In Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below, Dario Azzellini offers an account of the Bolivarian Revolution from below. While authors on Venezuela commonly concentrate on former president Hugo Chávez and government politics, this book shows how workers, peasants and the poor in urban communities engage in building 21st century socialism through popular movements, communal councils, communes and fighting for workers' control.

Dario Acelini (Dario Azzelini) je teoretičar i politički aktivista koji živi na relaciji Berlin – Karakas. Tokom njegove nedavne posete Beogradu i učešću na konferenciji „Vratimo socijalizam u igru“ imali smo priliku da razgovaramo o različitim temama kojima se bavio u svom radu – od toga zašto je Maduro izgubio izbore, preko odnosa umetnosti i politike do radničkih preuzimanja fabrika po Evropi.

Die heutige Sendung widmet sich nicht einem speziellen Thema, sondern ist einer politischen Rück- und Vorausschau zwischen Analyse und Utopie gewidmet. Es wird dabei über die politische Lage in Europa (ein Jahr Syriza in Griechenland, ein Monat Wahlen in Spanien etc.) und Lateinamerika (die sog. "Konterrevolution" in Venezuela), die Entwicklung sozialer Bewegungen und selbstorganisierter Arbeitsprojekte sowie die sozialen Transformationen, die dadurch angestoßen werden.

Talk on workers' recuperated companies (53 min. with discussion) at the CPE conference Building the Left from Below in Belgrade, 10. Dezember 2015

Dario Azzellini: "Crisis and workers' control":

Vio.Me. en Tesalónica fabricaba pegamento industrial, aislamientos y otros materiales de construcción químicos. En 2010 los trabajadores y trabajadoras fueron enviados cada 4 ó 6 semanas de vacaciones sin cobrar sueldo. Cuando en julio de 2011 el propietario dejó de pagar los salarios totalmente, los trabajadores decidieron ocupar la planta y hacerse cargo de su propio futuro. En febrero de 2013 Vio.Me.

Over the past 135 years, in all kinds of historical situations and during various political and economic crises and in different political systems, workers have taken control of their workplaces. Yet this story of workers self-administered production is rarely told. Capitalists, bourgeois governments and administrators of systems based on the exploitation of workers usually have little interest in disseminating the history of self-organized workers; those who have successfully run factories without bosses.