The sixth International Gathering of “The Workers’ Economy” will take place in Argentina between August 30th and September 2nd, 2017.
We invite the participation of all workers from recuperated and self-managed enterprises, cooperatives and social and popular economy organizations, as well as trade unions and academics interested in and committed to self-management practices and the project of a new workers’ economy.
The opening event will be held at the worker-recuperated Hotel BAUEN in the City of Buenos Aires (that is currently facing risk of eviction ordered by the court as well as the Argentine government). The rest of the gathering will continue at the facilities of the Textiles Pigüé Cooperative, a worker-recuperated factory in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires.
This new, sixth edition of the International Gathering will take place ten years after the first edition was organized by the Programa Facultad Abierta (Open University Program) of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires in July 2007. Subsequent editions have taken place in Buenos Aires (2009), Mexico (2011), Brazil (Joao Pessoa, 2013) and Venezuela (Punto Fijo, 2015). Beginning in 2014, regional gatherings have also been taking place in South America, Europe and the Mediterranean, and in North and Central America, the last of which were held in October and November 2016 with the participation of representatives from 30 countries.
This new International Gathering will be held in a particular moment when a workers’ economy based on self-management appears to be more and more needed as an alternative to savage capitalism. This is particularly so given that our contemporary capitalist order increasingly condemns the majority of the world’s working people to exploitation, precariousness, and unemployment while unleashing wars, discrimination and destruction throughout the planet. In Argentina, where the sixth edition of the gathering of “The Workers’ Economy” will take place, one of the world’s most extensive experience of self-management and the recuperation of workplaces faces the offensive of this new stage of neoliberalism. Amidst this reality, we invite you to participate in this new edition of the International Gathering, which intends to bring together and extend the numerous debates, discussions, and shared experiences of the three most recent regional and earlier International meetings. At the same time, it aims at broadening and strengthening the debate and “The Workers’ Economy” network’s organization.
In addition to the sessions that will begin on August 30, the sixth International Gathering’s local organizing committee is planning activities and visits to social organizations and worker-recuperated companies in Buenos Aires one week prior to the gathering.
The organizing committee will also guarantee transportation logistics for all participants from the city of Buenos Aires to the city of Pigüé, where most of the gathering will take place and which was already the site of the First South American Regional Gathering of “The Workers’ Economy” in October 2014.
The schedule of the prior activities will be available in June 2017.
Thematic streams
Each thematic stream provides an orientation for the discussion themes that will be debated during the International Gathering and are to be taken as reference for the organization of the program based on the received proposals. This task will be carried out by the local and international organization committee.
- Political and economic analysis of the global capitalist crisis
- Self-management as practice and as alternative project
- The challenges of unions and other forms of waged workers’ organizations facing global neoliberal capitalism
- The growing precariousness and informality of work: Exclusion, inclusion or reformulation of the way of working in global capitalism?
- The workers’ economy and issues relating to gender
- Articulation and integration of the workers’ economy
- State and public policies in the workers’ economy
- Popular education and knowledge building in the worker’s economy
Deadlines for submitting paper proposals and presentations
- Abstract submission: 16 June 2017
- Abstract approval: 2 July 2017
- Full presentation or paper submission: 30 July 2017
Please send abstracts and presentations/papers to: [email protected]
or [email protected]
The paper proposals and presentations should be presented in an abstract no longer than a single page. We recommend that they should be accompanied by a suggestion regarding in which of the thematic streams listed above it should be included. In case of approval, the final paper or presentation should be a maximum of 15 pages, in Times New Roman or Arial 12, in 1.5 line spacing. The approved presentations shall be loaded on a web page before the Meeting. For presentations or interventions in other formats, please contact the organizing committee.
Deadlines for the presentation of workshops, books, journals and audiovisual works
- Submission: 16 June 2017
- Approval: 3 July 2017
Please send proposals for workshops, book/journal presentations, or audiovisual works to: [email protected]
or [email protected]
In the case of presentations of workshops, these should be supported with themes, methodology, participants and an indication of which of the thematic streams of the gathering they are related to. These proposals shall also be evaluated taking into account relevance and availability of space in the meeting.
For further information
Visit www.recuperadasdoc.com.ar
or send an email to: [email protected] or [email protected]
International network: www.workerscontrol.net
For registration
Please fill out the form at: http://registro.recuperadasdoc.com.ar/
