Lamanov
7th May 2007, 13:25
United Nations Special Committee, New York, 1957:
485. No aspect of the Hungarian uprising expressed its democratic tendencies or its reaction to previous conditions more clearly than the creation of Revolutionary Councils in villages, towns and on the county level, and of Workers’ Councils in factories. Within a few days, these bodies came into existence all over Hungary and assumed important responsibilities. Their chief purpose was to ensure for the Hungarian people real, and not merely nominal, control of local government and of factories, mines, and other industrial enterprises. There was even a suggestion that a National Revolutionary Committee might replace the National Assembly,(1) while another proposal was that a Supreme National Council could exercise the prerogative of Head of the State.(2) While nothing of the kind took place, the fact that such proposals could be put forward at all suggests the degree to which they were felt to reflect the desires of the people.
547. The Workers’ Councils and the Revolutionary Councils were closely related phenomena of the Revolution. In many cities the Revolutionary Councils were elected by the delegates of Workers’ Councils, and most of the Revolutionary Councils included many workers in the membership. Witnesses described how, after the election of a Revolutionary Council or a National Committee in such a way, a mutual link was created between a Revolutionary Council and the Workers’ Councils which were to be set up in the area covered by it. In one case, reported by the newspaper of the Hungarian National Revolutionary Committee, the establishment of certain Workers’ Councils was not recognized, and a new election was ordered “in accordance with the spirit of true democracy”.
560. The Committee concludes from its study of the Revolutionary Councils that they were the result of a spontaneous, nation-wide movement to assert the right of the Hungarian people to assume the direction of their affairs and lives. This movement took shape, as did the uprising itself, at the local level and there was in the beginning little or no contact between the various groups. Nevertheless, as in the case of the students and intellectuals, a broad identity of aim underlies both the demands and the methods. It is clear that the formation of these Councils met a need widely felt by the Hungarian people.
561. The same is true of the Workers’ Councils. All witnesses confirmed that dissatisfaction with the trade unions of the régime was one of the most important grievances of the Hungarian workers. In addition, they demanded a genuine voice in the control of the undertaking in which they worked, and this they set out to obtain by electing Councils along democratic lines. These Councils at once assumed important responsibilities in the factories, mines and other undertakings, and they exerted a considerable influence upon the Government, with which delegations from a number of them maintained direct contact. The overwhelming support given by Hungarians to these Workers’ Councils confirms the impression that they were among the most important achievements of the Hungarian people during their few days of freedom.Peter Fryer, Hungarian Tragedy, London 1956:
The word ‘national’ was not intended to imply that this body arrogated to itself any authority outside its own region; such committees called themselves indifferently ‘national’ or ‘revolutionary’. In their spontaneous origin, in their composition, in their sense of responsibility, in their efficient organisation of food supplies and of civil order, in the restraint they exercised over the wilder elements among the youth, in the wisdom with which so many of them handled the problem of Soviet troops, and, not least, in their striking resemblance at so many points to the soviets or councils of workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ deputies which sprang up in Russia in the 1905 revolution and again in February 1917, these committees, a network of which now extended over the whole of Hungary, were remarkably uniform. They were at once organs of insurrection - the coming together of delegates elected by factories and universities, mine and Army units - and organs of popular self-government, which the armed people trusted. As such they enjoyed tremendous authority, and it is no exaggeration to say that until the Soviet attack of November 4 the real power in the country lay in their hands.Radio Transmissions:
(Radio Free Miskolc @ 26th October)The Committee of the workers’ council of Greater Miskolc and the Party Committee, independently of the answer made by Comrade Imre Nagy . . . just read, have, on the basis of the resolution of the working people ... decided to maintain the demands they have submitted as long as they are not fulfilled in their essence.
Our proclamation issued to the workers in connection with these demands, and which bears the Kossuth arms, consists of five points, as follows: 1. We demand that the Soviet Army leave the country immediately; 2. A new Hungarian government; 3. The right of workers to strike; 4. Complete amnesty for Hungarians who have participated in the revolution; 5. As long as these [demands] are not fulfilled the people of Borsod County and Greater Miskolc respectively will strike, with the exception of railways, mining, health services, public supply, electric power supply, and the press...
Young workers and students: conduct yourself in a disciplined manner. Do not offer any reason for any interference by the authorities. We are able to assert our demands without bloodshed. In the attainment of their ends you can furnish the people of Budapest the greatest aid if you carry on the strike in a disciplined manner and if you do not demonstrate unnecessarily. Do not commit any provocation or any sabotage, because the only thing we would achieve by that would be the weakening of our common forces.[/b]
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 27th October
For two days the city of Miskolc has been under the leadership of the workers’ council and the students’ parliament. The workers’ council has taken over control of the garrison and the police. The demands of the workers’ council and of the students have been made publicly known by radio and press -the twenty-one points of the workers’ councils as well as the universities’ eleven points. As you know, the county strike committee has also called on all plants in the county to strike, with the exception of mail, transport, communications, food supplies, health services and power plants.
Originally posted by Radio [email protected] 28th October
A temporary national committee has been formed. It has started to organize a National Guard for maintaining order. Its members are being recruited from the Hungarian Army, the police, the workers, and the young workers. Workers’ councils have been formed in the major plants of the district. They have already started work. The workers of the Kelenfoeld power station have done everything they can do to keep the capital supplied with electric current. They were unable to leave their place of work for three days and continued working in spite of the fact that they were without food
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 29th October
A four-member delegation representing professors and students [in Sopron] has arrived in Gyor to present its demands. . . . Many of the demands of the Sopron students agree with the demands made by the trade unions and the Petofi Club . . . [but] they state that they do not agree with the present composition of parliament and the government ... and do not believe them suitable [organs] for drawing up a new electoral law. They demand that a new parliament be formed from representatives of town and village national councils...
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 1st November
On October 31, 1956 delegates of the National Committees of Trans-Danubia set up the Trans-Danubian National Council, with headquarters in Gyor. The Council fully identifies itself with the heroic freedom fighters. Every county in Trans-Danubia is represented by two delegates and county capitals and the city of Gyor will each be represented by two delegates.
Within the next 24 hours, the Trans-Danubian National Council will start negotiations with the government on the subject of its fulfillment of the nation’s demands. The TNC wants to receive a guarantee from the government that it will keep its promises in particular the promise that Soviet troops will evacuate the country at the given time. The TNC welcomes [into its organization] the military units of Papa, Gyor, Tata and Zalaegerszeg and salutes their promise to protect the people from any foreign attack, even in the face of higher orders. The TNC considers it desirable that all military forces be organized uniformly in Trans-Danubia. . .
Radio Dunapentele @ 4th November
Dunapentele is the leading socialist town in Hungary. In this town all the inhabitants are working and they hold the power in their hands. . . . The population of the town is under arms. . . they will not give in because they have erected the factories and homes of the town with their own hands. . . . The- workers will defend the town against fascism -- but also against the Soviet troops.Hungary: Freedom's Choice, Time, LXIX (January 7, 1957), 18-22
Lazlo and his friends heard Radio Budapest, in rebel hands on Oct.27, tell all factories to set up workers’ councils. Lazio was one of 14 elected by secret ballot at his mill. “I thought to myself, ‘My God! What is happening? Are we really practicing democracy?’ I felt like crying.”
“There were happy meetings everywhere,” says Lazio. Everything went well until the day that the Soviet army attacked again. The workers got 6,000 rifles from the Hungarian army, but when 87 Soviet tanks and armored cars suddenly descended on Vac, there was no resistance. P. Kecskemeti, The Unexpected Revolution: Social Forces in the Hungarian Uprising (1961), p. 115. [speaking about council movemet after 4th November]:
This was the first time in history that the syndicalist myth of the revolutionary general strike. . . actually became the basis of sustained political action by the entire industrial population of a country.Sandor Bali (Central Workers' Council of Budapest, member of):
It is the Hungarian working class which has set on foot the workers' councils, which for the moment are the economic and political organisations that have behind theni the working class.
485. No aspect of the Hungarian uprising expressed its democratic tendencies or its reaction to previous conditions more clearly than the creation of Revolutionary Councils in villages, towns and on the county level, and of Workers’ Councils in factories. Within a few days, these bodies came into existence all over Hungary and assumed important responsibilities. Their chief purpose was to ensure for the Hungarian people real, and not merely nominal, control of local government and of factories, mines, and other industrial enterprises. There was even a suggestion that a National Revolutionary Committee might replace the National Assembly,(1) while another proposal was that a Supreme National Council could exercise the prerogative of Head of the State.(2) While nothing of the kind took place, the fact that such proposals could be put forward at all suggests the degree to which they were felt to reflect the desires of the people.
547. The Workers’ Councils and the Revolutionary Councils were closely related phenomena of the Revolution. In many cities the Revolutionary Councils were elected by the delegates of Workers’ Councils, and most of the Revolutionary Councils included many workers in the membership. Witnesses described how, after the election of a Revolutionary Council or a National Committee in such a way, a mutual link was created between a Revolutionary Council and the Workers’ Councils which were to be set up in the area covered by it. In one case, reported by the newspaper of the Hungarian National Revolutionary Committee, the establishment of certain Workers’ Councils was not recognized, and a new election was ordered “in accordance with the spirit of true democracy”.
560. The Committee concludes from its study of the Revolutionary Councils that they were the result of a spontaneous, nation-wide movement to assert the right of the Hungarian people to assume the direction of their affairs and lives. This movement took shape, as did the uprising itself, at the local level and there was in the beginning little or no contact between the various groups. Nevertheless, as in the case of the students and intellectuals, a broad identity of aim underlies both the demands and the methods. It is clear that the formation of these Councils met a need widely felt by the Hungarian people.
561. The same is true of the Workers’ Councils. All witnesses confirmed that dissatisfaction with the trade unions of the régime was one of the most important grievances of the Hungarian workers. In addition, they demanded a genuine voice in the control of the undertaking in which they worked, and this they set out to obtain by electing Councils along democratic lines. These Councils at once assumed important responsibilities in the factories, mines and other undertakings, and they exerted a considerable influence upon the Government, with which delegations from a number of them maintained direct contact. The overwhelming support given by Hungarians to these Workers’ Councils confirms the impression that they were among the most important achievements of the Hungarian people during their few days of freedom.Peter Fryer, Hungarian Tragedy, London 1956:
The word ‘national’ was not intended to imply that this body arrogated to itself any authority outside its own region; such committees called themselves indifferently ‘national’ or ‘revolutionary’. In their spontaneous origin, in their composition, in their sense of responsibility, in their efficient organisation of food supplies and of civil order, in the restraint they exercised over the wilder elements among the youth, in the wisdom with which so many of them handled the problem of Soviet troops, and, not least, in their striking resemblance at so many points to the soviets or councils of workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ deputies which sprang up in Russia in the 1905 revolution and again in February 1917, these committees, a network of which now extended over the whole of Hungary, were remarkably uniform. They were at once organs of insurrection - the coming together of delegates elected by factories and universities, mine and Army units - and organs of popular self-government, which the armed people trusted. As such they enjoyed tremendous authority, and it is no exaggeration to say that until the Soviet attack of November 4 the real power in the country lay in their hands.Radio Transmissions:
(Radio Free Miskolc @ 26th October)The Committee of the workers’ council of Greater Miskolc and the Party Committee, independently of the answer made by Comrade Imre Nagy . . . just read, have, on the basis of the resolution of the working people ... decided to maintain the demands they have submitted as long as they are not fulfilled in their essence.
Our proclamation issued to the workers in connection with these demands, and which bears the Kossuth arms, consists of five points, as follows: 1. We demand that the Soviet Army leave the country immediately; 2. A new Hungarian government; 3. The right of workers to strike; 4. Complete amnesty for Hungarians who have participated in the revolution; 5. As long as these [demands] are not fulfilled the people of Borsod County and Greater Miskolc respectively will strike, with the exception of railways, mining, health services, public supply, electric power supply, and the press...
Young workers and students: conduct yourself in a disciplined manner. Do not offer any reason for any interference by the authorities. We are able to assert our demands without bloodshed. In the attainment of their ends you can furnish the people of Budapest the greatest aid if you carry on the strike in a disciplined manner and if you do not demonstrate unnecessarily. Do not commit any provocation or any sabotage, because the only thing we would achieve by that would be the weakening of our common forces.[/b]
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 27th October
For two days the city of Miskolc has been under the leadership of the workers’ council and the students’ parliament. The workers’ council has taken over control of the garrison and the police. The demands of the workers’ council and of the students have been made publicly known by radio and press -the twenty-one points of the workers’ councils as well as the universities’ eleven points. As you know, the county strike committee has also called on all plants in the county to strike, with the exception of mail, transport, communications, food supplies, health services and power plants.
Originally posted by Radio [email protected] 28th October
A temporary national committee has been formed. It has started to organize a National Guard for maintaining order. Its members are being recruited from the Hungarian Army, the police, the workers, and the young workers. Workers’ councils have been formed in the major plants of the district. They have already started work. The workers of the Kelenfoeld power station have done everything they can do to keep the capital supplied with electric current. They were unable to leave their place of work for three days and continued working in spite of the fact that they were without food
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 29th October
A four-member delegation representing professors and students [in Sopron] has arrived in Gyor to present its demands. . . . Many of the demands of the Sopron students agree with the demands made by the trade unions and the Petofi Club . . . [but] they state that they do not agree with the present composition of parliament and the government ... and do not believe them suitable [organs] for drawing up a new electoral law. They demand that a new parliament be formed from representatives of town and village national councils...
Originally posted by Radio Free [email protected] 1st November
On October 31, 1956 delegates of the National Committees of Trans-Danubia set up the Trans-Danubian National Council, with headquarters in Gyor. The Council fully identifies itself with the heroic freedom fighters. Every county in Trans-Danubia is represented by two delegates and county capitals and the city of Gyor will each be represented by two delegates.
Within the next 24 hours, the Trans-Danubian National Council will start negotiations with the government on the subject of its fulfillment of the nation’s demands. The TNC wants to receive a guarantee from the government that it will keep its promises in particular the promise that Soviet troops will evacuate the country at the given time. The TNC welcomes [into its organization] the military units of Papa, Gyor, Tata and Zalaegerszeg and salutes their promise to protect the people from any foreign attack, even in the face of higher orders. The TNC considers it desirable that all military forces be organized uniformly in Trans-Danubia. . .
Radio Dunapentele @ 4th November
Dunapentele is the leading socialist town in Hungary. In this town all the inhabitants are working and they hold the power in their hands. . . . The population of the town is under arms. . . they will not give in because they have erected the factories and homes of the town with their own hands. . . . The- workers will defend the town against fascism -- but also against the Soviet troops.Hungary: Freedom's Choice, Time, LXIX (January 7, 1957), 18-22
Lazlo and his friends heard Radio Budapest, in rebel hands on Oct.27, tell all factories to set up workers’ councils. Lazio was one of 14 elected by secret ballot at his mill. “I thought to myself, ‘My God! What is happening? Are we really practicing democracy?’ I felt like crying.”
“There were happy meetings everywhere,” says Lazio. Everything went well until the day that the Soviet army attacked again. The workers got 6,000 rifles from the Hungarian army, but when 87 Soviet tanks and armored cars suddenly descended on Vac, there was no resistance. P. Kecskemeti, The Unexpected Revolution: Social Forces in the Hungarian Uprising (1961), p. 115. [speaking about council movemet after 4th November]:
This was the first time in history that the syndicalist myth of the revolutionary general strike. . . actually became the basis of sustained political action by the entire industrial population of a country.Sandor Bali (Central Workers' Council of Budapest, member of):
It is the Hungarian working class which has set on foot the workers' councils, which for the moment are the economic and political organisations that have behind theni the working class.