Council communism or councilism is a current of left-communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. Councilism is also opposed to Leninism and Stalinism. It is regarded as being strongest in Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s.
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👉 Council communism in the context of Workers' council
A workers' council, also called labour council, is a type of council in a workplace or a locality made up of workers or of temporary and instantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces. In such a system of political and economic organization, the workers themselves are able to exercise decision-making power. Furthermore, the workers within each council decide on what their agenda is and what their needs are. The council communist Anton Pannekoek describes shop-committees and sectional assemblies as the basis for workers' management of the industrial system. A variation is a soldiers' council, where soldiers direct a mutiny. Workers and soldiers have also operated councils in conjunction (like the 1918 German Arbeiter- und Soldatenrat). Workers' councils may in turn elect delegates to central committees, such as the Congress of Soviets.
Supporters of workers' councils (such as council communists, libertarian socialists, Leninists, anarchists, and Marxists) argue that they are the most natural form of working-class organization, and believe that workers' councils are necessary for the organization of a proletarian revolution and the implementation of an anarchist or communist society.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Council communism
- 👉 Council communism in the context of Workers' council
- Council communism in the context of Workers' control
- Council communism in the context of German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919
- Council communism in the context of Reichstag fire
- Council communism in the context of Socialist democracy
Council communism in the context of Workers' control
Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists (notably Trotskyists), communists, social democrats, distributists and Christian democrats, and has been combined with various socialist and mixed economy systems.
Workers' councils are a form of workers' control. Council communism, such as in the early Soviet Union, advocates workers' control through workers' councils and factory committees. Syndicalism advocates workers' control through trade unions. Guild socialism advocates workers' control through a revival of the guild system. Participatory economics represents a recent variation on the idea of workers' control.
Council communism in the context of German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919
The German workers' and soldiers' councils of 1918–1919 (German: Deutsche Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte) were short-lived revolutionary bodies that spread the German revolution to cities across the German Empire during the final days of World War I. Meeting little to no resistance, they formed quickly, took over city governments and key buildings, caused most of the locally stationed military to flee and brought about the abdications of all of Germany's ruling monarchs, including Emperor Wilhelm II, when they reached Berlin on 9 November 1918.
Although the communist Spartacus League and the left wing of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) wanted to set up a system of council communism in Germany, they were a minority in the councils. Most members wanted an end to the war and to German militarism and the establishment of a parliamentary republic dominated by the moderate Social Democratic Party (SPD). Germany's interim national revolutionary government, the Council of the People's Deputies, was initially a coalition of the SPD and the USPD, but in it and in the majority of the other councils across Germany, the SPD was able to keep the far left on the sidelines. During the two large gatherings of workers' and soldiers' councils in Berlin, the voting generally followed the wishes of the SPD leadership. Crucially, and against the will of the radical left, they were able to schedule an election for a national assembly that would allow all Germans to determine the country's future form of government.
Council communism in the context of Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire (German: Reichstagsbrand, pronounced [ˈʁaɪçstaːksˌbʁant] ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was said to be the culprit; the Nazis attributed the fire to a group of Communist agitators, used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists. This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.
The first report of the fire came shortly after 9:00 p.m., when a Berlin fire station received an alarm call. By the time police and firefighters arrived, the structure was engulfed in flames. The police conducted a thorough search inside the building and found Van der Lubbe, who was arrested.
Council communism in the context of Socialist democracy
Socialist democracy is a political system that aligns with principles of both socialism and democracy. It includes ideologies such as council communism, social democracy, democratic socialism, and soviet democracy, as well as Marxist democracy like the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was embodied in the Soviet system (1922–1991). It can also denote a system of political party organization like democratic centralism, or a form of democracy espoused by Marxist–Leninist political parties or groups that support one-party states. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992) styled itself a socialist democracy, as did the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990) and the Socialist Republic of Romania (1947–1989).
On the other hand, Trotskyist groups have interpreted socialist democracy to be synonymous with multi-party socialist representation, autonomous union organizations, worker's control of production, internal party democracy and the mass participation of the working masses. Several parties or groups that tend to have a connection to the reunified Fourth International use this label.