10/2016: Commons: talks in Halifax, new book, new articles

Newsletter: 

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

10/2016, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English
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0. Before

1. New Books:

      "Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela  Building 21st Century Socialism from Below" (Brill, Nov. 2016)

      "An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy" (Zed Books, 2015)

2. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/German/Italian)

       Labour as a Commons and more...

3. Videos/Audios (English/Deutsch)

4. Interviews and press articles (English/Spanish)

5. Events (Halifax)

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0. Before

Hello!

During the coming days I will be giving some public lectures in Halifax...

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Critical Sociology published my article on "Labour as a Commons"!  and Latin American Perspectives published my article "Class Struggle in the Bolivarian Process Workers’ Control and Workers’ Councils"!!! (see 2)

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I am happy to announce that my new book on Venezuela "Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below" will be published by Brill in November and a few months later at a much cheaper price by Haymarket as paperback (see 1).

The book covers the time between 1998 and 2014. Nevertheless, even in the midth of the multiple crisis Venezuela is suffering, which is fostered by the low oil prices, the violence of the opposition, the economic war waged by private entrepreneurs, political and economic attacks by the US, corruption and missing counter measures by the government... the positive examples of how to overcome the crisis and the capitalist rentist and extracitvist model come from the communes and the initiatives in favor of workers control.

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Stay rude, stay rebel, stay human... we will win!

Dario Azzellini

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1. New Books (English/Spanish):

Dario Azzellini: Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below. Novermber 2016, Brill.

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. In a relationship of cooperation and conflict with the state, social transformation is approached on 'two tracks', from below and from above. Azzellini’s fascinating account stands out because of the extensive empirical examples and original voices from movements, communal councils, communes and workers.

Out in November 2016 with Brill and a bit later as paperback with Haymarket.

Read more and see table of content:

http://www.brill.com/products/book/communes-and-workers-control-venezuela
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2948

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"An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy"

Dario Azzellini (Ed.), Preface by Jeremy Brecher, 352 pages, ISBN: 9781783601547, £18.99 / $27.95,

The global financial crisis has led to a new shop floor militancy. Radical forms of protest and new workers' takeovers have sprung-up all over the globe. In the US, Republic Windows and Doors started production under worker control in January 2013, later that year workers in Greece took over and managed, on their own, a hotel, a hospital, a newspaper, a TV channel and a factory.

The dominant revolutionary left has viewed workers' control as part of a system necessary during a transition to socialism. Yet most socialist and communist parties have neglected to promote workers' control as it challenges the centrality of parties and it is in this spirit that trade unions, operating through the institutional frameworks of government, have held a monopoly over labor history.

Tracing Marx's writings on the Paris Commune through council communism, anarcho-syndicalism, Italian operaismo, and other 'heretical' left currents, this book uncovers the practices and intentions of historical and contemporary autonomous workers' movements that have been largely obscured until now....

George Ciccariello-Maher, Drexel University, author of "We created Chávez":

'Dario Azzellini has emerged as arguably the most important contemporary analyst of worker self-management. Casting a critical eye toward non-revolutionary forms of workers' control, Azzellini and the contributors to this volume enrich our understanding while pressing us ever more toward the radical and transformative experiences in workplace management that have become a resurgent hallmark of our moment.'

Read more and see table of content:

http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/node/20812

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Read chapter 2: Contemporary Crisis and Workers Control

Chapter taken from “An Alternative Labour History” | Edited by Dario Azzellini and published by Zed Books

During the first decade of the current century, factory occupations and production under workers’ control seemed to be limited mainly to South America, with a few exceptions in Asia...

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2851
http://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=13729

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2. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/German/Italian)

Azzellini, Dario (2016): Class Struggle in the Bolivarian Process Workers’ Control and Workers’ Councils, In: Latin American Perspectives, 0094582X16666016, August 22, 2016

Workers’ initiatives and government measures in Venezuela to increase workers’ participation in the management of their companies sharply contrast with institutional actions that intend to inhibit and reduce such participation. Despite this, the movement for workers’ control in Venezuela has grown in recent years and achieved some important victories in conflicts in state companies.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2968
http://lap.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/20/0094582X16666016.abstract

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Azzellini, Dario (2016): "Labour as a Commons: The Example of Worker-Recuperated Companies". In: Critical Sociology, 1–14, DOI: 10.1177/0896920516661856.

This article argues that labour can be understood as a commons, located in the discussion of how commons can advance the transformation of social relations and society. To manage labour as a commons entails a shift away from the perception of labour power as the object of capital’s value practices, towards a notion of labour power as a collectively and sustainably managed resource for the benefit of society. Given that social change is largely a result of social struggle, it is crucial to examine germinal forms of labour as a commons present in society. I focus my analysis on worker-recuperated companies in Latin America and Europe. Worker-recuperated companies are enterprises self-managed by their workers after the owners close them down. Despite operating within the hegemonic capitalist market, they do not adopt capitalist rationality and are proven viable. Worker-recuperated companies offer a new perspective on labour as a commons.

http://crs.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/05/0896920516661856.abstrac...

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Azzellini, Dario (2016): “The Communal State (Venezuela): Communal Councils and Workplace Democracy”. In: DuRand, Cliff (Editor): Moving Beyond Capitalism. New York: Routledge.

The book speaks to the widespread quest for concrete alternative ways forward 'beyond capitalism' in the face of the prevailing corporatocracy and a capitalist system in crisis. It examines a number of institutions and practices now being built in the nooks and crannies of present societies and that point beyond capitalism toward a more equal, participatory, and democratic society – institutions such as cooperatives, public banks, the commons, economic democracy. This seminal collection of critical studies draws on academic and activist voices from the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Argentina, and from a variety of theoretical-political perspectives – Marxism, anarchism, feminism, and Zapatismo.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2951
https://www.routledge.com/Moving-Beyond-Capitalism/DuRand/p/book/9781472...

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A Preview of the Future. Workers’ Control in the Context of a Global Systemic Crisis. Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler. In: Utopian Pulse: Flares in the Darkroom, Pluto Press. London, 2015

Originating in a bold exhibition at the Secession in Vienna, this book examines moments in social and cultural life where there are glimpses of utopia, where other possibilities of being are imagined and even partially realised

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2852
http://utopian-pulse.org/

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Besetzen, Widerstand leisten, produzieren. Betriebsbesetzungen in Argentinien, Brasilien, Uruguay und Venezuela

2015, JOURNAL FÜR ENTWICKLUNGSPOLITIK: Gewerkschaftsarbeit in Nord und Süd, Volume XXXI • Issue 2

Der Beitrag betrachtet die Besetzung von Betrieben und die Übernahme der Produktion durch die Beschäftigten in Argentinien, Brasilien, Uruguay und, in geringerem Maße, Venezuela. Dabei werden die „Rückeroberten Betrieben unter Arbeiterkontrolle“ (RBA) als mögliche Wiederbelebung von Arbeitskämpfen analysiert und sowohl Differenzen zu den dominanten gewerkschaftlichen Herangehensweisen und Praktiken als auch die Unterschiede zu herkömmlichen Genossenschaften herausgearbeitet.

http://www.azzellini.net/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/besetzen-widers...

http://www.mattersburgerkreis.at/site/de/publikationen/jep/alleausgabena...

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Paramilitarismus in Kolumbien – Der illegale bewaffnete Arm der Eliten und des Kapitals.
Der Paramilitarismus ist ein strategisches Projekt und ein integraler Bestandteil des Staates

Die Paramilitärs in Kolumbien sind der bewaffnete Arm der Eliten, der von allen staatlichen Behörden, auf sämtlichen Verwaltungsebenen und in allen sozialen Schichten unterstützt wird oder damit verwoben ist. Sie wurden mithilfe der kolumbianischen Armee, mehrerer kolumbianischer und US-amerikanischer Geheimdienste und von Söldnern gebildet. Der Paramilitarismus ist ein strategisches Projekt und ein integraler Bestandteil des Staates. Die Paramilitärs spielen eine zentrale Rolle bei der Durchsetzung eines kapitalistischen neoliberalen Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftsmodells mit enormen Verdienstspannen.

22.06.2016, amerika21.de

Der Beitrag ist erschienen in Ugalde, Alexander; Freytter-Florian, Jorge (Hg.): "Gegenwart und Zulunft Kolumbiens in Zeiten der Hoffnung" (Presente y futuro de Colombia en tiempos de esperanzas). Donostia: Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)

http://www.azzellini.net/buchbeitraege/paramilitarismus-kolumbien-%E2%80...
https://amerika21.de/analyse/152975/paramilitarismus-kolumbien

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Dario Azzellini: Keine Verdichtung unter dieser Nummer. Das Fenster zu gesellschaftlicher Veränderung hat sich in Griechenland und Spanien wieder geschlossen

Dezember 2015, PROKLA 181, S. 637-648

Editorial: Nur ein knappes Vierteljahrhundert nach ihrer Ausrufung durch den damaligen US-Präsidenten George H.W. Bush befindet sich die „neue Weltordnung“ in Auflösung. Der Konflikt in der Ukraine, die (Bürger-) Kriege im Nahen Osten und der Aufstieg des IS, die jüngsten Fluchtbewegungen, die Weltwirtschaftskrise und die durch sie beschleunigten Verschiebungen zugunsten der BRICS-Staaten (Brasilien, Russland, Indien, China, Südafrika), die Krise in der EU, die Konflikte um natürliche Ressourcen und nicht zuletzt ökologische Krisenphänomene wie der Klimawandel haben die Vorstellung einer friedlichen globalen Entwicklung unter kapitalistischen Vorzeichen und unter US-amerikanischer Führung gründlich desavouiert.

Weiterlesen: http://www.prokla.de/2015/12/11/editorial-prokla-181/

http://www.azzellini.net/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/keine-verdichtu...

Read online:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289252033_Keine_Verdichtung_unt...

http://www.academia.edu/20019463/Keine_Verdichtung_unter_dieser_Nummer._...

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Azzellini, Dario; Castronovo, Alioscia: “Le imprese recuperate in Europa”. In: De Nicola, Alberto; Quattrocchi, Biagio (ed.) (2016): Sindacalismo sociale. Lotte e invenzioni istituzionali nella crisi europea. Roma: DeriveApprodi

Dentro questo lungo ciclo di crisi, in diversi paesi europei, sembrano prendere corpo inedite forme di partecipazione politica e di lotta sociale. Ben lungi dall’essere semplicemente reazioni difensive contro le politiche di austerità, di smantellamento del welfare state universale, di compressione dei salari, di aumento della precarizzazione del lavoro e dell’impoverimento, queste lotte presentano un carico di sperimentazione e innovazione capace forse di imprimere una nuova fisionomia alle forme di organizzazione dei conflitti sociali. Pratiche di riappropriazione del reddito e autogestione dei servizi, esperimenti di mutualismo, nuove forme di conflitti sul lavoro e per il salario, esperienze costituenti di nuove istituzionali autonome, fino ad arrivare all’ipotesi di costruzione di inedite soggettività politiche che reinventano lo spazio della rappresentanza istituzionale e del governo.

Contributi di: Adalgiso Amendola, Marco Assennato, Dario Azzellini e Alioscia Castronovo, Alberto De Nicola e Biagio Quattrocchi, Veronica Gago e Sandro Mezzadra, Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, Francesco Raparelli e Cristian Sica, Raúl Sanchez Cedilo e Lotta Meri Pirita Tenhunen.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2954
http://www.deriveapprodi.org/2016/05/sindacalismo-sociale/

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3. Videos/Audios (English/German)

Dario Azzellini - Production and Common - What are we talking about?

Altra News: 19.03.2016, 16 min.

Commons is determined by the wish of stakeholders to govern a resource together, a principle which contests property rights on this resource. Nevertheless, the term resource is misleading, since the commons depends on activity, on using and taking care, agreeing on rules and finding systems to regulate use and access in order to create a sustainable common. Therefore, there is no commons without commoning (Linebaugh 2008). While originally applied to natural resources, the concept of commons or commoning has been extended to other spheres in recent years. We want to apply this political concept to labour and production in a mainly urban context. For that we recur to a practice coming from the global South, mainly Latin America, which spread to the global North during the contemporary crisis: Workers’ recuperations of closed down companies. In this context it is also interesting to look at how the workers themselves in the recuperated companies develop a link between the social and the ecological question.

http://www.azzellini.net/en/interviews/dario-azzellini-production-and-common-what-are-we-talking-about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tWFKVzHbhk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CPo9mCPy0

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4. Interviews and press articles (English/Spanish)

Roar Magazine Issue #2
Workers’ Control in the Crisis of Capitalism
In February 2016, a dozen former workers of a small woodworks plant in the small Greek town of Patrida, some 60 kilometers from Thessaloniki, had had enough. Since 2008 they had been tricked by the owners. With a promise to pay back everything soon, the bosses did not pay the workers their full salary anymore, reduced working hours and announced bankruptcy without making it official. But the situation never improved and the workers never saw their money. Finally, in December 2015, the plant closed. The debt accumulated by the company in terms of unpaid salaries currently stands at around 700,000 euros.
Read more:
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2964
https://roarmag.org/magazine/workers-control-in-the-crisis-of-capitalism/

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NAHIMEN, Teoria eta estrategia, 2016/1, 19.02.2016
"La democracia no puede ser democracia si es cosmopolita"

A pocos metros de estación de Görlitzer Bahnhof, en pleno barrio de Kreuzberg (Berlín), el sociólogo y documentalista nos recibe en el módulo de su oficina para realizar nuestra primera entrevista en NAHIMEN. Hablamos sobre sus años de formación, su experiencia como investigador social y sus actividades políticas -y, cómo no, le agredecemos de todo corazón el tiempo que nos ha dedicado. Le enviamos pues un cordial abrazo desde Euskal Herria.

Leer entrevista:

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2963

http://nahimen.org/cas/revista.html
http://nahimen.org/onewebmedia/NAHIMEN2016.pdf

Entrevista con Darío Azzellni en NAHIMEN 2016/1

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5. Termine (Halifax)

15. September 2016 | 19:00 Saint Mary's University | Halifax | Canada

“Democracy and the Commons: How Communities Around the World Are Taking Control of their Work, their Neighbourhoods and their Lives.”

A free public lecture and video screening

Dario Azzellini is an Italian/German scholar, author, filmmaker and political activist who lives in Berlin and is an assistant professor at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. He holds a PhD in political science from the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) and a PhD in sociology from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico).

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2966

https://nsadvocate.org/event/democracy-the-commons-free-public-lecture-w...
https://www.facebook.com/events/698667076951517/

 

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16. September 2016 | 12:00 Saint Mary's University | Halifax | Canada

Labour as a Commons: The Example of Worker-Recuperated Companies

International Development Studies Visiting Speakers Program

To manage labour as a commons entails a shift away from the perception of labour power as the object of capital’s value practices, towards a notion of labour power as a collectively and sustainably managed resource for the benefit of society. Azzellini focuses his analysis on worker-recuperated companies in Latin America and Europe. Worker-recuperated companies are enterprises self-managed by their workers after the owners close them down. Despite operating within the hegemonic capitalist market, they do not adopt capitalist rationality and are proven viable. Worker-recuperated companies offer a new perspective on labour as a commons.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2967

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17. September 2016 | 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Just Us! Coffeehouse, Spring Garden Rd, Halifax, Canada

A Real Sharing Economy: Workers’ Control to the Sustainable Commons

With Dario Azzellini.

We are launching Venture Commons with back-to-back workshops with Dario Azzelini and Max Haiven (Sept18th) at Just Us Coffee.

Venture Commons is an experimental learning community centered around kick-starting collectives, commons and co-ops to create a REAL sharing economy. Balancing theory and practice, we aim to grow our thinking, skills and capacities to create initiatives that support rather than exploit our communities. venturecommons.ca

Dario Azzellini is an Italian/German scholar, author, filmmaker and political activist who lives in Berlin and is an assistant professor at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. He holds a PhD in political science from the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) and a PhD in sociology from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico).

Co-presented with the Radical Imagination project and Saint Mary’s University

https://nsadvocate.org/event/a-real-sharing-economy-workers-control-to-t...
https://www.facebook.com/events/698667076951517/

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Dario Azzellini

www.azzellini.net

Institute of Sociology, Department of Politics and Development Research
Johannes Kepler Universität (JKU) Linz