Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

7 articles on this Page

How Not to Start a GuildI

News
Cite
Share

How Not to Start a Guild I I- I A BOOK OF MANY MISTAKES, I AND A FOOLISH CONCLUSION. I £ How to Start a Local -Guild," by R. E. Witr- I KiNsoN. C. W. Daniel, Ltd., London. 6d. nestt. ] f In his preface—or should it be her preface—to this slender volume, R. E. Wilkinson acknow- ledges indebtedness to various people, amongst them to "my friend" A. W. Waddington" for the essential groundwork in the study of Econo- mics (the capital E is the authors) during con- versations often carried far into the night." Now e^her those particular thanks are sadly misplacedj or R. E. Wilkinson was an inapt pupil; for it is seldom that I have met more in- verted economics t han is to be found in this little volume. I have, I believe, a fairly thick vein of sympathy in my make-up, and I would far rather sMU-ch for excuses, than engage in flaying any fellow-writer on the field of democratic »v-onom ics; but the utter nonsense of How to Start a Local Guild is so calculated to do #-damage to the Guild idea, and to prejudice the ■economics of the working-class that not even the transparent honesty and good intent of R. E. Wilkinson can keep my anger in check, as 1 turn over the 48 pages of hit3 unfortunately style J book. It. E. Wilkinson suffers severely from an idealism uncorrected by the dialectic use of his- toric conditioning on the economic field; a fault far more lamentable in a writer on economies than its opposite; a. complete sanctification of a writers ideas and ideals on the altar of historic materialism. "If we can be converted to be- lieve a.nd act upon Utopian ideas, then Utopia is mrs," and history would have added to "tha t sentence—the key to Wilkinson's economic phil- osophy—and the morrow of Ctopia is the ■Capitalists more than on\r. There are many other things than thinking aright needed, ere Utopia comes to us, as Mr. (?) Wilkinson will readily realise if he looks upon the world of the ..present with critical eyes, and as he will be in- tellectually convinced if he will but turn back the pages of the history of working-class move- ments. Not a man in the world desired war in 1914. They had thought and thought hard be- fore that, and not one desired war; the demo- cracy leawt of all. But the ideal of peace though it was the dominant thought of every Democrat, and the (earnest hope of every indi- vidual was insufficient to withstand the inexor- .able pressure of the economic needs of national 'apitalisms, and the .secret diplomacy that those I economic needs made inevitable. Tho historic -environment was stronger than the will to peace, strong though it wa-s and manifest though it had been made in a hundred different way. Thought is a mighty factor certainly, but it must be properly disciplined. Thought, how- ever lofty its ultimate ideal, tniict recognise momentaiily the limits which the obtaining sys- tem imposes, and work within them to break them down slowly in the direction of logical ad- vance. The groat gap that exists between the I.L.P.er, or any other Socialist, and the Utopians, of whoM., body R. E. Wilkinson is (-on-- fessedly a member, is this very gap of evolu- tionary change which the Utopian denies. The Socialist sees that the Capitalist System, like, -every other system that, has preceded it., con- tain* within itself the germs of its own decay ho knows that its decay will be consummated when its mission is performed; he setfc to miti- gate its worst evils by legislation, and to use legislation also as an educational factor in his propaganda campaign, from which later he hopes to educe a consciousness of direction in the minds of the masses of the people already regi- mented and disciplined in tho huge industrial workshops ot fully developed Capitalism. The Socialist is ever pressing just, beyond the. border ■of furthest general advance; but he knows that that borderlalnd is but slowly won, and so does not run ahead endeavouring to outstrip progress by the mere process of "thinking progressively." lie has been througli that mill and has learnt its folly. He remembers Roller t Owen. Louis Blanc, New Caledonia and a of other Uto- pian schemes that failed; and, better still, he knows why they failed, and realises that so must pvccemeai experiments always fail; until they ai-e conditioned by the general thought content of the nation, itælf the product of developed economic conditions, that make such experi- mento national in scope, and only immediately preoeding the imminent Socialisation of the whole nation. No one feels the irksome nature of this lin?t-a?ion of W(?, to the slowly moving general oons?onsne?s more ]D}Y than the fk>cki!ir.t; but. irksome though it may be it is the only wav of progress, and he accepts condi- tions, content to know that he is heading aright J.anO confident that though he may not. live to aeo it his ideal will ultimately be brought to ;.f08.rth and stay on earth because it will have come to an earth ready to receive it. Ultimately the ideals of Utopia will be tho ideals of earth but not by a mere process of thinking Utopia. ECONOMICS ASTRAY. I Nor %ro R. E. WUkinaon's ('oononú<:Fi a.ny I ?t.t?r digested than his social plulo?ophy. 'n? wage-system is the present system of paying wages according to the estimated value of the labour performed. A more incorrect state- snent of the method of assessing wages obtaining under Capitalism was never penned than that. The estimated value of the labour performed would not be a bud basis rorassessing wages; but, unfol-tunatol.v, it is not needed. The basis on which wages are assessed is the subsistence level of the working-class; a law itself deter- mined by the competition of labo-ur on the mar- ket. That subsistence level includes the food, ■clothing, shelter and such measure of the ameni- ties of Hfe that go to make the mean average of working-class conditions obtaining at any time, including, of course, the provision of a family to replace the worker as ho falls down through age. sickness, or industrial accident. How far removed this is from the practice of assessing wages by the estimated value of the labour performed we may guage from the esti- mate of N. A. Richardson, an American Social- ist with business experience. He says that the American wage-worker produces pach day com-- modities that sell for ten dollars, and wages are two dollars. That two dollars is the. full value of labour on the labour market where competi- tion amongst the workers to sell their produc- tive energy determines wages. If R. E. Wilkin- son had got a. finn grasp of this principle-as most modern Guild writers have, by the way-- be would never have dropped into his silly mis- takes respecting pay and wages or have talked so foolishly of "luxury" occupations. Any- thing socially necessary or desirable is not a luxury but a right of life; and the Guild sys- tem that is going to confine itself to the neces- sities of life will find that public opinion ex- tends the meaning of that word so far that the luxury occupations that can be eliminated will •&> extremely few. After this it is not surprising t-o find R. E. Wilkinson's views on rent and in- terest somewhat chaotic and undigested. A MISCONCEPTION OF GUILDS. I Chapter IV., "About Guilds," begins with one of the few sentences that I can endorse. » He says: In the near future workers will bear a great deal about guilds." But immediately he starts to talk about guilds I begin to part com- pany with him. Says Mr. (?) Wilkinson: "They were associations of workers working together in small communities under masters of recog- nised skill." On the other hand Gibbons tells us: "These last (Craft Guilds) were associations of handicraftsmen, or artisans, and were separate from the merchant guilds, though also of great importance. If a town was large enough each craft or manufacture had a guild of its own, though in smaller towns members of various crafts would form one guild." This is as far from "sanall communities" as industrial unions, and close active confederation from the workshop of to-day, and it is most important as we shall see, for it has led our writer a long way astray from the essentials of Guild Social- ism on behalf of which he apparently wants to spealc. Arising out of his misconception of the feudal craft guild, and under the impulse of his ideological philosophy, he is able to reach a con- clusion that is diametrically opposed to econo- mic experience, and contrary to the recom- mendations of the National Guilds League. Here is his final beauty: When the Army is de- mobilised and the munition workers released there is every probability that they will be given a sum of money. This is an opportunity which ought not to be missed, and if you want to start a Local Guild vow must get five or six others who will be willing to start with you who are, or were, experienced in any skilled trade. Then take a small rcom or workshop and start pro- ducing your special commodity bearing in mind the great importance of perfect workmanship. Sell these commodities and share and share alike in the results." As the results of an experi- ment of such a nature, opposed as it is to the competition of the huge organised forces of fac- tory production which determines the price of all goods on the market—will assuredly be bank- ruptcy, I would add the advice to anyone who cares to try the perilous experiment to further assure themselves of the "share-and-share alike" finish by forming a properly constituted limited liability company. Such a conclusion a.s R. E. Wilkinson reaches is the accumulated result of his inisconceptions on the fields on which I have tediously travelled over his footprints, but in addition it is diametrically opposed to Guild Socialism as expounded by G. 1). H. Cole and the other leaders of thought in this important branch of industrial speculation. THE REAL GUtLDISM. I Itemeiftber Wilkinson's Ii Local Guild comes from the voluntary association in "small com- munities of any men who have been, or are skilled in anv trade for the purpose of co-opera- tive production. In other words he seeks to found a small business. Now, what do the Guild Socialists seek? First, of all they 'seek trade union organisation of the strongest pos- sible description,, a precedent condition that Wiikinson. net alone fails to mention, but en- tirely ignores as recognise his sentence of those who may form .:1. local Guild as including those, who have been out of the wade to be under- taken, and presumably outside of it" trado- union organisation. Indeed, the Guild Socialists are so insistent on this point that they say a better weapon than Craft Unionism i« needed," and advocate a. real Industrial Unionism in- spired by the revolutionary idealism of the pioneers of trade unionism, and after that the linking up of all the organisations of ivroducers in one solid lighting unit. For t.he end in view is not the aggrandisement- of any group (Wil- kinson's ifve or six notwithstanding) but the national organisation of industry by the pro- ducers themselves in the interests of society as a. whole." Out of the Trade Unions must come the Guilds—by n. change in purpose and structure, and by a widening of membership. A still more important point entirely lost, sight of by Wilkinson is the posit,ion of Guild and State in the common scheme: "The State would own the means of production as trustee for the, community; the Guilds would manage them, also as trustees for the community (those five or fcix ex-soldiers and late miniirioncers have no plaee here), and would pay to the State a single t.ax or rent." So raiicli for ultimates. But. what. of the steps. Already I have pointed out that Guild Socialism looks not. to the will to Utopia. but to the more practical organisation through wades unionism, developing through industrial unionism un roil "tho movement as a whole must see to, and pay for, the elimination of the blackleg." Then will come the struggle of transition. Even now the industrial wea- pon, whether it be the strike, or negotiation backed by the threat to strike, can be used to secure a foothold in control and to pave the way for the assumption of complete manage- ment by the workers." The Conciliation Board must become the Negotiation Board," the function of these Boaxd, must be ex- tended," they must be widened to include every question that can arise between employers and employed, especially in the spheres of discipline and n If these extensions are won and used the Boa.rd of Negotiation can be made the real controlling IxHlies in industry, and, a- the power of the workers increases, control will be transferred gradually to them from the employers. This, however, will never come about unless the unions keep intact the right- to strike on which their power depends, and unless long-time agree- ments and long notices are scrapped, together with impartiality and ai-bi L Mic reali- sation of Industrial Unionism, the building up of the whole body of Labour into one fighting foree, and the utilisation of tho machine so created for the seeming of control are the nc,- t -tk p-; I that the Trade Union movement must take. When these have been taken, when the workN arc united in their organisations and inspired by a common purpose, the wage •-•.vstem will be doomed, and the man-machine of Capitalism will become a free man in a free society, based on the industrial self-government of a system of National Guilds." Throughout it will be seen that, the Guild system has nothing in common with the idealism of R.E. Wilkinson, with liis history, his peono- mics, and I am greatly puzzled to understand where he picked up the idea that he was repre- senting the Guild movement. His- quasi-co- operation in small communities has nothing in common even with the feudal .guilds, for they too were black -leg proof," and controlled not only the work of the worker, but establishment output, cost on the market and even exercised the part of social polii email by its moral super- vision on, itl" melllhers. T .suppose his idea came from the same place as his idea that to live in Utopia but needs the idea that we live in Utopia, that is, from his own head. Yet. after all, there is a suggestion of unfairness in his choice of title, for anyone perusing his book 1111- acquainted with the Guild movement that is with us to-day, will be led to an entirely wrong appreciation of that movement, a thought which has inspired me to Azitmat, the length I have. A.P.Y. I

Labour Party Executive? II

I————————— Theatre RoyalI

TREDEGAR COLLIERY FATALITY.

Charles Kingsley.I

m C.L.C. and I.L.P. -

GROCER'S CHEESE RETURNS.