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

2/2018, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English  
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0. Before - Gramsci and more

1. New Books (English/Spanish/German): 

"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.

"Poder Obrero. Autogestión y control obrero desde La Comuna hasta el presente," Oveja Roja, Octubre 2017

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

3. Videos/Audios (Spanish/German)

4. Interviews and press articles (English)

5. Reviews (English/German)

6. Events (Ithaca, USA)

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0. Before

Hello!

I hope 2017 ended well for all of you and I hope 2018 will be better! Although it does ot look at all like it will be. We are living in an interregnum, as Gramsci expressed it so well in 1930:

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” In ancient Rome the interregnum was the time between the death of an emperor and the enthronement of the new emperor. In the interregnum political sovereignty and legality was suspended. Gramsci used it to refer to a time reigning powers lost hegemony and people were moving towards new, still not well defined horizons. We are now in an interregnum. The powerful cannot build a convincing consensus anymore, while the new is struggling to impose itself. No doubt that we can see “a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” It is the time of the monsters, as a popularized version of the quote says.

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I have various new books to announce!

Finally out in January 2018: "The Class Strikes Back. Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century" - edited togehter with Michael G. Kraft, published by Brill (scroll down to 1)

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The 54th ITH Conference (Labor Historians) focusses on:
Workplace Democracy Revisited: Labour and Practices of Participation, Workers’ Control and Self-Management in Global Perspective

It will take place in Linz, Austria, 6-8 September 2018.I am part of the preparatory group. I hope to see you there!  You can submit proposals until January 28. Find the Cfp here:

http://www.ith.or.at/konf_e/ith_cfp_2018_en.pdf

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Available now as paperback for $28 with Haymarket:

"Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below" (scroll down to 1).

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Poder Obrero. Autogestión y control obrero desde La Comuna hasta el presente

has been published by OVEJA ROJA in the Spanish State. It is the Spanish translation of "Ours To Master and To Own: Workers Control From the Commune to the Present". (scroll down to 1)

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And last but not least: I will publish a book on workplace takeovers and self-management in German

"Vom Protest zum sozialen Prozess. Betriebsbesetzungen und Arbeiten in Selbstverwaltung". VSA-Verlag (scroll down to 1).

Best,

Dario

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1. New Books (English/Spanish/German):

Dario Azzellini and Michael G. Kraft (Eds.): The Class Strikes Back. Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century. BRILL, January 2018.

ISBN: 9789004291461 / E-ISBN: 9789004291478

Price: Hardback: EU 120 / USD 139 - E-book: EU 109 / USD 126

Serie: Historical Materialism Book Series, volume 150. Pages, Illust.:xii, 321pp. 

"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

Radio interview in German with Dario Azzellini on The Class Strikes Back:

https://www.freie-radios.net/86197

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

Paperback by haymarketbooks, January 2018, pages: 266, $28

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Dario Azzellini: "Vom Protest zum sozialen Prozess. Betriebsbesetzungen und Arbeiten in Selbstverwaltung". VSA-Verlag, Hamburg. März, 2018. 

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.

(erscheint im März 2018)

http://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/buecher/detall/artikel/vom-protest-zum-sozia...

http://www.azzellini.net/buecher-von-dario-azzellini/vom-protest-zum-soz...

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Poder Obrero. Autogestión y control obrero desde La Comuna hasta el presente. OVEJA ROJA, 584 pgs.

Traducción al español de "Ours To Master and To Own: Workers Control From the Commune to the Present"

PVP: 22,50 €  ISBN: 978-84-16227-15-0   

Desde los albores de la era industrial, la mejor arma de lxs trabajadorxs en la defensa de sus intereses ha sido la acción colectiva. Gracias a ella, a lo largo del último siglo y medio y en prácticamente toda la geografía del planeta se han repetido experiencias de ocupación de fábricas, constitución de consejos obreros y democratización de los centros de trabajo. A lo largo de este volumen documentaremos algunas de ellas. Expondremos primero el debate teórico que las ha acompañado para sumergirnos enseguida en luchas desarrolladas tanto en sociedades capitalistas como bajo formas de socialismo de Estado. Desde finales del XIX hasta principios del s. XXI recorreremos diferentes manifestaciones de un movimiento que tiene una inagotable potencialidad política para nuestro presente.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3022

http://www.laovejaroja.es/poderobrero.htm

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

Dario Azzellini: "21st century socialism? Venezuela’s solidarity, social, popular and communal economy"

in: Towards just and sustainable economies The social and solidarity economy North and South, Edited by Peter North and Molly Scott Cato.

Policy Press, Univertsity of Bristol, 2017, pp.213-233

With capitalism in crisis - rising inequality, unsustainable resource depletion and climate change all demanding a new economic model - the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has been suggested as an alternative. What can contribute in terms of generating livelihoods that provide a dignified life, meeting of social needs and building of sustainable futures? What can activists in both the global North and South learn from each other? In this volume academics from a range of disciplines and from a number of European and Latin American countries come together to question what it means to have a 'sustainable society' and to ask what role these alternative economies can play in developing convivial, humane and resilient societies, raising some challenging questions for policy-makers and citizens alike.

Read more:

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3003

https://policypress.co.uk/towards-just-and-sustainable-economies#book-de...

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Dario Azzellini: “Constituent and Constituted Power: Reading social transformation in Latin America.”

In: Betances, Emelio; Figueroa; Carlos (Eds.): Popular Sovereignty and Constituent Power in Latin America: Democracy from Below. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017. 15-40.

This book combines a bottom-up and top-down approach to the study of social movements in relationship to the development of constituent and constituted power in Latin America. The contributors to this volume argue that the radical transformation of liberal representative democracy into participative democracy is what colours these processes as revolutionary. The core themes include popular sovereignty, constituted power, constituent power, participatory democracy, free trade agreements, social citizenship, as well as redistribution and recognition issues. Unlike other collections, which provide broad coverage of social movements at the expense of depth, this book is of thematic focus and illuminates the relationships between rulers and ruled as they transform liberal democracy.

Constituent and Constituted Power: Reading Social Transformation in Latin
America, Pages 15-39:

http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137548245

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2986

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La participación en Venezuela: conquista orgánica de la clase y punto de choque entre administración y poder popular.
Revista THEOMAI / THEOMAI Journal, número 36 (tercer trimestre 2017), Issn: 1515 - 6443

A la llegada a la Presidencia de Hugo Chávez en Venezuela, a comienzos de 1999, se puso en marcha un proceso de transformación social profundo en ese país. Una de las características centrales del proceso está en que la transformación social y la resignificación del estado son planteados como una construcción a dos bandas (Zibechi 2006, 206): Desde el estado y organizaciones de izquierda de tipo tradicional y desde movimientos populares y la sociedad organizada. A partir de un enfoque “desde arriba” y “desde abajo”, los cuales por cierto no corresponden a una ubicación específica institucional o extra-institucional sino más bien a la visión de cómo abordar los procesos de transformación.
El proceso Bolivariano incluye la participación de organizaciones de corte tradicional, de grupos y organizaciones nuevas y autónomas, de corrientes estado-céntricas como también antisistémicas. Según la orientación normativa del proceso, el poder constituyente, que se expresa en los movimientos, en la base social organizada, es el principal agente de cambio. Mientras el poder constituido, el estado y las instituciones, deben garantizar el marco y las condiciones del proceso.
En la práctica la asimetría de poder favorable al poder constituido y las lógicas inherentes al mismo

Leer más:

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3033
http://revista-theomai.unq.edu.ar/NUMERO_36/Index.htm
http://revista-theomai.unq.edu.ar/

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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 (German)

"The Class Strikes Back" - über internationale selbstorganisierte Arbeitskämpfe

Radio Corax, Halle, 28.11.2017, 24:34 min.

Wenn über Arbeitskämpfe gesprochen wird, dann geht es für gewöhnlich um Tarifverhandlungen und Warnstreiks - organisiert durch Großgewerkschaften wie die des DGB oder der CGT in Frankreich. Arbeitskampf kann aber auch anders aussehen - selbstorganisiert, fernab der Großgewerkschaften. Die Mittel selbstorganisierter Arbeitskämpfe sind radikaler. Betriebsbesetzungen, Blockadeaktionen und breite politische öffentliche Kampagnen die über die Sphäre der Arbeit hinaus gehen zählen zu den Mitteln selbstorganisierter Arbeitskämpfe. Diese Kämpfe werden oft von Kleinstgewerkschaften unterstützt, die sich als syndikalistische Basisorganisationen verstehen. Diese Arbeitskämpfe finden global statt - ob in Italien, in Argentinien oder in Deutschland. Wie diese Kämpfe geführt werden, wie erfolgreich sie sind und was man daraus lernen kann, damit beschäftigt sich der Sozialwissenschaftler und Autor Dario Azzelini. Er bringt im Januar zusammen mit Michael G. Kraft ein Buch über selbstorganisierte Arbeitskämpfe heraus. "The Class Strikes Back Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century" so nennt sich sein Buch. Um was es darin geht, darüber sprachen wir Dario Azzelini.

https://www.freie-radios.net/86197

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4. Interviews and press articles (English)

Are we heading for another economic crash? One Question: Economic Crash, in State of Nature, January 15 2018

Several researchersanswer to the question, among them Wolfgang Streeck, Cédric Durand, Susan Newman, Mary Mellor, Andrew Ross ... and Dario Azzellini.

Dario Azzellini

No doubt we are heading for another economic crash because capitalism is always heading for another economic crash. It is the nature of capitalism to increase surplus capital and then destroy it again through a crash or war, in oder to restart the accumulation process once again. After every crisis, as historical data shows, the rich get richer and capital concentration grows. The cycles from crash to crash are becoming shorter as the accumulation of surplus capital becomes faster.

Continue reading by following the links: www.azzelini.net/node/3041

To read all comments follow the link bellow: http://stateofnatureblog.com/one-question-economic-crash/ 

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Analysis regional elections in Venezuela 2017, October 19, 2017

azzellini.net, Links.org

Venezuela - Chavismo wins 18 out of 23 regional governments, opposition 5. The governing PSUV and allied parties won in the states of Amazonas, Apure, Aragua, Barinas, Bolívar, Carabobo, Cojedes, Delta Amacuro, Falcon, Guarico, Lara, Miranda, Monagas, Sucre, Trujillo, Yaracuy, and Vargas. The opposition alliance MUD won 5 states: the Democratic Action (AD) party won Anzoátegui, Merida, Nueva Esparta, and Táchira; Primero Justicia won the strategic oil rich northwestern border state of Zulia. While the results of 22 states were announced a few hours after polls closed, the votes in Bolívar were recounted due to the small margin between winner Justo Noguera Petri of the government forces coalition and the opposition candidate Andres Velasquez. Petri finally won with 276,655 votes, while the MUD-candidate gathered 275,184 votes.
According to Electoral Council CNE, 61.14 percent of Venezuela’s 18 million electorate participated in the regional elections, the second highest voter turnout in regional elections after the 65.45 percent turnout in 2008. The PSUV and allies won 54% of the total vote on a national level, marking an important recovery since their huge defeat in the 2015 parliamentary elections when they won only 40.8% of the vote. The right-wing opposition coalition MUD won 45% of the vote.
In the parliamentary elections 2015 the participation had been 75%. While the PSUV could maintain more or less their electorate in absolute numbers, the opposition lost 2.2 million votes relative to 2015.

http://www.azzellini.net/en/journalistische-artikel/analysis-regional-el...
http://links.org.au/venezuela-chavismo-regional-elections

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5. Reviews (English/German)

28 March 2017, Journal of Labor and Society.  Azzellini, Darrio, ed. An Alternative Labour History: Worker Control and Workplace Democracy. London: Zed Books, 2015.

In an era of neo-liberal globalization where trade unions, the working-class and the working-poor are constantly under attack from vicious right-wing forces in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, it is very refreshing to read a book that provides a comparative history of Workers’ control in factories where rank and file workers waged struggles that linked shop-floor issues to broader societal issues of democracy and the transformation of society where the working class as in the words of the late CLR James, “every cook can govern.”

Read more:

http://www.azzellini.net/node/3004

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/wusa.12272/full

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6. Events (Ithaca, USA)

Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 12:15 to 1:30pm / Uris Hall, G-08. Central Campus, Cornell University,  Ithaca, USA

"Private Military Contractors: Characteristics of a Growing Market and Implications for Accountability and Human Rights"

Dario Azzellini, Visiting Research Fellow at the ILR Scholl, Cornell University, will speak at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies weekly brown-bag Seminar.

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Dario Azzellini

www.azzellini.net                www.workerscontrol.net