Ours to Master and to Own

Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present

Edited by Dario Azzellini and Immanuel Ness

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Description

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 Bios

Dario Azzellini (Ph.D. in Political Science, 2010, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and Ph.D. Sociology, 2012, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. He has published monographs, edited volumes, articles and documentaries on Latin America, workers' control and social movements, including An Alternative Labour History (Ed., Zed Books 2015) and They Can't Represent Us! (with Marina Sitrin, Verso, 2014).

Immanuel Ness is professor of political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and a founding member of the Lower East Side Community Labor Organization, an autonomous activist organization in New York City. His research and writing focuses on social and revolutionary movements, labor militancy, and migrant worker resistance to oppression. Ness has just completed Guest Workers, Corporate Despotism and Resistance,(forthcoming University of Illinois Press) a book that examines the rise of guest workers from the global South in the US and labor opposition to employer abuses. He is author of numerous books including an anthology of contemporary labor: Real World Labor, with Amy Offner and Chris Sturr (Dollars & Sense). He edits the peer-review quarterly journal, Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society, and has also edited several reference works, including the International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present (Wiley-Blackwell 2009), and, with Aaron Brenner and Bejamin Day, the Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History (Sharpe 2009).

More Info

Publication date: July 5, 2011

Table of Contents

Part I: Workers Councils: Historical Overview and Theoretical Debate
Workers Control and Revolution, Victor Wallis
Workers Councils in Europe–a Century of Experience, Donny Gluckstein
The Red Mole: Workers’ Councils as a Means of Revolutionary Transformation, Sheila Cohen
Workers Councils and Control: Contemporary Praxis in Latin America, Alberto Bonnet
Part II: Workers Councils and Self-administration in Revolution: Early 20th Century
Germany: From Unionism to Workers´ Councils: Revolutionary Shop Stewards 1914-1918, Ralf Hoffrogge
Bolshevik Revolution: Factory Councils and Workers' Control, Mark-David Mandel
Italy: Il Biennio Rosso Factory Councils, 1919-1920, Pietro Dipaola
Workers Control and Councils in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939, Andrew Durgan
Part III: Workers Control under State Socialism
Yugoslavia Workers Councils—Successes and Failures, Goran Markovic
Hungary: Workers Councils of 1956, Tamas Krausz
Poland, Workers Councils 1950s/1980s, Zbigniew Marcin
Part IV: Anticolonial struggle, Democratic Revolution and Workers Control
Workers Control of Railways in Colonial Indonesia, 1945-1946, Jafar Suryomenggolo
Algeria’s autogestion: From Self-management to State Bureaucracy, Sam Southgate
Argentina, The Limits of Worker Control within the State: Mendoza- 1973, Gabriela Scodeller
Portugal: Workers Councils 1974-75, Peter Robinson
India: Post-Independence Worker Control and Self-Management, Arup Kumar Sen
Part V: Workers Control against Capitalist Restructuring in the 20th Century
US: Factory Occupations: Looking Retrospectively to the Future, Immanuel Ness
Italian ‘Hot Autumn:’ Factory Councils and Autonomous Workers Assemblies, 1970s, Patrick Cuninghame
Canada: Women and the British Columbia Workers Occupations, 1980s, Elaine Bernard
Britain/Wales ‘Tower Colliery and Workers Control in Action: A Case Study',Russell Smith; Len Arthur; Molly Scott Cato and Tom Keenoy
Part VI: Workers Control: Contemporary Era
Argentinean Expropriated Factories: Trajectories of Worker Control under the Economic Crisis, Marina Kabat
Venezuela: Reorganizing Work and Production, Dario Azzellini
Brazilian Contemporary Recovered Factories, Mauricio Sardá de Faria & Henrique T. Novaes

Reviews

“Ours to Master and to Own is the most substantive and comprehensive work on workers’ control and self-management today. I strongly recommend this work, which provides examples drawn from throughout the world of workers struggling for justice and power.”
—Gary Younge, columnist for the Guardian and the Nation

“The seemingly logical and just idea that workers themselves should make the decisions regarding and reap the benefits of their labor has always been a fraught concept with the potential to topple or reform whole societies… This ambitious, copiously researched, and clearly written text provides a sweeping diversity of examples, analyzed with cool detachment from the specific politics but with underlying passion for the larger concept.”
—Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island

“With the global capitalist order entering a period of crisis, but also with the dramatic increase in worker’s struggles especially in the global South, this collection is extremely opportune. Workers will seek greater control over market forces and workers’ councils are bound to reemerge. A must-read for labor analysts and activists alike.”
—Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University and University of Liverpool

“Ness and Azzellini have made a major contribution in producing this insightful and exciting collection of essays on the question of workers’ control… it is timely and offers great strategic insight.”
—Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided

“Excellent! A very complete, serious, and inspiring account of the movements for workers’ control and their difficulties. There is no doubt that it should become a standard point of reference for future discussions and actions.”
—John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism
Ours to Master and to Own is the most substantive and comprehensive work on workers’ control and self-management today. I strongly recommend this work, which provides examples drawn from throughout the world of workers struggling for justice and power.”
Gary Younge, columnist for the Guardian and the Nation

The seemingly logical and just idea that workers themselves should make the decisions regarding and reap the benefits of their labor has always been a fraught concept with the potential to topple or reform whole societies This ambitious, copiously researched, and clearly written text provides a sweeping diversity of examples, analyzed with cool detachment from the specific politics but with underlying passion for the larger concept.”
Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island

With the global capitalist order entering a period of crisis, but also with the dramatic increase in worker’s struggles especially in the global South, this collection is extremely opportune. Workers will seek greater control over market forces and workers’ councils are bound to reemerge. A must-read for labor analysts and activists alike.”
Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University and University of Liverpool

Ness and Azzellini have made a major contribution in producing this insightful and exciting collection of essays on the question of workers’ control it is timely and offers great strategic insight.”
Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided

Excellent! A very complete, serious, and inspiring account of the movements for workers’ control and their difficulties. There is no doubt that it should become a standard point of reference for future discussions and actions.”
John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism

“Ours to Master and to Own is the most substantive and comprehensive work on workers’ control and self-management today. I strongly recommend this work, which provides examples drawn from throughout the world of workers struggling for justice and power.”
—Gary Younge, columnist for the Guardian and the Nation

“The seemingly logical and just idea that workers themselves should make the decisions regarding and reap the benefits of their labor has always been a fraught concept with the potential to topple or reform whole societies… This ambitious, copiously researched, and clearly written text provides a sweeping diversity of examples, analyzed with cool detachment from the specific politics but with underlying passion for the larger concept.”
—Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island

“With the global capitalist order entering a period of crisis, but also with the dramatic increase in worker’s struggles especially in the global South, this collection is extremely opportune. Workers will seek greater control over market forces and workers’ councils are bound to reemerge. A must-read for labor analysts and activists alike.”
—Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University and University of Liverpool

“Ness and Azzellini have made a major contribution in producing this insightful and exciting collection of essays on the question of workers’ control… it is timely and offers great strategic insight.”
—Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided

“Excellent! A very complete, serious, and inspiring account of the movements for workers’ control and their difficulties. There is no doubt that it should become a standard point of reference for future discussions and actions.”
—John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism

Ours to Master and to Own is the most substantive and comprehensive work on workers’ control and self-management today. I strongly recommend this work, which provides examples drawn from throughout the world of workers struggling for justice and power.”
Gary Younge, columnist for the Guardian and the Nation

The seemingly logical and just idea that workers themselves should make the decisions regarding and reap the benefits of their labor has always been a fraught concept with the potential to topple or reform whole societies This ambitious, copiously researched, and clearly written text provides a sweeping diversity of examples, analyzed with cool detachment from the specific politics but with underlying passion for the larger concept.”
Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island

With the global capitalist order entering a period of crisis, but also with the dramatic increase in worker’s struggles especially in the global South, this collection is extremely opportune. Workers will seek greater control over market forces and workers’ councils are bound to reemerge. A must-read for labor analysts and activists alike.”
Ronaldo Munck, Dublin City University and University of Liverpool

Ness and Azzellini have made a major contribution in producing this insightful and exciting collection of essays on the question of workers’ control it is timely and offers great strategic insight.”
Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided

Excellent! A very complete, serious, and inspiring account of the movements for workers’ control and their difficulties. There is no doubt that it should become a standard point of reference for future discussions and actions.”
John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism

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Ours to Master and to Own

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