Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the Present

by Dario Azzellini (Editor), Immanuel Ness

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 creatinginstitutions of democratic self-management aimed at controlling production without bosses. Withspecific examples drawn from every corner of the globe and every period of modern history, thispathbreaking volume comprehensively traces this often underappreciated historical tradition.Ripe with lessons drawn from historical and contemporary struggles for workers’ control, Ours toMaster and to Own is essential reading for those struggling to create a new world from the ashesof 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.

Genres: History, Politics, Labor, Nonfiction, Economics, Social Change

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Dario Azzellini is assistant professor for sociology at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, writer and documentary director. He holds a PhD in political science at the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) and a PhD in sociology at the BUAP in Puebla (Mexico). His research and writing focuses on social and revolutionary militancy, popular power and self-administration, workers control, migration and racism, social movements and extensive case studies in Latin America. Azzellini published several books, essays and documentaries about social movements, privatization of military services, migration and racism, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and Venezuela. Among them: The Business of War (Assoziation A 2002), a book about privatization of military services, translated and published in Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Spain and Venezuela. Azzellini is co-editor of Ours to Master and to Own: Worker Control from the Commune to the Present (Haymarket 2011). With Marina Sitrin he is co-author of "Occupying Language" (Occupied Media Pamphlet 2012) and "They Can’t Represent Us. Reinventing Democracy From Greece to Occupy" (Verso 2014).

Azzellini served as Associate Editor for The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present (Wiley-Blackwell 2009) and was primary editor for Latin America, the Spanish Caribbean, and the new left in Italy. He serves as Associate Editor for WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society and for Cuadernos de Marte, an academic publication on the sociology of war published through the University of Buenos Aires. Azzellini also is a documentary filmmaker. His latest film is “Comuna under construction“(2010) on local self-government in Venezuela. Azzellini has been invited to conferences in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. His art projects focus on socio-political themes and have been exhibited in galleries, museums and biennales around the world.

Reviews

[Martin Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an extremely important book, that looks at the historical lessons of workers struggles (in particular occupations) but also examples of workers power during the revolutions post-WW1 and later in the twentieth century. There are many lessons for today's movements, though the book is not without some problems. My full review here:

http://resolutereader.blogspot.com/20...

[Jody Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a while to get through- some sections better written than others, much of it was fairly repetitive. Frequent requisite condemnations of Stalinism of course. Overall though a useful text, just could have gotten that out of a far shorter book. Some of the parts I found most important for current organizing- the entire last section and the chapter on German shop stewards

[Terry Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent discussion on various attempts at worker control of the means of production.

[tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like any collection of essays, the quality will vary throughout. Though some of the weaker contributions in this are politically lazy (relying on tropes about "Stalinism", where the same criticisms would equally apply to Lenin or Trotsky, or lacking a rigorous approach to economic terminology), much of this book is politically insightful - where it is not necessarily insightful, it still raises important questions without providing answers.

It raises these questions about the overcoming of parliamentary/bourgeois democracy, the limits of siege socialism, the limits of trade unionism in times of crisis, and the missteps and misdirections of various socialist/communist parties under or attempting to go beyond capitalism.

Its strengths are in its international and broad historical scope and its grounding in Marx's theory of the state. Pulling from a range of writers from across the Marxist tradition it misses the mark on some points. But if Marx was right that the "emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves" - which I believe he was - this is a highly useful document for looking at the last 150 years of some attempts by workers (and at times others) to emancipate workers.

The limits of workers control under capitalism and even the sectionalist nature of local councils when going beyond capitalism are also explored, quite meaningfully. The link posed between the Bolshevik-style socialism of the early 20th century and the new socialism of Venezuela etc by the Cuban republic and mass movements is a valuable insight that I would like to explore further.

Going through the bibliography and references, there will be a lot to add to my reading list.

[Dave Oakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

real slog of a first half going into basically just recitations of who went to what meeting in various super short lived instances of worker owners, but the sections on more modern events have some useful insights.

[Dipa Raditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ketika ada krisis, kelompok buruh akan mengambil alih. Namun, terkadang perjuangan politik buruh sering mengalami flop bahkan ketika berhadapan dengan krisis. Immanuel Ness dan Azzelini menguraikan secara historis bagaimana buruh bekerja sebagai aktor penggerak ekonomi pasca krisis kapitalisme dan juga relevansinya. Pada fase pertama awal abad ke 20, kontrol buruh masih pada batas-batasan mempolitisasi hak-hak yang mereka coba untuk perjuangkan seperti misalnya pengurangan jam kerja, jaminan kesehatan, tunjangan bahkan hak mereka secara ekstra ekonomi. Bahkan di beberapa negara di Eropa, praktik ini diakomodir dalam bentuk partai buruh yang semangat dan strukturnya masih bisa kita lihat sekarang.

Yang menarik adalah eksperimentasi gerakan buruh di negara-negara sosialis seperti Uni Soviet, Yugoslavia dan beberapa negara-negara Amerika Latin. Pergantian rezim dari negara feodal ke negara bangsa mengubah mode produksi namun tidak pada tataran elit-elit yang bermain di dalamnya. Merujuk kepada pola kediktatoran personal maupun non personal yang menggurita di negara-negara sosialis, kontrol terhadap buruh dipindahtangankan dari borjuis menjadi borjuis sisipan negara. Bahasa gampangnya, cuma ganti majikan doang. Ditambah lagi dengan kebijakan negara yang birokratis, yang membuat buruh belum bisa bernapas lega.

Hal kedua yang menarik dari buku ini pada bab-bab perluasan perjuangan anti kapitalisme. Jika pada mulanya gerakan buruh cuma berurusan sama besok mau makan apa, maka di banyak negara - negara dengan perjuangan buruh yang demokratis, terjadi perubahan paradigma yang berbeda. Mereka memperjuangkan anti kapitalisme diselimuti dengan anti rasisme, anti kolonialisme, feminisme dan isu-isu lingkungan. Tentu dengan elan vital yang sama yaitu tercapainya hak untuk bisa setara.

Catatan kritis untuk buku ini adalah sejauh mana secara ontologi kelas bisa memiliki peranan dalam revolusi. Apakah kesadaran kelas cuma sampai pada level buruh atau kelas menengah bisa dikatakan juga sebagai buruh? Jika iya, pada level apa kesadaran kelas itu bisa ditimbulkan dan seberapa urgensinya keberadaan kelas menengah dalam perjuangan? Jika tidak, apakah mereka berlawan atau bisa dianggap sebagai korban belaka?

Kedua, sejauh mana gerakan buruh yang memenangkan pertarungan kelas ini tidak ikut masuk ke pusaran logika kapital itu sendiri? Karena berbahaya sekali jika gerakan buruh akhirnya kalah dengan aliran modal yang lebih besar.

Pertanyaan masih bisa didiskusikan oleh banyak pemikir antikapitalisme di belahan dunia ini.