News 1/2016: Venezuela elections, Vio.Me.-Film!, Alternative Labour History...
http://www.azzellini.net - facebook: Dario Azzellini
Jan 2016, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English
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0. Before - Elections in Venezuela and more...
1. New Books: "An Alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy" (English) and "La construcción de los dos lados. Poder constituido y poder constituyente en Venezuela" (Español)
2. New Documentaries: "Occupy, Resist, Produce – Vio.Me." by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, 30 min., 2015 and two more out of the series on recuperated companies in Europe (English/Deutsch/Italiano/Greek/Español)
3. Reviews (English/Portugues)
4. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/German)
5. Interviews and press articles (Deutsch)
6. Videos/Audios (English/Castellanol/Deutsch)
7. Events (Belgrade)
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0. Before
Hello!
The Venezuelan government forces grouped in the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) have suffered a tremendous defeat in the elections to the National Assembly (which had a high turnout of 74.25%) on December 6. Of the 167 seats of the National Assembly, the opposition alliance MUD won 112. With the two-third-majority the MUD can severely interfere in the work of government. It can make laws and abolish or reform existing laws. Already with the simple majority the National Assembly can deny approval of the national budget. But the opposition cannot do everything it advertises and what the international press reports. Venezuela is a presidential republic, the government is appointed by the president and the economic policy is government business. New laws or removing existing laws will often have to pass through Supreme Court, since the laws refer to constitutional rights and obligations. The MUD is also divided regarding how to handle the electoral vitory and the parliamentary majority. A radical sector wants a radical confrontation on all levels possible in order to eventually topple the government, other sectors prefers to keep a lower profile and consolidate their forces without damiging their image with harsch anti-popular acts. They point at the regional elections in 2017 and finally at the presidential elections in 2019.
Maduro acknowledged the results and praised the Venezuelan democracy. The Venezuelan President stressed that the GPP obtained 42% of the votes under adverse economic conditions and under constant attack. Therefore it was a respectable result. Maduro said the "counterrevolution had triumphed circumstantially." He recalled the economic war that Venezuela suffers, called the bourgeoisie to stop the economic war and join the productive development of the country.
Difficult times for the Venezuelan government and for the popular chavista base began. The government will have to negotiate with the MUD. At the same time the popular sectors, the movement chaviso, expect efficiency in what the institutions are doing and generally a restart and deepening of social transformation. Maduro called for unity of all revolutionaries. Something that will be difficult given the electoral results. Most of the rank and file Chavistas recognize the economic war on Venezuela, but blame mainly the government, the institutions and the PSUV for the electoral defeat.
It is a crisis of government-chavismo not of popular chavismo. What will happen in Venezuela depends largely on the popular mobilization.
Always a good source of information on Venezuela:
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"Occupy, Resist, Produce - Vio.Me.", 30 Min., 2015, is out. It is presented in exhibitions, museums and soidarity events. It is the third documentary on recuperated companies in Europe following "Occupy, Resist, Produce - Officine Zero", 33 Min., 2015 and "Occupy, Resist, Produce - RiMaflow", 34 Min., 2014. All three films are at the Athens Biennale. They all can be seen online (see 2).
Vio.Me. calls to show our film in solidarity events. The authorities are auctioning the land Vio.Me. is built on. More information and solidarity declarations: http://www.viome.org/
Officine Zero in Rome faces a similar situation. The autorities are preparing the auction of the land. More informartion: http://www.ozofficinezero.org
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Watch my 16-min. talk "Crisis and workers' control" at the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 "OMONOIA", November 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY1TICA4wNM
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2923
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All the best, have some nice holidays, happy hannukah, christmas, pagan festivity or whater... and a happy 2016!
Dario
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1. New Books (English/Spanish):
"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....
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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An Alternative Labour History: Worker Control and Workplace Democracy (Russisch)
Перед вами отрывок из новой книги Дарио Аццелини «Альтернативная история труда: рабочий контроль и демократия на предприятии», недавно опубликованной издательством Zed.
http://www.azzellini.net/uebersetzungen/alternative-labour-history-worke...
http://rabkor.ru/culture/books/2015/05/21/take-back-the-factory/
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"La construcción de los dos lados. Poder constituido y poder constituyente en Venezuela" [2 Volumenes], El Perro y la Rana, 2015
Dario Azzellini: La construcción de los dos lados: poder constituido y poder constituyente en Venezuela
Con la presente obra, el autor estudia el proceso de transformación social en Venezuela entre 1999 y 2009. Se propone un análisis sobre la extensión de la participación popular en el Estado y en la sociedad, ubicando la mirada hacia las tensiones y contradicciones que se generan en este proceso “de dos lados” (poder constituido por un lado y poder constituyente por otro) con base en una detenida revisión del desarrollo y práctica de la “democracia participativa y protagónica” a partir del primer estudio empírico a fondo sobre los Consejos Comunales y sus efectos en las comunidades. ¿Qué contradicciones y conflictos se generan de la particularidad del proceso venezolano por seguir caminos y estrategias “desde arriba” y “desde abajo” al mismo tiempo? ¿Es posible abrir una perspectiva emancipadora de esta manera? Con estas preguntas, el estudio del proceso venezolano que se da en este libro no está motivado solamente por un interés académico, sino también por un profundo interés político para buscar y pensar las posibilidades de cambios radicales en la construcción de nuevas
Descargar pdf:
http://www.elperroylarana.gob.ve/serie-biblioteca-roja/431-la-construcci...
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2. New Documentaries (English/Italiano/Deutsch/Greece):
Occupy, Resist, Produce – Vio.Me. by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, 2015. 30 min.
Vio.Me. in Thessaloniki used to produce industrial glue, insulant and various other chemically derived building materials. In 2010 the workers agreed to be sent on unpaid leave every 4-6 weeks. Then the owners started reducing the workers’ wages, assuring them that it was only a temporary measure and they would soon be paid what they were owed. The owners’ main argument was that profits had fallen by 15 to 20 per cent. When the owners broke their promise to pay the back wages, the workers went on strike demanding to be paid. In response to their struggle the owners simply gave up the factory in May 2011, leaving 70 unpaid workers behind. Later the workers found out that the firm was still making a profit. The losses were the result of a loan that Vio.Me. had formally granted to the parent company, Philkeram Johnson.
Watch the film (Greek with English subtitles):
http://www.azzellini.net/en/films/occupy-resist-produce-%E2%80%93-viome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Fg2akSUvFM
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"Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero" by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, 2015, 32:29 Min.
Officine Zero, former RSI (Rail Service Italia) was dedicated to the maintenance and repair of sleeping cars. When in December 2011 Italian train services decided to stop the night train service and invest in fast track trains, RSI closed. Some 20 workers out of the almost 60 employees strong work force did not accept the closing and took up the struggle. In February 2012 they occupied their work place. Together they started a laboratory on reconversion, organizing public assemblies attended by hundreds of people. The “crazy idea” of the Officine Zero was born. Precarious workers, independent workers, craftsmen, professionals and students joined the occupation. The mixture between old and new work forms, bringing together different precarious work situations, trying to overcome isolation and individualization is an important core idea of the project.
Officine Zero means literally “workshops zero”: “zero bosses, zero exploitation, zero pollution”, as their new slogan says. The common project is to turn the former sleeping car repair facility into an industrial reuse and recycle center. OZ is administrated horizontally by all workers, from the workshops together with the precarious workers sharing an office floor in the former administration building.
“Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero” follows the workers’ activities, discussions and initiatives to gain back work, income and dignity by building a democratic and self-determined work place.
Watch the film (Italian with English subtitles):
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2881
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiU6pCKj2MQ&feature=youtu.be
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"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.
Watch the film (Italian with English subtitles)
http://www.azzellini.net/en/filme/occupy-resist-produce-rimaflow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyhVdoK1g10
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3. Reviews (English/Portugues)
Crisis and contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Political economy
Dave Kellaway | December 07, 2015; socialistresistance
The rise, fall and rise of the Latin American Marxist left
The Nicaraguan revolution of 1979 and the concurrent Marxist led uprisings elsewhere in Central America, notably in El Salvador and Guatemala, created tremendous hope that the breech opened up by Cuba at the end of the 1950s was finally going to be widened after the bloody defeats in Chile (1973) and Argentina (1976). Unfortunately the revolutions in Central America were defeated largely by repression and US covert and open intervention.
Alongside the physical annihilation of thousands of cadre lots of radicals and Marxists shifted rightwards towards an accommodation with capitalism. This was often linked with a purely pessimistic reaction to the end of the Stalinist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The material and ideological victory of neo-liberalism permeated Latin America, destroyed working class organisation and disoriented many activists into believing that radical, mass resistance was impossible and a ‘native’ social democratic approach was the only alternative. It is exemplified in the trajectory of Daniel Ortega, an historic leader of the FSLN which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in an armed mass rebellion but is now the country’s moderate president. Even leaders of revolutionary Marxist groups fell prey to this rightist shift notably in Brazil and Mexico.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2924
http://socialistresistance.org/7922/crisis-and-contradiction-marxist-per...
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September 2015, Counter Punch
Paul Buhle: Labor’s Crisis: Is There Still a Path to Workplace Democracy?
An old question: is there a vital “workerism,” self-guided and instinctively radical, apart from socialist, communist or other leftwing political groups and can it make great reforms, even hold power in a workplace or city or national state? The question goes properly back, in socialist history, to the years before the First World War, when vast movements of unskilled, underpaid workers in North America and various parts of Europe defied socialist calls for moderation and control, that is, by leftwing party leadership. Through the immensely complicated history of the Left in the same places and across the world, most of the same questions recur. The wretched (proletarians) of the earth, frequently fresh from the countryside, struggle urgently, with great courage, for improvements, and are finally thrown back. Socialist and Communist movements seek to encompass the energy but most often fail and in failing (or worse: betraying the struggles) bring defeat and discredit upon themselves.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2910
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/25/labors-crisis-is-there-still-a-pa...
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September 2015, Journal of Economic and Social Thought
Donny Gluckstein: "An alternative Labour History"
This book covers a wide variety of proletarian struggles to take control of the workplace from capitalists. This extends over a century - from the Austrian revolution in 1919 to recent events in Greece. It also covers theoretical questions (such as Pannekoek's council communism) to the practical issues faced by workers' cooperatives attempting to compete in the market place. The geographical spread from places as far apart as Brazil, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Italy, and Uruguay presents a little known history. Although the numerous authors do not offer a single perspective, the book posits both an alternative to parliamentary social democracy and those who ignore the working class as a factor in social transformation. Inevitably these experiences have succumbed to the surrounding capitalist environment but they point both to the persistence of striving for direct democracy and its potential as a real alternative to the current system.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2911
http://kspjournals.org/index.php/JEST/article/view/466/504
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September 2015, tribunemagazine.org
Sheila Cohen: Inspirational stories of workers’ struggles in the battle for workplace democracy
This collection has already received copious commendation, with compliments ranging from “a resource for comprehending the past and conceptualizing the future” to “a must-read for those seeking fresh ways out of the current global morass”.
Indeed, reports on remarkable grass-roots struggles in country after country flash before the eager reader like beacons of independent action. As editor Azzellini points out, such independent waves of struggle are all too often unrecognised. Yet they deserve full awareness by those committed to direct democracy and workplace opposition.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2895
http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2015/09/inspirational-stories-of-workers-...
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ALB: "An Alternative Labour History," Socialist Standard, No. 1330, June 2015
This is a collection of articles describing – and advocating – ‘workers control’ at various points in history and in various places, particularly Latin America, today. The authors see workers spontaneously taking over workplaces as the way to a new society without private or state capitalists.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2871
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2015/no-1330...
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Outubro de 2015, Pensar a Educação, Pensar o Brasil 1822/2022
Pensar no interior da experiência histórica, como em Vio.Me
“Ocupar, resistir, produzir” são palavras de ordem do Movimento Rural dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, no Brasil. Em momento de crise mais extremada do capitalismo, na Europa esse também é um lema evocado por trabalhadores que resolvem assumir a história com suas próprias mãos, para empregar aqui uma expressão meio fora de moda, mas que ainda vale. Grécia, Itália, Alemanha, entre outros países europeus, mas também nações de outros quadrantes do planeta, têm experimentado esse processo: proprietários de fábrica abandonam a unidade de produção porque a crise, uma vez eclipsada a contradição entre capital e trabalho pelo financismo rentista, levou-os à falência; trabalhadores deixam a condição de subalternos – e, logo, de abandonados – e assumem a gestão do trabalho.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2909
http://www.pensaraeducacaoempauta.com/
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4. Academic articles: Book chapters and journal articles (English/German)
Worker Control and Workplace Democracy. An Alternative Labour History
October 2015, dérive
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. In the early 20th century workers tried to gain control over production in social and socialist revolutions, like those in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia and Spain, and under state socialism, as in Yugoslavia, Poland or Hungary; they did so as well in anti- colonial struggles and democratic revolutions in Argentina, Algeria, Indonesia and Portugal, to just name a few examples.....
Read article:
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2912
http://www.derive.at/index.php?p_case=2&id_cont=1340&issue_No=61
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A Preview of the Future. Workers’ Control in the Context of a Global Systemic Crisis
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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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/dario-azzellini...
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5. Interviews and press articles (German)
Europa im Ausnahmezustand: Sind “Flüchtlinge” Opfer? Oder bewegen sie die EU zum Einlenken?
September 2015; Berliner Gazette
Refugees, MigrantInnen und so genannte Flüchtlinge werden in den staatstragenden Debatten als hilflose Opfer gehandelt. Dabei haben sie mit ihrer Entschlossenheit und ihrem organisierten Handeln die EU zum Einlenken bewegt. Der Politikwissenschaftler und Berliner Gazette-Autor Dario Azzellini kommentiert...
http://www.azzellini.net/journalistische-artikel/europa-im-ausnahmezusta...
http://berlinergazette.de/refugees-eu-politik/
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6. Videos/Audios (English/Castellano/German)
Watch Dario Azzellini: "Crisis and workers' control"
16.12.2015 Documentation & Communication Teams
Athens Biennale 2015-2017 "OMONOIA"
Synapse 1: Introducing a laboratory for production post-2011
Session I: Alternative Economies
Precarious Labour: Dario Azzellini, Andrea Fumagalli, Maurizio Atzeni
This session explored four institutions of human economy – alternative currencies, cooperativism, urban welfare and commons – and reflected on how these forms can become permanent and sustainable alternatives.
Watch Dario Azzellini "Crisis and workers' control"
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2923
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY1TICA4wNM
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Azzellini, Dario sobre el entrenamiento militar de EEUU a ejercitos extranjeros y derechos humanos.
RT en español, 21.09.2015, 11:04 min.
Los investigadores advierten de la cantidad alarmante de misiones de entrenamiento e intercambio de las Fuerzas Especiales de EE. UU. en numerosos países del mundo.
En Detrás de la noticia, con Eva Golinger, 18 de septiembre 2015.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2901
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1FjTX4Jm5o&feature=youtu.be
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Plan estatal para hallar personas desaparecidas en Colombia
DW Latinoamerica, 27.07.2015, 4:39 min.
Las autoridades colombianas iniciaron hoy la excavación de la que está considerada la "mayor fosa común urbana del mundo". ¿Quiénes son las víctimas de la escombrera de Medellín? El análisis por Darío Azzellini, investigador y doctor en Sociología y Ciencias Políticas.
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2880
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITULVzD4kv0
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Nach den Parlamentswahlen in Venezuela: „Es wird nun sehr stark auf die gesellschaftliche Mobilisierung ankommen“, Radio Z, 8.12.2015, 15:11 min.
Es wurde eine Riesenklatsche für die linksgerichtete Regierung Venezuelas: Am Sonntag fanden dort Parlamentswahlen statt, und Venezuelas konservative Opposition hat die Wahl gewonnen. Sie stellt künftig die Mehrheit im Parlament. Zwar bleibt der amtierende Präsident Nicolas Maduro, der nach dem Krebstod des charismatischen Hugo Chavez die Regierung übernommen hat, im Amt. Schließlich waren es am Sonntag reine Parlamentswahlen. Doch die Chavistas verlieren nun erstmals seit 16 Jahren ihre Mehrheit und können ihren großen Plan, den Aufbau eines „Sozialismus des 21. Jahrhunderts“ - wie sie es nennen - nicht fortsetzen. Was bedeutet das Wahlergebnis vom Sonntag für die politische Zukunft Venezuelas? Dazu sprach Heike Demmel mit mit dem Publizisten und Soziologen Dario Azzellini. Er hat lange in Venezuela gelebt und arbeitet und publiziert auch heute zu Venezuela.
Interview anhören:
http://www.azzellini.net/interviews/nach-den-parlamentswahlen-venezuela
Radio Z: http://www.radio-z.net/de/programmkalender/gesells...
Freie Radios Net: https://www.freie-radios.net/74085
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Wahlen in Venezuela: "Der Anteil derer wächst, die weder Regierung noch Opposition unterstützen - auch auf der linken Seite"
3. Dezember 2015 Radio Z 95.8 MHz
Wie geht es weiter nach dem Tod des Präsidenten Hugo Chávez 2013 - das war für viele seiner Anhänger, die Chavistas, die bange Frage. Zu Recht: von einem Ausbau hin zum angestrebten Sozialismus kann im heutigen Venezuela nicht die Rede sein. Das Land steckt in der Krise, und auch von links mehrt sich die Kritik an der jetzigen Regierung. Am Sonntag finden die Parlamentswahlen statt..
http://www.azzellini.net/es/node/2919
http://www.radio-z.net/de/programmkalender/gesellschaft-beitraege/politi...
In Freie Radios.net:
https://www.freie-radios.net/74003
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Dario Azzellini
www.azzellini.net
Institute of Sociology, Department of Politics and Development Research
Johannes Kepler Universität (JKU) Linz
