Control aries from the reubictionary orners tim expen to each the putal numbers on Control arises from the revolutionary changes that are taking place in the technique of production. The employers, in order to achieve maximum profit return on the vast outlay of capital on new equipment, are attempting to radical changes traditional conditions of work, wages structure and manning scales of particular processes as well as drastic reductions in the total labour force.
This in turn evokes a reaction from the working class in demanding and achieving as a result of struggle the right to negotiate on matters wnien until fairly recently were considered outside the field of negotiations.
This is the background of the movement rapidly developing for of industrial democracy - which has given rise to the slogan of Workers' Control.
Workers' Control, if there is clarity of what is meant by it and it is not interpreted literally, can be of tremendous help in mobilizing the movement in the struggle to extend the area subject to negotiation between the workers and employers, as well as in deepening the political understanding of workers of the real limits to workers' control under capitalism.
My attitude to the Workers' Control movement is that of a Marxist to any major reform. I support it, first because it satisfies an the working class extension of the field subject to negotiation between trade unions and employers so vital in the rapidly changing mode of production; and second, because in the course of struggle to achieve this reform, the working class learns from experience the serious limitations to its attainment The inherent alienation of the worker in the field of production in a class-divided society becomes a that society itself needs to be changed.
The method of extending the workers' right in determining the environment in which they work is only through struggle; and not, in my view, through representation on management boards.
Any advances that have been made in this field - and there have been considerables ones - have been achieved through the traditional mode of struggle by confrontation of the workers represented by their trade unions and the employers, and this readiness to use their ultimate weapon - withdrawal of labour.
All demands which strengthen the workers bargaining position advance the cause of Workers' Control. That is why the campaign to 'open the books' - to provide the trade unions with maximum information is an important demand in the campaign for Workers' Control.
But the most important campaign of all -absolutely vital if the present level of industrial democracy is to be retained let alone any advances made - is to defeat the Government's plans to cripple the trade unions outlined in In Place of Strife.
The means of fighting to advance Workers' Control is struggle to encroach on managerial functions. The vehicle to conduct this struggle is une workers organisanon at work - Lewrade unions.
What confuses the debate is the illusion created by some that Workers' Control over the whole field of production is possible under capitalism, or alternatively, that it is possible to develop it to a stage when production for profit becomes impossible and thus the capitalist economy, through the struggle for Workers Control, is brought to the brink of, if not actually to, revolution.
This, in my opinion, is very harmful from every point of view.
It creates the illusion that there is a short cut to socialism; that it is possible to by-pass the building of a revolutionary political party capable of mobilizing the mass of the workers as well as other strata of the population for the seizure and transformation of the state as the only means of building socialism.
It is a harping back to anarcho-syndicalist ideas proven, half a century ago, to be immature, unscientific and hopeless ideology for the transformation of society. The idealism and revolutionary intentions of its advocates are irrelevant.
It also harmful because, its presentanon, tue empnasis Is on une wunate aim and very vague on the immediate, essential, and attainable obiectives. This takes the form of playing down the role of trade unions as the major vehicle for advance.
The discussion is further confused by not making the distinction between what is possible before the working class seize political power and after.
Once a socialist state is established, Workers' Control becomes not only possible but essential for the most rapid development of both the socialist structure and superstructure. But even here the manner of its coming to fruition is not consequences for capitalism. They set OUL. therefore, to sidetrack the left. We hear Wedgwood Benn talking about a participating Gaulle has used the same thetoric since the May uprising (while repressing French socialist And the West German trade organisations) unions have been co-operating for years in a scheme of industrial relations under which a limited number of places on the boards of industrial companies are legally reserved for the trade union side. How many British trade union officials have any fundamental criticisms of the above examples of so-called "industrial democracy"? Let us take the case of Jack Jones the general secretary of the TGWU. Certainly he uses the language of "industrial democracy" these days, but analysis of his words and actions shows that he only wants to reform capitalism. As he says: *When I talk about industrial democracy I mean that within a factory those who invest their lives in the business should have an acknowledged right to say which way the job should be done. I believe that the joint object of management and unions should be efficiency. This can only really be achieved if managements take shop floor representatives into their confidence. For those with any illusions that Jack Jones is leading workers in a struggle to take over the factories, I would recommend a reading of his speech at last year's TUC on the reactionary resolution about workers' participation.
Clearly, workers' control is too important an idea to be left in the hands of the Labour Party or trade union officials. We can only depend on them LO bend the idea into the Fabian tradition. We have a continuing task
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democracy (while operating the IRC as a State merchant bank to strengthen big business); de