At the end of March the most successful of the Conferences for Worars' Gontrol was held at Nottingham. There was an increase in numbers (nearly 500 were there), in militancy and in representativness. Most of the left union had representatives there and there was a large group of students - a most significant get together.
The major political difference to emerge was that between those trade unionists that spoke out for capturing the Labour Party and those atudents who had already written off the Labour Party as a meaningful vehicle for socialists.
This latter stand can be a positive development of course, as long as it is not associated with writing off politics or the working class. (Students of sectariana may be amused to hear that in reply to the students Pat Wall of "Militant' launched into such a panegyric of the Labour Party that the left M.P. who followed him to the rostrum was able to say approvingly "The previous speaker said most of the things I wanted to say". )
All sides, however, were able to unite behind the final declaration. Together with the new leader of the A.E.U. Hugh Scanlon - who addressed the conference - the workers' control movement represents the most positive development in the present bleak situation. The demand for Workers' Control is the key transitional demand around which a struggle for power can develop. The present Government is well aware of this and is trying to head off the movement by diverting it into safe channels - the so-called workers' representatives on the Steel Boards for example,
Another important feature of the movement is that steelmen, dockers, busmen etc. have engaged in writing their ow programme - setting out the structures of control for their own industry. Whatever its defects the . creative energy going into this work, the commitment it generates, is a healthy development. It also gives the lie to those who argue that the working class is incapable of moving outside the pre-suppositions of the capitalist system or of not going beyon® bread and butter demands, What the conference showed was that trade uion consciousness is capable of being moved and developed in a socialist direction.
We reprint on another page the final declaration for the information of our readers.
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