1/2017: Book communes and workers' control; commons; WRC...

Newsletter:

D. Azzellini, Eng

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

1/2017, Dario Azzellini's newsletter in English
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0. Before

1. New Book: "Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela Building 21st Century Socialism from Below"

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

3. Videos/Audios (English)

4. Interviews and press articles (English/Spanish/Turkish)

5. Reviews (Spanish)

6. Events (İstanbul/London)

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0. Before

Hello!

I hope 2017 will be better than 2016.

I wish you happy and merry festivities, christmas, hanukkah, life, the recolution, whatever you celebrate!

And a happy new year!

Dario Azzellini

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My new book on Venezuela "Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela. Building 21st Century Socialism from Below" has been published by Brill! It is already available with the publisher. In 2017 it will be published 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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1. New Books (English):

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

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 now with Brill and in 2017 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

Online book:

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/9789004331754

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

Dario Azzellini: “Constituent and Constituted Power: Reading social transformation in Latin America.” Betances, Emelio; Figueroa; Carlos (Eds.): Popular Sovereignty and Constituent Power in Latin America: Democracy from Below. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 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
https://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=Ea-VDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA15&ots=b-TYunmG1h&sig=ozI4N0uVRSDUusDMIFGK26zsz0Y#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

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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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„This is a process not a protest“ in: sub \ urban . zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung. 2016, Band 4, Heft 2/3 Seiten 83-102

Die Verbindungen und Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den verschiedenen Protestbewegungen
seit Beginn der aktuellen Krise 2008 von Tunesien und Island
über die weltweiten Platzbesetzungen bis zu den aktuellen französischen
Protesten wurden von zahlreichen Autor_innen herausgestellt (Arenas 2014,
Castañeda 2012, Castells 2012, Cossar-Gilbert 2016, Mason 2013, Roos/
Oikonomakis 2014, Sitrin/Azzellini 2014). Die Bewegungen entstehen in
einer Krise der Repräsentation und teilen die Kritik – ob in autoritären
Regimen oder repräsentativen Demokratien – an der Repräsentation. Sie
empfinden diese als undemokratisch und praktizieren Formen direkter
Demokratie (Arenas 2014, Castañeda 2012, Juris/Ronayne/Shokooh-Valle/
Wengronowitz 2012, Ressler 2012, Sitrin/Azzellini 2014, Yörük 2014).

Weiterlesen:

http://www.zeitschrift-suburban.de/sys/index.php/suburban/issue/view/34

http://www.zeitschrift-suburban.de/sys/index.php/suburban/article/view/241/390

http://www.azzellini.net/akademische-veroeffentlichungen/%E2%80%9E-proce...

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Azzellini, Dario; Castronovo, Alioscia. “Fabbriche recuperate e nuova istituzionalità Mutualistica.” De Nicola, Alberto; Quattrocchi, Biagio (Eds.) (2016): Sindacalismo sociale. Lotte e invenzioni istituzionali nella crisi europea. Roma: DeriveAprrodi, 128-149.

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)

Richard Wolff on Trump and Dario Azzellini on workers’ cooperatives.
Economic Update with Richard Wolff, democracy at work, Truthout: November 10, 2016. 55 min.

Economic Update is a weekly program hosted by Richard D. Wolff and is played on over 60 stations nationwide. Wolff takes complex economic issues and empowers listeners with information to analyze their own financial situation as well as the economy at large. By focusing on the economic dimensions of everyday life - wages, jobs, taxes, debts, and profits - the program explores alternative ways to organize markets and government policies.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK3ALCJ4K0M
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38346-economic-update-trump-explained
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/economicupdates-podcast/id1053981528?mt=2
http://economicupdate.libsyn.com/rss

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4. Interviews and press articles (English/Spanish)

amerika21: 28.10.2016

What's up in Venezuela: Parlamentary coup?

Very complex and complicated situation in Venezuela. We hear the recall referendum is called off? The National Assembly and its opposition majority want to impeach Maduro? On monday Chavista rank and file stormed the National Assembly in order to prevent the right wing majority to impeach President Maduro. Huge mobilizations to overthrow Maduro and against took place during the past days. Friday a strike called by the opposition failed, not even the notoriously anti-government chamber of commerce supported the strike. What is happening in Venezuela?

http://www.azzellini.net/en/journalistische-artikel/whats-venezuela-parl...

https://amerika21.de/blog/2016/10/163123/los-venezuela
http://www.azzellini.net/node/2972
https://www.facebook.com/dario.azzellini/posts/707613706057876

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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.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2964

https://roarmag.org/magazine/workers-control-in-the-crisis-of-capitalism/

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Express 2016, 21/144: 42-48.

O yeşil ağacın söyledikleri, Dario Azzellini ile Röportaj

Geçem sayıda Arjantin´e uzanmış, işgal fabrikalarının esinlendirici öyküsünü aktarmıştık. Şimdi, önce 1840'lardan günümüze işçi konseyleri ve işçi özyönetimlerine gidiyoruz, ardından günümüz işgal fabrikalarındaki son duruma bakıyoruz. Yıllardır fabrika işgallerini, işçi konseylerini belgeleyen. Emekçi Ekonomisi toplantılarıyla özyönetim fabrikalarını irtibatlandıran ekipten siyaset bilimci Dario Azzellini´ye mikrofonumuzu uzatıyoruz. O anlattıkça, "teorinin ağacı gridir, pratiğin ağacı ise yeşildir" sözü kulağımızda yankılanıyor.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2971

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5. Reviews (Spanish)

27.08.2016 "El Negocio de la Guerra", comandoglucosa.blogspot.de

Este libro es una joya para todo aquel que quiera conocer, realmente, cómo funciona el mundo bajo la idea del neoliberalismo y la globalización. En él hallaremos una serie de ensayos, cada uno centrado en un país, bajo dos perspectivas comunes: I) las fechas que recogen van, desde las primeras décadas tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial (antecedentes) hasta los años 2000 y II) el hilo conductor es la privatización de la guerra en el contexto neoliberal. Este hilo conductor, o paradigma central, bajo el que todos los autores de los ensayos ven el mundo podríamos resumirlo de la siguiente manera.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2982
https://comandoglucosa.blogspot.de/2016/08/critica-de-el-negocio-de-la-guerra.html

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6. Termine (İstanbul/London)

23. November 2016 - 01. Januar 2017, Arap Cami Mahallesi | 34420 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, TR

Who Throws Whom Overboard? Oliver Ressler. SALT Galata

Who Throws Whom Overboard? is a major presentation of Oliver Ressler's works dating from 2004 - 2016, and his rst in Istanbul since the exhibition An Ideal Society Creates Itself at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center in 2005. Who Throws Whom Overboard? brings together photographic works, wall texts, Films and installations addressing migration, borders, citizenship, capital and alternative economics. The exhibition does not suggest that these “issues” are related in terms of policy, but rather that they can be read as the conjoined faces of an ongoing, global crisis.

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2973

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24. Januar 2017 (All day) - 26. März 2017 (All day) Whitechapel Gallery | London E1 7QX

Close-Up Cinema: Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero (2015)

To coincide with Oliver Ressler’s exhibition at theAgency and a film programme at Close-Up Cinema in February, the Whitechapel Gallery will present his and filmmaker Dario Azzellini’s film Occupy, Resist, Produce – Officine Zero (2015) in the framework of Artists’ Film International.

The programme brings together recent moving image works which are presented across 16 international partner venues.

2015, 33 mins, directed by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler

http://www.azzellini.net/node/2987
http://www.acflondon.org/film/oliver-ressler-artists-film-international/

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Dario Azzellini

www.azzellini.net www.workerscontrol.net