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.
1915-1920: Red Clydeside and the shop stewards' movement
An account of the powerful workers' movement in Scotland and the strike of 100,000 for a 40-hour week in 1919 which was savagely attacked by the government on what became known as Bloody Friday.
Although unemployment decreased slightly in the few years immediately preceding the beginning of hostilities, inflation rose dramatically, increasing the prices of foodstuffs, rents and fuel, but decreasing workers’ wages by 15%. While conditions at work were fairly miserable, workers had to return to bad housing where overcrowding was not uncommon and disease rampant.
1921: The Kronstadt rebellion
The history of the rising of the naval town of Kronstadt in Russia by workers and sailors supporting the original aims of the 1917 Revolution against the new Bolshevik dictatorship. The rebellion was crushed by Red Army troops under Trotsky's command.
The Kronstadt rebellion took place in the first weeks of March, 1921. Kronstadt was (and is) a naval fortress on an island in the Gulf of Finland. Traditionally, it has served as the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet and to guard the approaches to the city of St. Petersburg (which during the first world war was re-named Petrograd, then later Leningrad, and is now St.
1920: An uprising in Munster
A hidden history of sympathy strikes, socialism, workers' councils and revolution in a corner of rural Ireland.
When the red flag flew in Munster
1974-1975: The Portuguese Revolution
A short history of the revolution in Portugal in which an army rebellion overthrew the fascist dictatorship.
The real revolution was in the urban workers took control of their workplaces and farm workers took control of their farms and organised production themselves while the parties of the left merely jockeyed for positions of power, eventually killing the revolution.
1956: The Hungarian Revolution
The history of the Hungarian workers' revolution against the Communist dictatorship. A general strike was declared, and workers' councils sprung up across the country.
In cities the workers armed themselves and fraternised with the troops, but were eventually crushed by Soviet tanks.
It is not out of love for nostalgia that we are commemorating the 1956 Hungarian uprising: Hungary '56 was a prime example of the working class itself reaching for power. Doubly significant, it took place in one of the mythical 'workers' states'.
1918: The Hungarian Revolution
The history of the revolution which brought down the monarch and saw workers' and peasants' councils spring up across the country, only to be betrayed by its social democratic and Communist "leadership".
On May 1st, 1917 a massive strike wave and demonstration led to the fall of the reactionary government of Count Tisza, on the 23rd of May.
1991: About Class Struggle in Iraq - ICG
We have published several articles describing the insurrections of March 1991 in Iraq, which were written as and when information was able to reach us. Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, we also published in French the text "Proletariat contre nationalisme" (Communisme No.36) in which, from a distance of just over a year, we tried to draw the lessons from these struggles.
1990-1991: The Kurdistan Shoras Resistance - AF
Short article with patchy information about the movements of Shoras - workers' councils - in Kurdistan, 1990-91, after the first Gulf War
[500 words]
Towards the establishment of workers' councils in Italy (1920)
Amadeo Bordiga's contribution to a programme of setting up workers' councils in Italy as a way of surpassing the reformist trade unions.
The System of Communist Representation
Bordiga's critique of the wing of the Italian socialist movement which advocated participation in elections.
Amadeo Bordiga May 1919
First Published: Il Soviet, 13 September 1919, Vol. II, No.38;