Associated Labor and Production in the Age of Barbarism : Education Beyond Capital

The book focuses on different practices of associated labor in Brazil and Argentina, in the case of the workers’ recuperated factories, over the past 40 years. Novaes analyses labor practices from a critical Marxist perspective as a reaction to the misery of neoliberalism. Deindustrialization, austerity programs, increasing commodification and international competitiveness have severely deteriorated the living and working conditions of the majority of Latin Americans. However, alternative labor, production and educational practices have developed in this increasingly ruthless neoliberal capitalism. Although they are still small, they indicate a potential way out of the capitalist mode of production. Novaes directs his special attention to the “education beyond capital,” which has accompanied these alternative labor and production practices (from alternative job training in recuperated companies and the movement of landless rural workers MST). Foreword Preface for the English and Italian Editions Introduction Contents About the Author Abbreviations 1 Labour as a Vital Need and Alienated Labour: Contributions to the Debate on the Relationship Between Labour and an Education Beyond Capital Introduction The Ontology of Social Beings: The Difference Between Humans and Other Animals Alienated Labour The Positive Overcoming of the Alienation of Labour Entails a Need for the Flourishing of Associated Labour and an Education Beyond Capital In Conclusion ... Bibliography 2 The Foundations of Self-Managed Socialism: The Contribution of István Mészáros The Return to Self-Management, Cooperativism and Associativism in the late Twentieth Century A Society Beyond Capital: Starting the Debate The Snail and Its Shell: A Critique of Ownership of the Means of Production Self-Management: for a New Social Division of Labour and a New Type of Participation in Strategic Decisions for Society For a Radical Restructuring of the Productive Forces Socialist Planning of Production Final Considerations Bibliography 3 Brazilian Unions and the Struggle Against the Entrepreneurial-Military Dictatorship (1964–1985) The 1964 Coup and Increasing Repression from 1968 Onwards The Military-Civilian Dictatorship and Union Resistance Bibliography 4 Manifestations of Barbarism The Growth of Child Labour The Return of Work Analogous to Slavery, the Violence of Underemployment and Structural Unemployment and Alienated Labour The Situation of the Outsourced Working Class in Brazil The Manifestations of Barbarism in Schools and the Misery of São Paulo’s Educational Policy The Historical Need for an Education Beyond Capital Bibliography 5 An Overview of Urban Associated Labour in Brazil: Positive and Negative Aspects of Self-Management in the Productive Microcosm Introduction: The Structural Crisis of Capital and the Embryos of Anti-Capital Struggles in Latin America Worker-Recovered Companies (ERTs, from the Acronym in Portuguese) Cooperative Housing Efforts and Civil Construction Cooperatives: From FUCVAM to the Dom Hélder Câmara Commune The Collection and Sorting of Recyclable Materials: A Field for Associated Labour? Some Conclusions: From Embryos of Associated Labour to the Struggle for the Construction of a Society Beyond Capital Bibliography 6 Cooperation and Workers’ Cooperatives in São Paulo’s MST: An Analysis of the Actions of the Capitalist State that Block the Educational Potential of Associated Labour Introduction From the coffee complex to the expansion of Agribusiness in the State of São Paulo Conceiving Cooperation in the MST Cooperation in the São Paulo MST in Face of the Capitalist State Cooperation and Cooperativism in the MST of São Paulo Final Considerations: Islands/Settlements Surrounded by a Green Sea of Sugarcane and Eucalyptus Bibliography 7 Associated Labour as an Educational Principle: Notes from Worker-Recovered Factories in Brazil and Argentina Introduction: The Advance of Barbarism in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries Some Differences Between Anti-Capital Struggles and Localised Struggles Associated Labour as an Educational Principle in Recovered Factories: Some Positive Aspects The Tendency to Accommodate the Recovered Factories Within the Order of Capital: Some Negative Aspects Qualification Projects for Recovered Factories “Senai Does Not Serve Us”: Notes of an Education and “Training” Beyond Capital Final Remarks Bibliography 8 The National Training Centre in the Solidarity Economy: The Contradictions of Self-Management Education of the Solidarity Economy Movement Introduction The Solidarity Economy Movement and Associated Labour The National Training Centre for Solidarity Economy (CFES Nacional) Associated Labour as an Educational Principle and the Historical Need for an Education Beyond Capital Final Considerations Bibliography 9 “Green Revolution”, Agroecology and the MST Agroecology Schools Introduction Capital’s Agriculture Campaign and Destructive Production: The Political Economy of the “Green Revolution” Agroecology in the MST: Beyond the Green Agenda The Creation of the Agroecology Schools Agroecology in the Curriculum of the MST Vocational Schools Final Thoughts Bibliography 10 Notes on Social Movements and Education: Challenges of the Struggle Between Capital and Labour in Brazil Introduction Theories About Social Movements Social Movements and Class Struggle Social Movements and Political Education in the Brazilian Reality Final Thoughts Bibliography Bibliography Index