The British Labour and the Democratic Control of Production (1945-1951)

Abstract

The object of the pгesent paper is to analyze the development of the concepts of democгatic control of the workers оvег the management of industry, and the course of the movement fог theiг realization during the immediate post-war period.
The slogan for workers' participation in management and decision making in industry, either for creatioп of "democracy in industry", analogous of political democracy, or as instrument of socialist transformation, was raised bу certain sections of the British labour movement at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The diversity of the terminology used "industrial democracy", "workers' control", "participation in management", etc.), reflected both the complicated and controversial development of the concepts of democratic control of production, and the reformist and utopian illusions surrounding that subject.
The problems of the participation of the trade unions in the management of the nationalised enterprises were widely discussed in the early 1930's, and became object of clashes of opinion between the left and right wings in the Labour Party and TUC. At that time, the demand for workers' participation and responsiЬility in the management and control of industry, гecognised Ьу acts of ParIiament, were included in the pгogramme documents of the labour movement. However, during the period of the third and fourth Labour governments (1945-1950, 1950-1951), the demands for democratic control and а new status of workers in the administrative structure of the nationalised sector of economy, were not realized. The members of the boards of the nationalised industry, appointed bу the ministers concerned, were selected on the basis of their qualification and administrative capacities, and consisted for the most part of managers of capitalist firms, former owners, retiгed civil servants and high rank army officers, and а few trade union bureaucrats. They were hostile to the workers and
were opposed to any attempt at interference in the prerogatives of the administration.