Worker self-management in the Third World, 1952–1979

Abstract

Worker self-management has proliferated at key historical moments, worldwide, since 1917. In the wake of decolonization and the national liberation movements of the mid-20th century, unprecedented levels were attained across the globe. By examining the major cases of worker self-management that began in 1952–1979 in the periphery and semi-periphery, I highlight the varied historical trajectories leading up to state suppression or absorption of worker self-managed firms. Management literature predicts that all states would respond more favourably to profitable rather than less profitable enterprises; Marxist approaches predict that socialist states would be more likely than capitalist states to favour workers’ control, and world-systems analysts would expect states in the semi-periphery to be more hospitable than states in the periphery to worker self-management. I show that none of these theoretical predictions are empirically sustained. Instead, I employ an inductive historical analysis and find that states are equally likely to terminate profitable and unprofitable enterprises, whether in socialist or capitalist states, and in periphery or semi-periphery. To explain this phenomenon, I propose an alternative theory – focused on social unrest and the balance of class forces – for states in the Third World having by and large called a halt to the experiment of worker self-management.