Workers' council · Lablypedia

Supporters of workers' councils (such as council communists, libertarian socialists, Leninists, anarchists, and Marxists) 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 Paris Commune of 1871 became a model for how future workers' councils would be organised for revolution and socialist governance. 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 (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 1918 German revolution, factory organizations such as the General Workers' Union of Germany formed the basis for region-wide councils.

In socialist theory

Background

Karl Marx in The Civil War in France described the Paris Commune as a system with indirect elections, where district assemblies elected delegates to a higher assembly and could recall them at any time.

Anarchism

Some anarchist ideologies advocate for a stateless society based on horizontal 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 anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. His theory of mutualism envisioned a society organised through workers' councils, cooperatives, and other types of workers' associations.

At the First International, followers of Proudhon and the collectivists led by Mikhail Bakunin 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. Writing for the French anarchist journal The New Times, Russian theorist Peter Kropotkin praised the workers of Russia for using this form of organisation during the Revolution of 1905.

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.

Lenin and the Russian Revolution

Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin proposed that the dictatorship of the proletariat should come in the form of a soviet republic led by a revolutionary party with democratic centralism, 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 fulfil 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".

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. Some socialists have argued this as an example of the Bolsheviks' betrayal of socialist principles, while others have defended it as necessary for the social conditions at the time to maintain and advance the Revolution.

Luxemburg

Polish-German Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was a proponent of democratic control, including through councils but criticised Lenin and Trotsky for neglecting the "political training and education of the entire mass of the people" and making councils stand in for representative institutions of the whole population. Luxemburg's relevant theoretical works were mostly written during her time in prison between 1916 and November 1918, while her information about events in Russia was limited. Lenin described Luxemburg's views expressed in The Russian Revolution as mistaken but said she had "largely" corrected them by the end of 1918 and that "in spite of these mistakes, she was and is an eagle, and not only will she be dear to the memory of Communists in the whole world, but her biography and the complete edition of her works ... will be a very useful lesson in the education of many generations of Communists." Luxemburg was murdered in January 1919 and wrote no theoretical works dealing with democracy or councils in detail during the nine weeks between her release from prison and her death.

Council communism

Council communism advocates for a system of workers councils (council democracy) to coordinate class struggle, believing that workers' councils do away with the bureaucratic form of the state and instead give power directly to workers. Council communists view this organization of a revolutionary government as an anti-authoritarian approach to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

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."

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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. The commune was headed by the Commune Council (French: conseil de la Commune), 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.

Strandza Commune

Adrianople vilayet, Ottoman Empire in 1903

Russian Revolution of 1905

The Russian Revolution of 1905 saw the spontaneous emergence of workers' councils (otherwise known locally as soviets) in the Russian Empire. Trotsky would assume a central role in the 1905 revolution and serve as Chairman of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates in which he wrote several proclamations urging for improved economic conditions, political rights and the use of strike action against the Tsarist regime on behalf of workers.

Revolution in Congress Poland

Poland during 1905, (rady robotnicze);

Red Clydeside

Glasgow, Scotland during 1915 (Rent Strikes)

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.

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." Council communists criticize the Bolsheviks for superseding the soviet democracy formed by the councils and creating a bureaucratic system of state capitalism.

Makhno Movement, 1918-1921

During the Russian Revolution, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine led by Nestor Makhno established a stateless territory in Eastern Ukraine on the principles of anarchist communism. The Makhnovists established a system of 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.

German Revolution, 1918-1919

The German revolution of 1918–1919, also known as the November Revolution (German: Novemberrevolution), was an uprising started by workers and soldiers in the final days of World War I. It quickly and almost bloodlessly brought down the German Empire. In its more violent second stage, the supporters of a parliamentary republic were victorious over those who wanted a Soviet-style council republic. The defeat of the forces of the far left cleared the way for the establishment of the Weimar Republic. The key factors leading to the revolution were the extreme burdens suffered by the German people during the war, the economic and psychological impacts of the Empire's defeat, and the social tensions between the general populace and the aristocratic and bourgeois elite

Germany during 1918–1919 (räte);

Irish Revolutionary period

During the Irish War of Independence & Irish Civil War a number of worker's councils were set up for various degrees of time, between 1919 - 1923. See: Irish soviets.

Spanish Revolution

The Spanish Revolution of 1936 saw the creation of anarchist communes across much of Spain. These communes operated under the principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". Decision-making in the communes were conducted through workers' councils (comités trabajadores).

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.

Indonesian War of Independence

Indonesia during 1945–1946

1956 Hungarian Revolution

Hungary during 1956 (szovjetek)

China

Cultural Revolution

Workers', soldiers', peasants' and students' councils were formed and played significant roles in the Cultural Revolution. This included the formation of the Shanghai People's Commune in January 1967 which overthrew the state bureaucracy in Shanghai.

1968 French protests

May '68

During the May 1968 events in France, "[t]he largest general strike that ever stopped the economy of an advanced industrial country, and the first wildcat general strike in history", the Situationists, against the unions and the French Communist Party that were starting to side with the de Gaulle government to contain the revolt, called for the formation of workers' councils (comités d'entreprise) to take control of the cities, expelling union leaders and left-wing bureaucrats, in order to keep the power in the hands of the workers with direct democracy.

Solidarność riots, 1970

1970, (rady robotnicze);

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka during the 1970–75 United Front government established Workers' Councils and Advisory Committees in Sri Lanka.

Australia

Australia during 1971–1980 and 1990

Processo Revolucionário Em Curso

Portugal during 1974–1976

1979 Iranian Revolution

Iran during 1978–1979 (shoras);

Solidarność Strike, 1980-1981

1980–1981 (rady robotnicze);

Canada

Canada during 1981

December 2001 Riots, Argentina

2001

Rojava Revolution

Rojava from 2012 onward