Workers’ Self-management

by Jorge Robles

Frente Autentico del Trabajo

independent Mexican union

(adapted from Autogestion)

We understand autogestion as a series of principles that together create the basis of a self-managing society:

Direct democracy: Interested parties are the ones that make their decisions, without delegating to intermediaries the decisions on their affairs. Consensus is the primary form of decision-making, resorting to votes only as a last resort, thereby avoiding the tyranny of the majority and permitting where possible minority positions.

Direct action: If participants make their own decisions without intermediaries, in direct action they carry out their own agreements and act on their own behalf without intermediaries.

Mutual aid: We work to develop the concept of solidarity as an ethical principle at work wherever we participate and wherever we advise, beginning with ourselves.

Outgrowth: We apply the principles of self-management in the community, extending in all sectors and all regions, as well as in personal life. We cannot promote self-management in our union and be tyrants with our personal relations, with family, with friends or with co-workers.

Education: Study and practice teach us to consider a broader range of alternatives and to make better decisions.

These basic principles of applied self-management, adapted to the circumstances of each case, are applicable to any organizational setting, from a local union or cooperative, to a neighborhood, a community, and society itself. No principle has priority over the other or can be sacrificed for the sake of the other. All must be taken together.

Self-management is not only a long-term goal; it is the practical method of getting there. Means must be consistent with their ends.