Workers Control And Socialist Democracy

Author : Carmen Sirianni
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781789607277

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Workers Control and Socialist Democracy by Carmen Sirianni Pdf

Recent scholarship has rediscovered the genuinely mass character of the Bolshevik-led revolution that toppled Russian absolutism in 1917. In this major study, Carmen Sirianni undertakes a comprehensive study of the forms of popular power that emerged in the course of the struggle against Tsarist, and their destiny in the formative years of the new Soviet state. He successively discusses the factory committee movement, the attitudes of the trade unions and the left parties towards workers control, the unfolding of dual power, the tole of the peasantry, and the organization of labour and industry in the civil war. The developing theme of these chapters - the unsettled, often antagonistic relationship between working-class and peasant initiatives and demands and Bolshevik political and economic conceptions - is subjected to theoretical examination in the second part of the book. Here Sirianni analyses the particular constitution of Lenin's Marxism, and discerns in it a 'productivist evolutionism' which, he maintains, adversely affected the Bolsheviks' appreciation of working-class self-organization both in industry and in the exercise of political power, and vitiated their perception of the rural masses. Finally, Sirianni sets Russian policy and experience in its international context, considering the different, but also limited, views of Gramsci and Pannekoek, and the 'councilist' movements of Western Europe. He concludes with a reflection on the subsequent course of the revolutionary state and the options available to its leaders, as the defeat of the Left Opposition and then of Bukharin prepared the triumph of Stalinism. Workers Control and Socialist Democracy unites historical, political and theoretical judgement to make a fundamental contribution to our understanding, both of the Russian Revolution and of central unresolved issues of socialism in the twentieth century.

Author : Assistant Professor Dario Azzellini
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2015-03-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781783601561

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An Alternative Labour History by Assistant Professor Dario Azzellini Pdf

The global financial crisis has led to a new shop-floor militancy. Radical forms of protest and new workers' takeovers have sprung up all over the globe. In the US, Republic Windows and Doors started production under worker control in January 2013. Later that year workers in Greece took over and managed a hotel, a hospital, a newspaper, a TV channel and a factory. The dominant revolutionary left has viewed workers' control as part of a system necessary during a transition to socialism. Yet most socialist and communist parties have neglected to promote workers' control as it challenges the centrality of parties and it is in this spirit that trade unions, operating through the institutional frameworks of government, have held a monopoly over labor history. Tracing Marx's writings on the Paris Commune through council communism, anarcho-syndicalism, Italian operaismo, and other "heretical" left currents, An Alternative Labour History uncovers the practices and intentions of historical and contemporary autonomous workers' movements that until now have been largely obscured. It shows that by bringing permanence and predictability to their workplaces, workers can stabilize their communities through expressions of participatory democracy. And, as history has repeatedly shown, workers have always had the capacity to run their enterprises on their own.

Author : Ernie Roberts
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017-10-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781351388474

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Workers' Control by Ernie Roberts Pdf

This book, first published in 1973, sets out the reason why workers’ control is the necessary alternative to the present system. It describes the struggle of the workers through their organizations to achieve a greater control over their lives; and it discusses the practical steps which need to be taken to achieve complete workers’ control. Practicality is the keynote of this book, which starts from the reality of the 1970’s and progresses towards the essence of socialism – workers’ control.

Author : Martin Legassick
Publisher : University of Kwazulu Natal Press
Page : 764 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : STANFORD:36105130535136

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Towards Socialist Democracy by Martin Legassick Pdf

Towards Socialist Democracy is written for those engaged in struggles against capitalism around the world. It examines the history of the struggle for socialism in the 20th century, and draws on the lessons of the bureaucratic usurpation of the Russian workers' revolution, and of the revolutions that put a bureaucracy in power in China, Cuba, and other countries. Outlining the conditions of wealth and poverty in the world economy today, and looking briefly at recent uprisings in Latin America, the book argues that socialism is still a necessity which can only be achieved through nationalizing the economy under workers' control and management on an international scale. It explores the history of the battle for national and social liberation in South Africa, from the 1920s through the 1980s, and critically examines the policies of the leadership of the South African Communist Party. Finally, it reviews the economic record of the ANC (African National Congress) government since 1994 and stresses the need for a mass workers' party in South Africa to take up the struggle for national, and international, social justice and socialism.

Author : Immanuel Ness,Dario Azzellini
Publisher : Haymarket Books
Page : 458 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781608461196

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Ours to Master and to Own by Immanuel Ness,Dario Azzellini Pdf

From the dawning of the industrial epoch, wage earners have organized themselves into unions, fought bitter strikes, and gone so far as to challenge the very premises of the system by creating institutions of democratic self-management aimed at controlling production without bosses. With specific examples drawn from every corner of the globe and every period of modern history, this pathbreaking volume comprehensively traces this often underappreciated historical tradition. Ripe with lessons drawn from historical and contemporary struggles for workers’ control, Ours to Master and to Own is essential reading for those struggling to create a new world from the ashes of the old. Immanuel Ness is professor of political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and edits WorkingUSA. Dario Azzellini is a writer, documentary director, and political scientist at Johannes Kepler University in Linz.

Author : Gerry Hunnius,G. David Garson,John Case
Publisher : Random House (NY)
Page : 516 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1973
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : STANFORD:36105005354035

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Workers' Control by Gerry Hunnius,G. David Garson,John Case Pdf

Compilation of articles on workers self management and workers participation, with particular reference to Canada and USA - discusses the problems inherent in assembly line work, the changing role of trade unions and collective bargaining, describes the current levels of self management achieved in Sweden, Germany, Federal Republic, Israel and Yugoslavia, and includes articles on possible future trends towards social change through workers control. Bibliography pp. 486 to 488, references and statistical tables.

Author : Linda Fuller
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 1992-01-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0877228930

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Work and Democracy in Socialist Cuba by Linda Fuller Pdf

In contrast to the common image of Cuba as a totalitarian dictatorship, Linda Fuller argues that, as Cuban socialism has matured, important democratic advances also have been made. Tracing the path of reform in the area of workplace democracy in Cuba over the last thirty years, she compares the expansion of workers' control after 1970 with the situation in the 1960s. The question that guides this comparison is complex as well as controversial: What would the democratization of work actually entail? The author addresses it through in-depth interviews with Cuban workers, primary documents, and a close look at a variety of institutions, including unions, the party, management and planning systems, and grievance Committees. Fuller also examines how and why changes toward greater democratization of work occurred in Cuba. She approaches this question through a historical analysis of the politics of institutionalizing socialism in Cuba. The key to this history is not, as has often been argued, Castro's personality, the Soviet Union, or even the global political economy. Instead, it can be found in the relationship between the country's political leaders and the mass of Cuban citizens in the 1950s and 1960s, a relationship unlike those that developed in most other socialist countries. Throughout the book, the author draws attention to the relevance of the Cuban experience for tempering the authoritarian control of production in other settings. "A world so backward in democratizing work relations," she concludes, "can ill afford to ignore either Cuba's deficiencies or its unique and numerous accomplishments."

Author : John H. Kautsky
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2001-12-31
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1412834309

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Social Democracy and the Aristocracy by John H. Kautsky Pdf

Ever since the rise of mass labor movements in the late nineteenth century, socialism has been seen as an inevi- table and antagonistic response to capitalism and the spread of industrialization. Over the course of the twentieth century, however, socialism's failure to gain ground in the United States and most of the non-Western world exposed the limited, Eurocentric views of socialist theorists, and also the inadequacy of the theory as it applied to Europe as well. John Kautsky argues that a key factor in the development of social democratic labor movements was the persistence of powerful remnants of aristocratic institutions and ideologies whose survival into the industrial age preserved exclusionary hierarchies. These led, in turn, to radicalism and class consciousness among workers. Kautsky traces the evolution of socialist labor movements in Europe and Japan where aristocratic elements were still strong, detailing the survival of aristocratic privilege and the concomitants of worker class consciousness and demands for equality. He shows how social democratic reliance on free elections was primarily a weapon against the aristocracy rather than capitalism. Contradicting socialist theory, working-class growth came to an end, class lines became blurred, and a considerable degree of equality was achieved through the welfare state. Kautsky turns to those countries that were sufficiently industrialized to have large numbers of workers, but also had reasonably free elections, civil liberties, and less repression of trade unions. Though the United States, Canada, post-Soviet Russia, Mexico, and India have very different histories and societies, their workers have not confronted a powerful aristocracy. Great Britain, the first and for long the most advanced industrial country, was virtually the last to develop a socialist labor movement. In contrast, socialist movements in Canada and the United States, where egalitarian traditions were strong, found little support. Kautsky's concluding chapters treat the spread of corruption, the rise of new oligarchies in Russia, and the position of workers no longer honored and politically weak. In its innovative perspective on long-held theories and its currency for contemporary problems, Social Democracy and Aristocracy is an important contribution to political thought in the post-Marxist world. Its global approach makes it uniquely valuable for the comparative study of labor history and economic development.

Author : James E. Cronin,Carmen Sirianni
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1983
Category : Labor
ISBN : 0877223084

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Work, Community, and Power by James E. Cronin,Carmen Sirianni Pdf

The first quarter of the twentieth century was perhaps the most dramatic and consequential period for the international working class. Corporate control was consolidated and centralized. The workplace began to be extensively reorganized by Taylorist and later Fordist methods. Revolutions, factory occupations, and new forms of workers' control and industrial democracy followed in the wake of World War I. Revolutionary industrial unionism challenged previous organizations, and new communist parties contended with Social Democracy for the political allegiance of the working classes. In this crucible of struggle and social transformation, many of the most influential political and social theories were forged: not only those of Lenin and Kautsky, but also Gramsci and Lukacs, Korsch and Austro-Maxism, Michel and Weber. The meaning of both democracy and socialism has remained contested ever since. The comparative and case studies in this collection offer a major reinterpretation of this crucial period in working class history in the United States, Europe, and Soviet Russia. They combine recent interests of historians and social scientists in the labor process, social history "from the bottom up," the mobilization of social movements, the world system and international state competition with more traditional concerns about organization, theory and politics. Author note: James Cronin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is author of Industrial Conflict in Modern Britain. Currently he is completing a work entitled Labour and Society in Twentieth-Century Britain, to be published next year. Carmen Siriannii is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University in Boston. He is the author of Workers' Control and Socialist Democracy: The Soviet Experience. He has also written articles on the democratization of the state and economy, and on critical problems in Marxist theory. Currently he is working on the dynamics of industrial democracy in the twentieth century from a comparative perspective.

Author : Nancy G. Bermeo
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2014-07-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781400857838

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The Revolution Within the Revolution by Nancy G. Bermeo Pdf

In this dramatic story of the making and unmaking of Portugal's agrarian reform, Nancy Bermeo probes the origins and effects of the workers' actions. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Author : Dario N. Azzellini
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016-10-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789004331754

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Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela by Dario N. Azzellini Pdf

In Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below Dario Azzellini offers an account of the Bolivarian Revolution from below with extensive empirical examples and original voices from movements, communal councils, communes and workers.

Author : George Douglas Howard Cole
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2008-08-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1436926157

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Guild Socialism: A Plan for Economic Democracy (1921) by George Douglas Howard Cole Pdf

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Author : Ken Coates,Tony Topham
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 508 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1970
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : UCAL:B4266371

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Workers' Control by Ken Coates,Tony Topham Pdf

Author : Gary Dorrien
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 595 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2019-04-23
Category : Christian socialism
ISBN : 9780300236026

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Social Democracy in the Making by Gary Dorrien Pdf

An expansive and ambitious intellectual history of democratic socialism from one of the world's leading intellectual historians and social ethicists The fallout from twenty years of neoliberal economic globalism has sparked a surge of interest in the old idea of democratic socialism--a democracy in which the people control the economy and government, no group dominates any other, and every citizen is free, equal, and included. With a focus on the intertwined legacies of Christian socialism and Social Democratic politics in Britain and Germany, this book traces the story of democratic socialism from its birth in the nineteenth century through the mid-1960s. Examining the tenets on which the movement was founded and how it adapted to different cultural, religious, and economic contexts from its beginnings through the social and political traumas of the twentieth century, Gary Dorrien reminds us that Christian socialism paved the way for all liberation theologies that make the struggles of oppressed peoples the subject of redemption. He argues for a decentralized economic democracy and anti-imperial internationalism.

Author : John Ehrenberg
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Political Science
ISBN : UOM:39015021529642

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The Dictatorship of the Proletariat by John Ehrenberg Pdf

Offers an analysis of Marx's controversial theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, arguing that it can no longer be displaced or ignored as the viable democratic centre of Marxist political thought. The book traces the development of the theory from the early work of Marx and Engels to 1924.