Italian worker cooperatives explicitly framed self-management as a path to communism

Evidence

A month into their experience of free management, the Castenaso coop members wrote a manifesto for other Italian workers: “We wish and hope the story of the Castenaso workshops can serve as an example to all Italian workers— still oppressed and exploited by capitalist gluttony [ingordigia]— so that they can once and for all redeem themselves from the servitude of the boss to set out courageously towards a Communist Society!” — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 423

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Italian Red Biennium workers built self-governed production institutions across land and factories — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 186; The Italian red biennium saw an explosion of worker-owned cooperatives — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 424; Cooperatives redirected surplus from capital owners to the workers themselves (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Workers’ self-governance sought to abolish the wage relationship and production for profit #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 186
• Workers’ factory occupations in Milan operated as self-governing territories without police presence #exemplifies (0.80)
• Italian economic elites saw worker cooperatives as a revolutionary threat to the bourgeoisie #qualifies (0.75)