ABSTRACT
The Workers’ Committees, and the ‘left wing’ of the shop stewards’ movement as a whole, were throughout opposed to official ‘recognition’ by the Trade Unions, and to recognition by the employers in the form in which it was conceded under the Shop Stewards’ Agreements of 1917 and 1919. The Workers’ Committee movement, as far as its powers went, had the ‘industrial’ basis; but, from the standpoint of its adherents, official recognition would mean the breaking into fragments of the ‘industrial’ solidarity which had been unofficially secured, and an acceptance of the ‘craft’ basis of the Trade Unions. The question of recognition of the stewards by their Unions was, of course, largely fought out in the branches and delegate meetings of the Unions themselves. The attitude of the Workers’ Committee leaders towards the official Trade Union District Committees varied from case to case.
