S03E39 - Jasper Bernes on Workers' Councils, Labor Time Calculation and the Future of Revolution
Future Histories
Die Grundlagen kommunistischer Produktion und Verteilung
In diesem Kapitel werden die kommunistischen Prinzipien von Produktion und Verteilung behandelt, die 1930 formuliert wurden, und deren Einfluss auf soziale Kontrolle und Zusammenarbeit diskutiert. Dabei wird die Umwandlung von Arbeitsstunden in sozial notwendige Durchschnittsstunden analysiert und die Idee der Arbeitszertifikate vorgestellt. Zudem wird die Notwendigkeit der Überwindung von Arbeitsteilung und der Förderung solidarischer Produktion für das Gelingen eines kommunistischen Projekts hervorgehoben.
Jasper Bernes discusses worker self-organization, labor time accounting and the revolutionary potential of workers' councils.
Shownotes
Jasper’s personal website:
Jasper at UC Berkeley:
https://english.berkeley.edu/people/jasper-bernes
Commune Magazine:
Bernes, J. (2025). The Future of Revolution: Communist Prospects from the Paris Commune to the George Floyd Uprising. Verso Books.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/977-the-future-of-revolution
Bernes, J. (2020). Planning and Anarchy. South Atlantic Quarterly, 119(1), 53–73.
https://jasperbernes.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/1190053.pdf
on Worker’s councils:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_council
on Council communism:
https://libcom.org/article/council-communism-introduction
on the Paris Commune:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune
on Rosa Luxemburg and the Mass Strike:
https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/43964/rosa-luxemburg-and-the-political-mass-strike
Nunes, R. (2021). Neither Vertical nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization. Verso Books.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/772-neither-vertical-nor-horizontal
Find the quote “the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all” at the end of Chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm
Group of International Communists (1990) [German original 1930] Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution.
https://www.marxists.org/subject/left-wing/gik/1930/index.htm
second, revised edition from 1935, published in English in 2020:
https://arbeitszeit.noblogs.org/files/2023/04/GIC-Fundamental-Principles-2.-Ed.1935-1.pdf
on Jan Appel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Appel
on Labor Time Calculation/Accounting:
https://arbeitszeit.noblogs.org/en-GB/basics/
Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/
on Communization:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communization
Noys, B. (Ed.). (2012). Communization and its Discontents: Contestation, Critique, and Contemporary Struggles. Minor Compositions.
on Gilles Dauvé:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Dauv%C3%A9
on the law of Value in Marx:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_value
on Paul Mattick:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mattick
Roth, G. (2014). Marxism in a Lost Century: A Biography of Paul Mattick. BRILL.
Mattick’s introduction to the 1970 reprint of the German first edition of “Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution”:
https://www.leftcommunism.org/spip.php?article359
on the Communist Party of Germany, founded in 1919:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Germany
on Amadeo Bordiga:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_Bordiga
Bordiga on the distinction between the city and the countryside:
https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/bordiga-humansearth.pdf
Raekstad, P. R., & Gradin, S. S. (2019). Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today. Polity.
the Endnotes Journal:
on the German strand of the “Commons” debate and movement:
https://commons-institut.org/theorie/was-sind-commons/
Gibson-Graham, J. K. (1993). Waiting for the Revolution, or How to Smash Capitalism while Working at Home in Your Spare Time. Rethinking Marxism, 6(2), 10–24.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08935699308658052
Purnell, D. (2021). Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protest, and the Pursuit of Freedom. Verso.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2894-becoming-abolitionists
Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics
S3E04 | Tim Platenkamp on Republican Socialism, General Planning and Parametric Control
S02E58 | Søren Mau on Planning and Freedom
https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e58-soren-mau-on-planning-and-freedom/
S02E19 | David Laibman on Multilevel Democratic Iterative Coordination
S02E10 | Aaron Benanav on Associational Socialism and Democratic Planning
S01E58 | Jasper Bernes on Planning and Anarchy
https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s01/e58-jasper-bernes-on-planning-and-anarchy/
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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:
Democratic planning – an information website
https://www.democratic-planning.com/
Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1
Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction
International Network for Democratic Economic Planning
Democratic Planning Research Platform:
https://www.planningresearch.net/
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Episode Keywords
#JasperBernes, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #DemocraticPlanning, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #PoliticalEconomy, #History, #Revolution, #Revolutions, #RosaLuxemburg, #CouncilCommunism, #LaborTimeAccounting, #LaborTimeCalculation, #Capitalism, #Economics, #CouncilCommunism, #WorkersCouncils, #WorkerSelfOrganisation, #PoliceAbolition, #Communisation, #ParisCommune, #GroupOfInternationalCommunists
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