The Workers' Control Conference which has just closed in Nottingham attracted the widest support of any in the series of Conferences which have been convened on this subject in recent years. Delegates attended from all parts of the country, and the 19 delegates from Scotland - not to mention an observer from Sweden - showed that distance was no object. There were also large contingents from London, Manchester, Hull, Nottingham, Birmingham and Coventry, Yorkshire, and Wales and the West Country. Six Universities - Nottingham, Essex, Hull, Oxford, Loughborough, and Swansea were represented. As a cross section of the Labour Movement the attendance was equally impressive: Labour Party, Communist Party, Independent Labour Party, Young Socialists, Fabian Society, Centre for Socialist Education, Edinburgh Trades Council, Glasgow Left Club, Arab Revolution, and a long list of Unions - AEU, ASSET, AScW, AUT, DATA, ETU, NALSO, NASDU, NGA, NSMM, NUM, NUR, NUS, NU.Students, NUT, POEU, SCEBTA, TaGwU, TWU, USDAW, The socialist journals participating included 'The Week', "International Socialism', 'The Newsletter', and 'The Voice'. Many industries were obviously well represented by the long list of unions involved, but there were also individual delegations from specific sections of industries, and the detailed contributions which they were able to make to the Conference were of especial value, The Bristol-~Siddeley Engines Joint Shop Stewards' Committee sent a four-man delegation, and there was also a delegation from the Redbourn (Scunthorpe) Works of Richard, Thomas and Baldwin. The Paper on Workers' Control in the Steel Industry, submitted by the latter, is published on pages of this issue. The Conference agreed, on the first day, to separate into eleven Study Groups as follows:- Health & Safety Delegates in Industry; Labour Democracy; Incomes Policy; Package Deals; Workers' Self Management in Yugoslavia, Poland and Scandinavia; Workers' Education; The Steel Industry; Docks; Mines; Busmen; The Aircraft Industry. The breadth of subjects covered makes the task of reporting the Conference a formidable one, but it is intended to publish a full, bound Report during the next ten days to a fortnight. This Report will be distributed to ‘/vck' reniers ond to accredited delegates to the Conference, but it will also ‘be generally available at a cost of 2/4 (post free). So that the demand can be accurately gauged, will 'Week' readers who require addition] copies please -pply i:naiatelyto the Conference Organiser, Geoff Coggan, 47 Brindley Road, Bilborough, Nottingham: Tel No, 281364.
t+e+eeeteteet The speakers at the Workers! Control Conference included John Prescott, Propaganda Officer for the NUS, and coeauthor of the pamphlet "Not Wanted on Voyage", which was distributed to 'The Week' readers last week and reached a printing of over 30,000. It was described in the 'Sunday Times' as a "brilliant" reply to the Pearson Report. John Prescott was given an * enthusiastic welcome by the delegates to the Workers! Control Conference, and later by the 150 or so trade unionists and others attending a Social organised by 'The Week! on Saturday evening.