Worker's Councils and Unions

[Invincible Summer]

So I've been sort of reading up on Left Communism (as there has been a recent outbreak in questions regarding the Communist left), and I'm sort of confused on the Left Communist position on unions.

So from what I understand, they are against unions because they are seen as a bourgeois institution, or at least an anti-worker tool due to their nature to "compromise" with the ruling class.

however, Left Communists advocate "worker's councils." I'm confused as to the difference between the two. Is it that the term "union" indicates an organization of workers that are banded together in order to gain advantages in the capitalist workplace, whereas "worker's council" would be a post-capitalist form of unionism (because of having no capitalist to negotiate with)?

[blake 3:17]

They`re two different things. Trade unionism always involves making deals with the bosses. How that happens can vary greatly -- simple trade unionism, business unionism, social unionism, rank and file unionism. The two former tend to stick to business as usual with a slightly better deal for members. The two latter refer to much more radical kinds of unionism which either work for broader social gains for workers as a whole or involve their members in direct democratic ways. I`ve been a member of two unions and my participation was always trying to do both.

Some, not all, Left Communists make basic mistakes thinking that the union (or their faction of the union) will win everything for everybody.

Workers Councils, or Workers Consumers Councils, develop in the midst of revolutionary struggle where the basic functions of capital and the state are brought to a halt. This can happen during a wide spread general strike. Workers Councils may assume the key aspects of the state -- providing infrastructure and social services, making significant political decisions, basic policing and emergency services.

In normal times, in the Global North, unionism does seem `bourgeois` -- negotiating on wages, pensions, seniority, vacation, benefits. Too often unions, left or right, replicate the hierarchies and injustices of society as a whole. So we fight for justice and democracy within the labour movement.

[Niccolò Rossi]

I'm confused as to the difference between the two. Is it that the term "union" indicates an organization of workers that are banded together in order to gain advantages in the capitalist workplace, whereas "worker's council" would be a post-capitalist form of unionism (because of having no capitalist to negotiate with)?

"Trade unions appeared therefore as permanent organisations of the class whose purpose was to facilitate the organised resis*tance of the workers against capital." - ICC, [I]Trade Unions Against the Working Class
(http://en.internationalism.org/pamphlets/unions_chapter_02.htm)
"The anti-proletarian character of the old trade unions is not simply a result of the fact they are organised in a particular way (by trade, by industry), or that they had ‘bad leaders’; it is a result of the fact that in the present period the class cannot maintain permanent organisations for the defence of its economic interests. Consequently, the capitalist function of these organs also applies to all those ‘new’ organisations which play a similar role, no matter what their initial intentions. This is the case with the ‘revolutionary unions’ and ‘shop stewards’ as well as those organs (workers’ committees, worker’s commissions…) which stay in existence after a struggle - even in opposition to the unions - and try to set themselves up as ‘authentic’ poles for the defence of the workers’ immediate interests. On this basis, these organisations cannot escape from being integrated into the apparatus of the bourgeois state even in an unofficial or illegal manner." - ICC, Platform (http://en.internationalism.org/node/612)

"In its greatest revolutionary struggles in this century, the proletariat has taken up a new form of organisation suited to its revolutionary mission: the soviets or workers’ councils - assemblies of delegates mandated by the general assemblies of workers. These organs of centralisation and unification created by the class are the means through which it can forge, in the heat of the struggle, the material and theoretical forces necessary for its attack against the state. But the very form of the soviets or councils gives them one particu*lar characteristic. Because they are assemblies of delegates elected by quasi-permanent general assemblies, their existence is entirely dependent on the existence of generalised class struggle. If the class is not struggling in all the factories, if there are no general assemblies of workers in all the places they are fighting, the councils cannot exist. The workers’ councils can only become permanent when the generalised open struggle of the class becomes permanent; in other words during the revolutionary process itself. The workers’ councils are the specific organs of proletarian power." ICC, Trade Unions Against the Working Class (http://en.internationalism.org/pamphlets/unions_chapter_05.htm)

I think the above quotes will help to clarify the difference. To put it simply, the unions are permanent organisations which (aim/claim to) defend the interests of the working class. Workers' Councils, on the other hand, are revolutionary fighting organs of the working class and the embryos of proletarian power post-revolution formed at times of mass class confrontation.

Does this clarify the matter?

P.S. Sorry for the delay in replying

[Niccolò Rossi]

Some, not all, Left Communists make basic mistakes thinking that the union (or their faction of the union) will win everything for everybody.

Which Left Communists are which?

What are you trying to say here? I would have thought the more common caricture of the position would have been that 'the union will win nothing for nobody'.


Too often unions, left or right, replicate the hierarchies and injustices of society as a whole. So we fight for justice and democracy within the labour movement.

We would say that the 'fight for justice and democracy within the labour movement' can have no accomplished sucess. There can be no reform of the unions which will restore in them a proletarian character.