Workers' Councils in Poland

Workers' Councils in Poland (Polish: rady robotnicze w Polsce) or councils of workers' delegates (Polish: rady delegatów robotniczych) 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 the First World War on Polish territories.

[1] Workers' councils emerged as a form of direct working class self-organisation on lands of the Russian Empire, including Latvia and Congress Poland, during the 1905 Russian Revolution (as well as its Polish element).

[2] 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.

[6] Due to significant disputes over the political and economic future of the newly independent Poland, the councils failed to create an executive committee.

[1] The most numerous and radical councils were located in Kraśnik, Lublin, Płock, Warsaw, Zamość, and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie; some set up their own military self-defence units, the Red Guards.