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How Not to Start a GuildI
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
Labour Party Executive? I I REBUKE FOR TRADE UNION DISSENTERS. COMPREHENSIVE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 0 I The national executive of the Labour Party, at its meeting last week, adopted a series of im- portant resolutions. It was reported that a no- tice of motion for the forthcoming Trade Union Congress was in circulation which invited the Congress to establish, and its Parliamentary Committee immediately to organise, a new and separate political party to be constituted ex- clusively of trade unions. The Labour Party executive adopted a resolution expressing re- gret that anything should be done on the very eve of a General Election to divide the forces of Labour. It asks those trade unions which are affiliated to the Labour Party as well as to the Trade Union Congress, to concentrate upon the arduous and strenuous election campaign which they have undertaken, and for which they are incurring such considerable financial responsi- bilities; and to consider very carefully how best to consolidate and strengthen the campaign or ganisation so as to enable the largest possible number of members to be returned to Parlia- ment. SEASON TICKET HARDSHIP. I Tho Labour Party Executive also adopted a resolution protesting against the increase in season tickets for bona-fide business purposes, as inflicting an additional hardship upon a section of the community whose incomes have remained practically stationary while taxation and the cost of living have considerably increased. The resolution was forwarded to the Parliamentary Labour Party with a view to further action being taken to secure the withdrawal of the order. A* NECESSARY BILL. I To remove any uncertainty regarding the right of women to sit in Parliament, the na- tional executive has decided to have a Bill drafted with a view to its introduction into the House of Commons by the Parliamentary Party. SEPARATION ALLOWANCES. The national executive associated itself most heartily with the demands made for a substan- tial increase in the separation allowances paid to the families of soldiers and sailors. The re- solution on this question points out. that thcRe, allowances were settled at a time when the necessaries of life were procurable at a much lower rate than they are now, and that under present circumstances they mean unnecessar,- hardship to many families, which is not credit- able to the nation. The executive thererote asks the Pa.rham?nt:u'y I?abour Party to exer- cise its well-established right and request that I tho War Office Vow should be put down at the earliest date, ?o that the House of Commons may discuss and definitely decide upon this as a specific issue. FEDERAL HOME RULE. I The national executive considered an invita- tion to co-operate in a deputation to the Prime Minister on the question of Federal Home Rule, and agreed provided that the consideration of this question should not prejudice the imniNliate settlement of the Irish problem. THE DRINK TRAFFIC. I ft was decided to appoint a. committee to ad- v ise the pa.rt.y executive on the best method of giving efftMrt, within the terms of the resolution on the drink traffic which will he submitted to the annual oon fere nee next, week, to the general desire that during the war tho manufacture and sa le of intoxicating liquor should be sub- ordinated to national needs. Tho committee is instructed to give consideration to proposals for total prohibition and to the policy to be pursued by the Labour Party after the war. dealing specifically with local veto and other forms of public control, and with public ownership, to- gether with ifroposaLs regarding the ma- chinery, whether local or national, for giving effect to the recommendations.
I————————— Theatre RoyalI
————————— Theatre Royal After many years absence a welcome return visit will 1)0 paid next week to the Theatre [Royal, Merthyr, by Mr. W. W. Kelly's power- ful company in the great historical play, "A Royal Divorce. One is reminded by this Napoleonic play of the tragic parallel between the struggle in 1815 against, the Corsican Ogre" as Bonaparte Ira, called in those days) and that of 1018 against the ruthless. Prussian Militarism. In A Royal Divorce one gets a peep a.t the softer. more human, and more in- timate side of Napoleon's character his vanity and ambition, his Ion:) and stratagem. and his desire to found a dvna.stv. The eompanv which Mr. Kelly is sending to Merthyr is exactly the same which appeared at the New Theatre. Car- diff. last week, where hundreds were turned away nightly, headed by that talented and charming actress. Miss Mabel Scudamorc as the Empress Josephine," whilst, the part, of the Emjieror Napoleon" will be played by that powerful and versatile actor, Mr. George Hud- son, Patrons are requested to note that owing to the length of this great play, for this week- only, it will be presented once nightly, the cur- tain rising promptly at 7.1-5. Seats should be l>ooked well in advance for this great and popular attraction. The bill running this week it a vaudeville col- lation, headed by Mary Connolly, the Dublin street linger tunred vaudevilian, a.nd her ro- mantic life story as told to the people, coupled to a. voice of natural sweetness, brings down the house. Barney Armstrong found a. nne turn for the Iiill- when he took l Mary under his wine, but her articulation, and her changes from re- gister to register will want a. lot of smoothing before she will do for eoncert work. Jack sou PelTT and June Heather present a novel and a bove-the-avera-ge entertainment. Miss Hilda Beverley, with her great powers of el ocution, is offering some excellent mono logues of Ibsenesque power and structure, in her very best style. Sid Stanto is an original co-medy act with musical punctuations. The Mayfords are one of the best number", on the bill in their clean-cut equilibrist act; and Gino is a novelty musician, with a xylophone, silver bells and a drum. Pr.A V(! OKlt. I
TREDEGAR COLLIERY FATALITY.
TREDEGAR COLLIERY FATALITY. A verdict, of "Accidental death" was re-j turned at, an inquest at Aberbargood on Henry] Francis-street, Bargoed, who died at the Cottage Hospital. Aberbargood, followms: upnn injuries received at the East Elliot Colliery, New Tredegar. A son who worked with deceased said he had heard a groan and found his father with a stone weighing about half a ton on his head. Dr. 'E. R. Bowen said the injurie, indicated a fracture of the base of the skull.
Charles Kingsley.I
Charles Kingsley AN APOSTLE OF FREEDOM. [The writer or the following fine appreciation of "Alton Locke is one of those fine cultured young men who during the early period of the war rushed to arms" to fight for freedom. He was not a Socialist then. But his new experi- ences brought a. new viewpoint and philosophy; and in the trenches and the barracks, the very homes of the negation of our faith, he, in com- mon with thousands more, have seen the vision of truth a.nd social justice. In the intervals of waging war he has studied our economics and learned our philosophy, and to-day he knows that if the freedom for which he was prepared to give life and all is a myth, he himself has attained to a freedom that, nothing can take from him.—Ed.] Amid the clash of arms, through weltering seas of blood, through all the vicissitudes of paSt history, there is one element, a.t least, that bids us look forward with hope. Like a silver thread the passion for freedom runs through the vast panorama of the literature of the pa*-t Freedom ever seems to be the god of those mighty prophetic souls that have lived and died in the cradle of poetic passion. Not only is the spirit expressed in the great poets, but those creative geniuses who have chosen fic- tion as the mediiini are none the less swayed by the same feelings. Among the English novelists or the Victorian era, there is one figure that is almost synony- mous with the passion for freedom—that of Charles Kingsley. We may not perhaps agree with his ethical and religious solution to the social problem, but here we are not so much con- cerned with his economic theories, as with the pictures he affords us of social life. He does not dive into a shallow pool of mere drawing-room romances, but delves down deep into the cru- cible of human life where the elemental passions of human nature arc felt in their cosmic signifi- cance. "ALTON LOCKE." I 1 -1 Literature, if it be the product of a spirit tliirsting for the highest, will always contain something of value to the worker in the grea.t "cause." Such is "Alton Locke," a novel in which Kingsley lays hare to our vision the con- dition of the British artisan during the Chartist agitation. True, the vision is linyted to the sweated den of the tailor, but this may he taken as a microcosm of the then existing condition of the working man. Incidentally, a glimpse is also given of the condition of the English agricul- tural labourer. The picture would be darkly oppressive, were it not for the light of plebian genius permeating through the weh of horror and despair. Alton Locke, the and poet., I perceives, with .the eye of the seer the canker in the heart of the .social and industrial system: — You "it in a cloud and hiug< like pictured Y(-)Il sit ill a C.J ,)Il( l 1j"? ,ie 1) I ( t i i i-4-- d And say the world run.- smooth—while right below Welters the black, fermenting heap of griefs Whereon your State is built. It. iri a merciless indictment of the then exist- ing social order, and ordf r that unfortunately has not. yet passed away. Crawling through its pages, grim and spectral, i- the huge octopus of Capitalism, winding its sinuous and deadly ten- 1ades into the most sacred -aniM-uaries of human life, crushing the life-blood out of the Vreltefing mass of human lyings, crying for the freedom which is denied them, longing for a sight. of this beautiful earth of ours. iTHE CONDITION OF THE ARTISAN. "Alton Locke" serves a two-fold purpose. Not only does it picoture ,an anachronistic social structure, but. it gives an analysis of the genesis and development of a Chartist.. But first, let us enter into the details of the picture. Alton leads the way into the den of the sweated tailors, poor spectres of humanity, living, until death claims them, in a foul atmosphere, reek- 1?111)(? l l of I)qi d ( I ra i iis, iug with the poisonous smell of bad drains, charged with the germs of deadly diseases. They were doomed to live night and day in this verit- able death-trap, some of them indeed unable to go outside the room, because even their clothes had been pawned. From these unholy dens iamè The suit of the immaculate dandy, the gor- geous finery of the soldier. Carlyle gives us a philosophy of clothes in Sartor Resartus, but here is given the whole philosophy in. a. nutshell. Ps\chologically speaking, the positive pole is re- presented by clothes but alas! what represents the negative polt, ?-blood, sunken human faces, wasted and ruined lives. That is but a prelimin- ary to still more vile and hideous pictures. THE CAPITALIST CLASS. I So much for the conditions of the British arti- san. What of the attitude of the Capitalist governing classes? In the character of Dean Wynnstay, this attitude is admirably epitomised. The dean, a quiet, stately old gentleman, much given to obscure scientific pursuits, living out of touch with the great mass of humanity, who were being daily crushed by the Juggernaut of the existing industrial system: content to offer sober and mild platitudes for the edification of the British ■working-man. His advice to Alton is to abjure poEtics, and devote himself to some branch of innocent scientific study. That in it- self reveals the whole attitude of the. Capitalist, even at the present day. There seems to be a conspiracy to deprive tiie of t-lie great thingR that matter to tlieni as working- men. But alas! for their hopes. The "cause" is still alive: democracy is still triumphantly marching on, and even as Feudalism has passed away, so will Capitalism, with its attendant horrors, fade away and be replaced by a new and brighter social order.. WITHOUT A VISION. I This illuminating novel has still one gleam which niay .'w. followed with profit—-the light It shed s upon the failure of the Chartist move- ment. Like the great tragic figures of Shakes- peare, who contained within themselves the seed of theii- iiltiniate, fate., so the Chartist move- ment eontained within itself the causes of its ultimate, failure. Tlris, of does not com- pletely account for its want of success. The various elements were not properly organised; the workers were not sufficiently educated. They were. for the most part, a people without .1 vision; they did not see clearly the great end for which they were striving, but only the means. Hence, through their lack of vision, they substituted the means for the end, a.nd made that the "be-all and the end-all of the creed. And even those who beheld the vision of liberty, equality, :md fraternity, saw it but through a nebulous haze, and realied not that thev would have to toil through the night. Again, owing to the lack of organisation, the "roaring aibys.smal beast" tasted blood, and thereby relapsed into a state of primitive mad- ness, degrading in one mad swoop the means whereby a few chosen souls had thought to re- generate the world, and cast away the horrors Vif the industrial system under which they lived. < Finally, in this novel may be traced the psy- chologic-al development of a Chartist. Imagine a poetic, passionate soul yearning for self-ex- pression, longing for the green fields and Hoffws, whose spirit lfaps its wings uselessly in the soul- destroying atmosphere. of modern Capitalism cradled in the narrow religious atmosphere of the worn-out creed of Calvinism, and cast into a den of poor -?wealed tailors. But let hiM} speak for himself-— Yes, it was true. Society had not given me my rights. And woe unto the man on whom that idea, true or false, rises lurid, filling all his thoughts with stifling glare, as of the pit itself. Be it true, be it false, it is equally a woe to lieve it; to have to live on a negation; to have to worship for our only idea, as hundreds of thousands of us ha ve this day, the hatred of the things which are. Aye, though one of us here and there may die in faith, in sight of the pro- mised land, yet is it not hard, when looking from .the top of Pisgah into the good time coming,' to watch the years slipping away one by one, and death crawling nearer and neai tv, and the people wearing themselves in the tiro for very vanity, and Jordan not yet passed, the promised land not, yet entered? While our little children die around us, like lambs beneath the. knife, of cholera and typhus and consumption, and all the diseases which the good time can and will prevent. Is it not hard to men who smart beneath such things to help crying aloud —" Thou cursed Moloch-Mammon, take my life if thou wilt: let me die in the wilderness; but these little ones in mines and factories, in typhus-cellars, and Tooting pandemoniums, what have they done? And here) let us leave him. The book leaver us ivitli a consciousness of the tragedy of un- realised hopes. But he lived not in vain. The stream of plebian genius will not always flow through the dim, subterranean channels -of the abyss. Someday, it will issue forth upon the broad eheerful plains of the earth, carrying with it a sweeter, nobler, and more elevating atmos- phere. J. S. Richarpb.
m C.L.C. and I.L.P. -
m C.L.C. and I.L.P. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Permit me to make a. few comments on Mr. Brockhouse's appeal to C.L.C. men to sup- port the I.L.P. When, itome six years ago, I stumbled against the C.L.C. movement I was a disillusioned unattached Socialist. I had been in the I.L.P.. S.D.P., and B.S.P., and none of these parties had made clear to me the way to the IndllSouial ltopublie. I seemed to bo wan- dering in a maze. One had guidance from one group which took one in a different direction indicated by the route of another group. I un- derstood i hat Capitalism was the enemy, but I felt that I was a useless unit in a proletarian army led by generals who had lost their way to the battleground, and.who wrangled with one another as to tho best means of finding the trial again. I saw3 too. that this confusion and disagreement in council led to disunity and in- effectiveness in action. I cleared out of the camp of the blind leaders to find out the cause- of the blindness. I had an inkling that educa- tion was the root of the matter, and this sur- mise became a conviction when I joined the C.I-.C. and understood ite educational propa- ganda. WHAT C.L.C. TEACHES. C.L.C. teaching gives the key to the problem which the workers must solve in order to eman- cipate themselves from wage-slavery. C.L.C. teaching arms the work ers with intelleotmal weapons which so far have been invincible in many a contest with the champions of Capital- ism. O.L.C. teaching introduces the workers to a. seienoo which in its completeness embraoee a. comprehension of the u inverse in general and the evolution of human society in parttioular. C.L.C. teaching equips the workers with an ideology which while it shatters supernafcural- ism. inspires them with a loftier and surer faith in the destiny of the human race than can be derived from any religion, ancient or modern. EDUCATIONAL, NOT POLITICAL. With these considerations in mind I really don't see why the C.L.C. should approach the I.L.P. half-way, especially in view of the-faot that the I.L.P. does not, officially endorse C.L.C. teaching. Mr. Harry Broekhouse should m- member t.ha.t the C.L.C. is not a political, but an educational institution, and in my judgment it js essential it should retain, its independent positi_ on so long as the British Labour move- ment. remains in its present state of flux. Mr. Broekhouse should also remember that the C.L.C-. is actively supported by rank and file workers belonging to Socialist parties other than the I.L.P., who would c-ci-tainly vigorously op- pose any rapprochement between the C.L.C. and the I.L.P. from the political standpoint. I.L.P.'s "BOURGEOIS" METHOD. Newbold seems to desire such a rapproche- ment. and argues that C.L.C. teaching is a cultural equivalent for the political method of the I. L. P I regret I can't agree with him. C.L.C. teaching is essentially proletarian. The political method of the I.L.P. is bourgeois. It is based on the idea of parliamentary leadership, which implies shepherding the workers into a collectiv 1st state. It modifies principles and adapts programmes in order to induce bourgetoos elements to vote the Labour Party tickerta. C.L.C. teaehiug defines the class-struggle and insists that the workers must wage that struggle not only on the industrial, but on the political field in order to oerthrow Capitalism. The I. L. P. political method ignores the alass- struggle. This ls,.provoo--to give only one in- stance—oy the Party's political alliance with the Labour Party, prominent members of which are or have been the political hacks of the Asquiili and Lloyd George administrations. From the C.L.C. standpoint the I.L.P. poli- tical method is scientifically incorrect, inasmuch as that method is not based on principles de- rived from Marxism. The political method of the I.L.P. is opportunist and revisionist. The tactics of Marxism are revolutionary and un- compromising.—Yours, etc., 8 IH>lnl R03.d &TYI "-h"11 Fiiet) Sylvester. 8 Evelyn Road, Sporkhill. Birmingham. J""ull' 1
GROCER'S CHEESE RETURNS.
GROCER'S CHEESE RETURNS. At Monday's meeting of the Bedwellty Food Control Committee it was stated that some of the tradesmen did not include in their stocks of cheese English cheese which was not con- trolled. It was decided that in future all grades of cheese must be included in the returns each week. Gelligaer Rationing Committee fixed rations for the we-eli as follows: Butter and margarine 6oz., tea 2oz.