Antonio Gramsci 1921
Worker´ Control
Unsigned, L'Ordine Nuovo, 10 February 1921
Text from Antonio Gramsci "Selections from political writings (1921-1926)", translated and edited by Quintin Hoare (Lawrence and Wishart, London 1978), transcribed to the www with the kind permission of Quintin Hoare.
Before we examine the configuration of the draft bill presented
by Hon. Giolitti to the Chamber of Deputies, or the possibilities
which it opens up, it is essential to establish the viewpoint from
which the communists approach discussion of the problem.
For the communists, tackling the problem of control means
tackling the greatest problem of the present historical period; it
means tackling the problem of workers' power over the means of
production, and hence that of conquering State power. From this
point of view, the presentation of a draft bill, its approval, and
its execution within the framework of the bourgeois State, are
events of secondary importance. Workers' power has, and can only
have, its raison d´être and its source within
the working class itself; in the political capacity of the working
class; in the real power that the working class possesses, as an
indispensable and irreplaceable factor of production and as an
organization of political and military force. Any law in this
respect which emanates from bourgeois power has just one
significance and just one value: it means that in reality, and not
just in words, the terrain of the class struggle has changed. And
insofar as the bourgeoisie is compelled to make concessions and
create new juridical institutions on the new terrain, it has the
real value of demonstrating an organic weakness of the ruling
class [classe dominante].
To admit that entrepreneurial power in industry can be
subjected to limitations, and that industrial autocracy can become
"democracy" even of a formal kind, means to admit that the
bourgeoisie has now effectively fallen from its historical
position as the leading class [classe dirigente] and is
effectively incapable of guaranteeing the popular masses their
conditions of existence and development. In order to shed at least
a part of its responsibilities and to create an alibi for itself,
the bourgeoisie allows itself to be "controlled" and pretends to
let itself be placed under supervision. It would 'certainly be
very useful, for the purposes of bourgeois self-preservation, if a
guarantor like the proletariat were to take upon itself to testify
before the great mass of the population that nobody should be held
responsible for the present economic ruin, but that everyone's
duty is to suffer patiently and work tenaciously, while waiting
for the present cracks to be repaired and for a new edifice to be
built upon the present ruins.
The field of control is thus the field upon which bourgeoisie
and proletariat struggle for class leadership over the great mass
of the population. The field of control is thus the basis upon
which the working class, when it has won the trust and consent of
the great mass of the population, can construct its State,
organize its governmental institutions with the participation of
all the oppressed and exploited classes, and initiate the positive
work of organizing the new economic and social system. Through the
fight for control - which does not take place in Parliament, but
is a revolutionary mass struggle and a propaganda and
organizational activity of the historic party of the working
class, the Communist Party - the working class must acquire, both
spiritually and as an organization, awareness of its autonomy and
historic personality. This is why the first phase of the struggle
will present itself as the fight for a specific form of
organization. This form of organization can only be the Factory
Council, and the nationally centralized system of Factory
Councils. The outcome of the struggle must be the constitution of
a National Council of the working class, to be elected at all
levels - from the Factory Councils to the City Councils and the
National Council - by methods and according to a procedure
determined by the working class itself, and not by the national
Parliament or by bourgeois power. This struggle must be waged in
such a way as to show the great mass of the population that all
the existential problems of the present historical period - the
problems of bread, housing, light, clothes - can be resolved only
when all. economic power, and hence all political power, has
passed into the hands of the working class. In other words, it
must be waged in such a way as to organize all the popular forces
in revolt against the capitalist régime around the working
class, so that the latter really becomes the leading class and
guides all the productive forces to emancipate themselves by
realizing the communist programme. This struggle must equip the
working class to select the most able and energetic elements from
its own ranks and make them into its new industrial leaders, its
new guides in the work of economic reconstruction.
From this point of view, the draft bill presented to the
Chamber of Deputies by Hon. Giolitti represents merely a means for
agitation and propaganda. It must be studied by the communists in
this light; for them, not only is it not a final goal, it is not
even a point of departure or a launching-pad.