FOURTH INTERNATIONAL GATHERING OF “THE WORKERS’ ECONOMY”
Self-management and Work as Alternatives to the Global Economic Crisis
July 9-12, 2013
Joao Pessoa, Brazil
In
an international context where the global capitalist crisis is
increasingly affecting European countries, especially along the
Mediterranean, the only response from governments has been to implement
the usual
austerity measures. These austerity measures,tried and tested in other
parts of the world, have, yet again, not only failed to regenerate
economies, but have led to further impoverishment, structural
unemployment, marginalization and insecurity for the majority
of who must work to earn a living. In response, large protest movements
have begun to emerge in the “developed” countries that are feeling the
effects of the crisis the most, reinforcing the need for changes in the
management of the economy that not only contemplate
the welfare of workers, but also assure that its management rest in
their hands..
In
the so-called “developing” countries, particularly in Latin America,
social movements, people’s organizations and labor movements have been
developing self-managed organizations at a grassroots level. Such is
the case of the worker-recuperated enterprises in various South
American countries, and other forms of workers’ control, both urban and
rural. In some instances, these movements have gained some recognition
and support at a governmental level, bringing into
question the role of the state and the relationship between state power
and the autonomy of popular movements: on the one hand the state can be
a potential facilitator of the processes of workers’ control, but on
the other hand it can be seen as an antagonistic
instrument of traditional power with the potential to limit the
autonomy of self-managed organizations.
The
Fourth International Gathering of “The Workers’ Economy” seeks to
explore these and other questions relating workers’ struggles from
different perspectives and national contexts. It seeks to provide space
for
discussion and debate using the experiences of workers’ control and
self-management as a point of departure, bringing together academics,
social activists, and workers. Together with worker-recuperated
enterprises, cooperatives, labor movements and organizations,
social movements, political groups, and academics, among others, we
have been co-developing the International Gathering and its themes
with
representatives from over 20 countries that have participated in our
previous three gatherings. We reiterate here what we emphasized in
previous
encuentros: while in uneven
ways perhaps, workers are undoubtedly inventing alternatives that are
not only limited to the economic, but that extend out into wider
cultural processes as well. Based on non-capitalist relations of
production, these processes
have increasingly been opening up spaces for prefigurative politics.
Moreover, these alternative economic institutions are affording workers
room for discussing issues such as internal power and gender structures,
as well as the relationship between workers,
workplaces, and their surrounding communities. These processes, visible
for example in the recuperated factories, workers’ cooperatives, and
micro-enterprises of the world, although still incipient, show that
workers can indeed self-manage a more humane and
sustainable alternative than what is offered by corporate
globalization.
The
Fourth International Gathering will be held in the town of João Pessoa
in the state of Paraíba in northeastern Brazil, and hosted by the
Incubator for Social Enterprises
(INCUBES), at the Universidade Federal da Paraiba, and the Programa
Facultad Abierta (Open Faculty Program) of the University of Buenos
Aires.
History of the International Gathering of “The Workers’ Economy”
The International Gathering of “The Workers’ Economy,” had is its first
encuentro in Buenos Aires in July 2007 under the theme
“Self-management and Distribution of wealth.” It was organized by the
Open Faculty Program of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters,
University of Buenos Aires, in conjunction with academic institutions,
social organizations, and workers in Argentina and around the world.
The International Gatherings, have emerged into a forum for the exchange
of ideas and experiences between academics, activists, and workers.
These ideas center on the possibilities and challenges
of self-management; the regeneration of a political, economic, and
social project by the working class and social movements; as well as
critical discussion and analyses of the practices of academic research
focusing on self-management and the workers’ economy..
The Argentine experience of workers’ control and self-management provided a solid basis for discussion for the first
encuentro in 2007. These discussions took on an international nature by the second and third
encuentros (held in Buenos Aires in 2009, and in Mexico City in
2011) which explored, and learned from, the different experiences of the
working class and social movements around the world. As an ultimate
objective, they contemplated on an alternative
economic, social and political project from that which neoliberal
global capitalism presents. In this sense the themes and discussion
topics of the International Gatherings became more diverse with each new
encuentro, expanding to different areas of social struggle and
critical thinking, yet still remaining true to the spirit suggested by
the title of the International Gatherings: how to think about, debate
and construct an economy emerging from workers
themselves and encompassing workers’ self-management.
Thematic areas:
Proposals for panels and paper presentations may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following thematic areas:
1. Analysis of capitalist management of the economy and proposals for self-management
2. The new crisis of global capitalism: Analysis from the perspective of the workers’ economy
3. The historical trajectory of self-management: From traditional communities to labor movements
4.
Actual practices of self-management today: Possibilities and challenges.
(Including, but not limited to: worker-recuperated enterprises,
cooperatives, and attempts at self-management by indigenous communities,
peasants and social movements)
5. Self-management and gender: Creating democracy
6. Analysis of the socialist experience: Past and future
7. The challenges of trade union experiences in neoliberal global capitalism.
8. Informal, precarious, and degrading employment: Social exclusion or reconfiguration of labor in global capitalism?
9. New movements in response to the global economic crisis: Perspectives from the struggle for self-management
10. Challenges facing popular governments in the social management of the economy and the state
11. The university, workers, and social movements: Debates over methodologies and practices of mutual construction
Organizational structure for the IV International Meeting “The Economy of the Workers”
The IV International Meeting will take place 9th-12th
July, 2013 with morning and afternoon sessions, and will be open to the
public.
There will be plenary sessions and workshops with the presentation of
papers, videoconferencing, and a final plenary session with discussion
and conclusions
Organizing Committee:
Incubator
for Social Enterprises (INCUBES) Fedeal University of Paraíba, João
Pessoa, Brazil; Department of Social Relations of the Autonomous
Metropolitan University-Xochimilco, Mexico; Programa Facultad Abierta
(Open Faculty Program), Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University
of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract submission deadline for papers: 22 April 2013
Notification of approved presentations: 2 May 2013
Final papers submission deadline: 30 June 2013
Please send abstracts for presentations to the following emails:
English:
marcelo.vieta@euricse.eu
- Marcelo Vieta (Research Fellow, European Research Institute on
Cooperative and Social Enterprises (EURICSE), Trento, Italy, and York
University,
Toronto, Canada)
Portuguese:
mausarda@yahoo.com.br - Mauricio Sardá (Coordinator of the Incubadora de Empreendimentos Solidários, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Brazil)
Spanish:
centrodoc@gmailcom
- Documentation Centre of Worker-Recuperated Enterprises, Open Faculty Program, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
andres.ruggeri@gmail.com - Andrés Ruggeri (Director, Open Faculty Program)
marcoagomez.gomez@gmail.com - Marco Augusto Gómez Solórzano (Director, Labor Studies, UAM-Xochimilco, Mexico)
For more information on the International Gathering of the Workers’ Economy, including previous meetings in 2007, 2009 and 2011:
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