Marina Sitrin

Released May 30, 2014!

They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy,

with Dario Azzellini (2014) Verso Books

 

Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina (2012) Zed Press, London

Select Blurbs for Everyday Revolutions

 ‘In the last decade, few things have inspired and influenced me more than Marina   Sitrin’s reports from Argentina.’ – Rebecca Solnit, author of  A Paradise Built in  Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disasters

‘A timely and inspiring book whose ideas spill over from the streets of Buenos Aires into Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park, Syntagma and Plaza del Sol. Just the discussion we need.’ – John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power

‘Everyday Revolutions…contributes to our being able to visualize revolution, not as  something to accomplish one day, far in the distance, and in the place of presidential  palaces, but instead in the daily life of regular people.’ – Raul Zibechi, Uruguay, activist,  writer and researcher of social movements. Author of Territories of Resistance: Urban Periphery in Latin  America.

‘Everyday Revolutions provides a richly detailed, insightful, and inspiring account of the full array of social movements that emerged out of the Argentine economic meltdown of late 2001…Sitrin vividly portrays the prefigurative, affective politics and novel practices of horizontalism, autonomy and ‘autogestión’ or self-management that characterized Argentina’s popular rebellion and the movements of unemployed workers, recuperated factories, neighborhood assemblies and barter clubs that proliferated in its aftermath. Like many of today’s mass protest actions, occupations, and encampments, the movement formations exhaustively documented in this book advance innovative modalities of social and economic relations, citizen action, and radical politics, aptly captured in the recuperated factories’ motto ‘Occupy, Resist, Produce.’ Analyzing the accomplishments as well as contradictions that typify such radical experiments, this book offers powerful insights for activists and scholars alike.’ – Sonia E. Alvarez, Professor of Latin American Politics, U.  Amherst and author of Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women’s Movements in Transition Politics

‘Marina Sitrin’s feet are solidly planted in Argentina – and in this book she gives a wonderful introduction to the concepts and practices that have animated radical politics there for over a decade. But she is also able to reach up and, on the basis of the Argentine perspective, grasp the promise and importance of revolutionary activity elsewhere, from the encampments in Spain and Greece to the Occupy movements and beyond. The result is an inspiring and practical guide for understanding what revolutionary politics can be today.’ – Michael Hardt, author with Antonio Negri of Declarations

Occupying Language: The Secret Rendezvous with History and the Present with Dario Azzellini (2012)  Zuccotti Park Press/Adelante Alliance

Select Blurbs for Occupying Language

 

‘There are words that are rocks. Rocks, like geological layers, which have accumulated over      decades of struggles, and are colored with meanings irreducible to capitalist power. Rocks    heavy with hope.  Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini show how these rocks are moved –  rolling them against masters, police and the ideologists of neoliberalism. Occupy language!’ –  Antonio Negri, author with Michael Hardt of Empire, Commonweath & Declarations

‘Occupy Language uses the vocabulary of new and emergent movements around the world to  highlight the striking similarities of their practices and visions.  Movements from the  Zapatistas, mobilizations for popular control in Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, to the Arab  Spring, the European and Israeli Summer, and Occupy, have made inclusiveness a priority  and have insisted the the voice of every participant be heard and treated with respect.  Those  who identify with these movements should read this book for its beautiful and insightful  evocation of an emergent radical perspective and for the hope that this book conveys that a  new movement of movements can play a pivotal role in bringing about urgently needed  change.’ – Barbara Epstein teaches at UC Santa Cruz and is the author of Political Protest  and Cultural Revolution:  Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970s and 1980s

Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina (2006) AK Press, Oakland & Edinburg

(Spanish edition, 2005) Horizontalidad: Voices de Poder Popular en Argentina, Chilavert, Buenos Aires; (Greek edition, 2011) ?????????????: ????? ?????? ???????? ???? ????????? SKYA, Athens

Select Blurbs for Horizontalism

”To read this book is to join the crucial conversation taking place within its pages: the inspiring, maddening, joyful cacophony of debate among movements building a genuinely new politics.’ – Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, co-creators of The Take

‘These are the voices of Argentina’s grassroots activists, captured amidst the most important burst of democratic innovation the world has seen in the last decade. Listen, and learn how to make history from the bottom up!’ – Marie Kennedy, co-editor of Radical Politics of Place in America, and Chris Tilly, co-author of Glass Ceilings and Bottomless Pits

‘This is a book for anyone who wants to understand what it’s really like to change society from below.’ – Jeremy Brecher, author of Strike! And Globalization from Below

Select Book Reviews of Horizontalism:

Review by Dana Williams in Peace Review, Review by Wes Enzinna in Upsidedownworld, Review by James Generic in Wooden Shoe Books, The Rain Review of Books by Sebastian TouzaReseña por  Pedro Campos en kaosenlared

Interview with Marina about Horizontalism, with excerpts from the book