Workers' council: Difference between revisions

A '''workers' council''', oralso called '''labor council''',<ref>{{cite book|title=Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice|last=Rocker|first=Rudolf|year=2004|page=63|isbn=1902593928|publisher=AK Press}}</ref>, is a type of [[council]] in a [[workplace]] or a [[Human settlement|locality]] made up of workers or of temporary and [[Recall election|instantly revocable]] delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Workers' Councils and the Economics of Self-Managed Society|last=Castoriadis|first=Cornelius|year=2014|isbn=9780981289762|publisher=Thought Crime Ink}}</ref> In such a system of political and economic organization, the workers themselves are able to exercise decision-making power. Furthermore, the workers within each council decide on what their agenda is and what their needs are. The council communist [[Antonie Pannekoek]] describes shop-committees and sectional assemblies as the basis for workers' management of the [[Secondary sector of the economy|industrial system]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Workers' Councils|last=Pannekoek|first=Anton|publisher=Communistenbond Spartacus|year=1946|isbn=9781902593562|location=Wageningen, Netherlands}}</ref> A variation is a '''soldiers' council''', where soldiers direct a [[mutiny]]. Workers and soldiers have also operated councils in conjunction (like the 1918 German ''Arbeiter- und Soldatenrat''). Workers' councils may in turn elect delegates to central committees, such as the [[Congress of Soviets]].

Supporters of workers' councils (such as [[Council communism|council communists]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Mattick |first=Paul |date=1967 |title=Workers' Control |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1967/workers-control.htm |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref> [[Libertarian socialism|libertarian socialists]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Albert |first1=Michael |title=Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century |last2=Hahnel |first2=Robin |publisher=South End Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-89608-405-1 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref> [[Leninism|Leninists]],<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |title=The State and Revolution |isbn=978-1795754613 |publisher=The Leftist Public Domain Project |year=2019 |language=en}}</ref> [[Anarchism|anarchists]],<ref>{{cite web |title=A Brief History of Popular Assemblies and Worker Councils |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/morpheus-a-brief-history-of-popular-assemblies-and-worker-councils |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref> and [[Marxism|Marxists]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Smaldone |first=William |date=March 17, 2023 |title=Otto Bauer and the Austro-Marxists Wanted a Socialist Revolution in Democracy |url=https://jacobin.com/2023/03/otto-bauer-austro-marxists-socialist-revolution-democracy-book-review |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |language=en-US}}</ref>) argue that they are the most natural form of [[Proletariat|working-class]] organization, and believe that workers' councils are necessary for the organization of a [[proletarian revolution]] and the implementation of an [[Anarchy|anarchist]] or [[communist society]].

Anarchists advocate for a [[stateless society]] based on horizontal [[Social organisation#Collectivism_and_individualismCollectivism and individualism|social organisation]] through voluntary federations of communes, with workers' councils and [[voluntary associations]] acting as the basic units of such societies. Early conceptions of this theory have come from the writings of French [[Anarchism|anarchist]] philosopher [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]]. His theory of [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualism]] envisioned a society organised through workers' councils, [[cooperatives]], and other types of workers' associations.<ref>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.</ref><ref name="AFAQ">The Anarchist FAQ Collective; McKay, Ian, ed. (2008/2012). ''An Anarchist Faq''. '''I/II'''. Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press. {{ISBN|9781902593906|9781849351225}}. {{OCLC|182529204}}.</ref>

At the [[International Workingmen's Association|First International]], followers of Proudhon and the [[Collectivist anarchism|collectivists]] led by [[Mikhail Bakunin]] have endorsed the use of workers' councils both as a means for organising [[Class conflict|class struggle]] and for forming the structural basis of a future anarchist society.<ref>{{cite book|last=Avrich|first=Paul|title=The Russian Anarchists|year=2005|isbn=9781904859482|publisher=AK Press}}</ref> Writing for the French anarchist journal {{ill|The New Times (Paris)|lt=''The New Times''|fr|Les Temps nouveaux (journal)}}, Russian theorist [[Peter Kropotkin]] has praised the workers of Russia for using this form of organisation during the Revolution of 1905.<ref>{{cite web|last=McKay|first=Iain|date=July 11, 2019|title=Precursors of Syndicalism III|url=https://anarchism.pageabode.com/precursors-of-syndicalism-iii/|website=Anarchist Writers|language=en}}</ref>

Modern anarchists, such as proponantsproponents of [[participatory economics]], advocate for the use of workers' councils as a means for [[Participatory planning|participatory urban planning]] as well as [[Economic planning#Decentralized_planningDecentralized planning|decentralised planning]] of the economy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Albert|first=Michael|title=Parecon: Life after Capitalism|year=2004|isbn=185984698X|publisher=Verso Books}}</ref>

The council communists in the [[Communist Workers' Party of Germany]] advocated organizing "on the basis of places of work, not trades, and to establish a National Federation of Works Committees."<ref>[http{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/reichenbach/1969/retrospect.htm Bernhard Reichenbach, ''|title=The KAPD in Retrospect: An Interview with a Member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany'']|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> The Central Workers Council of Greater Budapest occupied this role in the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], between late October and early January 1957, where it grew out of local [[factory committees]].<ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj/1964/no018/nagy.htm| title=Balazs Nagy: Budapest 1956 - the Central Workers' Council (Autumn 1964)|website=Marxist Archive}}</ref>

Marxist revolutionary [[Vladimir Lenin]] proposed that the dictatorship of the proletariat should come in the form of a [[Soviet republic (system of government)|soviet republic]]. He proposed that the socialist revolution should be led by a [[Vanguardism|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 "[[Withering away of the state|wither away]]" after the counter-revolution is fully suppressed and as the state institutions begin to "lose their political character".<ref name=":2" />

Some academics and socialists disputed the commitments [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Leon Trotsky]] had toward workers' councils after the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]], noting that workers' councils "were never meant to become a permanent political form of self-governance" and were therefore sidelined by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Popp-Madsen |first1=Benjamin Ask |last2=Kets |first2=Gaard |date=2021-01-01 |title=Workers' Councils and Radical Democracy: Toward a Conceptual History of Council Democracy from Marx to Occupy |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711750 |journal=Polity |language=en |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=160–188 |doi=10.1086/711750 |hdl=2066/228676 |s2cid=228852799 |issn=0032-3497|hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Tom |date=2012 |editor-last=wojtek |title=Lenin and workers' control |url=https://libcom.org/article/lenin-and-workers-control-tom-brown |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=libcom.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Russian_Revolutions.pdf | title=Revolution in Russia and the Formation of the Soviet Union | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112032206/https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Russian_Revolutions.pdf | archive-date=2020-01-12}}</ref> Some socialists have argued this as an example of the [[Bolsheviks]]' betrayal of socialist principles,<ref name=":1" /> while others have defended it as necessary for the social conditions at the time to maintain and advance the Revolution.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control: The State and Counter-Revolution |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/brinton/1970/workers-control/02.htm#fn12 |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=Marxist Archive}}</ref>

Rosa Luxemburg was a vocal proponantproponent of radical socialist democracy, and advocated for the revolution to be led by workers' and soldiers' councils.<ref>{{cite web|last=Luxemburg|first=Rosa|title=Our Program and the Political Situation|url=https://www.rosalux.de/stiftung/historisches-zentrum/rosa-luxemburg/our-program-and-the-political-situation|website=Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung}}</ref> She was also openly critical of the actions of the [[Bolsheviks]] in the Russian Revolution, arguing that their approach was anti-democratic and totalitarian.<ref name="marxists.org">{{cite book|author-first=Rosa |author-last=Luxemburg |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/russian-revolution/ch06.htm |title=The Russian Revolution |chapter=The Problem of Dictatorship |orig-date=1918 |publisher=Workers Age Publishers |location=New York |date=1940 |translator-first=Bertram |translator-last=Wolfe}}</ref>

The [[Paris Commune]] of 1871 ({{lang|fr|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 democracy|social democrats]], [[Anarchism|anarchists]], [[Blanquism|Blanquists]], and [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobins]]. <ref>{{cite book |last=Rougerie |first=Jacques |title=La Commune de 1871 |trans-title=The commune of 1871 |year=2014 |publisher=Presses universitaires de France |location=Paris |pages=58–60 |isbn=978-2-13-062078-5 |language=fr}}</ref> The commune was headed by the [[Commune Council (Paris)|Commune Council]] ({{lang-fr|conseil de la Commune}}),<ref>{{cite book|last=Tombs|first=Robert|title=The Paris Commune 1871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7mTJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74|year=2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-88384-5|page=74}}</ref> which was composed of delegates who were each subject to immediate [[Recall election|recall]] by their electors. The events of this period has been a significant influence on the development of [[Marxism|Marxist]] and anarchist political theory and revolutionary praxis. [[Friedrich Engels]] named the Paris Commune as the first example of a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/civil_war_france.pdf|title=The Civil War in France|website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

*[[Adrianople Vilayet]], [[Ottoman Empire]] in [[Strandzha Commune|1903]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Tarinski |first=Yavor |title=The Commune and the Balkans: The Case of Bulgaria |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/2022/06/06/the-commune-and-the-balkans-the-case-of-bulgaria/ |website=Freedom News |date=6 June 2022 |access-date=2023-08-28}}</ref>

The [[1905 Russian Revolution]] saw the spontaneous emergence of workers' councils (otherwise known locally as [[soviet (council)|''soviets'']]) in the [[Russian Empire]].<ref name="BrintonIntro">Maurice Brinton, pseud. (Christopher Agamemnon Pallis). The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control. (Orig: Solidarity UK, London, 1970), [http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control introduction]</ref> Trotsky would assume a central role in the [[1905 revolution]]<ref>"A prolific writer and a spellbinding orator, he was a central figure in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the October Revolution of 1917,

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."<ref name="CliffCh12">[[Tony Cliff]] ''Lenin 2'' Chapter 12 ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1976/lenin2/ch12.htm Lenin and Workers’ Control]'', section The Rise of Factory Committees''</ref><ref>Amosov et al. (1927) ''Oktiabrskaia Revoliutsiia i Fazavkomy'', vol. 1, p. 83. (published in Moscow)</ref> Council communists criticize the Bolsheviks for superseding the soviet democracy formed by the councils and creating a bureaucratic system of [[state capitalism]].

During the [[Russian Revolution]], the [[Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine]] led by [[Nestor Makhno]] established a [[Makhnovschina|stateless territory]] in Eastern [[Ukraine]] on the principles of [[anarchist communism]]. The Makhnovists established a system of [[Free soviets|free soviets]] (''vilni rady''), which allowed workers, peasants, and militants to self-govern their communities through [[workers' self management]] and send delegates to the [[Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-74533-887-3 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]]}}</ref>

[[Algeria]], in the aftermath of the [[Algerian War]], oversaw the widespread practice of [[workers' self-management]]. This was subsiquentlysubsequently suppressed by conservative forces in the country.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Greenland|first=Hall|title=After Independence, Algeria Launched an Experiment in Self-Managing Socialism|url=https://jacobin.com/2023/02/algeria-independence-self-management-socialism-democracy-coup|website=Jacobin|language=english}}</ref>

*[[Sri Lanka]] during the 1970–75 [[United Front (Sri Lanka)|United Front]] government<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goonewardena |first=Leslie |date=1975 |title=Employees Councils and Self Management in Sri Lanka |journal=State |volume=1 |pages=32–37}}</ref>

*[[Syndicate#Labor_syndicatesLabor syndicates|Labor syndicate]]