Chronicle

The achievements of the network Privatization and Public Goods and its ppg-working group in cooperation with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation (RLS):

  • Bilingual newsletter with over 400 subscribers from 17 countries
  • 32 seminars, workshops and lectures
  • 86 publications (brochures, books, policy papers)
  • co-operation with, for instance, PRESOM (EU Project Privatization and the European Social Model), the German Left party DIE LINKE, the Berlin alliance against privatisation; the German Federal Coordination for Internationalism (BUKO), Attac, a PhD-Colloquium on water that meets in Berlin, the Left Forum, Social Forum, People’s Health Movement, WEED (World Economy, Ecology and Development based in Berlin), transform, etc.
  • a database on facilities dealing with questions of privatisation in Europe is being set up in co-operation with PRESOM
  • contracted studies on the impact of privatization and deregulation of public services in Europe and on the public sector in European capitals
  • participation at more than 100 events on the topic

2001

  1. Who Owns the World. Property – Appropriation – Expropriation in present day capitalism. Initiatives for clarification. Workshop, December 2001 in Berlin with Jörg Huffschmid, Dieter Klein, Michael Krätke, Jörg Roesler, Hermann Behrens and many others.
  2. RLS Research Prize, 2001 on the theme “Who Owns the World. Property – expropriation – dispossession in present day capitalism.”

2002

  1. Capitalism Workshop for the 1st European Social Forum, Florence, 2002.
  2. Buena vista neo-liberal? A critical analysis of the global neo-liberal networks of intellectuals and think tanks. Regular workshops between 1999 and 2002: policy papers and conferences for the neo-liberal hegemonic project. www.buena-vista-neoliberal.de (address no longer accessible)
  3. RLS Research Prize 2002 on the theme “What is public welfare in the era of globalisation and how can it be achieved?”

2003

  1. Life is more than capital. Privatisation and public goods in the EU, the first annual meeting of the ppg-Network, 14 August 2003, with Elmar Altvater, Michael Krätke, Thomas Fritz, Martin Beckmann, Thomas Seibert, Ulrich Duchrow, Judith Dellheim and many others.
  2. Globalisation and Gender. Public Goods and the Privatisation of Public services, in cooperation with WIDE and Transform!
  3. Research Prize, 2003: “Under what conditions are individual property and socialised production compatible with the objective of a universal development of individuals and society?”

2004

  1. Appropriation. The Politics of the Commons. 12–14 March 2004, Socialist Scholars Conference, New York/USA, with David Harvey, Nancy Holmstrom, Anatole Anton, Jörg Huffschmid, Mario Candeias and many others.
  2. Appropriation from “above” and (re-)appropriation from “below”. 20 – 23 May 2004, 27th annual congress of Bundeskoordination Internationalismus (BuKo), Kassel, with Christian Zeller, Christoph Görg, Kristina Dietz, Barbara Dickhaus, Michel Reimo and many others.
  3. The State of the Commons. 2nd ppg-Annual Meeting, 31 July – 3 August 2004, Attac summer academy, Dresden, with Iris Nowak, Barbara Dickhaus, Rainer Rilling, Jörg Huffschmid, Peter Herrmann, Alessandro Pelizzari, Stefan Lindner, Alexis Passadakis, Kristina Dietz et. al.
  4. Alternatives to Privatisation: Towards Social Appropriation. 16 October 2004, 3rd European Social Forum, London, with David Hall, Yves Salesse, Jean-Michel Nathanson, Roman Havlicek, Kristina Dietz
  5. Alternatives for the Economy, International Workshop of the RLS with Punto Rosso and the CGIL of Lombardy, 26–28 November 2004, Milan.
  6. Wealth and Power, Workshop, 3-4 December 2004, Münster University, with Hans-Jürgen Krysmanski, Michael Hartmann, Peter Imbusch, Karin Priester, Dieter Eißel, Dieter Klein and many others.

2005

  1. Global Economy of Dispossession, January 2005, World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Workshops with Moureen Mnisi (South Africa), Martin Schorr (FLACSO Argentina), Elmar Altvater, Jörg Huffschmid, Ulrich Brand, Mario Candeias
  2. Digital Commons as Public Goods, Workshop, April 2005, New Left Forum, City University of New York, with Christoph Engemann, Heather Johnson, Stephen Brier, Sabine Nuss and Nancy Holstrom
  3. InSourcingOut. Contradictions of Privatisation and Precarization; Another Economy is possible – free software, participatory economy and utopian thinking 5–8 May 2005, Workshops at the 28th annual congress of the Bundeskoordination Internationalismus (BuKo) Hamburg, with Ursula Huws, Moira Zoitl, Luzenir Caixeta, Nicole Mayer-Ahuja et al.
  4. Work precariously – live precariously; Precarization between movements and unions; Business and Politics with Water, from Uruguay to Berlin, three seminars at the 1st Social Forum in Germany, Erfurt, 21 – 24 July 2005, with Emilio Viafora, Peter Bremme, Werner Rügemer, Klaus Lederer, Robert Grosse et al., in cooperation with Attac and »Brot fuer die Welt«.
  5. Appropriation Economy, international workshop, 9 August 2005, Attac summer academy, Göttingen
  6. Economics from the left – how does that work? 16 August 2005, Berlin, expert discussion with Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Herr, moderated by Stephan Kaufmann (business editorial/Berliner Zeitung)
  7. International Congress »Capitalism reloaded«, 11–13 December 2005 in Berlin, co-organised and financed by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation with about 100 Workshops and introductory crash courses.
  8. Wealth and Power II, international workshop, 11–13 December 2005 in Berlin, with Hans-Jürgen Krysmanski, Val Burris, Michael, Kees van der Pijl, Peter Imbusch, Armando Fernández Steinko, Dieter Eißel, Rainer Rilling, Dieter Klein and many others.
  9. A Left Policy for Public Goods, 3rd Annual Congress, 16 December 2005, Berlin, with Gaye Yilmaz, Jannis Milios, David Berry, Giles Moss, Michael Krätke, Özgür Müftüoglu, Alessandro Pelizzari et al.

2006

  1. Keynesian Economy as Alternative Economy? Potentials, ambivalencies, and perspectives, international workshop, 24 – 26 February, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin
  2. The Power of the Rich, Left Forum New York, 10–12 March 2006, workshop with Michael Krätke, Jörg Huffschmid, Hans-Jürgen Krysmanski, William K. Tabb, Rainer Rilling et al.
  3. Health, Drugs and Research as a Public Good, European Social Forum, Athens, 4 – 7 May 2006, with Thomas Seibert, Christian Wagner et al. in cooperation with PHM (People’s Health Movement) and REDS (Reseau d’ Europe pour la Defence de la Santé)
  4. Economic Democracy and Participatory Economics, European Social Forum, Athens, 4 – 7 May 2006, Workshop with Michael Krätke et al., in cooperation with the European Network for Economic Democracy (ECODEM)
  5. Public Private Partnerships, annual meeting of PPG, August 2006, Attac summer academy, Karlsruhe
  6. Value, Property, Public Goods and Labour in Digitalized Capitalism, workshop in Thessaloniki, in co-operation with Espaces Marx Greece, 30 September to 1 October 2006, with Yannis Milios, Michael Heinrich, Sabine Nuss and others

2007

  1. The Property Question Asked in a New Way – But How?, central forum with three events, 4 August 2007, Attac summer academy Fulda, with Kjeld Jakobsen, Christina Deckwirth, Thomas Seibert, Bettina Köhler, Michael Krätke, Benjamin Bärmann, Christian Schmidt and Sabine Nuss
  2. Sabine Nuss: »Copy Me I Want to Travel« – Seminar on Property Theories within the Framework of the G8 theme week of the Otto-Suhr-Institute of the Free University, Berlin, 8 May 2007
  3. Sabine Nuss: Open Source, Copyright & Copyleft. Plenary contribution within the Framework of SALON GLOBAL: statements, visuals & cash for the G8 and 15 reasons against it
  4. Helpless Anti-capitalism, Workshop at the annual »actuel Marx« conference, 5 October 2007, Paris, with Wolfgang Fritz Haug, Nancy Fraser, Michael Brie, Elisabeth Gaultier and others
  5. Deprivatisation, Recommunalisation, Appropriation. Overcoming the crisis of privatisation, annual meeting of PPG, December 2007, Berlin

With the beginning of the real estate crisis, turning into financial, fiscal, debt, and multiple global crisis, the focus of our inititatives in workshops and conferences shifted towards crisis theorey. Within the framework of this website we continued to monitor and criticize privatization and appropriation from above. The ruling block still emphasizes those neoliberal strategies to deal with the crisis and to avoid being questioned for their own privileged situations in terms of power and wealth.

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