Workers' Councils in Poland () or councils of workers' delegates () were representative organs of workers and peasants, set up at various times in Poland throughout the 20th century, but in greatest numbers towards the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

on Polish territories.

History

The 1905 Revolution

Workers' councils emerged as a form of direct working class self-organisation on lands of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, including

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

, during the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

(as well as its Polish element). In 1905, 93.2% of

's industrial workers went on strike. The first phase of the revolution consisted primarily of mass strikes, rallies, demonstrations – later this evolved into street skirmishes with the police and army as well as bomb assassinations and robberies of transports carrying money to tsarist financial institutions.REWOLUCJA 1905-07 NA ZIEMIACH POLSKICH
Encyklopedia Interia, retrieved on 8 April 2008 Congress Poland was one of the centres of revolutionary activity during this period.

1918–1919

In this period, most of the councils were formed in east-central Poland. Due to significant disputes over the political and economic future of the newly independent Poland, the councils failed to create an executive committee. Nevertheless, over 100 workers' councils operated in Poland in the years 1918–1919, assembling around 500,000 workers and peasants. The most numerous and radical councils were located in

Kraśnik Kraśnik is a town in southeastern Poland with 35,602 inhabitants (2012), situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, historic Lesser Poland. It is the seat of Kraśnik County. The town of Kraśnik as it is known today was created in 1975, after the mer ...

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

Płock Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Zamość Zamość (; ; ) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. Zamość was founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski ...

, and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie; some set up their own military self-defence units, the

Red Guards The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a ...

. A short-lived Republic of Tarnobrzeg was proclaimed on 6 November 1918. The main organisations behind the initiative were the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party – Left, which soon merged to form the Communist Workers Party of Poland. However, it was the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

, formerly led by

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

, that was the dominant force in the Polish workers' councils. Other workers' organisations and parties competed for influence within the councils as well, such as the Bund in Poland and the National Workers' Union. The councils were dismantled around July 1919, following the withdrawal of the Polish Socialist Party (which dominated the councils), and suppression by the Polish government, which saw the councils as a barrier to the formation of a Polish state.

After World War II

Apart from the 1905–1907 and 1918–1919 periods, workers' councils in Poland had also been set up in 1944–1947 in the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and in the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

during the Poznań protests and

Polish October The Polish October ( ), also known as the Polish thaw or Gomułka's thaw, also "small stabilization" () was a change in the politics of the Polish People's Republic that occurred in October 1956. Władysław Gomułka was appointed First Secretar ...

of 1956. Strike committees and councils appeared during the strikes of 1980–1981 as well.

References

{{Reflist Aftermath of World War I in Poland Communism in Poland History of socialism Labor disputes in Poland Organizations of the Russian Revolution Politics of the Second Polish Republic Socialism in Poland Workers' councils

History

The 1905 Revolution

1918–1919

After World War II

See also

References