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They Can't Represent Us! makes waves this week, with high praise in ROAR Magazine and Dario Azzellini on Quadriga

Victoria Chow19 June 2014

Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini's They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy, released earlier this month, is making a splash in the news this week. The book explores the new and revolutionary mass movements that have sprung up worldwide, pushing for a new kind of democracy. ROAR Magazine calls it a "fiery indictment of electoral politics and a riveting defense of real democracy," as well as "a timely new book" in an era where there is a crisis of representation within global movements.

Also this week, co-author Azzellini, featured in an episode of the international talk show Quadriga, offers his thoughts on the political effects of the European Central Bank's dropping its benchmark lending rate to .15 percent. 



While the goal of this drop is to encourage more lending to crisis-stricken countries across Europe and stimulate the economy, Azzellini argues that the economy is too imbalanced for this to work. About the banks, government, and whom they support, Azzellini passionately argues:

Banks have always been used to do politics, and also to regulate markets, and to regulate capitalism. It has been a freaky idea by some neoliberals that they suddenly should not be under the control of government, but they have always been an instrument. Now we've created the problem with the Euro—we have a central bank, a central currency, but at the same time, the European countries, especially the strong ones, are not willing to do what you have to do if you have such big difference in one economic zone: support the ones that aren't that strong—not take them ... a turkey on Christmas, like Germany did with the southern countries, and profit from them—but you have to support them, you have support their economy, you have to build the economic sectors they don't have or that are not strong enough. What happened was quite the contrary. The stronger countries got stronger and bigger, [at] the expense of the southern countries.

During the talk Azzellini, who is joined by journalists Alan Posener and Ursula Weidenfeld, also touches on austerity programs, labor laws, and taxes.

By watching the talk, it becomes clear that Azzellini is knowledgeable and a strong advocate for the reinvention of democracy, which translates over well in They Can't Represent Us! About Sitrin and Azzellini, ROAR Magazine lauds:

Sitrin and Azzellini take the title of their book seriously. Rather than trying to “represent” the voices of the movements, a large part of the book is devoted to the voices of activists and organizers themselves.

Visit ROAR Magazine to read the full review. Visit Quadriga to watch the full episode featuring Dario Azzellini, or watch below.