Workers' council is the phenomenon where a single place of work, such as a factory, school, or farm, is controlled collectively by the workers of that workplace. Basically an elected group of workers from that workplace function as the manager. Therefore, management reflects employee values and goals.
Some Marxists and anarchists believe that workers' councils (communes) embody the fundamental principles of socialism, such as workers' control over production and distribution. Indeed, some have described this as "socialism from below," which they counterpose against what they see as "socialism from above" endorsed by social democratic ideology and Stalinism or (in the anarchist view) Leninism. According to this view, socialism from above is carried out by a centralized state run by an elite bureaucratic apparatus, whereas socialism from below represents the self-administration and self-rule of the working class.
From Leon Trotsky Workers' Control of Production ''The workers need control not for platonic purposes, but in order to exert practical influence upon the production and commercial operations of the employers. This cannot, however, be attained unless the control, in one form or another, within such and such limits, is transformed into direct management. In a developed form, workers’ control thus implies a sort of economic dual power in the factory, the bank, commercial enterprise, and so forth''.
Toxic debts racked up by banks and insurers could spiral to $4 trillion (£2.7 trillion), new forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are set to suggest.
The IMF said in January that it expected the deterioration in US-originated assets to reach $2.2 trillion by the end of next year, but it is understood to be looking at raising that to $3.1 trillion in its next assessment of the global economy, due to be published on April 21. In addition, it is likely to boost that total by $900 billion for toxic assets originated in Europe and Asia.
Krugman pointed out that under any of Obama’s proposals so far, whether guarantees to banks against losses on troubled assets, or lending money to private investors to buy toxic assets, bankers win and taxpayers lose, no To start down that road we must demand access for committees of workers to all the banks’ books, both the ones they deign to show regulators and the ones they keep hidden even from their own government. Such committees meeting in congress can then work out a plan for restarting production with a precise calculation of the money available in these banks, the needs of working people, and the production levels needed to match the two.No matter what direction the prices of such assets go.
Source: One of our Myspace friends: STOP FASCISM STOP HR 645