Workers' council
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A workers' council, or labor council,
Supporters of workers' councils (such as council communists,[4] libertarian socialists,[5] Leninists,[6] anarchists,[7] and Marxists[8]) argue that they are the most natural form of working-class organization, and believe that workers' councils are necessary for the organization of a proletarian revolution and the implementation of an anarchist or communist society.
The
In Socialist Theory and Movements
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Anarchism
Anarchists advocate for a
At the First International, followers of Proudhon and the collectivists led by Mikhail Bakunin have endorsed the use of workers' councils both as a means for organising class struggle and for forming the structural basis of a future anarchist society.[11] Writing for the French anarchist journal The New Times, Russian theorist Peter Kropotkin has praised the workers of Russia for using this form of organisation during the Revolution of 1905.[12]
Modern anarchists, such as proponents of participatory economics, advocate for the use of workers' councils as a means for participatory urban planning as well as decentralised planning of the economy.[13]
Council Communism
Council Communism is a
The council communists in the
Orthodox Marxism
Leninism
Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin proposed that the dictatorship of the proletariat should come in the form of a soviet republic. He proposed that the socialist revolution should be led by a revolutionary party, which should seize state power and establish a socialist state based on soviet democracy. Lenin's model for the dictatorship of the proletariat is based on that of the Paris Commune, and is meant to fullfil the task of suppressing the bourgeoisie and other counter-revolutionary forces, and "wither away" after the counter-revolution is fully suppressed and as the state institutions begin to "lose their political character".[6]
Some academics and socialists disputed the commitments
Luxemburgism
Rosa Luxemburg was a vocal proponent of radical socialist democracy, and advocated for the revolution to be led by workers' and soldiers' councils.[21] She was also openly critical of the actions of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, arguing that their approach was anti-democratic and totalitarian.[22]
Historical examples
At several times, both in late modern and in recent history, socialists and communists have organized workers' councils during periods of unrest. Examples include:
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune of 1871 (La Commune de Paris) was a revolutionary government that seized control of the city of Paris, which governed the city for two months based on socialist principles through the combined efforts of social democrats, anarchists, Blanquists, and Jacobins.[23] The commune was headed by the Commune Council (French: conseil de la Commune),[24] which was composed of delegates who were each subject to immediate recall by their electors. The events of this period has been a significant influence on the development of Marxist and anarchist political theory and revolutionary praxis. Friedrich Engels named the Paris Commune as the first example of a dictatorship of the proletariat.[25]
Strandza Commune
1905 Russian Revolution
The
Revolution in Congress Poland
- Poland during 1905, (rady robotnicze);[28]
Mexican Revolution
- Mexico during 1910–1920[citation needed]
Red Clydeside
- Glasgow, Scotland during 1915 (Rent Strikes)[29]
Revolutions of 1917-1923
1917 Russian Revolution
Councils such as the Petrograd Soviet were formed by striking workers to coordinate the revolution, exercising political power in the absence of the Tsar's governance.[30]
Despite Lenin's declarations that "the workers must demand the immediate establishment of genuine control, to be exercised by the workers themselves", on May 30, the Menshevik minister of labor, Matvey Skobelev, pledged to not give the control of industry to the workers but instead to the state: "The transfer of enterprises into the hands of the people will not at the present time assist the revolution [...] The regulation and control of industry is not a matter for a particular class. It is a task for the state. Upon the individual class, especially the working class, lies the responsibility for helping the state in its organizational work."[31][32] Council communists criticize the Bolsheviks for superseding the soviet democracy formed by the councils and creating a bureaucratic system of state capitalism.
Kronstadt Rebellion
Austro-Hungarian Strike, 1918
- Austria during 1918[citation needed]
Finnish Civil War
- ]
Makhno Movement, 1918-1921
During the
German Revolution, 1918-1919
Hungarian Soviet Republic
- Hungary during 1919[citation needed]
Biennio Rosso
- Italy during 1919–1920[citation needed]
Irish War of Independence
- Ireland during 1920–1921 (comhairle oibrithe)[citation needed]
Chinese National Revolution
- China during 1927[citation needed]
Korean People's Association in Manchuria
- Korea during 1929–1931 (hyeob-uihoe)[citation needed]
Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets, 1930-1931
- Vietnam during 1930-1931[citation needed]
Spanish Revolution
The
Post-Independence Algeria
Algeria, in the aftermath of the Algerian War, oversaw the widespread practice of workers' self-management. This was subsequently suppressed by conservative forces in the country.[28][35]
Indonesian War of Independence
Post-war Korea
- Korea during 1945–1946 (inmin wiwǒnhoe)[citation needed]
1945 Saigon Uprising
1956 Hungarian Revolution
Poznań protests of 1956
- Poland during 1956
Polish October
- Poland during 1956
Shanghai People's Commune
- China during 1967 (sūwéiāi)[citation needed]
Protests of 1968
May '68
During the
Prague Spring
Hot Autumn
- 1968 (consigli di fabbrica)[citation needed]
Free Derry
- Northern Ireland during 1969–1972, (Free Derry)[citation needed]
Solidarność riots, 1970
- 1970, (rady robotnicze);[28]
Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka during the 1970–75 United Front government[37]
Australia
1973 Chilean coup d'état
- Chile during 1973 (cordones)[citation needed]
Argentine Revolution
- Argentina during 1973[citation needed]
Ulster Workers' Council Strike
- 1974[citation needed]
Processo Revolucionário Em Curso
- 1974–1976[28]
1979 Iranian Revolution
Solidarność Strike, 1980-1981
- 1980–1981 (rady robotnicze);[28]
Canada
Tiananmen Square Protests
December 2001 Riots, Argentina
Bolivarian Circles
- Venezuela during 2001 (Círculos bolivarianos)[citation needed]
Rojava Revolution
See also
References
- ISBN 1902593928.
- ISBN 9780981289762.
- ISBN 9781902593562.
- ^ Mattick, Paul (1967). "Workers' Control". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ ISBN 0-89608-405-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1795754613.
- ^ "A Brief History of Popular Assemblies and Worker Councils". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Smaldone, William (March 17, 2023). "Otto Bauer and the Austro-Marxists Wanted a Socialist Revolution in Democracy". Jacobin. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Alger, Abby Langdon; Martin, Henri (1877). A Popular History of France from the First Revolution to the Present Time. D. Estes and C. E. Lauria. p. 189.
- OCLC 182529204.
- ISBN 9781904859482.
- ^ McKay, Iain (July 11, 2019). "Precursors of Syndicalism III". Anarchist Writers.
- ISBN 185984698X.
- S2CID 216214616.
- ^ Bernhard Reichenbach, The KAPD in Retrospect: An Interview with a Member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany
- ^ a b "Balazs Nagy: Budapest 1956 - the Central Workers' Council (Autumn 1964)". Marxist Archive.
- S2CID 228852799.
- ^ Brown, Tom (2012). wojtek (ed.). "Lenin and workers' control". libcom.org. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Russian_Revolutions.pdf
- ^ "The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control: The State and Counter-Revolution". Marxist Archive. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Luxemburg, Rosa. "Our Program and the Political Situation". Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
- ^ Luxemburg, Rosa (1940) [1918]. "The Problem of Dictatorship". The Russian Revolution. Translated by Wolfe, Bertram. New York: Workers Age Publishers.
- ISBN 978-2-13-062078-5.
- ISBN 978-1-317-88384-5.
- ^ "The Civil War in France" (PDF). Marxists Internet Archive.
- ^ Tarinski, Yavor (6 June 2022). "The Commune and the Balkans: The Case of Bulgaria". Freedom News. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
- ^ Maurice Brinton, pseud. (Christopher Agamemnon Pallis). The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control. (Orig: Solidarity UK, London, 1970), The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control introduction
- ^ ISBN 978-1-60846-119-6.
- ^ "1915-1920: Red Clydeside and the shop stewards' movement". libcom.org. 2006. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
- ^ Pannekoek, Antonie. "Workers Councils". Marxists Internet Archive.
- ^ Tony Cliff Lenin 2 Chapter 12 Lenin and Workers’ Control, section The Rise of Factory Committees
- ^ Amosov et al. (1927) Oktiabrskaia Revoliutsiia i Fazavkomy, vol. 1, p. 83. (published in Moscow)
- ISBN 978-0-74533-887-3.
- ISBN 84-8371-096-X – via Google Books.
- ^ Greenland, Hall. "After Independence, Algeria Launched an Experiment in Self-Managing Socialism". Jacobin.
- ^ a b "The Beginning of an Era", from Situationist International No 12 (September 1969). Translated by Ken Knabb.
- ^ Goonewardena, Leslie (1975). "Employees Councils and Self Management in Sri Lanka". State. 1: 32–37.
- ISBN 9781604869569.
- ISBN 1-931859-02-7.
- ^ A Small Key Can Open a Large Door: The Rojava Revolution (1st ed.). Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness. 4 March 2015. According to Dr. Ahmad Yousef, an economic co-minister, three-quarters of traditional private property is being used as commons and one quarter is still being owned by use of individuals...According to the Ministry of Economics, worker councils have only been set up for about one third of the enterprises in Rojava so far.
External links
- Workers' Councils: The historically discovered form of the dictatorship of the proletariat
- Workers' Councils, Anton Pannekoek
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