For electing workers
DOCUMENT the self-management to come, component that can be established right now. It would be a part of our own independence and self-management, very differentfrom what the state bourgeoisie calls by that name, because it would grow out of the very foundations of the organization of work, groups of workers in the brigades, workshops, depart-
THE FOLLOWING article from Wolny Robotnik, like the preceding one, deals with a tactical problem in the work of antibureaucratic activists in the plant. But unlike the preceding article, it is not about using an institution of the regime, such as the Workers Councils, but about the election of the "workers advocates," which is neither authorized nor banned by the law. The status of these workers representatives, thus, depends on the relationship of forces that can be established between them and the plant management.
Workers' advocates, directly representing their fellow workers and democratically elected by them, who enjoy the workers' confidence and thereby have an authority in the plant, can help to place limits on the arbitrariness of the employers. They can also help the workers to have a greater control over the labor process, since they will be real, independently elected representatives of the workers.
Moreover, these advocates will have a greater authority, inasmuch as they will have the same problems as all the other workers, be among them every day, and be subject to their control every day.
In order for all this to be able to work, and in order for the mandate of these representatives to be clear, this institution should be based on three documents that would take the form of an independent social accord within the group of workers.
These are the following:
A limited
- written mandate in time for every person who assumes the function of a workers' advocate signed by the person concerned.
A written statement from the persons elected stipulating that they accept the function entrusted to them of of their representing every one mates who voted for them, with copies for every worker in the group.
A letter of resignation from every one of the workers, as well as a collective letter from all, with an empty space for the date, in order to ensure solidarity with the persons if they are elected subjected to repression by the management or the political police.
Added to these documents should be a protocol of the electing assembly stipulating the aims of the post set up.
At an early stage, before this initiative is generalized throughout the enterprise (or group of enterprises), the workers advocates should retain
26 anonymity and in their action seek to set an example for the other workshops and departments in the plant. In fact, in order to be able to surmount the fear of repression, it is indispensable that workers advocates appear throughout the plant and that the example spread to other plants.
However, once it becomes a general thing, the election of workers advocates will make it possible to create a not inconsiderable social and moral force in the plants. In fact, the various workers advocates will be obliged by the nature of things to link up and cooperate. In this event, they will in practice become an element of workers control. They will be real representatives of the wage workers confronting the state bourgeoisie at the plant level. They will be able in an effective way to limit the arrogance and arbitrariness of the floor bosses, the foremen,
The individual and common activities of the workers advocates could include petitioning, making grievances, etc., forms of action provided for by the law. Their role would not be legal, but it would not be illegal either, since the law does not prohibit such activities. The aim of their activity would not, obviously, be to overthrow the regime but to make the workers conscious of their rights and their situation, to present the arguments for and against one or another modification in this system, as, for example, in the present case, the advantages and disadvantages of the new systems. Indeed, such a collective awareness of common interests is always the primary foundation of any collective action.
If it became generalized, this institution could become a decentralized means for expressing the workers' opinions and a form of crystallizing the tensions within the plants. It would also be a basic component of ments, and establishments.
If self-management develops from this level up, it will be a sign to us that we are ready for self-management. Such an institution would also enable the wage workers to create their own social representation, which would be a potential leadership at the base. This would certainly be important in the event, for example, of a strike.
Already today there are plants in which genuine solidarity and militant unity on the part of the workers have put the management, in particular at the bottom level, in a position where it cannot act without at least the tacit accord of the workers who enjoy the esteem and confidence of their coworkers. Police repression is ineffective in this case, because there is no formal structure. The "leaders" do not carry on any clandestine activity, but the workforce respects their advice and opinions. As a result, the management becomes dependent on these worker leaders. It has to consult them before acting, to negotiate with them and get their agreement. This is already a step toward formal recognition of such structures and such leaders. It is clear that in these conditions it becomes easier to build clandestine work, to collect union dues, to distribute leaflets and newspapers, to drive out the collaborators, etc.
Such informal leaders could play a role in the workshops similar to that played by Lech Walesa today on the national scale (although we would hope that they would do it better and more effectively). The plant management would have to fear them, and the underground union structures would have to protect them.
All the problems of the plant work safety, hygiene, wages - would have to become the concerns of informal groups formed around a leader recognized as a workers' advocate. With time, this sphere of concern would extend naturally from immediate social questions to other problems from the economic arena to the political one, which is an integral part of the perspective of class struggle by the workers and the intelligentsia against the state bourgeoisie.
Wage workers, organize yourselves.