{{Short description|Participation in management by employees}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2015}}
'''Workers' control''' is [[Participatory management|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]]),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Transitional Program & the Struggle for Socialism |date=1999 |publisher=Resistance Books |isbn=978-0-909196-83-7 |page=54 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Transitional_Program_the_Struggle_fo/KKXEYRqMiYAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=trotsky+transitional+program+interest+toilers&pg=PA34&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wiles |first1=Peter |title=The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform: Essays in Honor of Alec Nove |date=14 June 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-88190-5 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHAIEQAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+legalization+of+soviet+parties+worker+control+of+production&pg=PA31 |language=en}}</ref> [[communists]], [[social democrats]], [[distributists]] and [[Christian democrats]], and has been combined with various [[Socialist economics|socialist]] and [[mixed economy]] systems.

[[Workers' council]]s are a form of workers' control. [[Council communism]], such as in the early [[Soviet Union]], advocates workers' control through workers' councils and [[factory committee]]s. [[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.

Workers' control can be contrasted to control of the economy via the state, such as [[nationalisation|nationalization]] and [[central planning]] (see [[state socialism]]) versus control of the [[means of production]] by owners, which workers can achieve through employer provided stock purchases, direct stock purchases, etc., as found in capitalism.

== Historical examples by country ==
=== Algeria ===
During the [[Algerian Revolution]], peasants and workers took control of factories, farms and offices that were abandoned, with the help of [[General Union of Algerian Workers|UGTA]] militants. Around 1,000 enterprises were placed under workers' control in 1962, with that number climbing to 23,000+ in the following years. The [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|FLN]] passed laws in the newly independent [[Algeria]] which partially institutionalized workers' control, creating a bureaucracy around workers' councils that centralized them. This caused massive corruption among new managers as well productivity and enthusiasm in the project to fall, leading to numerous strikes by workers in protest. Following a military coup in 1965, workers' control efforts were sabotaged by the government which began to centralize the economy in the hands of the state, denying workers control.<ref name="Ness 2010 248">{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|publisher=Haymarket Books|year=2010|pages=248}}</ref>

=== Argentina ===
In 1973, with the end of the self-proclaimed [[Argentine Revolution]], there was a wave of strikes and workplace occupations that rocked the country as the first elections were held, mainly in state-owned industry. 500 occupations of workplaces were taken out overall, with 350 occurring between the 11th and 15 June, mostly of media outlets, health centres and public transport and government administration. These occupations were predominantly done in support of [[Peronism]], and failed to achieve any long lasting results on the eve of the [[Dirty War]].<ref name="Ness 2010 248"/>

During the [[1998–2002 Argentine great depression|Argentine Great Depression]], hundreds of workplaces were occupied and ran according to the principles of workers' control by angered unemployed people. In 2014, around 311 of these were still around, being run as worker cooperatives.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/10/occupy-buenos-aires-argentina-workers-cooperative-movement|title=Occupy Buenos Aires: the workers' movement that transformed a city, and inspired the world|last1=Kennard|first1=Matt|date=2016-03-10|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-01-14|last2=Caistor-Arendar|first2=Ana|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Some of the notable examples include:

*[[Brukman factory|Brukman textile factory]]
*[[FaSinPat]]
* [[Hotel Bauen]]
*[[Tandanor|Tandanor shipyard]]

===Australia===
In Northern [[Queensland]] from 1908 to 1920, the [[Industrial Workers of the World#Australia|IWW]] and the [[Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union]] organized a degree of workers' control among [[meat industry]] workers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sa.amieu.asn.au/about-us/history/|title=The History of the Meatworkers Union {{!}} AMIEU South Australia & Western Australia|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref> From 1971 to 1990, Australia saw a massive wave of workers' control corresponding with strikes all over the country. Some authors have argued that the [[green ban]]s constitute a form of workers' control.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sa.org.au/node/1650|title=When Sydney was under workers' control|date=2013-03-02|website=Socialist Alternative|access-date=2019-10-02}}</ref> Including:

* 1971: [[1971 Harco work-in|Harco Work-In]]
*1972: Clutha Development Mine Work-In<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=New Forms of Worker Organization: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of Class Struggle Unionism|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2014}}</ref>
* 1972: [[Sydney Opera House]] Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1972: [[Whyalla]] Glove Factory Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1974: [[Wyong, New South Wales|Wyong]] Plaza Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1975: [[Nymboida, New South Wales|Nymboida]] Mine Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1975: Coal Cliff Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1978: [[Sanyo|Sanyo Television]] Factory Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1979: Union Carbide Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1980: Department of Social Security Work-In<ref name=":0" />
* 1990: [[Melbourne]] Tramworkers' Strike<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://libcom.org/library/melbourne-tram-dispute-lockout|title=Melbourne tram dispute and lockout 1990 - anarcho-syndicalism in practice|website=libcom.org|language=en|access-date=2019-01-14}}</ref>

=== Bosnia and Herzegovina ===
In 2015, workers took over a detergent factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy, running it as a co-operative.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/geographical/solemnly-tuzla-dita-started-producing-powder-detergent-arix-tenzo|title=Solemnly in Tuzla: Dita started producing powder detergent Arix Tenzo. {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2019-01-14}}</ref>

=== Brazil ===
Around 70 bankrupted enterprises have been taken over by about 12,000 workers since 1990 as part of the recovered factories movement, mainly in the industries of metallurgy, textiles, shoemaking, glasswork, ceramics and mining. This has been concentrated in the South and Southeast of Brazil.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010|pages=400–419}}</ref>

=== Canada ===
In 1981, workers took over [[BC Tel|BC Telephones']] phone exchanges for five days in protest of layoffs and increased deskilling of work.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010|pages=338}}</ref>

=== Chile ===
During the presidency of [[Salvador Allende]] (1970–1973) 31 factories were placed under workers' control in a system called [[Cordón industrial]] before being destroyed by [[Augusto Pinochet]].

=== China ===
Workers' control was practiced in [[Guangzhou#Anarchism|Guangzhou in the 1920s]]<ref>{{Citation|last=Dirlik|first=Arif|chapter=Anarchism And The Question Of Place: Thoughts From The Chinese Experience|pages=131–146|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004188495|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004188495.i-432.45|title=Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940|year=2010}}</ref> and the [[Korean People's Association in Manchuria|Shinmin Autonomous Region]] from 1929 to 1931.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/ANARCHIST_ARCHIVES/worldwidemovements/koreahis.html|title=Korean Anarchism History|website=dwardmac.pitzer.edu|access-date=2019-01-14}}</ref>

=== Costa Rica ===
From 1968 to 1991, there were several workplace and takeovers (mainly in agriculture) that were repressed by the state. Little knowledge exists of these in English.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Plys|first=Kristin|date=2016-02-01|title=Worker self-management in the Third World, 1952–1979|journal=International Journal of Comparative Sociology|language=en|volume=57|issue=1–2|pages=3–29|doi=10.1177/0020715215627190|s2cid=155976351 |issn=0020-7152|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Czechoslovakia ===
Workers' control occurred during the [[Prague Spring]], by January 1969 there were councils in about 120 enterprises, representing more than 800,000 employees, or about one-sixth of the country’s workers. They were banned in May 1970 and subsequently declined.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/forgotten-workers%E2%80%99-control-movement-prague-spring|title=The Forgotten Workers' Control Movement of Prague Spring {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2019-01-14}}</ref>

=== Egypt ===
Before the [[Egyptian revolution of 2011|Egyptian Revolution of 2011]], several factories were placed under workers' control.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://she2i2.blogspot.com/2009/08/egyptian-experiments-in-workers-self.html|title=SHE2I2: Egyptian Experiments in Workers' Self-Management|last=Charbel|first=Jano|date=2009-08-29|website=SHE2I2|access-date=2020-04-18}}</ref>

===France===
In 1871, the [[Paris Commune]] placed 43 enterprises under workers' control as one of the first experiments in modern socialism.<ref>{{Cite book|title=An Anarchist FAQ A.5.1.}}</ref> Another famous example of workers' control is the [[LIP (company)|LIP]] clock factory, which was occupied in 1973 and operated as a worker cooperative.

===Germany===
Germany has a history of "Mitbestimmung" (Codetermination) since 1891 (see [[Codetermination in Germany]]).  The Weimar Republic required workers' consultative committees in every business employing 20 people, which the Nazi government abolished. Works councils were authorized by the Allied Control Council in 1946 and required by the West German government in 1952; codetermination has been mandatory in all large companies (2,000 employees) since 1976.

=== Greece ===
In the early 1980s, two textile factories were taken over by their workers after going bankrupt.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/cooperatives-and-workers%E2%80%99-control-20th-century-greece|title=Cooperatives and workers' control in 20th century Greece {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref> In the early 2010s, various workers took over a building materials factory,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/viome-workers-control-greek-crisis|title=Vio.Me: workers' control in the Greek crisis {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref> newspaper,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/leading-greek-newspaper-run-its-workers|title=The leading Greek newspaper that is run by its workers {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref> radio station<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.leftvoice.org/Interview-with-Nikos-Tsibidas-public-broadcaster-ERT-under-workers-control-during-two-years|title=Interview with Nikos Tsibidas: public broadcaster ERT under workers' control during two years|website=Left Voice|date=6 August 2015 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref> and hospital.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/greek-hospital-now-under-workers%E2%80%99-control|title=Greek hospital now under workers' control {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref>

===Indonesia===
During the [[Indonesian National Revolution]], railway, plantation and factory workers across [[Java]] implemented workers' control from 1945 to 1946, until it was crushed by the new Indonesian Nationalist Government.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010|pages=210}}</ref> In 2007, over a thousand workers in [[Jakarta]] inspired by workers' control in Argentina and Venezuela took over a textile factory in response to [[Wage labour|wage]] cuts, repression of a recently organized union and efforts to fire and intimidate union organizers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/indonesia-pt-istana-factory-occupied-and-producing-under-workers%E2%80%99-control|title=Indonesia: PT Istana, a factory occupied and producing under workers' control {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref>

=== Italy ===
During the [[Biennio Rosso]], workers, especially in Northern Italy, took control of numerous factories. In 2012, workers took over an office and former car factory, turning it into a recycling plant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/take-back-factory-worker-control-current-crisis|title=Take back the factory: worker control in the current crisis {{!}} workerscontrol.net|website=www.workerscontrol.net|access-date=2020-04-22}}</ref>

=== Japan ===
During the [[Allied occupation of Japan|Allied Occupation of Japan]], around 100,000 workers took over 133 workplaces as a form of industrial dispute called [[production control (industrial relations)|production control]]. Coal mines, shoe factories, hospitals, government offices, steel works and newspapers were the main sites taken over.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://libcom.org/history/production-control-japan|title=Production control in Japan|website=libcom.org|language=en|access-date=2020-04-10}}</ref>

=== Poland ===
Workers' control had been practiced in Poland during the [[Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–07)|Revolution of 1905]], as workers protested a lack of political freedoms and poor working conditions. Workers' control also occurred in around 100 industries in the aftermath of [[World War I]] with around 500,000 participants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zapytaj.onet.pl/encyklopedia/69429,,,,rady_delegatow_robotniczych_w_polsce,haslo.html|title=Rady Delegatów Robotniczych w Polsce - Zapytaj.onet.pl -|website=zapytaj.onet.pl|language=pl|access-date=2019-01-19}}</ref> Notably in the short-lived [[Republic of Tarnobrzeg]]. As [[World War II]] was ending, workers took over abandoned and damaged factories and began running them between 1944 and 1947.

=== Russia and Soviet Union ===
Between the [[Russian Revolution|Revolutions in 1917]], instruments of worker representation rose up, called the Soviets. On 27 November 1917, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] (SNK) implemented a decree on workers' control.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/events/revolution/documents/1917/11/14.htm|title=Decree on Workers' Control|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2019-03-08}}</ref>

The USSR experimented with workers' control with the [[Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony]] thanks to the influence from [[Industrial Workers of the World|IWW]] from 1922 to 1926 before being destroyed by the government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://struggle.ws/russia/kuzbass_colony.html|title=The Autonomous Industrial Colony "Kuzbass"|website=struggle.ws|access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=March 2023}}

=== Spain ===

During the [[Spanish Revolution of 1936]], workers' control in [[Revolutionary Catalonia|anarchist-controlled areas]] was widespread, with workers' control being practiced in factories, farms, docks, ships, utilities, railways, trams and hospitals.

=== Sri Lanka ===
Workers' control was practiced in the [[Sri Lanka Transport Board|Ceylon Transport Board]] from 1958 to 1978 with about 7,000 buses and 50,000 workers.

=== Syria ===
Workers' control has been practiced in several cities and towns during the [[Syrian Civil War]] since 2012 as they maintain agriculture, run hospitals and maintain basic social services in the lack of a state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://countervortex.org/node/15014|title=SELF-ORGANIZATION IN THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION {{!}} CounterVortex|date=2016-09-02|website=countervortex.org|language=en|access-date=2019-01-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://countervortex.org/node/15005|title=THE FALL OF DARAYA {{!}} CounterVortex|date=2016-08-27|website=countervortex.org|language=en|access-date=2019-01-19}}</ref> Workers' control is also practiced in [[Democratic Federation of Northern Syria|Rojava]], with around a third of all industry being placed under workers' control as of 2015.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Small Key Can Open A Large Door|publisher=Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness|year=2015|pages=37}}</ref>

=== Tanzania ===
Workers' control was practiced in several factories and hotels during a strike wave from 1972 to 1973 over anger at the ineffective [[Trade union|workers committees]], although the government of [[Julius Nyerere]] initially supported the factory takeovers, it later repressed them, with some analysts arguing it was a form of [[Recuperation (politics)|co-optation]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mihyo|first=Paschal|date=2007-01-03|title=The struggle for workers' control in Tanzania|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03056247508703265|journal=Review of African Political Economy|volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=62–84 |language=en|doi=10.1080/03056247508703265|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Ukraine===
Workers' control was practiced by the [[Makhnovshchina]] in both factories and farms from 1918 to 1921, when it was crushed by the [[Red Army]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Anarchism: From Theory to Practice|last=Guérin|first=Daniel|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1970|location=New York|pages=99}}</ref>

=== United Kingdom ===
Workers' control was first practiced by the [[Diggers]], who took over abandoned farm land and formed autonomous collectives during the [[English Civil War]]. In the 1970s, around 260 episodes of workers' control were witnessed across the UK,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010|pages=284}}</ref> including:

* 1971: [[Upper Clyde Shipbuilders]]
*1971: Plessey armaments factory near Glasgow
*1972: Sexton, Son and Everard shoe factories in [[East Anglia]]
*1972: Briant Colour Printing in East London
*1972: Leadgate Engineering in Durham
*1972: Fisher-Bendix motor components factory near Liverpool
*1972: Bredbury Steelworks near Manchester
*1972: Stanmore Engineering in London
*Unknown: [[Triumph Engineering]]
*Unknown: Elisabeth Garret Anderson hospital
*Unknown: Hounslow Hospital
{{See also|Institute for Workers' Control|Lucas Plan|Mike Cooley (engineer)}}

===United States===
Workers' control was practiced in [[Seattle General Strike|Seattle in 1919]], as workers organized milk deliveries, cafeterias, firefighting and laundry before being suppressed by the government.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A People's History of the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryun00zinn_587|url-access=limited|last=Zinn|first=Howard|year=1980|pages=[https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryun00zinn_587/page/n384 373]}}</ref> From 1968 to 1972, General Electric experimented with workers' control in [[River Works]], Massachusetts to great success.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Forces of Production: Social History of Industrial Automation|last=Noble|first=David|year=1984|pages=292–322}}</ref>

=== Yugoslavia ===
In [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], there was a limited degree of workers' control of industry which was encoded into law in 1950. This occurred due to the [[Tito–Stalin Split|Tito-Stalin Split]] and inspiration from the [[Paris Commune]]. However, the poorly designed, top-down nature of the workers' councils led to corruption, cynicism and inefficiencies until they were destroyed in the [[Yugoslav Wars]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|year=2010|pages=172}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Anarcho-syndicalism]]
* [[Co-operatives]]
* [[Direct democracy]]
* [[Inclusive democracy]]
* [[Industrial democracy]]
* [[Industrial Workers of the World]]
* [[Paris Commune|Paris Commune of 1871]]
* [[Participatory democracy]]
* [[Participatory economics]]
* [[Trotskyism]]
* [[Worker cooperative]]
* [[Worker self-management]]
* [[Workplace democracy]]
* [[Edvard Kardelj]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[Maurice Brinton]], ''The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control''. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1978

==External links==
*[https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1931/310820.htm Trotsky on workers control]
*[https://www.democracyatwork.info/ Democracy At Work]
{{Co-operatives |types}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Workers' Control}}
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Management]]
[[Category:Labor relations]]

[[sv:Självförvaltning]]