110-489: Bierut is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Bolesław Bierut (1892–1956), Polish politician, communist activist and leader of the Polish People's Republic between 1947 and 1956 Michael Bierut (born 1957), a graphic designer, design critic and educator See also [ edit ] Beirut [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with
220-516: A book of poems dedicated to the leader. Many postage stamps dedicated to Bierut were issued. As the PZPR leadership felt ready to sanction its rule in a fundamental legal document, a new constitution was being worked on. On 26 May 1951, the Sejm passed a statute concerning the preparation and passing of the constitution. The Constitutional Committee, led by Bierut, commenced its deliberations on 19 September. In
330-438: A business when it is facing a closure or put up to sale have a 3-year survival rate of 87%, compared to 48% of all Italian businesses. A 2012 study of Spanish and French worker cooperatives found that they "have been more resilient than conventional enterprises during the economic crisis." In France, the three year survival rate of worker cooperatives is 80–90%, compared to the 66% overall survival rate for all businesses. During
440-936: A full-time conspiratorial party activist and in 1925 was a member of the Temporary Secretariat of the Central Committee and then the head of the Cooperative Department there. Already trusted by the Soviets and knowing the Russian language well, from October 1925 to June 1926 Bierut was in the Moscow area, sent there for training at the secret school of the Communist International . Arrested in Warsaw in January 1927, he
550-880: A leading role in the establishment of communist Poland . In May 1944, the KRN delegation flew into Moscow. They were officially received at the Kremlin by Joseph Stalin ; supremacy of the KRN was recognized by the Union of Polish Patriots , which operated in the Soviet Union under communist leadership. In June 1944 Bierut wrote a letter, meant for the Soviet leadership and addressed to Georgi Dimitrov in Moscow. He accused his Polish communist rival Gomułka of dictatorial tendencies and numerous offenses contrary to Marxist–Leninist orthodoxy; if taken seriously,
660-469: A mandated buy-in loan to the cooperative that generates financial return over time in the form of interest. ICA's are typically equal to a specific term's wages, like an annual salary, that is given a fixed rate of return that is not directly tied to the cooperative's losses or profits. Cooperatives in low-income communities often raise donations to assist workers in meeting the ICA Buy-In requirement, as in
770-514: A member of a worker co-operative". In 2018, Google announced a $ 1 million grant to a platform cooperative development kit in collaboration with 5 pilot cooperatives, which are all worker-owned. According to an analysis of all businesses in Uruguay between 1997 and 2009, worker cooperatives have a 29% smaller chance of closure after controlling for variables such as industry. In Italy, worker owned cooperatives that have been created by workers buying
880-523: A monthly periodical called The Co-operator , the first edition of which appeared on 1 May 1828. This gave a mixture of co-operative philosophy and practical advice about running a shop using cooperative principles. The first successful cooperative organization was the consumer-owned Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers , established in England in 1844. The Rochdale Pioneers established the ' Rochdale Principles ' on which they ran their cooperative. This became
990-655: A period of four months, they struggled to pool one pound sterling per person for a total of 28 pounds of capital. On 21 December 1844, they opened their store with a very meager selection of butter, sugar, flour, oatmeal, and a few candles. Within three months, they expanded their selection to include tea and tobacco, and they were soon known for providing high quality, unadulterated goods. By 1880 some 200 cooperatives had been started in Britain, but they were generally short-lived and by 1975 there were only 19 remaining. The International organization representing worker cooperatives
1100-450: A period of time on probation usually so the new candidate can be evaluated, they would be given the power to manage the coop without "ownership" in the traditional sense. In the UK, this system is known as common ownership . In Britain, this type of cooperative was traditionally known as a producer cooperative ; and while it was overshadowed by the consumer and agricultural types, it also made up
1210-423: A politically reliable officer corps. According to Eisler, Bierut and Gomułka are both responsible for the post-war persecution of many former Home Army soldiers and other groups and individuals. The terror policies, particularly brutal in the 1944–48 period, were directed against declared opponents of the regime, including the legally functioning PSL, and had nor yet involved society as a whole. In February 1945,
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#17330859675141320-481: A preschool teacher who had helped him a great deal when his illegal activities forced him to hide from the police. They were married by a priest at the Lublin Cathedral , even though the priest, according to Janina, excused them from the confession requirement. In February 1923 their daughter Krystyna was born, followed by son Jan in January 1925. In 1922–25, Bierut was a member of the Cooperative Department of
1430-560: A small section of its own within the national apex body, the Cooperative Union. The 'new wave' of worker cooperatives that took off in Britain in the mid-1970s joined the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) as a separate federation. Buoyed up by the alternative and ecological movements and by the political drive to create jobs, the sector peaked at around 2,000 enterprises. However, the growth rate slowed,
1540-567: A while; it was one of the manifestations of the officially proclaimed after the war democratic and pluralistic policies, which included preservation of religious freedoms. Marshal Rola-Żymierski recalled kneeling together with Bierut before the altar at another field mass in May 1946, on the first anniversary of World War II victory. In conversations with Stanisław Łukasiewicz, his press secretary, Bierut expressed his support for moderate and liberal policies. His personal views were anti-clerical and he thought
1650-457: A wider range of experiences and exposure to the different jobs in a workplace so that they are better able to make decisions about the whole workplace. This has proved sustainable with workforces as large as 300, as at Suma Wholefoods . The term 'worker collective' is sometimes used to describe worker cooperatives which are also collectives : that is, managed without hierarchies such as permanent manager roles. The principle of common ownership
1760-576: A worker-managed firm earn 3 percent higher wages compared with similar workers employed in the conventional firms. However, this wage premium declines significantly with increasing pay and becomes negative for top earners. According to research by Virginie Pérotin, which looked at two decades worth of international data, the tendency for greater wage flexibility and employment stability helps explain why some research observes higher and others lower pay in worker cooperatives relative to conventional businesses. A study by The Democracy Collaborative found that in
1870-413: Is CICOPA . CICOPA has two regional organizations: CECOP – CICOPA Europe and CICOPA Americas. When the current cooperative movement resurfaced in the 1960s, it developed mostly on a new system of "collective ownership" where par value shares were issued as symbols of egalitarian voting rights. Typically, a member may only own one share to maintain the egalitarian ethos. Once brought in as a member and after
1980-492: Is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers . This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by every worker-owner who each have one vote. Worker cooperatives may also be referred to as labor-managed firms. Worker cooperatives rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution as part of
2090-413: Is assigned to members on the basis of their labor contribution." Nevertheless, recent developments in the co-operative movement have started to shift thinking more clearly towards multi-stakeholder perspectives. This has resulted in repeated attempts to develop model rules that differentiate control rights from investment and profit-sharing rights. In short, workers' co-operatives are organized to serve
2200-487: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Boles%C5%82aw Bierut Bolesław Bierut ( [bɔˈlɛswaf ˈbʲɛrut] ; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of communist-ruled Poland from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Poland from 1947 to 1952, General Secretary of
2310-498: Is executed in 5 stages. First, the selling owners must evaluate if a transition is an appropriate step for the business and must consult with advisors and employees regarding new leadership changes. Second, the selling owner must employ specialists to determine the legal and financial logistics of the transition. Third, a transition group or the selling owner must organize the new managerial structure, business practices, and ownership policies. Fourth, legal contracts are signed to establish
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#17330859675142420-678: Is the best or only goal for their co-operative or they may follow the Rochdale Principles . As another example, worker cooperatives' flattened management structure and more egalitarian ideology often give workers more options and greater freedom in resolving work-place problems. Profits (or losses) earned by the worker's cooperative are shared by worker-owners. Salaries generally have a low ratio difference which ideally should be "guided by principles of proportionality, external solidarity and internal solidarity". If exercised directly, all members meet regularly to make—and vote on—decisions on how
2530-568: The Basque Government assists in financing cooperatives within the Mondragon Corporation and for many of Mondragon's education and healthcare programs. Additionally, the Basque Government financially assists Mondragon in acquiring declining capitalist businesses and transitioning them into worker cooperatives. The Indian government provides financing, often in the form of loans, to new cooperatives. The government of Kerala and
2640-600: The Catholic Church kept deteriorating. The authorities imprisoned Bishop Czesław Kaczmarek and interned Poland's primate , Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński . In the Soviet Union, changes were initiated by the new leader of the communist party, Nikita Khrushchev . The collective leadership concept, promoted first in the Soviet Union, made its way to other communist countries , including Poland. It meant, among other things, giving top party and state functions to different officials. Worker cooperative A worker cooperative
2750-775: The Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1948 to 1956, and Prime Minister of Poland from 1952 to 1954. Bierut was a self-educated person. He implemented aspects of the Stalinist system in Poland. Together with Władysław Gomułka , his main rival, Bierut is chiefly responsible for the historic changes that Poland underwent in the aftermath of World War II . Unlike any of his communist successors, Bierut led Poland until his death. Born in Congress Poland on
2860-493: The Democratic Bloc , was opposed by Mikołajczyk's PSL. Mikołajczyk's Peasant Party, although it also had progressive overtones, had grown to be publicly associated with the traditional Polish right, which had engaged in antisemitic and anti-communist repressions before the war. The government dissolved the explicitly antisemitic right-wing parties still active after the war, but many of their supporters joined PSL since it
2970-837: The Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia . The two assemblies, once established, voted for the incorporation of the previously Polish territories into the respective Soviet republics . Bierut spent the rest of 1939, 1940 and the first part of 1941 in the Soviet Union, in Kiev and Moscow, working, making efforts to sanitize his record as a communist and searching for Fornalska, whom he met in Moscow in July 1940 and again in May 1941 in Białystok , where she had moved with Aleksandra. The mother and daughter were evacuated to Yershov in
3080-751: The Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission in India often provide initial loans for cooperatives in order to help them eventually transition into relying primarily on Internal Capital Accounts. In 1978, the UK government set up the National Cooperative Development Agency and in subsequent years common ownership was promoted as a model to create employment, leading approximately 100 local authorities to establish cooperative development agencies. The Industrial Common Ownership Act authorized
3190-487: The Legge Marcora (Marcora Law) provisions of 1985, reformed in 2001, has established a financing mechanism of patient capital for creating worker cooperatives, social cooperatives, and for worker buyouts of firms that are in trouble or that have retiring owners, especially for traditional businesses that require extra financial assistance while transitioning or converting into cooperatives. Originally, this state investment
3300-509: The Polish government-in-exile . Mikołajczyk refused their offer of the job of prime minister in a coalition government, which otherwise would be dominated by the communists. Bierut's daughter Krystyna participated in the uprising as a soldier of Armia Ludowa and was gravely wounded. A KRN and PKWN delegation, led by Bierut, was summoned to Moscow, where it stayed from 28 September to 3 October. Stalin, assisted by Wasilewska, had two meetings with
3410-568: The Polish people's referendum took place. It was done in preparation for the Yalta -mandated national elections; affirmative answers to the three questions given were supposed to demonstrate public support for the issues promoted by the communists. The results were falsified. On 22 September 1946, the KRN passed the electoral rules and in November set the date; the delayed legislative elections were held on 19 January 1947. The PPR-led coalition, running as
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3520-520: The Potsdam Conference , where he successfully lobbied for the establishment of Poland's western border at the Oder–Neisse line . The conference thus granted Poland the post-German " Recovered Territories " at their maximum possible extent. After the 1947 Polish legislative election , marked by electoral fraud, Bierut was made the first post-war President of Poland. In 1952, the new Constitution of
3630-425: The Potsdam Conference , where, together with Stalin, they successfully lobbied for the establishment of Poland's western border at the Oder–Neisse line . The Polish administration in the formerly German lands was to continue until the final delimitation of the frontier in the (future) peace settlement. Poland's newly acquired " Recovered Territories " had thus reached their maximum attainable size. On 30 June 1946,
3740-476: The United States of America , but both communities failed. Similar early experiments were made in the early 19th century and by 1830 there were several hundred co-operatives. Dr William King made Owen's ideas more workable and practical. He believed in starting small and realized that the working classes would need to set up co-operatives for themselves, so he saw his role as one of instruction. He founded
3850-668: The Yalta Conference took place in Crimea . At that time Bierut, together with the PPR leadership and government departments, moved to the capital city of Warsaw. The city was in ruins and its rebuilding and expansion became a major concern and preoccupation for Bierut during the years that followed. In June 1945, the Provisional Government of National Unity was established in Moscow. In July, Bierut and other Polish leaders participated in
3960-584: The cotton mills of New Lanark , Scotland . It was here that the first co-operative store was opened. Spurred on by the success of this, he had the idea of forming "villages of co-operation" where workers would drag themselves out of poverty by growing their own food, making their own clothes and ultimately becoming self-governing. He tried to form such communities in Orbiston in Scotland and in New Harmony, Indiana in
4070-652: The industrialisation process and brought extensive urbanization of Poland. In November 1949, Bierut asked the Soviet government to make available Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky , a Polish-Soviet politician and famous World War II commander, for service in the government of Poland. Rokossovsky subsequently became a Marshal of Poland and Minister of National Defense . In early August 1951, Bierut had his main rival Gomułka arrested. Gomułka, though imprisoned, refused to cooperate with his accusers and displayed remarkable ability to defend himself, while Bierut's people bungled
4180-430: The labour movement . As employment moved to industrial areas and job sectors declined, workers began organizing and controlling businesses for themselves. Worker cooperatives were originally sparked by "critical reaction to industrial capitalism and the excesses of the industrial revolution," with the first worker owned and managed firm first appearing in England in 1760. Some worker cooperatives were designed to "cope with
4290-441: The surname Bierut . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bierut&oldid=1138321509 " Categories : Surnames Polish-language surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description
4400-488: The 1939–1943 period, not much is known with certainty about his activities and the accounts are often speculative or amount to hearsay. Upon his arrival in Warsaw, Bierut became a member of the Central Committee of the PPR, which comprised several individuals. The Secretariat had three members: General Secretary Paweł Finder , Franciszek Jóźwiak and Władysław Gomułka , whom Bierut did not know, but who quickly became his principal rival. Bierut lost his first confrontation over
4510-691: The 2008 economic crisis, the number of workers in worker owned cooperatives in France increased by 4.2%, while employment in other businesses decreased by 0.7%. More than three quarters of UK co-op start-ups (76%) are still flourishing after the difficult first five years, however, other business forms are far less likely to survive, with only 42% of all new UK companies making it through to the end of year five. A 2006 study found that wages on co-ops pay in Italy were 15 to 16 percent lower than those that capitalist firms paid on average, and were more volatile, while employment
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4620-679: The Italian province of Trento , worker cooperatives are the only form of enterprise that fosters social trust between employees. A survey conducted in Seoul suggests that in conventional firms, employees become less committed to their job as their work becomes more demanding; however, this was not the case in worker cooperatives. In the US, home health aides in worker cooperatives were significantly more satisfied with their jobs than in other agencies. A study from 2013 about home aid workers found that "Home health aides at
4730-788: The KPRP Central Committee . He worked as an accountant and was active in Warsaw at the Polish Association of Freethinkers . In August 1923, he was sent for party work in the Dąbrowa Basin , to manage the Workers' Food Cooperative. He lived in Sosnowiec , where he brought his wife and daughter and where he experienced the first of his many arrests. Detained repeatedly in various parts of the country, in October 1924 he moved to Warsaw. He had become
4840-713: The Lenin School until 1930. Jerzy Eisler wrote: "... in light of the Soviet archival materials, in 1927–32 Bierut was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( Bolsheviks ), with his party seniority counted from 1921, the moment he formally joined the Polish communist party." In Moscow he met Małgorzata Fornalska , a KPP activist. They became romantically involved and had a daughter, named Aleksandra, born in June 1932. Soon afterwards Bierut left for Poland, leaving in Moscow for
4950-784: The Lublin Food Cooperative, and from 1918 was its top leader, declaring the cooperative's " class - socialist " character. During World War I, he stayed at times at Hempel's apartment in Warsaw and took trade and cooperative courses at the Warsaw School of Economics . In Warsaw, he established contacts with Maria Koszutska and in December 1918 some form of association with the newly created Communist Workers' Party of Poland (KPRP), from which, according to his later testimony, he withdrew in fall 1919. Bierut kept assuming ever higher offices in
5060-528: The Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association in India, Member Buy-In's allow cooperatives to become completely financially independent from other sources of investment. Committed Capital, also known as Preferred Stock , are shares of capital offered to external accredited investors that are not a part of the cooperative. In order to maintain workers' ownership over the firm's decisions, these external investors have limited to no voting rights within
5170-483: The PPR (and until that time the principal figure in post-war Polish communist establishment), was accused of a "right-wing nationalistic deviation" and removed from his position during a plenary meeting of the Central Committee in August 1948. The move was Stalin-orchestrated and Stalin's choice to fill the vacated job was President Bierut, who had thus become both the top party leader and top state official. The historic PPS
5280-441: The PPR chose Gomułka as its general secretary. On 31 December 1943, Bierut assumed an important office: chairmanship of the State National Council ( Krajowa Rada Narodowa , KRN), a communist-led body established by Gomułka and the PPR. The KRN was declared to be a wartime parliament of Poland and some splinter socialist and agrarian activists were co-opted. Starting with the KRN post, with Gomułka and others, Bierut would play
5390-532: The Polish People's Republic (until then known as the Republic of Poland) abolished the position of president and a Marxist–Leninist government was officially imposed. Bierut supported the radical Stalinist policies as well as the systematic introduction of socialist realism in Poland. His regime was marked by a silent terror – he presided over the hunting down of armed opposition members and their eventual murder at
5500-583: The Polish military command issued a radio appeal for all able-bodied men to head east; Bierut left Warsaw for Lublin, from where he proceeded to Kovel . Eastern Poland was soon occupied by the Red Army and Bierut was about to spend a part of World War II in the Soviet Union . From early October, he was employed by the Soviets in political capacities, including vice-chairmanship of a regional election commission before
5610-542: The Secretary of State for Industry to make grants and loans to organizations that assisted common ownership and cooperative enterprises. Grants were made to the Industrial Common Ownership Movement and the Scottish Co-operatives Development Committee, while loans were administered through Common Ownership Finance Ltd. However, this section was repealed in 2004. The Italian Government , through
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#17330859675145720-619: The Soviet Union after the June 1941 outbreak of the Soviet-German war , but Bierut ended up in Minsk . From November 1941, he was employed there by the German occupation authorities as a manager in the trade and food distribution department of the city government. In the summer of 1943, Bierut arrived in Nazi-occupied Poland , likely dispatched there as a trusted Soviet operative. He came to join
5830-514: The Soviet leader. Bierut routinely received instructions from Stalin over the telephone or was summoned to Moscow for consultations. Bierut still had far more power in Poland than any of his successors as First Secretary of the PZPR. He ruled jointly with his two closest associates, Berman and Hilary Minc . Security issues he also consulted with Stanisław Radkiewicz , head of the Ministry of Public Security . The apogee of Bierut's cult , promoted by
5940-468: The UK, and France found "positive" relationships with productivity. It also found that worker cooperatives do not become less productive as they get larger. A 1995 study of worker cooperatives in the timber industry in Washington, USA found that "co-ops are more efficient than the principal conventional firms by between 6 and 14 percent". According to a study drawing on a questionnaire from the population of
6050-680: The US, worker cooperatives can increase worker incomes by 70 to 80 percent. In the Mondragon Corporation , the world's largest worker cooperative, the pay ratio between the lowest and the highest earner was 1:9 in 2018. The ratio is decided by a democratic vote by the worker-members. In France, the pay ratio between the highest and lowest paid 10% of the employees is 14% lower in worker cooperatives than in otherwise similar conventional firms. According to Virginie Pérotin's research which looked at two decades worth of international data, worker cooperatives are more productive than conventional businesses. Another 1987 study of worker cooperatives in Italy,
6160-644: The Young Entrepreneurs program. When the owner of a traditional business decides to resign and transition the ownership of the firm into a workers' cooperative, they often provide initial financial investment. However, this typically is not a sustainable form of capital investment and cooperatives often use it to begin business and then transition to depend on other forms of finance. Examples of this method of financing include Select Machines, Inc., Metis Construction, A Slice of New York, and Rock City Roasters. The transition process often takes several years and
6270-600: The accusations could have cost Gomułka his life but they were not, and Gomułka did not find out about the letter until 1948, when it was used against him in Poland. In July 1944, the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) was established in liberated Lublin province. Just before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising , on 31 July 1944, Bierut came to Świder . The next day he crossed the front line and arrived in Lublin,
6380-450: The anniversary of the Battle of Lenino , the KRN for the first time deliberated in Lublin. The proceedings were interrupted to allow the deputies (including Bierut), together with officials of the PKWN and Nikolai Bulganin representing the Soviet Union, to participate in a field mass celebrated for the occasion and in the military parade that followed. Such participation in religious ceremonies by leading communist politicians continued for
6490-404: The anti-communist Sanation government. Having only attended an elementary school for several years before being expelled, he later developed an interest in economics and took some cooperative courses at the Warsaw School of Economics . He joined the worker cooperative movement in his youth. After his release from prison in 1938, he was employed as an accountant for Społem until the outbreak of
6600-474: The authorities over a number of years, was the celebration of his sixtieth birthday on 18 April 1952. It included various industrial and other production or accomplishment commitments undertaken by institutions and individuals. The University of Wrocław and some state enterprises were named in his honor. The History Department of the party's Central Committee prepared a special book about Bierut and his life, while Polish poets, including some notable ones, generated
6710-429: The basis for the development and growth of the modern cooperative movement. As the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution was forcing more and more skilled workers into poverty, these tradesmen decided to band together to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. With lessons from prior failed attempts at co-operation in mind, they designed the now famous Rochdale Principles , and over
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#17330859675146820-400: The business, govern it and manage it. Unlike with conventional firms, ownership and decision-making power of a worker cooperative should be vested solely with the worker-owners and ultimate authority rests with the worker-owners as a whole. Worker-owners control the resources of the cooperative and the work process, such as wages or hours of work. As mentioned above, the majority—if not all—of
6930-549: The case of the Mariposa Food Coop. This method of financing is one of the most prominent due to its high rates of success in maintaining financial stability for cooperatives. When the cooperative allocates profits, a significant portion are paid back to the workers through these capital accounts. The Mondragon Corporation utilizes a 10-20-70 system, in which 10% of profits are placed into community development and infrastructure programs, 20% back into corporate reserves, and 70% into individual capital accounts. In certain cases, like
7040-657: The co-operative is run. Direct workers' cooperatives sometimes use consensus decision-making to make decisions. Direct worker control ensures a formally flat management structure instead of a hierarchical one. This structure is influenced by activist collectives and civic organizations, with all members allowed and expected to play a managerial role. Such structures may be associated with political aims such as anarchism , libertarian socialism , distributism , and participatory economics . Some workers' cooperatives also practice job rotation or balanced job complexes to overcome inequalities of power as well as to give workers
7150-446: The cooperative movement. In 1919 he and Hempel went to Prague , where they represented the Polish cooperatives at the congress of their Czechoslovak counterparts. Bierut's increasingly radical views, however, eventually hindered his cooperative career and caused his departure from the leadership of the movement, beginning in 1921. From 1921, he officially functioned as a member of the KPRP. In July 1921 Bierut married Janina Górzyńska,
7260-439: The cooperative. Committed Capital often have non-guaranteed rates of return. However, Equal Exchange , a U.S.-based worker cooperative, offers preferred stock that still ensures at least a 5% return rate even during periods of economic recession. Because the communal ownership model of cooperatives makes it difficult for investors to determine the credit and reliability of their investments, they often rely on close analysis of
7370-421: The early 1990s with a workforce of hundreds. In London, Calverts is an example of an established worker co-operative with a policy of pay parity. From the collective movement, one of the most successful ventures is probably Suma Wholefoods in Elland, West Yorkshire. Internal Capital Accounts (ICA's), also known as Member Buy-Ins, are shares of capital distributed equally and exclusively to workers. They act as
7480-506: The evils of unbridled capitalism and the insecurities of wage labor". The philosophy that underpinned the cooperative movement stemmed from the socialist writings of thinkers including Robert Owen and Charles Fourier . Robert Owen, considered by many as the father of the cooperative movement, made his fortune in the cotton trade but believed in putting his workers in a good environment with access to education for themselves and their children. These ideas were put into effect successfully in
7590-407: The fall of 1951, a Russian translation of the draft constitution was examined by Stalin, who inserted dozens of corrections, subsequently implemented in the Polish text by Bierut. The officially proclaimed national public discussion resulted in hundreds of other proposed changes. After all the delays and the necessary extension of the term of the Sejm , the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic
7700-428: The grounds that they collaborated with the German Nazis during occupation or with underground fascist organizations still active in the country. Additionally, Peasant Party lists in 10 of the 52 districts were disqualified on the basis that they were composed of rightists. In places where Peasant Party observers were not allowed to oversee the election process, results were directly falsified. Lastly, peasant participation
7810-423: The hands of the Ministry of Public Security (UB), including some former members of the Home Army . Under Bierut's supervision, the UB evolved into a notorious secret police , which was responsible for the execution of six thousand people between 1944 and 1956, according to the Hoover Institution . As Poland's de facto leader, he resided in the Belweder Palace and headed the Polish United Workers' Party from
7920-636: The happiness of workers is generally positive". A 1995 analysis published in Ecological Economics suggests that "cooperatives will tend to use natural resource inputs more efficiently and will be less growth oriented than corporations." Many definitions exist as to what qualifies as a workers' cooperative. CICOPA , the International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers' Cooperatives, gives an 8-page definition in their World Declaration on Workers' Cooperatives, which
8030-452: The importance of capital should be subordinated to labor in workers' cooperatives. Indeed, Adams et al. see workers' cooperatives as "labor-ist" rather than "capital-ist": "Labor is the hiring factor, therefore the voting and property rights are assigned to the people who do the work and not to capital, even though the worker-members supply capital through membership fees and retained earnings...Any profit or loss after normal operating expenses
8140-501: The leaders from Poland, during which he lectured them on a number of issues, but was especially displeased by the lack of progress in implementing the land reform decree passed by the PKWN on 6 September. Stalin urged them to proceed forcefully with the agrarian revolution and to eliminate the great land owners class without further delay or undue legal concerns; Bierut felt that the remarks were addressed to him in particular. On 12 October,
8250-540: The leadership of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR), a new communist party founded in January 1942. He may have been recommended for the job by Fornalska; parachuted into the General Government in the spring of 1942, she was in charge of the PPR's radio communications with Moscow. Bierut became a member of the party Secretariat on 23 November 1943. While there are many accounts and stories relating to Bierut during
8360-489: The management of Trybuna Wolności ('The Tribune of Freedom'), the party's press organ. In a major blow to the re-emergent Polish communist party, Finder and Fornalska were arrested by the Gestapo on 14 November 1943. They were executed in July 1944. They were the only people with the knowledge of radio codes needed to communicate with Moscow and such communications were indeed interrupted for several months. On 23 November 1943,
8470-418: The missing family of Fornalska. While Stalin and Beria discouraged and ridiculed Bierut's efforts, in some cases his exertions brought positive results. Besides the communists, mostly surviving women, Bierut was able to bring back to Poland many other Poles, including former Home Army soldiers exiled in the Soviet Union. Bierut was a gallant man, well-liked by women. His wife Janina did not live with him and
8580-586: The movement has been the Scott Bader Commonwealth , a composites and specialty polymer plastics manufacturing company in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, which its owner Ernest Bader gave to the workforce in installments through the late 1950s to early 1960s. Contrary to the popular concept of common ownership organizations as being small organisations, this is a high-technology chemical manufacturer whose turnover has exceeded £100 million per annum since
8690-423: The needs of worker-owners by generating benefits (which may or may not be profits) for the worker-owners rather than external investors. This worker-driven orientation makes them fundamentally different from other corporations. Additional cooperative structural characteristics and guiding principles further distinguish them from other business models. For example, worker-owners may not believe that profit maximization
8800-399: The new council was Aleksander Zawadzki . Bierut replaced Józef Cyrankiewicz as prime minister in November 1952. The constitution, amended many times, remained in force until a new Constitution of Poland came into effect in October 1997, in what was then the Republic of Poland. In March 1953, Bierut led the Polish delegation for Stalin's funeral in Moscow. The regime's relations with
8910-401: The new management while methods of finance are drawn upon to jumpstart the newfound cooperative. Fifth, an adjustment period occurs in which training is provided for workers regarding new business policies. Most finance firms that specialize in providing capital for worker cooperatives are Cooperative Funds and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI's). CDFI's often do not supply
9020-619: The number of shares or equity owned by each worker-owner. Voting rights are not tied to investment or patronage in the workers' co-operative, and only worker-owners can vote on decisions that affect them. In practice, worker co-operatives have to accommodate a range of interests to survive and have experimented with different voice and voting arrangements to accommodate the interests of trade unions, local authorities, those who have invested proportionately more labor, or through attempts to mix individual and collective forms of worker-ownership and control. As noted by theorists and practitioners alike,
9130-686: The outskirts of Lublin , Bierut entered politics in 1912 by joining the Polish Socialist Party . Later he became a member of the Communist Party of Poland and spent some years in the Soviet Union , where he functioned as an agent of the Comintern , educated at the Soviet International Lenin School and similar institutions elsewhere in Europe. He was sentenced to a prison term in 1935 for conducting illegal labor activity in Poland by
9240-506: The party headquarters at New World Street in central Warsaw , known as Dom Partii . He was also the chief proponent for the reconstruction of Warsaw (rebuilding of the historic district ) and the erection of the Palace of Culture and Science . Bierut died of a heart attack on 12 March 1956 in Moscow, after attending the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . His death
9350-408: The prosecution. According to Edward Ochab , though, Stalin and Beria ordered the arrest and trial of Gomułka, while Bierut and Jakub Berman tried to protect him and caused delays in the proceedings. Informal political reforms, slow to take hold after Stalin's death, eventually materialized and in December 1954 Gomułka was released. During the lifetime of Stalin, Bierut was strictly subservient to
9460-464: The reform proposals put forward by Mikołajczyk's Polish People's Party (PSL), the legally existing opposition, would be abandoned in the event of PSL victory. A military department of the PPR Central Committee was created on 31 October 1944 and included Bierut and Gomułka, in addition to three generals. Its goal was to politicize the armed forces, currently fighting the war, and to establish
9570-464: The school's opinion, of the Polish communist party. In 1930–31, Bierut was sent by the Comintern to Austria , Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria . Many details of his activities are not reliably known, but from 1 October 1930 he was an instructor at the executive committee of the Comintern. He later claimed having lived in Moscow in 1927–32, except for a nine-month period in 1931, and having been enrolled at
9680-506: The seat of the PKWN. Continuing as the KRN president, from August 1944 Bierut was secretly a member of the newly created Politburo of the PPR; he was officially presented to the public as a nonpartisan politician. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Bierut arrived in Moscow. On 6–7 August 1944, together with Wanda Wasilewska and Michał Rola-Żymierski , he conducted negotiations with Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk of
9790-460: The sector contracted, and in 2001 ICOM merged with the Co-operative Union (which was the federal body for consumer cooperatives) to create Co-operatives UK , thus reunifying the cooperative sector. Since 2006, Co-operatives UK's Worker Cooperative Council wrote and updated a worker co-operative code, the booklet that "sets out what anyone should expect and should work together to achieve, as
9900-406: The structure, management, and experience of each cooperative in order to decide in which one to acquire stock. In many countries, the state provides loans or direct funding for worker cooperatives' production, community programs, and investments. Government funding is especially important in assisting newly developing cooperatives in securing finances for the initial stages of business. In Spain,
10010-545: The time being also his legal family, whom he had brought there. For several months Bierut was district secretary of the KPP organization in Łódź . After the regional organization was demolished by arrests, in 1933 he became secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish section of the International Red Aid . On 18 December 1933, Bierut was arrested and in 1935 sentenced to seven years in prison. In 1936, while imprisoned, he
10120-552: The war. During the war, Bierut was an activist of the newly founded Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and subsequently the chairman of the State National Council (KRN), established by the PPR. As the Red Army pushed the Nazi Wehrmacht from eastern Poland, liberated Lublin was made the temporary headquarters of the Polish Committee of National Liberation at his initiative. Trusted by Joseph Stalin , Bierut participated in
10230-479: The worker-owned, participative decision-making organization were significantly more satisfied with their jobs than those at other agencies." One 1995 study from the US also indicates that "employees who embrace an increased influence and participation in workplace decisions also reported greater job satisfaction" and a 2011 study in France found that worker-owned businesses "had a positive effect on workers' job satisfaction." One 2019 study indicates that "the impact on
10340-402: The workers in a given worker cooperative enterprise are worker-owners, although some casual or wage workers may be employed with whom profits and decision making are not necessarily shared equally. Workers also often undergo a trial or screening period (such as three or six months) before being allowed to have full voting rights. Participation is based on one vote per worker-owner, regardless of
10450-483: Was a harbinger of the upcoming norm of socialist realism in Poland. Sometimes, Bierut on his own undertook special interventions with Stalin. He repeatedly and at different times asked Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria about the whereabouts of the missing Polish communists (former members of the disbanded KPP), many of whom were murdered in the Great Purge in the 1930s, but others may have survived. He also kept looking for
10560-568: Was approved by the International Co-operative Alliance General Assembly in September 2005. Below is the section on the basic characteristics of workers' cooperatives: Even though there is no universally accepted definition of a workers' cooperative, they can be considered to be businesses that make a product or offer a service to sell for profit where the workers are members or worker-owners. Worker-owners work in
10670-507: Was codified in UK law in the Industrial Common Ownership Act 1976 which defines a "common ownership enterprise" as: a body as to which the registrar has given, and has not revoked, a certificate stating that he is satisfied— The principle is typically implemented through inserting two clauses in a company's memorandum of association , or an industrial and provident society 's rules: A very significant early influence on
10780-528: Was determined not to amount to acting against the party. He was released from prison on 20 December 1938, based on an earlier amnesty. He lived with his wife and children and worked in Warsaw cooperatives until the outbreak of war . The " Sanation " prison may have saved his life: while he was incarcerated, the KPP was disbanded by the Comintern and most of its leaders murdered in Stalin's purges . On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland . On 6 September
10890-699: Was done in a traditional format and ended with the new president uttering the words "so help me God". On 16 November 1947, during the opening ceremony of the Polish Radio broadcasting station in Wrocław , President Bierut made a speech entitled For the dissemination of culture . "The artistic and cultural creative process should reflect the great breakthrough that the nation is experiencing. It should, but so far it isn't", he said. Bierut called for greater centralization and planning in culture and art, which, according to him, should form, educate and engross society. The speech
11000-578: Was equivalent to three times the collective internal capital account investment from workers. As of 2001, the state investment is on a 1:1 ratio with workers' capital contributions. Canadian worker cooperatives also rely on government funding to finance their early development. State sources of finance, which often come in the form of grants, include the Quebec Local Development Centre, the Co-op Development Initiative, and
11110-400: Was excluded in absentia from the KPP for an "unworthy of a communist behavior during the investigation and the court trial". The decision was invalidated and reversed by the Comintern on 7 September 1940 (even though the KPP by that time no longer existed). Bierut was found to have been a member of the moderate "majority" faction of the KPP, and the factional infighting in which he participated
11220-506: Was limited by the fact that the elections were set in January, when most rural roads were covered in snow. The falsified results saw the Democratic Bloc receiving 80.1% of the vote, and Mikołajczyk only getting 10.3%. The PSL was practically eliminated as the legal opposition. The newly elected Sejm convened on 4 February 1947 and on the following day it elected Bierut President of the Republic of Poland . The installation ceremony
11330-662: Was more stable. After controlling for variables, such as schooling, age, gender, occupation, industry, location, firm-size, user cost of capital, fixed costs, and deviations in its real sales, this changed to 14 percent. The authors suggest this might be due to worker cooperatives being more likely than capitalist firms to cut wages instead of laying off employees during periods of economic difficulty, or because co-op workers may be willing to accept lower wages than workers in capitalist firms. A study looking at all firms in Uruguay concluded that when controlling for variables such as industry, firm size, gender, age and tenure, workers employed in
11440-560: Was not known to many of his associates. She occasionally visited him in his offices and seemed intimidated by the surroundings and her husband's position. On the other hand, his son and two daughters had seen Bierut frequently; they spent with him holidays and vacations and he appeared to genuinely enjoy their company. Bierut's actual female partner, after Fornalska's arrest, was Wanda Górska. She worked as his secretary and in other capacities, controlled access to him and visitors often thought of her as Bierut's wife. Gomułka, general secretary of
11550-417: Was officially proclaimed on 22 July 1952. The Polish People's Republic ( Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa ) was the new name of the state. The Sejm was designated as the highest national authority; it represented "the working people of towns and villages". The office of the president was eliminated and replaced with the collegial Council of State , elected by the Sejm from its members. The first chairman of
11660-520: Was practically taken over by the PPR at the Unification Congress, held in Warsaw in December 1948. The resulting " Marxist–Leninist " Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) was nearly synonymous with the state and Bierut became its first general secretary. The Three-Year Plan of post-war rebuilding and economic consolidation ended in 1949 and was followed by the Six-Year Plan , which intensified
11770-727: Was released on 30 April, based on personal assurances issued on his behalf by Stanisław Szwalbe and Zygmunt Zaremba . During the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP, the new name of the KPRP), which took place from 22 May to 9 August 1927, Bierut became a member of the Temporary Secretariat of the Central Committee again. In November, the party sent him to the International Lenin School in Moscow. He received positive evaluations there, except for not being entirely free of ideological right-wing errors, characteristic, in
11880-453: Was removed from the school for instigating anti- Russian protests. From the age of fourteen he was employed in various trades, but obtained further education through self-studies. Influenced by the leftist intellectual Jan Hempel, who in 1910 arrived in Lublin, before World War I Bierut joined the Polish Socialist Party – Left ( PPS – Lewica ). From 1915, Bierut was active in the cooperative movement. In 1916, he became trade manager of
11990-718: Was sudden, and many theories arose questioning the circumstances in which he died. His body was brought back to Poland and buried with honours in a monumental tomb at the Powązki Military Cemetery . Bierut was born in Rury, Congress Poland (then part of the Russian Empire ), now a part of Lublin , to Wojciech and Marianna Salomea (Wolska) Bierut, peasants from the Tarnobrzeg area, the youngest of their six children. In 1900, he attended an elementary school in Lublin. In 1905, he
12100-426: Was the only remaining legal opposition. The long-standing trope of the "Judeo-Bolshevik", or Żydokomuna , was used by the far-right in anti-communist propaganda to cast Polish communism as a plot to control Poland by Russian Jews. The government also engaged in heavy interference with the election. Due to the electoral rules passed in September, 1 million people, or about 8% of the electorate, were disqualified on
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