The Case for Workplace Democracy

Abstract

In this chapter I seek to provide a theoretical defence of workplace democracy that is independent from and outside the lineage of Marxist and communist theory. Common to the council movements, anarchosyndicalism and many other forms of libertarian socialism was the idea “that workers’ selfmanagement was central.”1 Yet the idea of workers’ control has not been subject to the same theoretical development as Marx’s theory, not to mention capitalist economic theory. This chapter aims to contribute at a theoretical level by providing a justification and defence of selfmanaged workplaces that is independent of the particular historical tradition of the council movements. There is a clear and definitive case for workplace democracy based on first principles that descends to modern times through the Reformation and Enlightenment in the abolitionist, democratic and feminist movements. By the twentieth century, the arguments had been scattered and lost – like the bones of some ancient beast scattered in a desert – partly due to misconceptions, mental blocks and misinterpretations embodied in Marxism, liberalism and economic theory. When one has worked through some of these intellectual roadblocks, then one may be better able to reassemble the case for workplace democracy from wellknown first principles developed in the abolitionist, democratic and feminist movements.