Council communism - an introduction

AAU-E magazine Die Proletarische Revolution, 1928. Illustrated by Gerd Arntz.
AAU-E magazine Die Proletarische Revolution, 1928. Illustrated by Gerd Arntz.

A short history and explanation of the ideas and practice of council communism.

Submitted by libcom on October 12, 2006

Council communism was a militant workers' movement that first emerged in Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s. Today it lives on as an important theoretical current that inspires libertarian communists.

The central (and simple) argument of council communism, in stark contrast to both reformist social democrats and Leninists, is that workers’ councils which arise in workplaces and communities during periods of intense struggle are the natural form of working class organisation. This view is completely opposed to reformist or Leninist arguments which stress that the working class are incapable of doing anything by ourselves and need to rely on vanguard parties, ballot boxes (and the capitalist state institutions that both of these entail) to sort out our problems.

These conclusions lead council communists to maintain very similar positions to those held by class struggle anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists with the main difference often, but not always, being a commitment to Marx and his methods of analysis. As such there are historical and present day instances of close cooperation between the two currents, even to the point of many inspired by council communism becoming members of class struggle anarchist and revolutionary syndicalist groups.

Following from this, council communists argue that society and the economy should be managed by coordinations of workers’ councils, made up of delegates elected at workplaces and can be recalled at any moment by those who elected them. As such, council communists oppose bureaucratic state socialism. They also oppose the idea of a revolutionary party seizing power, believing that any social upheaval led by one these ‘revolutionary’ parties will just end up in a party dictatorship. Otto Rühle, a key contributor to the development of council communism famously penned that the revolution is not a party affair.

Instead council communists believe that the role of a revolutionary organization is not to perform the revolution for the working class, but only to agitate within the class, encouraging people to take control of their own struggles through the directly democratic institutions of workers’ councils.

It’s sometimes been thought that council communists have maintained an ‘outside and against’ position on bureaucratic reformist trade unions, seeing them as a brake on workers’ militancy and believing that the leadership, whose role is seen as little more than ‘cops with flat caps’, will always eventually sell out the membership. It is true that, historically at least, council communists have been anti-trade union. However, this has largely been due to the context in which council communists were writing. For instance, German council communists of the 1920s were fully aware of the German trade unions’ role in betraying the attempted workers’ revolution in 1918. However, in modern times, though keeping a very critical view of trade unions and their undemocratic nature, those inspired by council communists generally believe in forming autonomous class struggle organizations that agitate in and beyond the unions.

Council communists obviously also held a strong criticism of the ‘successful’ Russian revolution of 1917. Though they felt that originally it had a pro-working class nature about it, it ended up being a bourgeois revolution, with the new ‘communist’ leaders replacing the old feudal aristocracy with a state capitalist bureaucracy. The council communists hold that the Bolshevik Party just took over the role of individual capitalists rather then got rid of it.

The council communists emerged largely out of the German rank-and-file trade union movement, who opposed their unions and organised increasingly radical strikes towards the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918. These formed into the Communist Workers’ Party of Germany (KAPD), it's workers' union the AAUD, and the AAUD-E, whose hey-day was in the attempted German revolution of 1918-19. Similar tendencies developed within the workers’ movements of Italy, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.

The brutally repressed but briefly successful anti-USSR workers' uprising in Hungary 1956 is often used as a practical example of how workers' councils can arise naturally out of the working class during periods of intense class struggle, even despite the workers' lack of explicit commitment to council communist theory.

Council communist ideas have since been taken on by many libertarian communists around the world with groups like Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Situationist International being greatly influenced by them. However council communists were never part of the anarchist tradition, and so grouping them with libertarian communists is seen to be inaccurate. This said the AAUD-E later did work towards rapprochement with class struggle anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists in the Block Antiautoritärer Revolutionäre. Considering this along with their anti-Bolshevism, anti-partyism, and anti-statist approach to the dictatorship of the proletariat it is appropriate to see council communists an anti-authoritarian current in the historical workers' movement.

However, these groups are sometimes designated derogatively as 'councilist' by left communists, for overtly obsessing over workers' spontaneity and submitting to what Mark Shipway describes as 'an empty, formalistic emphasis on workers’ councils which completely neglects the communist content of the council communist equation.' This is perceived as dangerous because it is possible that workers might be able to spontaneously take over the means of production during a crisis but only end up establishing a form of 'self-managed capitalism' in which federated workers' councils govern the world but unpleasant capitalist wage relations are still retained.

Council communists in contrast think that the working class must develop to possess a strong political consciousness and have communism and the abolition of capitalism set as their goal; the councils are only the means by which this goal can be realised. This was also the criticism made by the left communists in the KAPD when the AAUD-E split from them in rejection of a separate political (party) organisation of communists.

By libcom, 2005 (subject to subsequent edits by forum members)

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Harrison

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Harrison on May 14, 2011

libcom

Antagonism - Antagonism Press website, loads of great articles on council communism, specifically Bordiga and the Dutch/German tendencies

Bordiga is not a council communist... I've edited this out

radicalgraffiti

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by radicalgraffiti on May 14, 2011

The dutch german tendencies where however, so the link should be left with out the the statement about bordiga

Spikymike

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on May 15, 2011

I don't think the links on SouB and the Sit's is fully functioning?

By the way, in giving SouB as a follow up it is worth a line somewhere pointing to the distinction made by many between 'Council Communism' and 'Councilism' dealt with in the excelent short introduction by Mark Shipway in the 'Marxist.Org' link.

Marks short book on 'Anti-Parliamentary Communism in Britain - The movement for workers councils in Britain 1917-45' is also worth a mention.

Android

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Android on May 15, 2011

Also in the 'more information' section at the end of the article shouldn't the link to Knighrose's former geocities site for Subversion material be updated to link to the AF North website or to link to the Subversion and Wildcat pages in the library here. I think Marcel van der Linden text 'on council communism' is quite useful in that is is an outline of it as a political movement and draws on some of the non-English sources IIRC.

I think users can edit content, so I might make these changes.

Steven.

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on May 15, 2011

Yeah android if you could that would be great

Harrison

12 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Harrison on June 26, 2011

i made some changes, and added Spikymike's useful Mark Shipway suggestion
(i was bored and ought to be working)

i naturally write in a ridiculous convoluted way using long words that might be alienating to new people, so some of the language might need a bit of simplifying

klas batalo

10 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by klas batalo on January 10, 2014

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CouncilCommunism/

This FB group may be of interest to some.

klas batalo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by klas batalo on April 22, 2017

Further reading:

To really lay out a theoretical and historical look at council communism as a body of thought from the 20s and 30s I'd suggest reading these pieces in order:

The Revolution Is Not A Party Affair
https://www.marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1920/ruhle02.htm

From the Bourgeois to the Proletarian Revolution
https://www.marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1924/revolution.htm

Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution
https://www.marxists.org/subject/left-wing/gik/1930/

Marxism and State Communism: The Withering Away of the State
http://libcom.org/library/marxism-state-communism-withering-away-state-groepen-van-internationale-communisten-gik

Theses on Bolshevism
https://www.marxists.org/archive/wagner/1934/theses.htm

The Rise of a New Labor Movement
https://www.marxists.org/archive/canne-meijer/1935/04/new-labor-movement.htm

Anarchism and the Spanish Revolution
https://libcom.org/library/anarchism-spanish-revolution

Origins of the Movement for Workers' Councils in Germany
https://www.marxists.org/subject/left-wing/gik/1938/workers-councils.htm

The Struggle Against Fascism
Begins with the Struggle Against Bolshevism
https://www.marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1939/ruhle01.htm

Other than that the two best books on the history of the Dutch German Communist Left (and later the council communist tradition) are certainly:

The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921
https://www.marxists.org/subject/germany-1918-23/dauve-authier/

The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68)

https://libcom.org/history/german-dutch-communist-left-philippe-bourrinet

rat

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by rat on April 22, 2017

Thanks klas batalo for the nicely put together reading list.