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5/2018, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English  
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0. Before

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.

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

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

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

3. Videos/Audios (Italian, Greek, Spanish wit English subtitles / German)

4. Interviews and press articles (English)

5. Reviews (English/German)

6. Events (London, UK; Ithaca, USA)

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0. Before

Hello!

Sorry, I will be brief this time. I promise more comments in my next newsletter.

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.

Next week I will be in London at the King's College Transnational Law Summit. I hope to see some of you there...

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

Veröffentlicht im 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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2. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (Spanish)

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 (Italian, Greek, Spanisch with English subtitles / German)

All films by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler with English subtitles

“Occupy, Resist, Produce – Vio.Me.”, 30 min., 2015 (Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
https://vimeo.com/136730782

“Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero”, 33 min., 2015 (Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/131018982

“Occupy, Resist, Produce – RiMaflow”, 34 min., 2014
(Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/108556043

“Comuna Under Construction”, 94 min., 2010
(Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/255700836

“5 Factories – Worker Control in Venezuela”, 81 min., 2006
(Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/256747792

“Venezuela from Below”, 67 min., 2004 (Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/258586643

“Disobbedienti”, 54 min., 2002 (Dario Azzellini/Oliver Ressler)
 https://vimeo.com/261090492

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"Eine Mehrheit für einen Irrwitz?" - Prognosen zu italienischen Parlamentswahl

Radio Lora, München, 28.02.18, 10:14 min. 

Wie wird sich Italien nach der Wahl aufstellen? Dazu fragten wir den Autor und Politikwissenschaftler Dario Azzellini.

https://www.freie-radios.net/87768

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"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, Spanish, German, Italian)

Is democracy working? One Question: Democracy, in State of Nature Blog, February 19, 2018

Contributors are: Jeremy Gilbert, Renske Doorenspleet, Raul Zibechi, Marianne Maeckelbergh, Henry Giroux, Umut Bozkurt, Christian Fuchs, Tim Jordan, Gerald Sussman, Emma Crewe, Arang Keshavarzian, Marina Sitrin, James Martel, Dario Azzellini, Stephen Zunes, and Paulina Tambakaki.

Dario Azzellini

The term democracy is generally used as a synonym for liberal democracy, which is far from being the only possible form of democracy; indeed, it is even questionable whether liberal democracy was ever intended to be truly democratic. For centuries, liberals and democrats have been fierce opponents. Liberals only accepted democracy when it was limited to the political sphere, excluding it from the economic and social sphere. Liberal democracy became the new form of governance of the emerging production model (industrial capitalism). Stanley Moore wrote that, ‘when exploitation takes the form of exchange, dictatorship tends to take the form of democracy.’

Continue reading by following the links: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3052

To read all comments follow the link below: http://stateofnatureblog.com/one-question-democracy/ 

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

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¿Nos dirigimos hacia otra crisis económica? Rebelión 25.01.18 (traducción al castellano). One Question: Economic Crash, in State of Nature, January 15 2018 

Varios investigadores responden a la pregunta, entre ellos Wolfgang Streeck, Cédric Durand, Susan Newman, Mary Mellor, Andrew Ross... y Dario Azzellini. 

Dario Azzellini

Sin duda nos dirigimos a otra crisis económica. El capitalismo siempre se dirige a otra crisis económica. Es la naturaleza del capitalismo para aumentar excedente para luego destruirlo de nuevo a través de una crisis o de la guerra, con el fin de reiniciar el proceso de acumulación, una vez más. Después de cada crisis, como muestran los datos históricos, los ricos se hacen más ricos y la concentración de capital crece. Los ciclos de las crisis son cada vez más cortos ya que la acumulación de capital excedente se vuelve más rápida. Hay dos desarrollos que hacen un colapso económico en un futuro próximo muy probable. Al igual que en el tiempo previo a la crissis de 2008, es inminente una crisis de los préstamos de alto riesgo privados. Desde la última crisis, los bancos (especialmente en los EE.UU. y el Reino Unido) no han cambiado su comportamiento. 

Seguir leyendo: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3045 

Leer el artículo completo en castellano: https://www.rebelion.org/moticia.php?id=237016

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Dario Azzellini: Venezuela: mit Kryptowährung gegen die Krise / Gesellschaftsanalyse und linke Praxis, März 2018 

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Stiamo andando verso un altro crollo economico? Francosenia, 14 Febbraio 2018 (Traduzione italiana) / One Question: Economic Crash, in State of Nature, 15 gennaio 2018.

Lista de respuestas: Wolfgang Streeck, Cédric Durand, Susan Newman, David M Kotz, Minqi Li, Mary Mellor, Andrew Ross, Tim Di Muzio, Dario Azzellini, Ying Chen, Richard Murphy, Michael Roberts, Lena Rethel, Heikki Patomäki.

Dario Azzellini

Non c'è dubbio che ci stiamo dirigendo verso un altro crollo economico, poiché il capitalismo è sempre diretto verso un altro crollo economico. È nella natura del capitalismo incrementare il capitale in eccesso e poi distruggerlo nuovamente attraverso crolli e guerre, al fine di far ripartire ancora una volta il processo di accumulazione. Dopo ogni crisi, come ci mostrano i dati storici, il ricco diventa più ricco e la concentrazione di capitale cresce. Da crollo a crollo, i cicli diventano più brevi e si accorciano via via che l'accumulazione di capitale in eccesso diventa più veloce.

Continuare a leggere: http://www.azzellini.net/node/3053

Per leggere tutti i commenti segui il link sottostante: 

http://francosenia.blogspot.de/2018/02/una-domanda.html

Dario Azzellini (Hrsg.): An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy.

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6. Events (London, UK; Ithaca, USA)

King’s transnational Law Summit 2018 

11 April / Economic & Environmental Justice 

11.50 – 13.05 / PARALLEL SESSIONS / Economic Justice (E5)

The Transformation of Work & Prospects of Labour Law / Moderated by Harry Arthurs, York University

Progressive democratic politics in general, and labour law specifically, face profound challenges today. Given that many workers support 'illiberal democracies', the question arises of whether capitalism will be more worker-friendly or less? Should initiatives to improve the lives of workers be built on a platform of universal ideals or grounded in the reality and specificity of local conditions? Should labour law seek to control the pace of technological change and to mitigate its negative effects on workers? Finally, with AI trumpeting the 'end of work', and the transmogrification of the 'working class' into the 'middle class', are concepts such as 'worker' or 'labour' becoming increasing obsolete?

Speakers: Ulrich Mückenberger, University of Bremen / Kevin Banks, Queen’s University, Ontario / Katherine Stone, University of California, Los Angeles / Sara Slinn, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University / Mark Barenberg, Columbia University 

http://www.transnationallawsummit.org/programme/wednesday-april-11

12 April / FILM  AWARDS / 18.45 – 20.30 

Transnational Justice Film Competition: Celebrating Resistance, Love and Empowerment in an Era of Globalisation 

Moderated by Dario Azzelini, ILR School, Cornell University & Helen Hughes, University of Surrey

http://www.transnationallawsummit.org/programme/thursday-april-12

Monday, April 16 / 4:30 - 6pm, Doherty Lounge, ILR Scholl, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

We are organizing a book launch event for 3 recent books examining the political and social dynamics of precarious work -- with case studies from Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the US. Shannon Gleeson, Lowell Turner, and Jérôme Gautié (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) have kindly agreed to serve as discussants. The books are:

* Dario Azzellini and Michael G. Kraft, eds. The Class Strikes Back: Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century. Brill, 2018.

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.

https://brill.com/view/title/31600?format=HC

* Virginia Doellgast, Nathan Lillie, and Valeria Pulignano, eds. Reconstructing solidarity: Labour unions, precarious work, and the politics of institutional change in Europe. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Work is widely thought to have become more precarious. Many people feel that unions represent the interests of protected workers in good jobs at the expense of workers with insecure employment, low pay, and less generous benefits. Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe argues the opposite: that unions try to represent precarious workers using a variety of creative campaigning and organizing tactics.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/reconstructing-solidarity-978019...

* Ian Greer, Matthias Knuth, and Flemming Larsen. The Marketization of Employment Services: The Dilemmas of Europe's Work-first Welfare State. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Across Europe, market mechanisms are spreading into areas where they did not exist before. In public administration, market governance is displacing other ways of coordinating public services. In social policy, the welfare state is retreating from its historic task of protecting citizens from the discipline of the market. In industrial relations, labor and management are negotiating with an eye to competitiveness, often against new non-union market players. What is marketization, and what are its effects? This book uses employment services in Denmark, Germany, and Great Britain as a window to explore the rise of market mechanisms. 

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-marketization-of-employment-...

We look forward to discussing our research with you all then. Please do come and celebrate with your colleagues the end of the long, painful (rewarding) process that is book-writing and edited volume-organizing!

Dario Azzellini

www.azzellini.net                www.workerscontrol.net