Italian worker councils briefly developed a concrete alternative to capitalism after World War I.

Evidence

Th is chapter has delved into the shattering of capitalism aft er World War I as embodied by the rise of the factory committee movement in Britain and Italy. Th e threat to the old order emerged from the war struggles of the metalworkers against capital and the state. Th e threat exploded in Italy in 1919- 1920, where it reached a dimension second only to Soviet Russia and Soviet Hungary. Under the leadership of the Ordinovisti, for two whole years the Italian rank and fi le practiced and advanced a concrete alternative to capitalism that found a testing ground during the factory occupation of 1920. At that point it was no longer a matter of whimsy to declare that workers had begun “the march ‘within’ the revolution and no longer towards the revolution” to reach the greatest end: “the liberation of labor from the slavery of capital” (“Chronicles of the New Order” [Cronache dell’Ordine Nuovo], L’Ordine nuovo 1, no. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 578

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Gramsci and the Ordine Nuovo material the reader may have encountered through other left-Marxist sources; ties into the chapter’s argument on the counter-revolutionary thrust of austerity. — connects to: World War I’s state interventions emboldened workers to reject a return to capitalism — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 455; Factory councils aimed to merge economics and politics through workers’ control — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 581; Italian Red Biennium workers built self-governed production institutions across land and factories — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 186 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Italian Red Biennium workers built self-governed production institutions across land and factories #exemplifies (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 186
• World War I’s state interventions emboldened workers to reject a return to capitalism #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 455
• Factory councils aimed to merge economics and politics through workers’ control #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 581
• The 1920 Italian factory occupations emerged spontaneously beyond union or employer intent #corroborates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 551