Factory committee
Factory committees (
Russian Revolution of 1917 and afterwards
Factory committees sprang up during the
While the majority of factory committees fulfilled union-type roles (indeed, many arose due to the illegality of unions in pre-revolutionary Russia), historians estimate that in 7–10% of cases, factory committees were the result of workers' take-over of the factory. Most factory committees of this type developed as a means by workers to counter lock-outs and/or sabotage by factory owners. As a June conference of factory committees resolution describes,
From the beginning of the Revolution the administrative staffs of the factories have relinquished their posts. The workmen have practically become the masters. To keep the factories going, the workers' committees have had to take the management into their own hands. In the first days of the Revolution, in February and March, the workmen left the factories and went into the streets. The factories stopped work. About a fortnight later, the mass of workmen returned to their work. They found that many factories had been deserted. The managers, engineers, generals, mechanics, foremen had reason to believe that the workmen would wreak their vengeance on them, and they had disappeared. The workmen had to begin work with no administrative staff to guide them. They had to elect committees which gradually re-established a normal system of work. The committees had to find the necessary raw materials, and altogether to take upon themselves all kinds of unexpected and unaccustomed duties." (Resolution adopted during May 30 – June 5 Conference of Factory Committees in Petrograd, quoted in S.O. Zagorsky, State Control of Russian Industry During the War, p. 174.)
Through the factory committees workers dealt primarily with immediate economic questions, such as planning production and allocating compensation for work. At times, factory committees grew to rival the
Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, the terms "fabkom/zavkom" were abbreviations for "factory committee of the local organization of a
References
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2018) ) |
- ^ Péret, Benjamin. "The factory committee: motor of the social revolution". Archived from the original on Nov 20, 2021.
- ^ Jones, Rod. "Factory committees in the Russian revolution".