S03E39 - Jasper Bernes on Workers' Councils, Labor Time Calculation and the Future of Revolution

Jasper Bernes discusses worker self-organization, labor time
accounting and the revolutionary potential of workers' councils.


 


Shownotes


Jasper’s personal website:


https://jasperbernes.net/


Jasper at UC Berkeley:


https://english.berkeley.edu/people/jasper-bernes


Commune Magazine:


https://communemag.com/


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.


https://files.libcom.org/files/Communization-and-its-Discontents-Contestation-Critique-and-Contemporary-Struggles.pdf


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.


https://files.libcom.org/files/Gary%20Roth%20-%20Marxism%20in%20a%20Lost%20Century%20-%20A%20Biography%20of%20Paul%20Mattick.pdf


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.


https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=prefigurative-politics-building-tomorrow-today--9781509535903


the Endnotes Journal:


https://endnotes.org.uk/


on the German strand of the “Commons” debate and movement:


https://commons-institut.org/theorie/was-sind-commons/


https://keimform.de/


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


https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s03/e04-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


https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e19-david-laibman-on-multilevel-democratic-iterative-coordination/


S02E10 | Aaron Benanav on Associational Socialism and Democratic
Planning


https://futurehistories-international.com/episodes/s02/e10-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/


 


---


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


https://www.indep.network/


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