Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... for control. The movement won its chief support by appeals to simple and very practical war-time issues; its chief effect may possibly be in the field of trade union structure. But its connections with the demand for workers' control are close and highly significant. Whatever the rank and file wanted, the conspicuous leaders were out for control. This is evident in all the propaganda of the movement. The first of the "Objects" on the Sheffield member's card was "To obtain an everincreasing Control of Workshop Conditions." It is evident in such by-products of the movement as the Clyde Dilution Scheme 11 and the GallecherPaton memorandum on collective contract." But it is clearest of all in the actual seizures of power by the shop stewards and in the way the leaders played on each particular grievance and played up each particular issue to swell the general demand for control. Several instances of shop steward tactics are given in Section X. The use of a particular blacksmith's objection to the boss's watching his fire to establish a general refusal to be watched at work is a minor but typical case." Moreover the very changes in structure themselves were often argued on control grounds: fit your organization to industry to make it fit to control industry. The shop stewards' movement was a 11 See below, pp. 197-201. " See below, p. 173. " See below, p. 138. genuine movement towards the control of industry. And as an object-lesson in control it has become a stimulus to further demands. The powers won by the shop stewards are being used up and down the country as a text for vigorous propaganda. The shop stewards' control was decidedly contagious control14; its actual extent may be easily underrated by an outsider. It was recorded in no formal...
