ABSTRACT
Tito's exclamation, "the factories belonging to the workers!", though it did have a world-wide resonance, was in fact misleading. Under the self-management system Yugoslav factories, which were under public ownership, were never, then or later, handed over to their workers. Though the general concept of self-management seems to have come from Djilas, there can be no doubt whatever that it was Edvard Kardelj who was its implementer. For Tito it was easy to see why Kardelj was the ideal choice as the man to develop and propagate the concept of self-management which was to make Yugoslavia and Titoism unique. The compulsorily applied agreements tore to shreds the idea of workers being free to dispose of the fruits of their labour—which had initially inspired the whole self-management dogma. An American geologist employed in one of the joint enterprises exploring off-shore oil asked to attend the meetings of his basic work unit to report back on how the self-management system worked.
