The Seventh National Conference on Workers' Control to be held in Sheffield on March 30/31 marks a new stage in the development of this movement. From very modest beginnings it has now grown to the point where attendance at the Conference is likely to be in the region of 1,000, and probably represents the largest grouping of active trade unionists outside the traditional movement.
That such a grouping should emerge around the concept of workers control is particularly encouraging when it is recognised that these concepts have long been central to marxist thinking.
A correct appreciation of the role of demands for workers control is a pre-requisite for consistent revolutionary work in the labour movement. The call for workers control, in this framework, cannot be abstracted out of actual day-to-day struggles, nor can it be separated from the fight to create a revolutionary organisation capable of taking and holding state power. Workers control demands then, are essentially about power, and pose the question of power in a form which is tangible and meaningful to whole masses of people drawn into struggle.
The workers control campaign in Britain, does not concern itself with building a revolutionary organisation, and as yet has not applied its ideas in practice. These two weaknesses need to be overcome, but in fact flow [illegible] from what has been in the past the strength of the campaign: this has been its capacity to draw together a cross-section of the radical currents on the left in Britain, and provide them with a bridge to a growing body of trade unionists now becoming disillusioned by the behaviour of the Labour Government. Such a pooling of ideas and of experience can only be of value, but some of the tendencies are reformist. Again, as I have suggested its all-inclusive nature is a major strength, but we have a responsibility to ensure that any lingering illusions about the possible benefits of "participation" are fiercely combatted at all levels in the campaign, particularly at the forthcoming conferences.
The conference will be the focus of the work of the campaign over the last year, which has mainly been carried on through a whole series of industrial study groups. The documentation is likely to be formidable, and will contribute a good deal to our knowledge of the many problems of workers in different industries, who face the now familiar prospect of rationalisation in a situation where as yet there has been no unified response to the anti-union attacks of the Wilson Government.
[illegible] the valuable work which has been done is continued and developed in the most fruitful way.
There is a real need for greater democracy within the campaign itself, so that new forces drawn to the movement can gain full expression: a concomitant of this is the need to free the campaign of the sticky clutches of the respectable left academics and Tribunites (and worse) politicians. This is certainly not an appeal for exclusion, but rather for a more realistic and meaningful balance. A council should be elected, and should be composed as far as possible of activists.
In the work of the campaign greater emphasis could be placed on the problem of evolving an offensive strategy against the wage freeze and anti-union legislation, as distinct from hypothetical discussions on a rather abstract level about the possible management structure of a given industry after some progress has been made towards workers control or participation (often the distinction is not made clear). Discussions around "blueprints" are of some value as a focus for discussing particular industries in detail. However, discussion in the campaign needs to pass beyond the level of educational propaganda to the level of involvement in action. This would not be the easiest turn to make, but the work of developing demands to counter government policy on wages, etc. and initiating activity around them could offer a valuable opportunity to make such a turn.
One thing is clear that the campaign cannot stand still or proceed simply on its present policy of amassing piles of documents and holding discussions, valuable as this is. The ideas which have been generated over the past few years of work will either take root in the aspirations of sections of workers or become buried under a mountain of well-intentioned documents. Having felt the encouragement of the May events in France, as a practical illustration of the potential power of workers control demands, one can only conclude that there is every scope for successful action.