Workers' council: Difference between revisions

A '''workers' council''', or '''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>{{Citecite 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 webbook |last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |title=The State and Revolution |urlisbn=https://www.marxists.org/ebooks/lenin/state-and-revolution.pdf1795754613 |publisher=The Leftist Public Domain Project |year=2019 |language=en}}</ref> [[Anarchism|anarchists]],<ref>{{Citecite 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>{{Citecite 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]].

The [[Paris Commune|Paris Commune of 1871]] became a model for how future workers' councils would be organised for revolution and socialist governance.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} Workers' councils have played a significant role in the [[communist]] revolutions of the 20th century. This was most notable in the lands of the [[Russian Empire]] (including [[Congress Poland]] and [[Latvia]]) in 1905, with the workers' councils ([[Soviet (council)|soviets]]) acting as labor committees which coordinated strike activities throughout the cities due to repression of trade unions. During the [[Revolutions of 1917–1923]], councils of socialist workers were able to exercise political authority. In the workers' councils organized as part of the [[German Revolution of 1918–19|1918 German revolution]], factory organizations such as the [[General Workers' Union of Germany]] formed the basis for region-wide councils.

Council Communism is a [[Libertarian socialism#Marxist|libertarian Marxist]] current that advocates for a system of workers councils, as opposed to a [[communist party]] or [[trade union]], to coordinate [[class struggle]]. Workers directly control production and construct higher organizational bodies from below. Recall-able delegates can be elected from individual workplaces to represent workers on a societal level. Council communists, such as the Dutch-German current of [[left communists]], believe that their nature means that workers' councils do away with bureaucratic form of the state and instead give power directly to workers through a [[soviet democracy]]. Council communists view this organization of a revolutionary government as an [[anti-authoritarian]] approach to the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]].<ref>{{Citationcite journal needed|datelast=AugustMuldoon 2023|first=James |year=2021 |title=After council communism: the post-war rediscovery of the council tradition |journal=Intellectual History Review |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=341–362 |doi=10.1080/17496977.2020.1738762 |hdl=10871/120315 |s2cid=216214616 |hdl-access=free}}</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://www.marxists.org/archive/reichenbach/1969/retrospect.htm Bernhard Reichenbach, ''The KAPD in Retrospect: An Interview with a Member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany'']</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>{{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>https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Russian_Revolutions.pdf</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>{{Citecite 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=www.marxists.orgMarxist Archive}}</ref>

== Historical examples ==

*[[Gift economyGrassroots]]