We focus on democratic, egalitarian and solidarity economies, enterprises, organizations and activities that are alternatives to the neoliberal/capitalist economy. We think that the theoretical and practical knowledge on workers’ control and workers’ self-management is very rich and waiting to be revealed. By the concept of workers’ control we understand the initiative of workers on the production process. We consider both the concepts of “worker” and “control” in their broadest sense. We attach importance to all kinds of interventions of the exploited, oppressed and excluded segments in competitive, hierarchical and alienating relations and their attempts at alternatives in a solidaristic manner. We do not reject the different shades of worker control and include them all. From workers’ participation to workers’ management, from cooperatives to social and solidarity economies, from workers’ control to workers’ self-management… Ultimately, we see all kinds of intervention of workers in property and labor relations as a result of the struggle. We consider the struggle in question as a movement that establishes the future today, to the extent that it means intervention in the neoliberal model and capitalist relations and develops more free and equal relations. We draw attention to the importance of focusing on this struggle, which flows through different channels, from unions to cooperatives, from social and solidarity economy to self-management, with an inclusive perspective. We see the countless experiences of the past as an important legacy with their positive and negative aspects. When self-management is considered as the struggle to have initiative over the work and lives of direct producers, it can be said that it is as old as human history. Workers’ control and self-management have never lost their currency, both theoretically and practically, since the emergence of industrial capitalism. The struggle for workers’ control and workers’ self-management can neither be abandoned to the dusty shelves of history nor seen as a marginal debate. On the contrary, it is a debate that is more current today than ever before. Today, attention should be drawn to the many experiences within the framework of workers’ control and self-management -primarily in Argentina and Latin America- and the lively academic and non-academic debates that accompany these experiences. “Workers’ control” or “workers’ control studies” aims to scrutinize all kinds of movements that move towards more free and egalitarian relations and intervene in the existing economic model and labor relations with the vision of a different economy and production model. It aims to research the accumulation of the past and closely follow today’s experiences/discussions. To the extent that this initiative can deepen and enrich existing knowledge and discussions, it may also provide a basis for other formations in the future. More concretely, this initiative can be considered as a first step for the “Institute for Workers’ Control Research” to be established in the future.
Wednesday, January 22 2025
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