Workers' council
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 17:26, 26 September 2011 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 17:27, 26 September 2011 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | The '''Situationist International''' ('''SI''') was a restricted group of [[Internationalism (politics)|international]] [[social revolution|revolutionaries]] founded in 1957, and which had its peak in its influence on the unprecedented [[general strike]] of [[May 1968 in France]]. | ||
| - | With their ideas rooted in [[Marxism]] and the 20th century European artistic [[avant-garde]]s, they advocated experiences of life being alternative to those admitted by the [[capitalism|capitalist order]], for the fulfillment of human primitive desires and the pursuing of a superior passional quality. For this purpose they suggested and experimented with the ''construction of situations'', namely the setting up of environments favorable for the fulfillment of such desires. Using methods drawn from the arts, they developed a series of experimental fields of study for the construction of such situations, like [[unitary urbanism]] and [[psychogeography]]. | + | A '''workers' council''', or '''revolutionary councils''', is the phenomenon where a single place of work or enterprise, such as a [[factory]], [[school]], or [[farm]], is controlled collectively by the workers of that workplace, through the core principle of temporary and instantly revocable [[delegate]]s. |
| - | They fought against the main obstacle to the fulfillment of such superior passionate living, identified by them in [[advanced capitalism]]. Their theoretical work peaked with the highly influential book ''[[The Society of the Spectacle]]'' by [[Guy Debord]]. Debord argued in 1967 that spectacular features like [[mass media]] and [[advertising]] have a central role in an [[advanced capitalism|advanced capitalist society]], which is to show a fake reality in order to mask the real capitalist degradation of human life. To [[Coup d'état|overthrow]] such a system, the Situationist International supported the [[May 1968 in France|May '68 revolts]], and asked the workers to [[Council for Maintaining the Occupations|occupy the factories]] and to run them with [[direct democracy]], through [[workers' councils]] composed by instantly revocable delegates. | + | In a system with temporary and instantly revocable delegates, workers deliberate on what is their agenda and what are their needs, and mandate a temporary delegate to divulge and pursue them. The temporary delegates are elected among the workers themselves, can be instantly revoked if they betray their mandate, and are supposed to change frequently. There are no managers and all the decision power and the organization is based on the delegates system. |
| - | After publishing in the last issue of the [[Internationale Situationiste]] magazine, an analysis of the [[May 1968 in France|May 1968 revolts]] and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions, the SI was dissolved in 1972. | + | On a larger scale, a group of delegates may in turn elect a higher delegate to pursue their mandate, and so on, until the top delegates are running the [[Industry|industrial system]] of a state. In such a system decision power raises bottom-up from the agendas of the workers themselves, and there is not a decision imposition from the top, as would happen in the case of a power seizure by a supposedly [[revolutionary party]]. |
| + | |||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | *[[Anarchism]] | ||
| + | *[[Anarcho syndicalism]] | ||
| + | *[[Co-determination]] | ||
| + | *[[Council communism]] | ||
| + | *[[Kronstadt rebellion]] | ||
| + | *[[Council democracy]] | ||
| + | *[[De Leonism]] | ||
| + | *[[Direct democracy]] | ||
| + | *[[Factory committee]] | ||
| + | *[[Horizontalidad]] | ||
| + | *[[Industrial democracy]] | ||
| + | *[[Industrial Workers of the World]] | ||
| + | *[[Libertarian socialism]] | ||
| + | *[[Luxemburgism]] | ||
| + | *[[Paris Commune]] | ||
| + | *[[Socialist Party USA]] | ||
| + | *[[Solidarity (UK)]] | ||
| + | *[[Soviet (council)]] | ||
| + | *[[Syndicalism]] | ||
| + | *[[Works council]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Revision as of 17:27, 26 September 2011
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
A workers' council, or revolutionary councils, is the phenomenon where a single place of work or enterprise, such as a factory, school, or farm, is controlled collectively by the workers of that workplace, through the core principle of temporary and instantly revocable delegates.
In a system with temporary and instantly revocable delegates, workers deliberate on what is their agenda and what are their needs, and mandate a temporary delegate to divulge and pursue them. The temporary delegates are elected among the workers themselves, can be instantly revoked if they betray their mandate, and are supposed to change frequently. There are no managers and all the decision power and the organization is based on the delegates system.
On a larger scale, a group of delegates may in turn elect a higher delegate to pursue their mandate, and so on, until the top delegates are running the industrial system of a state. In such a system decision power raises bottom-up from the agendas of the workers themselves, and there is not a decision imposition from the top, as would happen in the case of a power seizure by a supposedly revolutionary party.
See also
- Anarchism
- Anarcho syndicalism
- Co-determination
- Council communism
- Kronstadt rebellion
- Council democracy
- De Leonism
- Direct democracy
- Factory committee
- Horizontalidad
- Industrial democracy
- Industrial Workers of the World
- Libertarian socialism
- Luxemburgism
- Paris Commune
- Socialist Party USA
- Solidarity (UK)
- Soviet (council)
- Syndicalism
- Works council
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Workers' council" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
