March 2015: New book: An Alternative Labour History, new film & more
http://www.azzellini.net - facebook: Dario Azzellini
March 2015, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English
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0. Before
1. New Books: "An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy" (English) and "They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy" (English)
2. New Documentary: "Occupy, Resist, Produce – RiMaflow" by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, 34 min., 2014
3. Reviews (English/Deutsch)
4. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/Español/Italiano/Deutsch)
5. Videos/Audios (English/Español)
6. Events (NYC/Berlin)
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0. Before
Hello!
Quiet a while wihout a newsletter... therefore this newsletter is packed with new books, films and articles!
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First of all I am happy to annouce that my second compilation on workers control, "An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy" is about to be publised by Zed Books. It features chapters on council democracy, new work place take overs during the contemporary crisis, the Austrian Revolution, Japan after WWII, Brazil in the 1960's and 1970's, Mexico, Uruguay and more... see 1)
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I also just finished a documentary on the factory RiMaflow in Milan, Italy, recuperated by the workers: "Occupy, Resist, Produce - RiMaflow" together with Oliver Ressler . It is the first film of a series of films on recuperated workplaces in Europe. We already filmed the second doc in Rome and are editing right now..... see 2)
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I will be in NY between May 22 and June 4. If you would like to organize a public event, send me a mail and I can see what I can do. I will also attend the Left Forum.
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All the best,
Dario
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1. New Books (English):
"An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy"
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....
Susan Moir, University of Massachusetts Boston:
"An Alternative Labour History is a must-read for those seeking fresh ways out of the current global morass. Azzellini and his contributors present a real and possible alternative to the twin corporate traps of monopoly capitalism and state socialism. There are lessons here for all who hold tight to the possibility for a future based on equality and social good."
Read more and see table of content: http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/node/20812
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"They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy"
By Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin, Foreword by David Harvey (Verso Books) Paperback, 192 pages, ISBN: 9781781680971
“The movements documented in this volume succeeded in shutting cities down through tremendous shows of force. And when you shut down a city, you can actually stop capital accumulation … Until we start building a truly democratic society, we will continue to see our good ideas co-opted by capital.” – from the foreword by David Harvey
Here is one of the first books to assert that mass protest movements in disparate places such as Greece, Argentina, and the United States share an agenda—to raise the question of what democracy should mean. These horizontalist movements, including Occupy, exercise and claim participatory democracy as the ground of revolutionary social change today. The new movements put forward the idea that liberal democracy is not democratic, nor was it ever.
http://www.versobooks.com/books/1433-they-can-t-represent-us
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2745
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2. New Documentary: "Occupy, Resist, Produce – RiMaflow" by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, 34 min., 2014
The Maflow plant in Trezzano sul Naviglio, located on the industrial periphery of Milan, was part of the Italian transnational car parts producer Maflow, one of the most important manufacturers of air conditioning tubes worldwide. Far from suffering consequences of the crisis and with enough clients to keep producing, Maflow closed in 2009 following fraudulent bankruptcy. The workers of the plant in Milan, Maflow’s main production facility, began a struggle to reopen the plant and keep their jobs. They occupied the plant and held spectacular protests on the plant’s roof. [...]
“Occupy, Resist, Produce – RiMaflow” follows the workers in their day to day activities and discussions as well as in their political and strategic debates.
The film is the first in a series of short films on occupations of workplaces and production under workers' control in Europe.
Watch:
http://www.azzellini.net/en/filme/occupy-resist-produce-rimaflow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyhVdoK1g10
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3. Reviews (English/Deutsch)
Labor Studies Journal September 2014 vol. 39 no. 3, 243-244.
Sitrin, Marina, and Dario Azzellini. They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy. London and New York: Verso Books, 2014. 250 pp. $16.95 (paper).
Reviewed by: Mark Nowak, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, USA
For labor historians and labor educators, the concept of the factory occupation isn’t entirely novel. From the Flint sit-down strike at General Motors in 1936-37 to the occupations of Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors factory in 2008, workers have occasionally employed the technique to productive ends. Yet in the wake of Zuccotti Park, Tahrir Square, and the heightened use of occupation in political arenas around the world, a fresh and in-depth examination of this strategy would be most useful for the labor education classroom. This is precisely what Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini’s book They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy provides...
continue reading: http://www.azzellini.net/node/2836
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www.zwischenze.it | June 14, 2014
They Can’t Represent Us! - Lotta Liest - ZwischenZeit
Das 2014 erschienene Buch von Sitrin und Azzelini trägt den Titel „They Can´t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy“. In sieben faszinierenden Kapiteln dreht sich darin alles um demokratische Entscheidungs-findung. Das erste befasst sich mit einer Reihe von Begriffen wie „Horizontalism“ (Horizontalität im Sinne von Hierarchiefreiheit), „Popular Power“, der Souveränität der Menschen, und mit Konzepten wie Autonomie oder Selbstverwaltung. Hier geht es also zunächst um die Selbstermächtigung, die in einer wirklich demokratischen Gesellschaft stattfinden würde, wenn Demokratie bedeutet, dass jeder Mensch gleich ist und selbstbestimmt Leben kann. Im zweiten Kapitel erklären Sitrin und Azzelini dann, warum die liberale repräsentative Demokratie nicht in diesem Sinne ‘demokratisch’ ist...
Weiterlesen:
https://www.zwischenze.it/they-cant-represent/
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2791
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TERZ, Februar 2015 - Die endlich entdeckte politische Form
Fabrikräte, Arbeiterselbstbestimmung oder Selbverwaltung sind als Thema nicht gerade brandneu. Die Geschichte der Emanzipation kennt zahllose Anläufe, wenn auch nicht viele erfolgreiche oder besonders nachhaltige Versuche von Selbstaneignung. Dennoch, es bleiben die Momente der Emanzipation, auf die es ankommt....
Weiterlesen:
http://www.azzellini.net/buecher/buecher-von-dario-azzellini/rezensionen...
http://www.terz.org/texte/texte_1502/politische_form.html
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4. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/Español)
“Venezuela’s social transformation and growing class struggle.”
In: Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Economy. Susan Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber (Editors). Leiden: Brill Press. 138-162.
Since the late-1990s much of Latin America has experienced an uneven and contradictory turn to the Left in the electoral arena. At the same time, there has been a rejuvenation of Marxist critiques of political economy. Drawing on the expertise of Latin American, North American, and European scholars, this volume offers cutting-edge theoretical explorations of trends in the region, as well as in-depth case studies of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
http://www.brill.com/products/book/crisis-and-contradiction
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2828
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“The Communal System as Venezuela’s Transition to Socialism”.
in: Communism in the 21st Century. Vol. II: Whither Communism? The challenges
facing communist states, parties and ideals. Shannon K. Brincat (Editor).
Westport: Praeger Publishers. 217-249.
"The purpose of this chapter is to explore practices in the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela linked to the idea of a transition to socialism through the construction of communal production and consumption cycles controlled by workers and communities..."
http://www.abc-clio.com/products/productFactSheet.aspx?id=2147546778&ver...
http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147546778
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2726
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Prokla, Dezember 2014, No. 177, 44.4: 495-512
Dario Azzellini: Ein Epochenbruch. Die neuen globalen Proteste zwischen Organisation und Bewegung.
Seit Ende 2010 haben sich eine Reihe Massenproteste und Revolten in verschiedenen Ländern rund um den Globus ereignet. Trotz aller Unterschiede zwischen den diversen Bewegungen und Gesellschaften in Bewegung weltweit lassen sind derart viele Parallelen zwischen Inhalten, Formen und Akteuren ausmachen, dass von einem globalen Phänomen auszugehen ist. Jede dieser Bewegungen hat Demokratie zur praktischen Frage gemacht. Diese Bewegungen verweigern sich der Priorisierung ökonomischer und finanzieller Interessen gegenüber politischen und sozialen. Das Aufkommen und die Praxis dieser neuen Bewegungen stellen einen Bruch mit vormals dominanten Formen der Organisierung und Mobilisierung sowie sozialer Beziehungen dar. Im folgenden Beitrag wird argumentiert es handele sich um einen Epochenbruch. Es entstehen neue Formen der Organisierung und neue kollektive Subjektivitäten, die nicht mehrheitlich von bestehenden Praktiken, Organisationen und Institutionen absorbiert werden, wie in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten. Die daraus resultierenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen sind tiefgreifend und weitreichend....
http://www.azzellini.net/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/die-neuen-globa...
http://www.prokla.de/2014/12/02/editorial-prokla-177/
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Dario Azzellini: “¡Si, podemos! Empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores en el hemisferio norte durante la crisis actual.”
En: ORG & DEMO. Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências, Unesp-Marília-Publicações. 15.1: 9-36.
http://www2.marilia.unesp.br/revistas/index.php/orgdemo/article/viewFile...
http://www.azzellini.net/es/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/%C2%A1si-pod...
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Dario Azzellini: “Paramilitarismo colombiano: El brazo armado ilegal de élites y capital.”
En: Alexander Ugalde Zubiri y Jorge Freytter-Florián (coord.) (2014). Presente y futuro de Colombia en tiempos de esperanzas. Bilbao: UPV/EHU.
Publicamos este libro en memoria a Jorge Adolfo Freytter Romero (Santa Marta, 1949 / Carretera Barranquilla-Ciénaga, 2001), profesor en la Universidad del Atlántico y luchador social, que fue secuestrado, torturado y asesinado en agosto de 2001 a manos del paramilitarismo conectado con sectores del aparato estatal colombiano.
http://omal.info/spip.php?article6527
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2812
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¡Si, podemos! Imprese recuperate dai lavoratori nell'emisfero settentrionale durante la crisi attuale Novembre 2014, workerscontrol.net / comunianet.org
Originale pubblicato su Org & Demo (Marília) [ISSN: 2238-5703],Vol. 15, n. 1 jan./jun. 2014, pagg. 9-36 (in spagnolo)
Traduzione dallo spagnolo di Antonella Sartori (revisione mb).
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2833
http://www.workerscontrol.net/it/authors/¡si-podemos-imprese-recuperate-dai-lavoratori-nellemisfero-settentrionale-durante-la-crisi-a
http://www.communianet.org/¡si-podemos-imprese-recuperate-dai-lavoratori-nellemisfero-settentrionale-durante-la-crisi-attuale
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5. Videos/Audios (Englis/Español)
Laura Flanders Show: They Can’t Represent Us!
teleSUR | September 15, 2014 | 25 min
Author and broadcaster Laura Flanders tackles the tough issues on this refreshingly invigorating news/talk show. In today's program, Flanders discusses the new wave of protests from Occupy Wall Street to the mass demonstrations in Greece. Something important is clearly afoot. Authors and activists Dario Azzellini and Marina Sitrin discuss their investigative account published as the book"They can't represent us - reinventing democracy from Greence to Occupy" and talk about what is new in the way these protests are being been organized and what they represent.
http://multimedia.telesurtv.net/web/telesur/#!en/video/laura-flanders-show-286684
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4kln4K9WKs
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2816
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Dario Azzellini, They Can't Represent Us! "Occupy" in Global Context, 13 min.
An event sponsored by Urban Democracy Lab at NYU/Gallatin, 1 Washington Place on 9/22/14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o6Yt4xvYKc
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Marina Sitrin, They Can't Represent Us! "Occupy" in Global Context, 11 min.
An event sponsored by Urban Democracy Lab at NYU/Gallatin, 1 Washington Place on 9/22/14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfaRQPgDpGc
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Cuadriga - Dos años sin Chávez: ¿Venezuela se colapsa?
Deutsche Welle Latinoámerica, 05.03.2015, 45 min.
Este jueves 5 de marzo se cumplen dos años de la muerte del expresidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez. Durante su gobierno, Chávez acumuló críticas, pero el país gozaba de estabilidad económica. Ahora con Nicolás Maduro la economía está por los suelos, según cifras oficiales. La alta tasa de asesinatos y el cierre de más medios de información contribuyen a la crisis. ¿Qué futuro tiene el país?
Discuten: Dario Azzellini, Mayte Carrasco, Ivo Hernández
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6. Events (NYC/Berlin)
I will be at te Left Forum in NYC, watch out for the program!
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16. Mai 2015 Zeit: 15:00 - 16:30
“Ihr repräsentiert uns nicht!” Soziale Bewegungen vom 15M bis Occupy
Marx ist Muss 2015, 14.-17.5.2015, Raum 2, Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
In ihrem neuen Buch “They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy” geben Marina Sitrin und Dario Azzellini einen Einblick in die verschiedenen sozialen Bewegungen in Spanien, Griechenland, den USA, Argentinien und Venezuela. Sie zeigen die Gemeinsamkeiten auf und diskutieren die Unterschiede in den Ländern. Was ist von ihnen geblieben? Auch nachdem vieler dieser Bewegungen aus den Medien verschwunden sind, lebt ihr Erbe weiter. Sitrin und Azzellini beschreiben, wie aus ihnen zahlreiche Basisinitiativen entstanden. Sie diskutieren mit uns, ob diese Bewegungen einen Epochenbruchhervorgebracht haben.
http://marxismuss.de/sessions/ihr-repraesentiert-uns-nicht-soziale-beweg...
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Dario Azzellini
www.azzellini.net
Institute of Sociology, Department of Politics and Development Research
Johannes Kepler Universität (JKU) Linz
