Socialization and Commons in Europe, How to build an Alternative Project?

Programme

Friday evening (18:30 to 22:00): Public event

Social appropriation experiments in Europe. What elements might create an alternative Society?

· A short introduction by Chantal Delmas about the meaning of this meeting and seminar.

· An introduction by Dario Azzellini about what is going on in Europe regarding self-management and commons and the meaning of all of these struggles.

· The Occupy movement and the commons – Marina Sitrin

· Different experiments among La Fabrique du Sud (ex-Pilpa, Carcassonne, France), Vio Me (Thessaloniki, Greece), SCOP TI (ex-Fralib, Gémenos, France), Water services (Napoli, Italy), Energy services (Berlin, Germany), Hospital health (London, UK), Plenums (Bosnia).

· Pablo Sanchez (EPSU, European Federation of Public Service Unions) will speak about Public services in Europe

· A European Deputy will explain European group about Commons

· Debate about these issues

Saturday morning (9:30 to 12:30)

Research on commons, self managment and public services

· Elisabetta Cangelosi: Different ways of conceiving commons and self management in Europe ;

· Dario Azzellini: Reasearch on commons and social appropriation in Europe ;

· Christian Laval: Commons and articulation with entreprises. What could be a commons of commons(planification,federation…) ?

· Benoît Borrits: How to address the question of property in entreprises ;

· Ugo Mattei: Commons: what kind of institution do we need ? How to articulate class struggles with new demands about institutions?

· Marie-Christine Vergiat: Which kind of law can we elaborate on a European level?

· First reactions

Saturday afternoon (14:00 to 16:00)

What strategies can replace dominant property rights with usage rights?

Struggles around the commons outline an opposition between owners who want to give a resource specific orientation against the will of stakeholders. What could be the transitional goals and institutions leading to usage rights in order to overcome property rights?  Nevertheless new forms of co-operative or public ownership in which workers and/or users share power are often the outcome of such struggles. Is this situation transitory and will it lead to the elimination of the concept of ownership, or is the concept of ownership compulsary and part of the construction of the commons?

· Some fifteen 2-minute statements on this issue

· One and half hour debate

Saturday afternoon (16:30 to 18:30)

What is the relationship between self-administration, public services and commons?
Does the movement/campaign/organization you are involved with make reference to other «commons» beyond the main question you are fighting for? How are the other commons (electricity, water, housing, education, transport etc.) embedded in your discourse and how present are they in the consciousness of the movement? How do you deal with the alienation that makes people believe in property rights and austerity logic and think that they themselves failed and not the capitalist system? How do you relate to other commons? Do you co-operate with other movements/groups struggling for other commons? How can all these experiences interact to build an alternative?

· Some fifteen 2-minute short statements about this issue

· One and half hour debate

Sunday morning (9:30 to 12:30)

Open discussion with a maximum of 5 minutes for each speaker. A sum up at the end to see where the general agreements are and what we still need to work on.

How do we spread the initial results of our seminar?

First draft about next seminar in 2015.