1. Sun, 27/12/15

    Britain: New Wave of Factory Occupations

    An account of the Vestas wind turbine factory occupation in July 2009

    A rash of workplace occupations is spreading across the globe as workers defy the brutal consequences of the recession. Instead of surrendering to mass redundancies and outright closures, workers are occupying their workplaces as a central method of struggling for justice.

    Every example that wins concessions is boosting the belief of other workforces that there is an alternative – militant class action can win at least something.

    VICTORY TO VESTAS read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: 
  2. Sun, 27/12/15

    Workers’ Control

    Before we examine the configuration of the draft bill presented by Hon. Giolitti to the Chamber of Deputies, or the possibilities which it opens up, it is essential to establish the viewpoint from which the communists approach discussion of the problem. read more »

    Theorists: Geographical: Era: Topic: 
  3. Tue, 22/12/15

    1918-1921: The Italian factory occupations and Biennio Rosso

    A brief history of the Italian Biennio Rosso (two red years) and the mass factory occupations of 1920 where half a million workers ran their workplaces for themselves.

    After the First World War, Europe’s working class went on a massive radicalisation process. Union membership exploded with strikes, demonstrations and uprisings increasing with it. Italy was no exception. Its workers were angry with the fall-out from the war and were getting increasingly militant. A perfect example of this can be found in the factory occupations of 1920.

    read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: 
  4. Tue, 22/12/15

    The Italian Factory Occupations of 1920

    When 600,000 workers seized control of their workplaces

    During the month of September, 1920, a widespread occupation of Italian factories by their workforces took place, which originated in the auto factories, steel mills and machine tool plants of the metal sector but spread out into many other industries — cotton mills and hosiery firms, lignite mines, tire factories, breweries and distilleries, and steamships and warehouses in the port towns. But this was not a sit-down strike; the workers continued production with their own in-plant organization. read more »

    Theorists: Geographical: Era: Topic: 
  5. Tue, 22/12/15

    A Factory Occupation in May 1968

    Now that everything is back to “normal,” it may not seem very interesting to recall the very different sort of normality that briefly prevailed at the end of last spring. Moreover, what happened at this particular factory (Jeumont-Schneider) was not all that different from what was happening elsewhere, which everyone is already familiar with. Nevertheless, looking into the tarnished mirror of the past may help us to better understand ourselves. read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: 
  6. Mon, 21/12/15

    Crisis and workers' control: Speech at the Athens Biennale 2015-2017

    As consequence of the crisis, workers occupy their workplaces to prevent their closure, adopting mechanisms of collective decision-making, taking the initiative and becoming protagonists.

    Dario Azzellini is an assistant professor for sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

    He has published several books, essays and documentaries. His latest books are 'An Alternative Labour History: Worker Control and Workplace Democracy' (Zed Books 2015) and together with Marina Sitrin 'They Can’t Represent Us. Reinventing Democracy From Greece to Occupy' (Verso 2014). read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: Media: 
  7. Thu, 12/11/15

    A call for support of the struggle of VIOME

    Against the imminent threat of liquidation, the workers of VIOME appeal for international solidarity.

    Dear solidarity supporters, we invite you to stand beside us, to support every effort of the workers to make the forces of production autonomous from the capitalist class, a class which anyway has delocalised all production abroad. We invite you to support the operation of the factory, since we, the workers, have declared that we are not leaving, that our lives are now linked to this factory. read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: Experiences: 
  8. Wed, 07/10/15

    An Alternative Labour History Worker Control and Workplace Democracy

    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.

    read more »
    Era: Media: 
  9. Sat, 26/09/15

    On Workers' Democracy

    Opponents of workers democracy argues that democracy cannot be extended to the “enemies of socialism”. However, we must distinguish acts (or crimes) from opinions and ideological tendencies.

    Workers democracy has always been a basic tenet of the proletarian movement. It was a tradition in the socialist and communist movement to firmly support this principle in the time of Marx and Engels as well as Lenin and Trotsky. It took the Stalinist dictatorship in the USSR to shake this tradition. The temporary victory of fascism in West and Central Europe also helped to undermine it. However, the origins of this challenge to workers democracy are deeper and older; they lie in the bureaucratization of the large workers organizations. read more »

    Theorists: Era: Topic: 
  10. Sat, 26/09/15

    Workers Control: The Czechoslovak Experience

    Robert Vitak

    The discussion about workers' control or the general extension of industrial democracy raises for most socialists some fundamental problems of power in society; but not, it should be noted, for some of the more recent advocates of the idea. When Anthony Wedgwood Benn, for example, came forward last year with his contribution he was quite explicit in his view that "real workers' control" would fit comfortably within the existing relations of power : read more »

    Geographical: Era: Topic: 
Syndicate content