All About the Soviets

[Marshal of the People]

Greetings comrades,

Could anyone who has time please tell me about the soviets and if they can provide some links which you think are good, I am still learning a lot about the Soviets (slowly) and would like to know more, I like the idea of them so thanks comrades.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

The soviets were organic forms of organisation that developed within workplaces, neighbourhoods, amongst conscripted soldiers and eventually cities and regions. Much like trade unions in their early days in Britain etc, the soviets were responses to the oppression of capitalism and useful tools for the workers to counter the exploitation of capitalists and land owners but unlike trade unions the soviets had a specifically revolutionary character that rejected the bourgeoisie and their position of privilege.

An interesting essay of this subject that I read is co-founder of the POUM, Andreu Nin's The Soviets: Their Origin, Development and Function (http://libcom.org/library/soviets-their-origin-development-functions-andreu-nin). Trotsky wrote after the 1905 revolution: "Prior to the Soviet, there had been revolutionary organizations among the industrial workingmen, mostly of a Social-Democratic nature. But those were organizations among the proletariat; their immediate aim was to influence the masses. The Soviet is an organization of the proletariat; its aim is to fight for revolutionary power." in The Soviet and the Revolution (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1918/ourrevo/ch05.htm). Perhaps another relevant piece of writing to explore would be Amadeo Bordiga's Towards the establishment of workers' councils in Italy (http://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1920/workers-councils.htm) in which he writes "The authentic instrument of the proletariat's struggle for liberation, and above all of its conquest of political power, is the communist class party. Under the bourgeois regime, the communist party, the engine of the revolution, needs organs in which it can operate; these organs are the workers' councils."

[Brotto Rühle]

You can take a look at council communist works as well, such as Pannekoek's, Ruhle's, and Matticks stuff. All available at MIA.

[Marshal of the People]

Thank you for the links (and your explanation GiantMonkeyMan), I will look at them this afternoon when I get back from school.