Society for Co-operative Studies Bulletin, 26

Workers’ participation in co-operatives: Introduction, p. 19

This area of co-operative - and general - interest has come very much alive in recent months and there have been two main points of reference: the form of co-­operative where the workers are the members, and the relation to other forms of co-operative, for consumers, farmers, etc., of the workers employed in them. The first item is the subject of a report which has been prepared for the Co-operative Party and is expected to be discussed shortly with the Central Executive of the Co-operative Union. This Bulletin, it was felt, could give a useful service by presenting various aspects and analyses of workers' participation in co-operatives and here they are in rich variety. 

First a review of the assumptions and historic background oy  Mr. W. P. Watkins; then 
approaches to different facets and from different points of view by Professor George Davidovic and Dr. T. F. Carbery. These articles are followed by contributions from Mr. Paul Derrick (co-operative production), Mr. John Gallacher (consumer societies), Mr. James Leonard (industrial democracy), Mr. B. J. Rose (retail co-operatives), and Mr. W. H.P. Whatley (a trade union view). Finally, in tidy symmetry, a concluding article by Mr. W. P. Watkins on the relation of government to workers' co-operative production, particularly in France and Italy.

The Bulletin concludes with a report by Desmond Hopwood on the International Congress of Co-operative Science, 1975.

We are grateful to all of these contributors, who, of course, have written in their personal capacities.