The Necessity of Workers' Councils
It has become clear to me, through reading about and studying the socialist states of the past century, that direct worker control of the state is instrumental in the success of the socialist state. The socialist states of the past century, some of which have collapsed, such as the USSR, or those that are still with us but have been degraded and now partake in capitalist practices within their nations as well as employing capital to exploit those in the global South, such as China, in my opinion, while having failed for a multitude of reasons, what I believe to be one of the most important is the creation of a separate political class rather than power being taken into the hands of the Proletariat.
As stated by Anton Pannekoek in his article, “Workers Councils [1936],” “in it’s revolutionary struggle, the working class needs organisation.” While the answer to this throughout history and various revolutions, such as the Russian Revolution, has been parties, when organising the working class, the party, as highlighted by Pannekoek, can “only be managed by functionaries acting as representatives of the members.” These “functionaries” or “professional revolutionaries” then move on to become new masters, not dismantling the old system but instead replacing its masters with themselves, the previously mentioned political class. It is necessary then that these “members,” the working class, as whole, fight for their freedom themselves, which can only be done through the workers’ council in every workplace in which every worker is heard. Each of these councils should have a delegate to reflect their councils views in a national organisation of these councils, ensuring that the views of every single participating worker is heard at the council level and the councils’ views are represented at the national level, with all delegates serving the purpose of reflecting the view of their council and not their own as in the case of representative democracies of the modern day.
The revolution cannot be lead by those who claim to be representative of the working class, such as the “functionaries” and “professional revolutionaries” previously mentioned, as it can be seen from history, that this is a way for those who want to push ideas and agendas which are in their personal favour, not of that of the working class. The working class as a whole, each individual worker, must fight for their freedom to the maximum of their ability and not simply be lead by those who claim to lead them to their freedom. Every worker must educate themselves on theory as to contribute as much as they can to their own revolutionary struggle. Pannekoek said, “freedom, the goal of the workers, means that they shall be able, man for man, to manage the world, to use and deal with the treasures of the Earth, so as to make it a happy home for all,” that is the goal, and it is through the efforts of all workers that this can be achieved. Not by a group of leaders which will “achieve” this goal for them.
In Solidarity,
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