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Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational
management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includ ...
based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a defining characteristic of
socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
, with proposals for self-management having appeared many times throughout the history of the socialist movement, advocated variously by democratic, libertarian and
market socialists Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy, or one that contains a mix of worker-owned, nationalized, and privately owned ...
as well as
anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
and
communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. There are many variations of self-management. In some variants, all the worker-members manage the enterprise directly through assemblies while in other forms workers exercise management functions indirectly through the election of specialist managers. Self-management may include worker supervision and oversight of an organization by elected bodies, the election of specialized managers, or self-directed management without any specialized managers as such. The goals of self-management are to improve performance by granting workers greater autonomy in their day-to-day operations, boosting morale, reducing alienation and eliminating exploitation when paired with
employee ownership Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...
. An enterprise that is self-managed is referred to as a labour-managed firm. Self-management refers to control rights within a productive organization, being distinct from the questions of ownership and what economic system the organization operates under. Self-management of an organization may coincide with
employee ownership Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Emp ...
of that organization, but self-management can also exist in the context of organizations under
public ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...
and to a limited extent within
private companies A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
in the form of co-determination and worker representation on the board of directors.


Economic theory

An economic system consisting of self-managed enterprises is sometimes referred to as a participatory economy, self-managed economy, or cooperative economy. This economic model is a major version of
market socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy, or one that contains a mix of worker-owned, nationalized, and privately owne ...
and
decentralized planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, parti ...
, stemming from the notion that people should be able to participate in making the decisions that affect their well-being. The major proponents of self-managed market socialism in the 20th century include the economists Benjamin N. Ward,
Jaroslav Vanek Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that originally the two elements of the nam ...
and
Branko Horvat Branko Horvat (24 July 1928 – 18 December 2003) was a Croatian economist and politician. Horvat was born in Petrinja on 24 July 1928. In 1944 during World War II, Horvat and his father Artur Horvat joined the Partisan movement in Croatia. He w ...
. Horvat says that participation is not simply more desirable, but also more economically viable than traditional hierarchical and authoritarian management as demonstrated by econometric measurements which indicate an increase in efficiency with greater participation in decision-making. Writing from the perspective of socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1980s, Horvat suggested that the larger world was moving toward a self-governing socialistic mode of organization as well.


Labor managed firm

The theory of the labor managed firm explains the behavior, performance and nature of self-managed organizational forms. Although self-managed (or labor-managed) firms can coincide with worker ownership (employee ownership), the two are distinct concepts and one need not imply the other.


Neoclassical economics

According to traditional neoclassical economic theory, in a competitive market economy ownership of capital assets by labor (the workforce of a given firm) should have no significant impact on firm performance. Much of the research on labor-managed firms in the neoclassical tradition revolved around the question of the presumed maximand (
objective function In mathematical optimization and decision theory, a loss function or cost function (sometimes also called an error function) is a function that maps an event or values of one or more variables onto a real number intuitively representing some "cost ...
) of such firms (i.e. the answer to the question "what do labor-managed firms maximize?", e.g. income per worker or profits) and its implications. The first model of a labor-managed firm in this tradition has been suggested by American economist Benjamin Ward in 1958 who was interested in the analysis of Yugoslav firms. According to Ward, the labor-managed firm strives to maximize income per worker as contrasted with the traditional capitalist firms' objective function of maximizing profit for external owners. Based on this assumption, Ward presented an analysis that was critical of labor-managed firms. In particular, he argued that a supply curve of a labor-managed firm has a negative slope: an increase in the market price of the product produced by a labor-managed firm will not make it increase production and hire new members. It followed that an economy consisting of labor-managed firms would have a tendency to underutilize labor and tend toward higher rates of unemployment. Ward's model was developed further by
Evsey Domar Evsey David Domar (russian: Евсей Давидович Домашевицкий, ''Domashevitsky''; April 16, 1914 – April 1, 1997) was a Russian American economist, famous as developer of the Harrod–Domar model. Life Evsey Domar was bor ...
and generalized by
Jaroslav Vaněk Jaroslav Vaněk (20 April 1930 – 15 November 2017) was a Czech American economist and Professor Emeritus of Cornell University known for his research on economics of participation ( labour-managed firms, worker cooperatives) and, in his earlier ...
. These purely theoretical analyses were criticized by Yugoslav economist
Branko Horvat Branko Horvat (24 July 1928 – 18 December 2003) was a Croatian economist and politician. Horvat was born in Petrinja on 24 July 1928. In 1944 during World War II, Horvat and his father Artur Horvat joined the Partisan movement in Croatia. He w ...
in 1971 who argued for empirical analysis of actually existing labor-managed Yugoslav firms and practices utilized by their members. In particular, he noted that workers fix wages at the beginning of a year and then adjust them based on the earnings of the enterprise. He noted that this behavioral rule, if made a part of the theoretical model, implies that the market behavior of a labor-managed firm is, contrary to theses by Ward and his followers, much more similar to the hypothetical behavior of a "traditional", profit-maximizing firm. Building on a larger body of empirical studies, contemporary Canadian economist
Gregory Dow Gregory Keith Dow (born February 2, 1954) is an economist at Simon Fraser University who has contributed to the economics of participation and particularly to research on worker cooperatives. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan ...
has carried out extensive theoretical research on labor-managed firms from the neoclassical perspective, focussing on explaining the rarity of labor-managed firms relative to capital-managed ones.


Classical economics

In the 19th century, the idea of a self-managed economy was first fully articulated by the anarchist philosopher and economist
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
. This economic model was called mutualism to highlight the mutual relationship among individuals in this system and involved cooperatives operating in a
free-market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
economy. The
classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econom ...
philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill believed that worker-run and owned cooperatives would eventually displace traditional capitalist (capital-managed) firms in the competitive market economy due to their superior efficiency and stronger incentive structure. While both Mill and
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
thought that democratic worker management would be more efficient in the long run compared with hierarchical management, Marx was not hopeful about the prospects of labor-managed and owned firms as a means to displace traditional capitalist firms in the market economy.''Where Did Mill Go Wrong?: Why the Capital-Managed Firm Rather than the Labor-Managed Enterprise Is the Predominant Organizational Form in Market Economies'', by Schwartz, Justin. 2011. Ohio State Law Journal, vol. 73, no. 2, 2012: "Why, then, is the predominant form of industrial organization in market societies the traditional capital-owned and managed firm (the capitalist firm) rather than the labor-managed enterprise owned and managed by the workers (the cooperative)? This is exactly the opposite of the result predicted by John Stuart Mill over 150 years ago. He thought that such worker-run cooperative associations would eventually crowd capitalist firms out of the market because of their superior efficiency and other advantages for workers." Despite their advantages in efficiency, in Western market economies the labor-managed firm is comparatively rare.
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
championed the idea of a
free association of producers Free association, also known as free association of producers, is a relationship among individuals where there is no state, social class, hierarchy, or private ownership of means of production. Once private property is abolished (distinctly not p ...
as a characteristic of
communist society In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of co ...
, where self-management processes replaced the traditional notion of the centralized state. This concept is related to the Marxist idea of transcending alienation.


Soviet-type economic planning

The Soviet-type economic model as practiced in the former
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
and Eastern Bloc is criticized by socialists for its lack of widespread self-management and management input on the part of workers in enterprises.


Management science

In his book '' Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us'',
Daniel H. Pink Daniel H. Pink (born July 23, 1964) is an American author. He has written seven books; five of them are ''New York Times'' bestsellers. He was a host and a co- executive producer of the 2014 National Geographic Channel social science TV series ...
argues on the basis of empirical evidence that self-management/self-directed processes, mastery, worker autonomy and purpose (defined as intrinsic rewards) are much more effective incentives than
monetary Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are ...
gain (extrinsic rewards). According to Pink, for the vast majority of work in the 21st century self-management and related intrinsic incentives are far more crucial than outdated notions of hierarchical management and an overreliance on monetary compensation as reward. More recent research suggests that incentives and bonuses can have positive effects on performance and autonomous motivation. According to this research, the key is aligning bonuses and incentives to reinforce, rather than hamper, a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness (the three needs that self determination theory identifies for autonomous motivation).


Political movements


Europe

Guild socialism is a political movement advocating
workers' control Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, distributists and Christ ...
of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influential in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was strongly associated with
G. D. H. Cole George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 – 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, and historian. As a believer in common ownership of the means of production, he theorised guild socialism (production organised ...
and influenced by the ideas of
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
. One significant experiment with workers' self-management took place during the Spanish Revolution (1936–1939). In his book '' Anarcho-Syndicalism'' (1938),
Rudolf Rocker Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family. His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his teens, so he ...
stated:
But by taking the land and the industrial plants under their own management they have taken the first and most important step on the road to Socialism. Above all, they (the Workers' and peasants self-management) have proved that the workers, even without the capitalists, are able to carry on production and to do it better than a lot of profit-hungry
entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
.
After
May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...
in France, LIP factory, a clockwork factory based in
Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...
, became self-managed starting in 1973 after the management's decision to liquidate it. The LIP experience was an emblematic social conflict of post-1968 in France.
CFDT The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent B ...
(the CCT as it was referred to in Northern Spain), trade-unionist Charles Piaget led the strike in which workers claimed the
means of production The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...
. The Unified Socialist Party (PSU) which included former Radical
Pierre Mendès-France Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
was in favour of autogestión or self-management.LIP, l'imagination au pouvoir
, article by Serge Halimi in '' Le Monde diplomatique'', 20 March 2007 .
In the Basque Country of Spain, the
Mondragon Cooperative Corporation The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragon in 1956 by José María Arizmendiarrieta and a group of his students at a technic ...
represents perhaps the longest lasting and most successful example of workers' self-management in the world. It has been touted by a diverse group of people such as the
Marxian economist Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian ec ...
Richard D. Wolff and the research book ''
Capital and the Debt Trap ''Capital and the Debt Trap'' is a research monograph by Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants. The first four chapters provide a general summary of the economic instability afflicting the international economy at the time of publication (20 ...
'' by Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants as an example of how the economy can be organized on an alternative to the capitalist mode of production. Following the 2007–2008 financial crisis, a number of factories were occupied and became self-managed in Greece, France, Italy, Germany and Turkey. In Greece, solidarity-based distribution is partially the result of austerity policies' privatization of public services, which exacerbates on-the-ground solidarity activities. These have mostly emerged as a consequence of ambitious politicized thinking and mobilization, as well as a practical formulation that ensures degrees of living by transforming informal solidarity networks into remunerative distribution cooperatives. This dialectic, echoes the idea of formally managing the crisis, which reproduces itself not in spite of, but because of, official policy initiatives to combat it. Workers' collectives and cooperatives, Self-Help Groups, Local Exchange Trade Systems (LETS), Freecycle networks and Timebanks, and the first worker-occupied factory are examples of non-capitalist social experiments and innovations that have emerged in Greece since 2012.


Yugoslavia

At the height of the Cold War, Yugoslavia, as a consequence of the Tito-Stalin split, pursued and advocated for, what was officially called,
socialist self-management Socialist self-management or self-governing socialism was a form of workers' self-management used as a social and economic model formulated by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. It was instituted by law in 1950 and lasted in the Socialist Federa ...
in distinction from the Eastern Bloc countries, all of which practiced central planning and centralized management of their economies. It replaced central planning with ''planning basic proportions'' that was supposed to stop "the chaos of social production and distribution that is innate to capitalism". It was organized according to the theories of Josip Broz Tito and more directly
Edvard Kardelj Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II ...
. Yugoslav economist
Branko Horvat Branko Horvat (24 July 1928 – 18 December 2003) was a Croatian economist and politician. Horvat was born in Petrinja on 24 July 1928. In 1944 during World War II, Horvat and his father Artur Horvat joined the Partisan movement in Croatia. He w ...
also made a significant contribution to the theory of workers' self-management (''radničko samoupravljanje'') as practiced in Yugoslavia. Due to Yugoslavia's neutrality and its leading role in the
Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
, Yugoslav companies exported to both Western and Eastern markets. Yugoslav companies carried out construction of numerous major infrastructural and industrial projects in Africa, Europe and Asia. In 1950, the Law on self-management introduced worker's councils. The "beginning of the end of bureaucracy" was declared along the pretenses of the Marxist concept of
withering away of the state Withering away of the state is a Marxist concept coined by Friedrich Engels referring to the idea that, with the realization of socialism, the state will eventually become obsolete and cease to exist as society will be able to govern itself without ...
under the "Factories to the workers'!" parole. According to Boris Kanzleiter, the inspiration for workers' councils came from the People's councils - the revolutionary governing bodies of the People's Liberation Army and the
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
. The 1953 Yugoslav Constitutional Law, introduced self-management in the constitutional matter and transformed
state property State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...
into
social property Social ownership is the appropriation of the surplus product, produced by the means of production, or the wealth that comes from it, to society as a whole. It is the defining characteristic of a socialist economic system. It can take the form of ...
. The
1963 Yugoslav Constitution The 1963 Yugoslav Constitution was the second constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It came into effect on April 7, 1963. The constitution was the result of beliefs of the governing structures that Yugoslav self-managemen ...
, also called the Charter of Self-management, defined self-management and social property as supreme values and it defined Yugoslavia as a "socialist self-managed democratic community". The Law of Associated Labor of 1976 represented the last stage of the development of Yugoslav self-management. On the grounds of the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, it created a completely autonomous system grounded in direct sovereignty of the worker and citizen. It foresaw the formation of Basic Organizations of Associated Labor (BOAL) as the basic economic units that every worker had to be a part of based on the precise role played by that worker in the production process. It associated with other BOALs to form an Organization of Associated Labour (OAL) that could, with other OALs form Complex Organizations of Associated Labor. The assembly that consisted of all the workers' of a BOAL elected a delegate, which was bound with an imperative mandate, into the workers' council of the OAL that decided on all matters: from electing the director, to decisions on salaries, investments, association, development and specific production goals. Another feature of Yugoslav self-management were Self-management agreements and Social compacts, these replaced classical contracts. The goal of OALs was not for-profit but a social goal - it was supposed to facilitate education, healthcare, employment and resolving the housing issue. Macro-economic reforms and structural adjustment programs that were imposed by the
International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
(IMF) and the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
brought an end to workers' self-management in Yugoslavia.


''Empresas recuperadas'' movement

English-language discussions of this phenomenon may employ several different translations of the original Spanish expression other than
recovered factory Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...
. For example, worker-recuperated enterprise, recuperated/recovered factory/business/company, worker-recovered factory/business, worker-recuperated/recovered company, worker-reclaimed factory, and worker-run factory have been noted.Vieta, Marcelo, 2020
Workers' Self-Management in Argentina: Contesting Neo-Liberalism by Occupying Companies, Creating Cooperatives, and Recuperating Autogestión
, Brill, Leiden.
The phenomenon is also known as autogestión. Argentina's ''empresas recuperadas'' movement emerged in response to the run up and aftershocks of Argentina's 2001 economic crisis. ''Empresas recuperadas'' means "reclaimed/recovered/recuperated enterprises/factories/companies". The Spanish verb ''recuperar'' means not only "to get back", "to take back" or "to reclaim", but also "to put back into good condition".Vieta, Marcelo, 2020
Workers' Self-Management in Argentina: Contesting Neo-Liberalism by Occupying Companies, Creating Cooperatives, and Recuperating Autogestión
, Brill, Leiden, pp. 517–519.
The movement emerged as a response to the years of crisis leading up to and including Argentina's 2001 economic crisis.Guido Galafassi, Paula Lenguita, Robinson Salazar Perez (2004
''Nuevas Practicas Politicas Insumisas En Argentina''
pp. 222, 238.
By 2001–2002, around 200 Argentine companies were recuperated by their workers and turned into worker
co-operatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
. Prominent examples include the Brukman factory, the Hotel Bauen and
FaSinPat FaSinPat ( es, Fábrica Sin Patrones, lit=Factory Without Bosses), formerly known as Zanon, is a worker-controlled ceramic tile factory in the southern Argentine province of Neuquén, and one of the most prominent in the recovered factory move ...
(formerly known as Zanon). As of 2020, around 16,000 Argentine workers run close to 400 recuperated factories. The phenomenon of ''empresas recuperadas'' ("recovered enterprises") is not new in Argentina. Rather, such social movements were completely dismantled during the so-called
Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 as ...
in the 1970s. Thus, during
Héctor Cámpora Hector () is an English, French, Scottish, and Spanish given name. The name is derived from the name of Hektor, a legendary Trojan champion who was killed by the Greek Achilles. The name ''Hektor'' is probably derived from the Greek ''ékhein'', m ...
's first months of government (May–July 1973), a rather moderate and left-wing Peronist, approximately 600 social conflicts, strikes and factory occupations had taken place. The proliferation of these "recuperations" has led to the formation of a recuperated factory movement which has ties to a diverse political network including
socialists Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
,
Peronists Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...
,
anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
and
communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. Organizationally, this includes two major federations of recovered factories, the large
Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas
(National Movement of Recuperated Businesses, or MNER) on the left and the smaller National Movement of Recuperated Factories (MNFR) on the right. The movement led in 2011 to a new bankruptcy law that facilitates take over by the workers.Pagina12
''Nueva Ley de Quiebras''
(April 2011)

(June 2nd 2011)
The legislation was signed into law by President
Cristina Kirchner Cristina is a female given name, and it is also a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Cristina (daughter of Edward the Exile), 11th-century English princess *Cristina (singer), Cristina Monet-Palaci (1956–2020), American s ...
on June 29, 2011.''CFK promulgó la reforma de la Ley de Quiebras''
in '' Página/12'', June 29, 2011


See also

* Agile software development * Collectivist anarchism *
Consensus decision-making Consensus decision-making or consensus process (often abbreviated to ''consensus'') are group decision-making processes in which participants develop and decide on proposals with the aim, or requirement, of acceptance by all. The focus on e ...
*
Council communism Council communism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. Strong in Germany ...
*
Industrial democracy Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decisi ...
* Lean manufacturing *
Open allocation Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...
*
Participatory economics Participatory economics, often abbreviated Parecon, is an economic system based on participatory decision making as the primary economic mechanism for allocation in society. In the system, the say in decision-making is proportional to the impa ...
*
Socialization (economics) Social ownership is the appropriation of the surplus product, produced by the means of production, or the wealth that comes from it, to society as a whole. It is the defining characteristic of a socialist economic system. It can take the form ...
*
Titoism Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in th ...
*
Workers' council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
*
Workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms (examples include voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal) to the workplace. It can be implemented in a variety ...
*
Works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...


Self-managed organizations

*
1971 Harco work-in The 1971 Harco work-in was an action undertaken by workers at a steel plant in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia. The work-in was the culmination of a protracted industrial dispute between the owners of Harco Steel and the workers at the Ca ...
, a four-week work-in by Australian steelworkers *
Carlist Party The Carlist Party ( es, Partido Carlista, ca, Partit Carlí, eu, Karlista Alderdia, gl, Partido Carlista, ast, Partíu Carlista; PC) is a Spanish political party that considers itself as a successor to the historical tradition of Carlism. ...
*
Confederación Empresarial de Sociedades Laborales de España Confederación Empresarial de Sociedades Laborales de España (CONFESAL) is a Spanish enterprise organization whose objectives are the representation and defense of the interests of companies in labor societies in Spain. CONFESAL formed on 4 July 1 ...
*
Haier Haier Group Corporation () is a Chinese multinational home appliances and consumer electronics company headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It designs, develops, manufactures and sells products including refrigerators, air conditioners, washin ...
Group Corporation, the world's largest self-managed company * Mondragón Corporation, the world's largest group of industrial cooperative companies * The Morning Star Company, a fully self-managed private company *
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (founded 1972) is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards. The orchestra is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a cond ...
*
Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
* Springfield ReManufacturing *
Unified Socialist Party (France) The Unified Socialist Party (french: Parti Socialiste Unifié, PSU) was a socialist political party in France, founded on April 3, 1960. It was originally led by Édouard Depreux (from its creation to 1967). History PSU was born through the fu ...
*
United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) is a federation of worker cooperatives in the United States. USFWC was founded at the U.S. Conference of Democratic Workplaces in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2004. The Federation w ...
*
W. L. Gore and Associates W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is an American multinational manufacturing company specializing in products derived from fluoropolymers. It is a privately held corporation headquartered in Newark, Delaware. It is best known as the developer of wat ...
, one of the oldest, largest and most innovative self-managed companies worldwide


Notes


References

* *


Further reading

* Curl, John. ''For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America'', PM Press, 2009, . * Széll, György. "Workers’ Participation in Yugoslavia." in ''The Palgrave Handbook of Workers’ Participation at Plant Level'' (Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2019) pp. 167–186. * Vieta, Marcelo. ''Workers' Self-Management in Argentina: Contesting Neo-Liberalism by Occupying Companies, Creating Cooperatives, and Recuperating Autogestión '', Brill, 2020, . *
An Anarchist FAQ An, AN, aN, or an may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Airlinair (IATA airline code AN) * Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy * AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey * Anime North, a Canadian a ...
, Vol. 2, (2012,
AK Press AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned. History AK was founded in Stirling, S ...
), see section: I.3.2 What is workers' self-management

* Anarcho-Syndicalism (book), Anarcho-syndicalism, Rudolf Rocker (1938),
AK Press AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned. History AK was founded in Stirling, S ...
Oakland/Edinburgh. . * Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux. Nelson Parker, 2014, 378 pp. .


Documentary-film

* '' Living Utopia'' (original, 1997: ''Vivir la utopía. El anarquismo en Espana'') is a documentary film by Juan Gamero. It consists of 30 interviews with activists of the
Spanish Revolution of 1936 The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and for two to three years resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly, libertarian socialist org ...
and one of the biggest examples of workers' and peasants self-management during the social revolution


External links


The New Resistance in Argentina
by Yeidy Rosa
Self-management and Requirements for Social Property: Lessons from Yugoslavia by Diane Flaherty

Worker self-management in historical perspective by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer

Yugoslavia's Self-Management by Daniel Jakopovich


Andrés Ruggeri, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Social Innovations of Autogestión in Argentina’s Worker-Recuperated Enterprises: Cooperatively Reorganizing Productive Life in Hard Times (Labor Studies Journal, 2010)
by Marcelo Vieta
Democracy at Work
A social movement for a new economy founded by economist Richard D. Wolff
The End of Illth: In search of an economy that won’t kill us
'' Harper's Magazine'', October 4, 2013 {{co-operatives, types Anarchist theory Communism Cooperatives Economic systems Self-management Management by type Market socialism Marxian economics Marxism Political philosophy Political theories Recovered factories Socialism Syndicalism