Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video is a short summary of council communism. I explain the core features and the world it aims for. I also explain it's criticisms of unions and social democratic parties and of the soviet union.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
The song in the outro was produced by 08 (who gave me no way to credit them), you can listen to the whole remix on my second channel: youtu.be/jZOrMsIOZh0
Sources:
libsoc-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Council_Communism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_communism
maoist.wikia.org/wiki/Council_communism
marxists.org/subject/left-wing/1987/council-communism.htm
Transcript:
Hello everybody. What is council communism? Well, essentially it is a form of socialism in which the workers are in charge of the state and economy via a system of worker’s councils.
Council communism is broadly a left communist movement, which means it falls towards the left on the spectrum of communist ideologies, for example to the left of Leninism. And that’s the first feature of council communists, they don’t like Leninism.
As you are probably aware in 1917 Lenin and his party started the October revolution in the Russian Empire. The party was the so-called vanguard of the revolution, meaning they did all the revolution-ing in the name of the working class.
This party later developed into the enforcer of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the only way to be politically active in the USSR. It also developed into a centralized bureaucracy. I have a whole video on the details of how that worked.
Council communists oppose this development. They think the workers should run the revolution directly, not via a vanguard party. They also believe that the party centralized power with non-workers and turned the party members into a separate political class. In council communism there is no political class which rules, instead all control is fragmented and given to de-centrally organised councils.
All workers in one area form a council, like the council of Vienna’s artisans and then they elect one or multiple of themselves to represent them on the city council which then elects representatives for the local council which then elects members to the national council. Because all these representatives are workers, this way there is a dictatorship of the proletariat and no political class can form.
All representatives are still artisans in their day to day life and they only do the tasks of politicians when the council is meeting. All higher councils could at any point be dissolved by the lower councils, ensuring that the higher councils still act in a way the people agree with.
These representatives would also be able to be re-called at any point, making sure they follow the will of the workers, unlike the representatives we have now which need to get elected one time and then do whatever they want to for 4 years, ignoring their constituents.
The economy would also be controlled by councils, meaning workers would collectively own their own workplaces. These workplaces would interact via a market or be managed by councils in a form of de centrally planned economy.
Council communists consider social democrats and traditional or non-revolutionary trade unions to be allies to the bourgeoisie who are used to distract the workers from the necessary revolution. They want to boycott electoral politics and non-revolutionary unions.
The revolution is to be started by the workers themselves, again, no vanguard party. Because it is so de centralized it is often compared to different forms of anarchism, especially syndicalism. The idea is that during a crisis of capitalism councils will naturally form, kind of like how soviets formed before the October revolution and these councils then take over after the collapse of capitalism.
You may think that this system of councils selecting higher councils and sending representatives to a national government is kind of similar to the way the USSR worked. After all it was made up of councils, called soviets, which represented the workers and elected delegates to the national government. The difference is that in the USSR the communist party took part in the political process while in true council communism there is no party.
Council communists also declared that the USSR was not an alternative to capitalism but that it itself was practically capitalist with the full time party officials and bureaucrats or apparatchiks taking over the tasks of the capitalists without worker’s oversight. So, despite the USSR theoretically kind of being a bit like council communism they hate each other, like true leftists.
This video is a short summary of council communism. I explain the core features and the world it aims for. I also explain it's criticisms of unions and social democratic parties and of the soviet union.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
The song in the outro was produced by 08 (who gave me no way to credit them), you can listen to the whole remix on my second channel: youtu.be/jZOrMsIOZh0
Sources:
libsoc-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Council_Communism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_communism
maoist.wikia.org/wiki/Council_communism
marxists.org/subject/left-wing/1987/council-communism.htm
Transcript:
Hello everybody. What is council communism? Well, essentially it is a form of socialism in which the workers are in charge of the state and economy via a system of worker’s councils.
Council communism is broadly a left communist movement, which means it falls towards the left on the spectrum of communist ideologies, for example to the left of Leninism. And that’s the first feature of council communists, they don’t like Leninism.
As you are probably aware in 1917 Lenin and his party started the October revolution in the Russian Empire. The party was the so-called vanguard of the revolution, meaning they did all the revolution-ing in the name of the working class.
This party later developed into the enforcer of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the only way to be politically active in the USSR. It also developed into a centralized bureaucracy. I have a whole video on the details of how that worked.
Council communists oppose this development. They think the workers should run the revolution directly, not via a vanguard party. They also believe that the party centralized power with non-workers and turned the party members into a separate political class. In council communism there is no political class which rules, instead all control is fragmented and given to de-centrally organised councils.
All workers in one area form a council, like the council of Vienna’s artisans and then they elect one or multiple of themselves to represent them on the city council which then elects representatives for the local council which then elects members to the national council. Because all these representatives are workers, this way there is a dictatorship of the proletariat and no political class can form.
All representatives are still artisans in their day to day life and they only do the tasks of politicians when the council is meeting. All higher councils could at any point be dissolved by the lower councils, ensuring that the higher councils still act in a way the people agree with.
These representatives would also be able to be re-called at any point, making sure they follow the will of the workers, unlike the representatives we have now which need to get elected one time and then do whatever they want to for 4 years, ignoring their constituents.
The economy would also be controlled by councils, meaning workers would collectively own their own workplaces. These workplaces would interact via a market or be managed by councils in a form of de centrally planned economy.
Council communists consider social democrats and traditional or non-revolutionary trade unions to be allies to the bourgeoisie who are used to distract the workers from the necessary revolution. They want to boycott electoral politics and non-revolutionary unions.
The revolution is to be started by the workers themselves, again, no vanguard party. Because it is so de centralized it is often compared to different forms of anarchism, especially syndicalism. The idea is that during a crisis of capitalism councils will naturally form, kind of like how soviets formed before the October revolution and these councils then take over after the collapse of capitalism.
You may think that this system of councils selecting higher councils and sending representatives to a national government is kind of similar to the way the USSR worked. After all it was made up of councils, called soviets, which represented the workers and elected delegates to the national government. The difference is that in the USSR the communist party took part in the political process while in true council communism there is no party.
Council communists also declared that the USSR was not an alternative to capitalism but that it itself was practically capitalist with the full time party officials and bureaucrats or apparatchiks taking over the tasks of the capitalists without worker’s oversight. So, despite the USSR theoretically kind of being a bit like council communism they hate each other, like true leftists.
