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

Future Histories

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/

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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

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