Rady robotnicze w województwie katowickim w latach 1956—1957 na przykładzie wybranych zakładów przemysłu kluczowego
Labour Council in Katowice between 1956 and 1957 on the basis of selected companies of the key industry

Summary/Abstract: In hope of a democratization of the political system in Poland, especially after the 7th Plenum of PZPR Central Committee in October 1956, it was expected that the slackening of bureaucratic and overcentralised management methods would happen also in economy. The ideas of democracy from 1945 revived, when it seemed that it was their staff that would be real hosts in socialized work institutions. However a mass and grass‑roots movement of creating and developing labour self‑governments in 1956 threatened the already existing system of central planning, position of party and trade organizations of labour councils in the units of the state economy. Thus the PZPR bodies at the central and territory level tried to monitor the grass‑roots movement of creating self‑government labour councils in factories in Katowice voivodship from the very beginning. In consequence, the Resolution on Labour Councils enacted by the Sejm on 19th November 1956 restricted the activity of this new form of labour self‑government to slightly significant and productive actions, namely to decisions within the scope of work organization. In Katowice voivodship, till the beginning of August 1957, 368 Labour Councils were created, involved 2.5 hundred activists, however the practical importance of the staff representatives, although their activity (within particular frames defined by PZPR) was positively evaluated by central and voivodship government — was insignificant. Finally, the Act on the Conference of Labour self‑government in 1958 included the labour commitees into the system of various and seemingly independent socio‑economic institutions undergoing a total supervision of PZPR and state administration.

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