Latin America

Tue, 29/01/13

Book Review: "Ours to Master and to Own: Workers’ Control from the Commune to the Present"

Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini, eds., Ours to Master and to Own: Workers’ Control from the Commune to the Present - Chicago: Haymarket, 2011

The fact that the publisher is Haymarket Publishers indicates that the book under examination is concerned with labor studies. This particular book is an anthology of twenty-two articles by various authors, who specialize in labor movements or the history of workers’ organizations. read more »

Geographical: Era: Topic: 
Mon, 10/09/12

On the Crisis of Capitalism, Argentina’s Worker-Recuperated Enterprises, and the Possibilities for Another World

An interview with Eduardo Murúa, former president of Argentina’s Movement of Recuperated Enterprises, on how workers occupy failing firms, resist repression and re-open them as workers’ coops.

In the interview, Murúa lays out how almost 10,000 workers in over 200 once-failing, owner-run firms eventually came to manage them cooperatively and without bosses. Most poignantly for our current conjuncture, he also predicts that the world’s capitalist system, debt-ridden and exploitative as it is, is inevitably heading for an impending financial crisis – a crisis we are now living through. He also expresses clearly and with passion his vision for a different Argentina and Latin America – where wealth might be distributed more equitably and where work, the means of production, and the products of workers’ labours could be controlled by workers themselves.

read more »

Geographical: Era: Topic: Experiences: 
Thu, 26/01/12

A Multiple Socialist Administration Model and Enterprises of Social Property (ESP) in Venezuela - Success, Difficulties, Prospects

For a transition from capitalism to socialism, the multiple socialist administration model is proposed, to avoid the Soviet mode of production, in which there persisted alienation and exploitation.

For a transition from capitalism to socialism the multiple  socialist administration model is proposed in order to avoid what the author calls the Soviet mode of production, in which, despite the elimination of the private property of the means of production, there still persisted social alienation, a hierarchical social division of labor and thus the exploitation of man by man.  Through Direct Social Property Enterprises (the property of popular communities) and Indirect Social Property Enterprises (state property) articulated in hegemonic integral socio-productive chains and networks and with the participation of forms of private property, including cooperatives, it is possible to advance toward integral sustainable human development. read more »

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Tue, 24/01/12

Cooperatives in Argentina after the crisis

The creation of new social relationships is an important part in the process of cooperative endeavours. Sitrin (City University of New York) has conducted research since 2001 in Argentina with the oral history method, and highlights the importance of cooperative enterprises in the communities.

03. - 05.11.2011, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin
http://www.rosalux.de/documentation/44505

Geographical: Era: Topic: Media: 
Tue, 20/12/11

Self-managment and Solidarity Economy: the challenges for worker-recovered companies in Brazil.

This article focuses on the experiences of worker-recovered enterprises in Brazil that became self-managed organizations. By tracing their origins, characteristics and relations to the widest field of Solidarity Economy, we discuss some of their present challenges, including their relationship with the State, the trade unions and others. We start by outlining the major discussions about adequate terminology, which at the same time provides the first insights into the social and economic structure of the sector. read more »

Geographical: Era: Topic: 
Wed, 02/11/11

The Universe of Worker-Recovered Companies in Argentina (2002-2008): Continuity and Changes Inside the Movement

Argentina’s movement of worker-recovered companies (WRC) gained significant public visibility during and in the years following the institutional crisis of December 2001. In light of company shutdowns and dramatic increases in unemployment
rates, many workers promoted the reopening of workplaces abandoned by their owners, giving origin to a movement that still exists to this day. Collectively, the actions centred on workplace and job “recoveries” have made up the distinguishing feature--or the “identity”--of the movement. Even though today’s conjuncture is somewhat different than read more »

Geographical: Era: Topic: 
Wed, 02/11/11

Cooperatives and the “Bolivarian Revolution” in Venezuela

This article looks at the vibrant cooperative movement within the context of the “Bolivarian Revolution” in Venezuela. While the cooperatives represent one of the most encouraging signs of radical democratic potential in Venezuela, there are conflicting
trajectories within the country that make the future of the “Bolivarian Revolution” unclear. This paper argues that the cooperative movement can only be sustainable and transformative of Venezuelan capitalism if it is integrated into a larger project of
economic democracy.

Full text in English to download as pdf

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Tue, 01/11/11

Praxis, Learning, and New Cooperativism in Venezuela: An Initial Look at Venezuela’s Socialist Production Units

In this paper, I address the question as to the extent to which the participatory and democratic processes taking place as part ofVenezuela's new cooperative movement can be said to be a component for the building of social relations that challenge those of capitalism. I begin with a discussion of praxis and learning. Then, I attempt to situate the role of cooperatives and the participation therein within the context of capitalism. read more »

Geographical: Era: Topic: 
Mon, 31/10/11

A luta em Oaxaca: a auto-organização do cotidiano

The fighting in Oaxaca: the everyday self-organization

The subject of this article is the so-called Commune of Oaxaca, mainly the organizational basis before and after the 2006 insurrection. The author highlights observers’ and participants’ accounts, comparing them with theoretical and political criticism. That experience is understood as a positive movement, able to coalesce several fighting and resistance local traditions into the Popular Assembly of the Oaxaca’s Peoples, owing to the teachers’ grass-roots militancy, which stimulated popular self-organization. read more »

Geographical: Topic: 
Wed, 26/10/11

Introduction: Solidarity Economics – emancipatory social change or self-help?

Crisis-prone economic development, which we can understand with Mandel (1980) as following long waves of alternating periods of high and low growth, seems to correlate with a similar cycle of declining and growing interest in alternative economics. As reflected by a growing number of publications (Singer 2002; Wallerstein 2002; Albert 2003; Altvater/Sekler 2006; Gibson-Graham 2006; Santos 2006; Vilmar 2008) and activist conferences (Eid 2003; Embshoff/Giegold 2008), we can observe that economic crises encourage debates about alternative forms of organizing economies and societies. read more »

Geographical: Era: