ABSTRACT
The idea of joint consultation is by no means new to the Co-operative movement. It was discussed at length by the Co-operative Survey Committee which reported during the First World War, and it has been under intermittent discussion ever since. A few local Co-operative Societies do provide reserved seats for employees, and some others allow employees to stand; but most do neither, and the Co-operative Union’s most recent pronouncements on the matter have been hostile to both. In Co-operative employment there has been hitherto very little pressure from the workers’ side for the establishment of joint consultative machinery. The Co-operative movement has never taken seriously the training of its own men for technical and administrative positions of the kinds needed for a great democratic structure that ought to aim at least as high as the best of capitalist industry.
