Aworkers' council, also calledlabour council,[1] is a type ofcouncil in aworkplace or alocality made up of workers or of temporary andinstantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces.[2] 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 communistAnton Pannekoek describes shop-committees and sectional assemblies as the basis for workers' management of theindustrial system.[3] A variation is asoldiers' council, where soldiers direct amutiny. Workers and soldiers have also operated councils in conjunction (like the 1918 GermanArbeiter- und Soldatenrat). Workers' councils may in turn elect delegates to central committees, such as theCongress of Soviets.
Supporters of workers' councils (such ascouncil communists,[4]libertarian socialists,[5]Leninists,[6]anarchists,[7] andMarxists[8]) argue that they are the most natural form ofworking-class organization, and believe that workers' councils are necessary for the organization of aproletarian revolution and the implementation of ananarchist orcommunist society.
TheParis 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 thecommunist revolutions of the 20th century. This was most notable in the lands of theRussian Empire (includingCongress Poland andLatvia) 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 theRevolutions of 1917–1923, councils of socialist workers were able to exercise political authority. In the workers' councils organized as part of the1918 German revolution, factory organizations such as theGeneral Workers' Union of Germany formed the basis for region-wide councils.
Anarchists advocate for astateless society based on horizontalsocial organisation through voluntary federations of communes, with workers' councils andvoluntary associations acting as the basic units of such societies. Early conceptions of this theory have come from the writings of Frenchanarchist philosopherPierre-Joseph Proudhon. His theory ofmutualism envisioned a society organised through workers' councils,cooperatives, and other types of workers' associations.[9][10]
At theFirst International, followers of Proudhon and thecollectivists led byMikhail Bakunin have endorsed the use of workers' councils both as a means for organisingclass struggle and for forming the structural basis of a future anarchist society.[11] Writing for the French anarchist journalThe New Times [fr], Russian theoristPeter Kropotkin has praised the workers of Russia for using this form of organisation during the Revolution of 1905.[12]
Modern anarchists, such as proponents ofparticipatory economics, advocate for the use of workers' councils as a means forparticipatory urban planning as well asdecentralised planning of the economy.[13]
Council Communism advocates for a system of workers councils (council democracy) to coordinateclass struggle.Karl Marx described inThe Civil War in France theParis Commune as a system withindirect elections, where district assemblies select at any timerecall-able delegates to a higher assembly.[14] Council communists, such as the Dutch-German current ofleft communists, believe that their nature means that workers' councils do away with bureaucratic form of the state and instead give power directly to workers. Council communists view this organization of a revolutionary government as ananti-authoritarian approach to thedictatorship of the proletariat.[15]
The council communists in theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany advocated organizing "on the basis of places of work, not trades, and to establish a National Federation of Works Committees."[16] The Central Workers Council of Greater Budapest occupied this role in theHungarian Revolution of 1956, between late October and early January 1957, where it grew out of localfactory committees.[17]
Rosa Luxemburg was a vocal proponent of radical socialist democracy, and advocated for the revolution to be led by workers' and soldiers' councils.[18] She was also openly critical of the actions of theBolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, arguing that their approach was anti-democratic and totalitarian.[19]
Marxist revolutionaryVladimir Lenin proposed that the dictatorship of the proletariat should come in the form of asoviet republic withdemocratic centralism.[20] He proposed that the socialist revolution should be led by arevolutionary party, which should seize state power and establish asocialist state based on soviet democracy. Lenin's model for the dictatorship of the proletariat is based on that of theParis Commune, and is meant to fulfil the task of suppressing thebourgeoisie and othercounter-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 commitmentsVladimir Lenin andLeon Trotsky had toward workers' councils after theRussian Revolution of 1917, noting that workers' councils "were never meant to become a permanent political form of self-governance" and were therefore sidelined by theCommunist Party.[5][21][22][23] Some socialists have argued this as an example of theBolsheviks' betrayal of socialist principles,[5] while others have defended it as necessary for the social conditions at the time to maintain and advance the Revolution.[24]
At several times, both inlate modern and inrecent history, socialists and communists have organized workers' councils during periods of unrest. Examples include:
TheParis Commune of 1871 (La Commune de Paris) was a revolutionary government that seized control of the city ofParis, which governed the city for two months based on socialist principles through the combined efforts ofsocial democrats,anarchists,Blanquists, andJacobins.[25] The commune was headed by theCommune Council (French:conseil de la Commune),[26] which was composed of delegates who were each subject to immediaterecall by their electors. The events of this period has been a significant influence on the development ofMarxist and anarchist political theory and revolutionary praxis.Friedrich Engels named the Paris Commune as the first example of adictatorship of the proletariat.[27]
TheRussian Revolution of 1905 saw the spontaneous emergence of workers' councils (otherwise known locally assoviets) in theRussian Empire.[29] Trotsky would assume a central role in the 1905 revolution[30][31] and serve as Chairman of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates in which he wrote several proclamations urging for improvedeconomic conditions, political rights and the use ofstrike action against theTsarist regime on behalf of workers.[32]
Councils such as thePetrograd Soviet were formed by striking workers to coordinate the revolution, exercising political power in the absence of the Tsar's governance.[35]
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."[36][37] Council communists criticize the Bolsheviks for superseding the soviet democracy formed by the councils and creating a bureaucratic system ofstate capitalism.
During theRussian Revolution, theRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine led byNestor Makhno established astateless territory in EasternUkraine on the principles ofanarchist communism. The Makhnovists established a system offree soviets (vilni rady), which allowed workers, peasants, and militants to self-govern their communities throughworkers' self-management and send delegates to theRegional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents.[38]
During theIrish 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.[39]
TheSpanish 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).[40]
Algeria, in the aftermath of theAlgerian War, oversaw the widespread practice ofworkers' self-management. This was subsequently suppressed by conservative forces in the country.[33][41]
During theMay 1968 events in France, "[t]he largest general strike that ever stopped the economy of an advanced industrial country, and the firstwildcat general strike in history",[42] theSituationists, against theunions and theFrench Communist Party that were starting to side with thede 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 withdirect democracy.[42]
The rural communities of every district were to administer their common affairs by an assembly of delegates in the central town, and these district assemblies were again to send deputies to the National Delegation in Paris, each delegate to be at any time revocable and bound by the mandat imperatif (formal instructions) of his constituents. The few but important functions which would still remain for a central government were not to be suppressed, as has been intentionally misstated, but were to be discharged by Communal and thereafter responsible agents.
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