG’ACTION / Ricardo Vaz, 03.05.18

Una característica común de cada situación de crisis, desde los levantamientos de principios del siglo XX hasta las reestructuraciones neoliberales de finales de ese mismo siglo, es la aparición del control obrero: los obreros se organizan para hacerse cargo de sus lugares de trabajo con el fin de defender sus puestos de trabajo y sus comunidades. Entrevistamos a Dario Azzellini* para hablar de este tema en profundidad: la aparición de nuevos valores y relaciones sociales no solo en las empresas recuperadas sino también en las comunidades, la necesidad de reorientar la producción, la superación de la separación entre las esferas política, económica y social, y el papel del control obrero en la lucha más amplia contra el capitalismo.

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3068 

https://www.investigaction.net/es/desafiar-al-capitalismo-por-medio-del-...

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"Comunas y control obrero en Venezuela" / INVESTIG'ACTION / Ricardo Vaz,  / Rebelión - Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Beatriz Morales Bastos, mayo 2018. 

“Las comunas deben ser el espacio sobre el cual vamos a parir el socialismo”, son palabras pronunciadas por Hugo Chávez en uno de sus famosos programas de radio “Aló presidente”. Hemos entrevistado a Dario Azzellini para hablar de las comunas venezolanas y de las nuevas formas de participación, así como de sus éxitos, dificultades y contradicciones. Dario Azzellini ha investigado y documentado estos temas a lo largo de toda la Revolución Bolivariana. Haymarket Books acaba de publicar en edición de bolsillo su libro Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela.

En su libro usted habla de un “proceso en dos direcciones” en Venezuela, desde arriba y desde abajo, ¿puede explicarlo?

Tradicionalmente algunas personas consideran que el cambio se hace desde arriba, de modo que hay que tomar el poder estatal y el gobierno, y entonces se cambia todo desde arriba. Otras no están de acuerdo y defienden que se tiene que hacer todo desde abajo hacia arriba y desde la base, y superar el Estado.

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3070

http://rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=241434

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Desafiar el capitalisme per mitjà del control obrer, Per què és important el control obrer?/  INVESTIG’ACTION  / Ricardo Vaz / Traduït de l'anglès per a Rebel·lió per Beatriz Morales Bastos, 04.05.18.  

Una característica comuna de cada situació de crisi, des dels aixecaments de principis del segle XX fins a les reestructuracions neoliberals de la fi d'aquest  mateix  segle, és l'aparició del control obrer: els obrers s'organitzen per fer-se càrrec dels seus llocs de treball  per tal de  defensar els seus llocs de treball i les seves comunitats. Entrevistem  Dario Azzellini *  per parlar d'  aquest tema  a profundida d :  l'aparició de  nous valors i relacions socials no només en els llocs de treball recuperats sinó també en les comunitats, la necessitat de reorientar la producció, la superació de la separació entre les esferes política, econòmica i social, i el paper del control obrer en la lluita més àmplia contra el capitalisme .  

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/interviews/desafiar-el-capitalisme-mitja-del-co...

https://misteri1963.blogspot.com/2018/05/desafiar-el-capitalisme-per-mit...

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"Communes et contrôle ouvrier au Venezuela" / INVESTIG’ACTION/ Ricardo Vaz, 21.04.18 

“Les communes devraient être l’espace dans lequel nous allons donner naissance au socialisme” – tels étaient les mots de Hugo Chávez dans une de ses fameuses émissions présidentielles. Pour discuter des communes vénézuéliennes et des nouvelles formes de participation, ainsi que de leurs succès, difficultés et contradictions, nous avons interviewé Dario Azzellini *. Il a étudié et documenté ces questions tout au long de la révolution Bolivarienne. Son livre «Communes and Workers’ Control in Venezuela »  a récemment été publié en livre de poche par Haymarket Books.

Keep reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3067

https://www.investigaction.net/fr/communes-et-controle-ouvrier-au-venezu...

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Dario Azzellini ile röportaj; İŞÇİ KONSEYLERİNDEN GÜNÜMÜZ KÜBA KOOPERATİÇİLİĞİNE: Konuş Kolektif Hafıza / Bir + Bir, 29.06.18 / Söyleşi: Ulus Atayurt

“Beşik dipsiz uçurumun üzerinde sallanıyor ve sağduyu bize varlığın iki karanlık ebediyet içinde anlık bir ışık kırılmasından ibaret olduğunu söylüyor” diyor Nabokov. Ama bir de kolektif hafıza var. Paul Fraisse’den aktaralım: “Hiçbir zaman yalnız değiliz... En şahsi hatıralarımız bile içinde yaşadığımız topluluğa sıkı sıkıya bağlı”. İşte şimdi o kolektif hafızaya kulak veriyoruz. Dario Azzellini’ye bağlanıp 1956 Macaristan ayaklanmasından başlayıp güncel Küba kooperatifçilik hareketine uzanan işçi kolektiflerini dinliyoruz.  

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3089

http://www.birartibir.org/dayanisma-ekonomileri/101-konus-kolektif-hafiza

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Meclisler, konseyler, komünler. Dario Azzellini'yle Latin Amerika'da solun ufku. Express. June 2018, no. 164. 56-63.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3080

Link: http://birdirbir.org/dergiler/express-164-haziran-2018/

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Dario Azzellini

www.azzellini.net                www.workerscontrol.net