The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control

The Bolsheviks and Workers Control is a 1970 pamphlet by Chris Pallis (written with his penname Maurice Brinton). It offers a timeline of instance that the Bolsheviks repressed movements for workers control across Russia during the Russian Civil War.

Summary

1917

• February: February Revolution, reappearance of Soviets and creation of the Russian Republic.
• March: Workers' councils spring up in every major Russian city and industrial centre, their first major achievement is the introduction of the 8 hour workday.
• April: Workers' councils gain legal recognition,
• May: Massive smear campaign in the press against the workers' councils, soldiers begin siding with the workers' councils after being invited to inspect factories. Lenin declares support for them, writing "the Party fights for a more democratic workers' and peasants' republic, in which the police and standing army will be completely abolished and replaced by the universally armed people, by a universal militia. All official persons will not only be elected but also subject to recall at any time upon the demand of a majority of the electors. All official persons, without exception, will be paid at a rate not exceeding the average wage of a competent worker." The first conference of workers' councils from groups across Russia is held in Petrograd. Tensions develop between trade unions and workers' councils.
• August: Within conferences of workers' councils, suspicion grows over the Bolsheviks' intentions. Pushes are also made for full workers' control and creation of socialist newspapers. Capitalists organise conferences to counter their influence. Strikes break out across mining regions, with one of the main demands being for workers' councils to control hiring and firing.
• September: The Menshevik Minister for Labour bans meetings of workers' councils during work hours. Authorising bosses to deduct wages from the time spent in meetings. By this point, 586 enterprises employing over 100,000 workers had been closed down by their bosses over shortages and to stop the workers' councils.
• October: Workers' councils conferences begin leading towards an anarcho-syndicalist position.
• November: October Revolution (Russia used a different calendar to the current most commonly used ones) and Lenin advocates for "introduction of workers' control of the production, warehousing, purchase and sale of all products and raw materials in all industrial, commercial, banking, agricultural and other enterprises employing a total of not less than five workers and employees" or enterprises with low profits. However, he contradicts himself by pushing for the state to be able to override the will of the workers. The idea of workers' control becomes popular in the civil service, whilst the Bolsheviks order the dissolution in the Soviet in Civil Telephone Workers and the postal service. Bolsheviks begin advocating for a mix of top-down central planning and bottom-up workers' control. Angering many of the workers' councils.