Working Democracy is the economic self-government of the workers. By definition it involves the workers in the management decision-making process as part of the daily activity of the workplace.

Working Democracy cannot therefore be imposed on society by any political party or minority faction of the workers. It cannot be given to the workers by any benevolent dictator, or granted to them by any philanthropic elite. It can only come into existence by the creative, coordinated action of the workers themselves.

       
Who are the ‘workers’?
“Workers” refers not to any particular jobs or occupations. It identifies all those who are employed by other individuals or institutions, by small businesses, corporations, nonprofits or government agencies. It includes everyone who, because they don’t own a business or have sufficient capital to live off its proceeds without working, must hire themselves out to the owners of capital for a paycheck.
       
Though usually referred to loosely and inaccurately as the “middle class,” this economic group is correctly called the working class. The working class is distinguished from the other main economic group in the capitalist economy, the owners of capital, properly identified as either the owning class, employing class, capitalist class or ruling class.
       
(The true middle class are those in a middle position between the two main classes, who own their own business but operate it primarily through their own labor rather than hired labor.)
       
The working class comprises the overwhelming majority of the population in the industrially developed countries, including of course the United States.
       
Being the majority the workers would be expected to have the predominant political power in countries with democratic states, where the government is chosen by election. But this clearly is not the case today, especially as it regards the U.S.
       
It is the owning class that consistently displays the greatest influence over government and the lawmaking process. Though comprising a far smaller percentage of the population than the working class, it can employ its vastly
superior financial power to achieve political dominance.
       
The ways it does this — through lobbying, funding the parties, financing election campaigns, running themselves in elections, etc. — are well known. With capital owned by relatively few superwealthy individuals, its influence is
concentrated, while the meager resources of the workers are dispersed over many hands.
       
Ideological domination of capital
The numerical disadvantage of the owning class is overcome by its ideological domination over the working class. Through its ownership and control of the media, and its use of propaganda experts and academic hacks to define  the “issues,” it can persuade voters to vote for one or the other of the two major parties it financially and ideologically controls.
       
The parties appeal to workers not as the majority working class but as so many different subgroups, such as evangelicals, ethnic minorities, peace activists, abortion supporters, abortion opponents, gays, opponents of gay marriage, soccer moms — you name it. Not only is the working class fractured into many powerless minority subgroups as a result, but the subgroups are set up to fight each other, guaranteeing there will be no united working class action, either politically or industrially, to confront the owning class.
       
As a result, capital has a free hand to lay off workers, lower wages and benefits, and ultimately shut down U.S. operations altogether and move to countries where labor can be bought cheaper still.
       
The first step in the strategy to achieve Working Democracy is therefore the hardest: overcoming the divisions within the working class and uniting workers into a strong body capable of asserting the political power of its numbers and the economic power of its role as society’s wealth producers.
       
Toward this end, the Campaign for A Working Democracy does not attempt the hopeless task of competing with the two parties with its own special appeals to groups within the working class. It does what the parties can’t do, which is appeal to the workers as workers, workers who share the common social condition of economic dependence, insecurity and exploitation. To achieve their freedom and security the working class must unite in mind and organizational body to together build a Working Democracy.

The need for political action
Although Working Democracy cannot be imposed from above by a political party, its success nevertheless requires a party to represent and advocate its program in the political arena. It is through political activity that competing principles and programs rally the support and votes of the people, and by winning a majority become the ruling principles of society.
       
A party is also necessary to achieve a Working Democracy because the existing laws protect and enforce the property rights of the existing owners of industry. If workers would just start running their workplaces themselves and assume ownership of the product of their labor, it would legally constitute trespassing and theft. The police would be called in and the workers arrested.
       
The workers will need their own political party to win a majority vote, take control of the government and enact new laws that legitimate the new system of Working Democracy. The legal way would then be open for a peaceful and democratic change in the economics and governance of the nation.
       
But the transfer of governing power from the state, controlled by politicians and bureaucrats, to the people in the workplaces could not be done smoothly if the people were not already organized in the workplaces and prepared to assume that responsibility.
       
The longer such a transfer of power were delayed, the greater chance there would be that the state and not the workers would assume power over the workplaces and the economy. However honest and well-intentioned the elected representatives of the workers’ party might be, they couldn’t allow production and distribution to be disrupted and halted, sending society into chaos. They would either have to rescind the new laws and restore the economy to its old owners and management, or they would have to assume control of the economy themselves.
       
The latter alternative is essentially what happened after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. The result was that the Communist Party became a new ruling class, independent of the workers it once represented. Instead of the socialist promise of the state being put on the road to extinction, the Soviet state became all-powerful, controlling the economy and all aspects of social life, with itself exploiting and oppressing the working class.

The need for industrial union
As essential as a political movement will be to the success of Working Democracy, equally important will be the simultaneous organization of the workers in the workplaces, in an all-inclusive industrial union.
       
The new union will unite the workers in the industrial arena as the party unites them in the political arena. Unionism will realize the workers’ economic power as the wealth producers and enable them to challenge the financial power of the owners from a position of strength.
       
As their strength and confidence grow, the workers will challenge the dictatorial authority of the bosses in the workplaces. They will expand their own authority through their elected union representatives and industrial councils, thereby creating the representational governing framework of the coming Working Democracy.
       
So when the political victory is won at the polls, and the legal change to Working Democracy is enacted by the workers’ party in the government, the workers in the workplaces will be mentally and organizationally prepared to assume government responsibility. The transfer of power can proceed smoothly and seamlessly.
       
Political and industrial organization — a workers’ party and a workers’ union — is the one-two punch that can knock out capitalism and create a free society.
       
But wouldn’t the owning class reject the decision of the majority and violently repress the workers in order to stay in power?
       
Yes — if they can. The point of having the right strategy for social change is to prevent the conservative former powers from being able to subvert the will of the majority, and to give them no practical opportunity to resist.
       
East Germany under the rule of the Communist Party was one of the most rigidly controlled and repressed nations in the world. Yet when Gorbachev gave word that the Soviet Union would not intervene to block reform efforts there, a mass political mobilization of the entire population soon followed. The people announced they would no longer respect or obey the authority of the state and the Communist Party.
       
In the face of this popular mobilization the rulers lost faith that the police and military would move against the people and keep them in power. For the police it was no longer a matter of rounding up a few dissidents but facing off
with the massed millions of the entire nation, some of whom were their own relatives and friends. In the end, the ruling class saw the writing on the wall and surrendered without a fight.
       
It can be expected that our even more cowardly rulers will cower before the unified might of the people. But it will be virtually guaranteed if in addition to being politically mobilized the workers are mobilized in the industries, moving to take over control of the wealth-producing facilities.
       
Whereas today the owners intimidate and control the workers with the threat of denying them a livelihood, with the rise of Working Democracy it will be the workers who are in the position to deny the old owners their bread should they attempt to defy the legal mandate of the majority. It will then be — Game Over.

A plan of action, with a clear vision
It is foolish to think every step of a social movement can be planned out in advance, or that the structure of the future society worked out in every detail.
       
But it is essential that we have a general plan of action — a Strategy for Change — and a vision of a new society so we are not sidetracked along the way by all the diversionary issues, promises and threats the ruling class throws up to confuse and control the people. “Keep your eyes on the prize,” the civil rights workers said, and by doing so they reached their goal.
       
Obviously, we are today at the very beginning of the movement-building process. The Campaign for A Working Democracy is a national network of individuals who believe in the idea and want to act to spread its message to our fellow workers.
       
The CWD wants to recruit every worker who agrees with our goal. We seek to expand our grassroots network to make it more effective, so hopefully sooner rather than later the number of Working Democracy adherents will grow to the point where a new party can arise to challenge the corrupt old system.