ABSTRACT
Labour’s vote-winning election manifesto of 1945 was drafted almost single-handed by Herbert Morrison, then chairman of the party’s home policy committee. ‘Participation’ became the inword of the 1970s. There had been repeated complaints that the leaders had lost touch with the rank and file, which had caused many supporters to vote with their bedroom slippers and stay at home. There were two parallel, but dissimilar, resolutions. One called on the nec to ‘examine and recommend ways in which the Labour Party, trade unions, Co-operative Party and other socialist organisations might involve themselves in community action proposals’. The other wanted ‘greater participation by the general public in the decisions which affect them’. Throughout the spring of 1972 local Labour groups held special meetings to discuss the points raised in the ‘Participation ‘72’ questionnaire which had been circulated throughout the movement. In all 600 replies were received from constituency parties, local parties, wards, trades councils and other organisations.
