National Guilds Movement in Great Britain by G.D.H. Cole (1919)

* Source: Retrieved on 16/4/2022 from jstor.org

* First published: Monthly Labor Review , JULY, 1919, Vol. 9, No. 1 (JULY, 1919), pp. 24-32

 The objects of the national guilds movement in Great Britain , as defined in the constitution of the National Guilds League , are " the abolition of the wage system , and the establishment by the workers of self - government in industry through a democratic system of national guilds working in conjunction with a democratic State . " The leading ideas of the movement are therefore those of democratio organization and self - government in the industrial sphere . National guildsmen look forward to the time when the various industries and services will be administered each by its guild , or association or ganized for common service , and including the whole necessary per sonnel of the industry concerned . This movement is only a few years old ; but it has made considerable headway among the manual workers , and to at least an equal extent among many classes of professional and technical workers . By Marxian Industrial Unionists and others of the extreme left wing of labor , it is indeed sometimes denounced as a bourgeois movement of counter - revolutionary tendency . This criticism comes principally from those who refuse to recognize the importance of technical and professional elements in the industrial system , or hold that the existing technicians and professionals are " adherents of capitalism , " and that it is necessary to make a clean sweep of them in preparation for a new order ushered in by a proletarian dictator ship . National guildsmen differ widely in their outlook on the social and economic question as a whole . Faith in national guilds as a form of economic organization is compatible with many degrees of reformist or revolutionary opinion . There are all sorts among guildsmen , from the extreme right , which looks to a gradual development of guilds by the consent of the more progressive employers , to the extreme left , which corresponds closely in method and outlook to the Marxian Industrial Unionists . Neither of these attitudes , however , represents the main , or even a considerable , body of guild opinion , which must be sought in views falling between the two extremes . Origin and Development of National Guilds Movement . It will be easier to explain the present orientation of the national guilds movement if we begin with a short account of its origin and development . It has only gradually attained to its present scope and character , and a number of different and even diverse influences have contributed to its formation . Its earliest manifestation is attributable to Mr. Arthur J. Penty , whose book on The Restoration of the Guild System was published in England in 1906. About the same time , Mr. A. R. Orage , then as now editor of the New Age , contributed to the Fortnightly Review an article on the same subject . Mr. Orage was , and has remained , in close touch with Mr. Penty ; but in his hands the guild doctrine soon began to follow a new line of development . In 1908 , Mr. S. G. Hobson , a former member of the Fabian Society , who had left that body after an unsuccessful attempt to launch a scheme for independent Socialist political representation , became associated with Mr. Orage on the New Age . Shortly after this , a series of articles written by Mr. Hobson with the collaboration of Mr. Orage , most of which were subsequently reprinted in the book National Guilds : an Enquiry into the Wage - System and the Way Out , began to appear . This series of articles really gave the national guilds movement ite definite shape , and made it for the first time a practical and constructive force . The essential feature introduced by Messrs . Hobson and Orage - the feature which gave the national guilds movement its characteristic turn - was the definite association of the idea of industrial self - gov ernment with the existing structure of the British trade - union move ment , and the definite attempt to formulate a proposal for the con version of trade - unions into guilds , that is , of protective organiza tions of wage or salary earners into managing and controlling organi zations , including the whole necessary personnel of industry . This does not mean that the full implications of this association of ideas were at this stage completely thought out , or that the practical steps necessary for the accomplishment of the change were clearly proposed . It means only that the vital idea of national guilds ap peared for the first time , and that the way was thus made clear for further developments . Indeed , at this stage the appeal of the national guilds idea was almost purely intellectual . No propaganda was proceeding outside the columns of the New Age , and the circulation of that journal was almost wholly confined to a section of the " intelligentsis . " The great bulk of the Socialist and trade - union movements remained unaffected ; only in the university Socialist societies and among mid dle - class Socialiste and professionals did the idea make any progress . It had its partisans among the younger members of the Fabian So ciety ; but the great bulk of that society , and practically all the official leaders of the labor and Socialist movement , were at this time . definitely hostile . 

In the industrial labor movement as a whole , this period was one of great and growing unrest . From 1910 onward to the outbreak of the war unrest grew steadily and many great strikes took place , including the great railway and transport strike of 1911 and the mining strike of 1912. This spirit of unrest led to a ferment of ideas in the labor world . Before 1910 the Socialist Labor Party and the Industrial Workers of Great Britain ( offshoots of the American S. L. P. and De Leonite I. W. W. ) had been active in Scotland and some districts of the North of England ; but the atmosphere was unfavorable , and they made little progress . From 1911 onward the conditions were far more favorable ; but the leadership of the left wing passed rather to movements under the influence of French Syndicalist ideas . The Industrial Syndicalist Education League , led by Mr. Tom Mann , had a considerable transient success , and closely related to it were the various amalgamation committees and other " rebel " bodies which are the ancestors of the " rank and file " movements of to - day . In South Wales , the Marxians through the Industrial Democracy League and the Miners ' Unofficial Reform Committee gained ground considerably , while the foundation of the Central Labor College and the Plebs League gave the Marxians a means of propaganda on a national scale . Only at a later period , from 1916 onward , did the big growth of the Marxian Socialist Labor Party begin . At the beginning of 1914 Mr. W. Mellor , since general secretary of the National Guilds League , and the writer began to develop guild ideas by regular articles in the Daily Herald , the object of these articles being to popularize guild propaganda and to bring it into the closest possible relation to the everyday work of the trade - union movement . Toward the end of 1914 , despite the outbreak of war , it was felt that the time was ripe for a further development , and a small private conference was held in December at Storrington in Sussex , at which a long statement was drawn up formulating unanimous conclusions on the theory of national guilds and the steps necessary for their attainment . This conference was followed a month or two later by a second conference at Oxford , where it was definitely decided to proceed to the formation of a propagandist organization for spreading the guild idea . A third and considerably larger conference was held in London at Easter , 1915 , and at this conference the National Guilds League was definitely founded . Work of the National Guilds League . Since that time the spread of the guild idea has been rapid in the trade - union world , among Socialists , and also among the professional classes . The National Guilds League has directed its principal [ 26 ]

propaganda toward the trade - union world ; but everywhere its groups include not only trade - unionists but also professional men , teachers , journalists , and even employers . It has never been , and has never sought to be , a large organization . It has concentrated its propa ganda work entirely upon the question of industrial and professional self - government , and its aim has been to enroll persons willing to work for the guild idea with a full understanding of its principles . Its influence has therefore been out of all proportion to its numerical strength ; the influence of the National Guilds League has spread far and wide , while its actual membership still remains at a few hundreds . It has the advantage of possessing among its members a considerable proportion of fairly well - known writers , and in consequence it is enabled to spread its influence over a wide field . A few instances will serve to explain the extent and character of this influence . The new secretary of the Miners ' Federation of Great Britain , Mr. Frank H. Hodges , is a guildsman . Before attaining to his present position he moved , at the 1918 miners ' conference , a resolution calling for the redrafting of the mines nationalization bill on guild lines . This was carried , and the miners proceeded to redraft their bill accordingly . Early in 1919 they were called upon to lay their proposals before the coal commission . Their principal witness was Mr. W. Straker , another guildsman , secretary of the Northumber land Miners ' Association , who presented before the commission a scheme for guild control . Mr. R. H. Tawney , another guildsman , is a member of the coal commission , together with Mr. Hodges . Thus , while there are comparatively few actual miner members of the Na tional Guilds League , the policy of the league has to a great extent secured the support of the Miners ' Federation . The case is the same with the railway men . The programs both of the National Union of Railwaymen and of the Railway Clerks ' Association are closely in conformity with the proposals of the National Guilds League , both alike aiming at the immediate national . ownership of the industry and at the establishment of a system of joint control by the trade - unions and the State . The programs of the post office trade - unions are even more closely allied to national guilds , and in this case also there is a close personal association be tween the two movements . A somewhat different instance is that of the National Union of Teachers , which has just carried a national guilds amendment , moved by Mr. W. W. Hill , an active guildsman , by an overwhelming majority . In yet another sphere , the annual conference of the Independent Labor Party has just redefined its objects so as to bring them into conformity with guild ideas .

Of course , it must not be imagined that the majority of British workers , manual or professional , are national guildsmen , or have ever heard of national guilds . The success of guild propaganda comes largely from the fact that it is working with the grain , and that circumstances are forcing the industries of Great Britain in the direction of guild organization . The conscious guildsman is still a rarity ; but , with or without guildsmen , the guild idea continues to make headway in theory and practice alike . Industrial Self - Government . It is now time to say more about the content and meaning of this idea of which we have so far been describing the external manifes tations . Its central doctrine , as we have seen , is that the various industries and services ought to be democratically administered by those who work in them . It is , in fact , an attempt to apply to the industrial sphere the principles of democracy and self - government which , in theory at least , are accepted as applying in the sphere of political government . Guildsmen begin with an analysis of the existing industrial system from the standpoint of the wage worker . Their initial dogma is one which Mr. Gompers and others have made familiar ( though with a different meaning ) in the United States . It is that the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce , and that the present wage system , in treating labor as a commodity , is guilty of a violation of human justice and of human needs . Guildsmen point out ( in common with Marx and many other writers ) that the theory of the wage system is that the worker sells his labor power in return for a wage , and in so doing surrenders all claim not only to the product of his labor , but also to the control of the manner in which his labor is used . It is true that this theory is not fully realized in fact , because the collective intervention of trade - unions in industrial affairs does give the workers , in varying degrees , a con siderable control over the manner in which their labor is used . This control , however , is purely negative ; it amounts at most to a veto upon the employers ' proposals for the use of labor , and not to any positive control by the workers over the conditions of their industry . It therefore necessarily tends to be restrictive rather than directive in its operation . This system , and indeed the whole existing industrial order , resta upon the willingness of the workers , or the compulsion upon the workers , to go on working for a wage . As soon as the workers refuse to work for wages , and are strong enough to implement their refusal , the wage system necessarily collapses . The vulnerable point of the capitalist system is therefore to be found in its dependence upon the acquiescence of labor . The " way out " of the wage system , in the view of the national guilds writers , lies , then , in a refusal by the workers to work for wages . This implies a growth in power and con sciousness on the part of labor , and a transference of the " control of labor " from the employers to the trade - unions . Guildsmen there fore work for a monopoly of labor and the creation of a blackleg proof trade - union organization , both by a widening of trade - union membership among the manual workers , and by a progressive inclu sion in the trade - unions of the workers concerned in management , technicians , professionals and supervisors . The problem , however , is not merely one of widening trade - union membership . It also involves a reorganization of trade - union structure and policy . Guildsmen desire that trade - unions should direct their policy expressly to the securing of control over industry through the control of labor . They envisage the strategy of trade unionism as a constant encroachment upon the sphere of control at present occupied by the employer or his representatives . Two instances will serve to indicate the general lines of this policy . In the first place , foremen and other supervisors are at present appointed and paid by the employer , and are often compelled to resign trade union membership , or at least active membership , on their appoint ment . Guildsmen desire that foremen and other direct supervisors of labor should be chosen ( subject to qualifications for the post ) by the workers , and that they should be members of the trade - unions including these workers . Moreover , guildsmen desire that such supervisors should be paid by the union and not by the employer . Indeed , they desire that all workers should be in this position , the union making a collective contract with the employer for the whole of the labor employed , and then paying the various individuals , including the supervisors , out of the sum realized . This might operate either under a time - work , or under a collective piecework , system . Secondly , guildsmen lay great stress upon the development of workshop organization as an integral part of trade - union machinery . They see in the shop steward and the trade - union works committee the germ of an organization capable of assuming control of the pro ductive processes in the workshop . They have therefore devoted considerable attention to the growth of this movement , and have endeavored to bring out the importance of giving to it , as far as possible , a constructive character . At the same time , they have urged the importance of giving to workshop machinery a greater recognition and a more assured place in trade - union organization . In particular , they have emphasized the need for using workshop machinery chinery as a means of fitting the trade - unions for assuming the function of industrial management . Of course , the greatest barrier to development in the lines sug gested above is recognized by guildsmen as lying in the present chaotic and ' sectional organization of British trade - unionism . They are therefore advocates of union by industry , and of the systematic amalgamation of trade - unions on industrial lines . They recognize that it is impossible for the workers to assume any considerable measure of control while they are divided among a large number of sectional , and often competing or overlapping , unions , so that in any particular establishment the workers employed often belong to as many as a dozen separate societies and sometimes to many more . A real policy of control clearly implies the unification of forces , and guildsmen have therefore been prominent in the movement for amalgamation , and also for the organization of the salaried em ployees in trade - unions and , wherever possible , their fusion in one society with the manual workers . Nationalization of Industry . Some of the measures suggested above are directed primarily to the assumption of control in cases in which industries continue to be privately owned . Guildsmen , however , are opposed to private ownership of industry , and strongly in favor of public ownership . Of course this does not mean that they desire to see industry bureau cratically administered by State departments . They aim at the control of industry by national guilds including the whole personnel of the industry . But they do not desire the ownership of any indus try by the workers employed in it . Their aim is to establish indus trial democracy by placing the administration in the hands of the workers , but at the same time to eliminate profit by placing the own ership in the hands of the public . Thus the workers in a guild will not be working for profit . The prices of their commodities and indi rectly at least the level of their remuneration will be subject to a considerable measure of public control . The guild system is one of industrial partnership between the workers and the public , and is thereby sharply distinguished from the proposals known as " Syn dicalist . " Immediately , guildsmen press for the nationalization or munici palization of the ownership of every industry or service which can be regarded as ripe for public ownership , and especially of such great public service as mines , railways , and other transport , shipbuilding , and electricity . At the same time , in connection with any such measure of nationalization , they aim at the immediate establishment of a system of joint control , in order that the workers may at once

assume the fullest share in the administration that is immediately practicable . For instance , in the case of the mines , guildsmen sug gest as an immediate measure administration by a mining council half of which will represent the mining trade - unions , the other half being appointed by the State from technical experts and , perhaps , from persons chosen to represent consumers . This would not , of course , mean the setting up of a mining guild ; but it would , in the opinion of guildsmen , be a long step toward the creation of such a body . Theoretical Aspects of National Guilds Movement . Turning now to some of the more theoretical aspects of the na tional guilds system : As explained at the outset , the government idea of national guilds is that of industrial self - government and democracy . Guildsmen hold that democratic principles are fully as applicable to industry as to politics . Indeed , they feel that political institutions can never be really or fully democratic unless they are . combined with democratic institutions in the industrial sphere . Their contention is that true democracy must really be functional democracy , in the sense that a democratic commonwealth can only be based on the democratic organization of all its parts . From the standpoint of the individual citizen this means that he should be self - governing in relation to the various functions which he per forms - self - governing in his economic life as a producer as well as in his life as a member of the State or local authority , The basic argument put forward by national guildsmen is a two fold argument . It is at once human and economic . On the human side , it urges that human freedom , in the sense of self - government , is an ultimate good ; and that any system that does not assure this self - government has to incur the blame of inhumanity . The human argument is that men ought to be self - governing , quite apart from the economic consequences of self - government . The economic argument is rather more complicated . It is that the best way of getting industry efficiently organized is to rely on the good will , and to enlist to the full the cooperation , of the persons employed in it . This general argument , moreover , is strongly rein forced by a reference to the immediate economic situation . Guilds men point out that the control over labor hitherto exercised by the capitalist under the existing system is breaking down ; its operation is already subject to considerable limitations , and its progressive limitation is proceeding at an increasing rate . The continuance of capitalist industry and of the wage system is thus becoming con stantly more precarious , more liable to interruptions by labor troubles , and more seriously menaced with absolute stoppage . Guildsmen contend that before the existing system completely breaks down , it is necessary to begin its replacement by a democratic system , and that this replacement must begin at once if an intervening period of anarchy , following upon a complete breakdown of the wage system , is to be avoided . Above everything else , the guildsman contends that the future of society can be assured only by the adoption of an economic system based on trust of the individual worker and on th enlistment of human cooperation in industry by the progressiv establishment of democratic forms and methods of administration .