ABSTRACT
The leaders of particular labour movements and labour organizations have approached the question of workers' participation and control in markedly different ways. The attitudes of union officials on the question of workers' participation and control are of great importance, however, and would seem to be highly sensitive to the degree of democracy obtaining within any given trade union, which in turn depends a great deal on the latent power of the members themselves. During and after the First World War British trade unions were for the most part converted to doctrines of workers' control or joint control which held that in a socialist society industry should be run by unions or by a joint board half chosen by the unions and half by the government. Union ownership has also provided trade-union officials with an opportunity to promote participation by their members in the decision-making processes of the firm.
