workers councils
Workers' councils are bodies in a given locale (containing a mix of workers, peasants and soldiers depending on where they are) which are formed when large numbers of workers come together to defend their own interests against capital.
The Beginning - Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg's essay at the outbreak of the 1918 German Revolution.
The revolution has begun. What is called for now is not jubilation at was has been accomplished, not triumph over the beaten foe, but the strictest self-criticism and iron concentration of energy in order to continue the work we have begun. For our accomplishments are small and the foe has not been beaten.
The German Revolution: The First Stage - Anton Pannekoek
Anton Pannekoek's article on the unfolding German revolution of 1918 shows some of the hopes which the upheaval inspired. Originally written in 1918, it was later published in Workers Dreadnought in 1919.
On the relations between the Russian Communist Party, the soviets and production unions - Alexander Shliapnikov
Thesis of Workers' Opposition member, Alexander Shliapnikov, given at the ninth Bolshevik Party congress in March 1920.
In it he argues for increased democracy within the party and for more control of the economy to be handed over to the unions.
1. The three-year experience of the Russian Revolution shows that the single force consciously fighting for the organization of society on communist foundations is the Proletariat.
Self management and the Spanish revolution - Point Blank
An article by Situationist journal Point Blank on the militias and workers' councils during the Spanish Revolution.
Self-Management and the Spanish Revolution
1936 ~ 37
I
Poznan 1956 and Radom 1976
A background report for Radio Free Europe written in 1981, detailing the workers uprisings in Poznan '56 and Radom '76.
BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 46-4-214
TITLE: Polish Workers Commemorate their Past Struggles
BY: J. B. de Weydenthal
DATE: 1981-7-7
COUNTRY: Poland
ORIGINAL SUBJECT: RAD Background Report/192
--- Begin ---
RFE-RL
RADIO FREE EUROPE Research
RAD Background Report/192 (Poland)" 7 July 1981
A note on the use of the word 'Soviet' - Neil Fernandez
Comments on radicals' use of the word "soviet" and its relationship to workers' councils and the USSR.
A Note on the Use of the Word 'Soviet'
Neil C Fernandez
1919: The Story of the Limerick Soviet
The Story of the Limerick Soviet, April 1919 By D.R. O'Connor Lysaght (1979)
Introduction
On 21st January, 1919, Dail Eireann held its opening session and the Irish Volunteers drew their first mortal blood since 1916 at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary. These facts have set the seal for subsequent historians of the first months of the year.
1991: The Kurdish Uprising
The following is an account of the uprising in Kurdistan in 199, which buries the lies of the western media which presented this proletarian uprising as the work of nationalist parties in the north or Shi'ite religious fanatics in the south.
THE KURDISH UPRISING
&
KURDISTAN'S NATIONALIST SHOP FRONT
AND ITS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE BAATHIST/FASCIST REGIME
(Plus an account of the Workers Councils)
(Note: text is as in original pamphlet; a few pictures and accompanying captions have been removed)
Preliminaries on councils and councilist organization - René Riesel
A look at workers' councils and the historical contexts in which they were created. A useful analysis - which challenges some aspects of the standard anarchist analysis of the events in Spain during the 1936 Revolution.
Lip and the self-managed counter-revolution, 1973 – Negation
A critical article about workers' struggles at the Lip watch factory in France, where workers began self-managing the firm..
LIP AND THE SELF-MANAGED COUNTER-REVOLUTION
from Negation, No. 3 1973
Table of Contents
• Publication Notes
• Négation Introduction
• I. The Workers' Movement and its Decline
• 1. The Expropriation of the Expropriators
• 2. Dead Labor
• 3. Variable Capital and the Unions
• a. The CGT and Devalorization
