Labour policy—false and true

“That the Labour Party press for nationalization of all the means of production, distribution and exchange.”

“By attaching our signatures to the General Reports we desire to render hearty support to the recommendations that Industrial Councils or Trade Boards, according to whichever are the more suitable in the circumstances, should be established for the several industries or businesses and that these bodies, representative of employers and employed, should concern themselves with the establishment of minimum conditions and the furtherance of the common interests of their trades.

“But while recognizing that the more amicable relations thus established between Capital and Labour will afford an atmosphere generally favourable to industrial peace and progress, we desire to express our view that a complete identity of interests between Capital and Labour cannot be thus effected, and that such machinery cannot be expected to furnish a settlement for the more serious conflicts of interests involved in the working of an economic system primarily governed and directed by motives of private profit.”

“The progressive elimination from the control of industry of the private capitalist, individual or joint-stock, and the setting free of all who work, whether by hand or by brain, for the service of the community and the community only,”

“absolutely to believe that the British people will permanently tolerate any reconstruction or perpetuation of the disorganization, waste and inefficiency involved in the abandonment of British industry to a jostling crowd of separate private employers with their minds bent, not on the service of the community, but—by the very law of their being—only on the utmost possible profiteering.

“What the Labour Party looks to is a genuinely scientific reorganization of the nation’s industry, no longer deflected by individual profiteering, on the basis of the common ownership of the means of production; the equitable sharing of the proceeds among all who participate in any capacity, and only among these, and the adoption, in particular services and occupations, of those systems and methods of administration and control that may be found in practice, best to promote, not profiteering, but the public interest.”

“Seeing that the land alone of all the factors of production is both indispensable to man and incapable of expansion by human agency, it is pre-eminently the rightful property of the nation as a whole. The present system which treats land as private property and prevents free access to it, hampers industry, checks production, crowds the towns by depopulating the countryside, obstructs the provision of good housing, lowers the standard of public health both physical and moral; this Conference strongly urges the Government to bring forward, as early as possible, some scheme for the nationalization of land so as to abolish the present unjust system of land ownership and land leasing. It strongly deprecates the action of the Government in preventing the completion of the valuation of the land, and demands that such valuation shall be completed as early as possible, with a view to the ultimate complete socialization of all land and minerals.”

“That it be referred to the Executive Committee to consider and report to a further Conference on the arrangements to be introduced into industry in order to provide Labour with facilities to control industry—that is to say, to participate in the promotion of undertakings, the negotiation of contracts, determination of the product, and the selection of markets—and the extent that such control by Labour can be secured, or is desirable, on the basis of the private ownership of land and capital. The Executive shall indicate the distinction between conciliatory Labour and Capital and the actual control of industry by the workers, and to that end is instructed to report on:

“(a) The Industrial Councils and their bearing on the question.

“(b) The co-partnership of Labour and Capital.

“(c) The means to achieve the democratic management of industries in national ownership.

“(d) How far the representation of Trade Unions, through their Executives or by ballot of the members, could ensure participation in actual control, and whether, for effective control, it is not necessary that the employees in the workshop or the pit shall construct an organization, integral to any scheme of democratic management.

“(e) Whether the sole or partial management by Labour of industries in national ownership should be confined to the actual workers therein, or should include workers in other occupations.”

“That this Conference re-affirms its pledge of nationalization of industry, but, when nationalized, to come under joint control with adequate representation of the workers on the boards.”

“Control of Industry.

(p. ii.) “With increasing vehemence Labour is challenging the whole structure of capitalist industry as it now exists. It is no longer willing to acquiesce in a system under which industry is conducted for the benefit of the few. It demands a system of industrial control which shall be truly democratic in character. This is seen on the one hand in the demand for public ownership of vital industries and services and public control of services not nationalized which threaten the public with the danger of monopoly or exploitation. It is also seen in the increasing demand of the workers in all industries for a real share in industrial control, a demand which the Whitley Scheme, in so far as it has been adopted, has done little or nothing to satisfy. This demand is more articulate in some industries than others. It is seen clearly in the national programmes of the railwaymen and of the miners; and it is less clearly formulated by the workers in many other industries. The workers are no longer prepared to acquiesce in a system in which their labour is bought and sold as a commodity in the labour market. They are beginning to assert that they have a human right to an equal and democratic partnership in industry; that they must be treated in future not as ‘hands’ or part of the factory equipment, but as human beings with a right to use their abilities by hand and brain in the service not of the few but of the whole community.

“The extent to which workers are challenging the whole system of industrial organization is very much greater to-day than ever before, and unrest proceeds not only from more immediate and special grievances but also, to an increasing extent, from a desire to substitute a democratic system of public ownership and production for use with an increasing element of control by the organized workers themselves for the existing capitalist organization of industry.”

(p. vii.) “(a) A substantial beginning must be made of instituting public ownership of the vital industries and services in this country. Mines and the supply of coal, railways, docks and other means of transportation, the supply of electric power, and shipping, at least so far as ocean-going services are concerned, should be at once nationalized.

“(b) Private profit should be entirely eliminated from the manufacture of armaments, and the amount of nationalization necessary to secure this should be introduced into the engineering, shipbuilding and kindred industries.

“(c) There should be a great extension of municipal ownership, and ownership by other local authorities and co-operative control of those services which are concerned primarily with the supplying of local needs.

“(d) Key industries and services should at once be publicly owned.

“(e) This extension of public ownership over vital industries should be accompanied by the granting to the organized workers of the greatest practicable amount of control over the conditions and the management of their various industries.”

“State Control and Prices.

(p. viii.) “(a) Where an industry producing articles of common consumption or materials necessary to industries producing articles of common consumption cannot be at once publicly owned, State control over such industries should be retained.

“(b) State control has been shown to provide some check upon profiteering and high prices, and this is a reason why it should be maintained until industries pass into the stage at which they can be conveniently nationalized,”

“Conclusions.

(p. xi.) “The fundamental causes of Labour unrest are to be found rather in the growing determination of Labour to challenge the whole existing structure of capitalist industry than in any of the more special and smaller grievances which come to the surface at any particular time.

“These root causes are twofold—the breakdown of the existing capitalist system of industrial organization, in the sense that the mass of the working class is now firmly convinced that production for private profit is not an equitable basis on which to build, and that a vast extension of public ownership and democratic control of industry is urgently necessary. It is no longer possible for organized Labour to be controlled by force or compulsion of any kind. It has grown too strong to remain within the bounds of the old industrial system and its unsatisfied demand for the reorganization of industry on democratic lines is not only the most important, but also a constantly growing cause of unrest.

“The second primary cause is closely linked with the first. It is that, desiring the creation of a new industrial system which shall gradually but speedily replace the old, the workers can see no indication that either the government or the employers have realized the necessity for any fundamental change, or that they are prepared even to make a beginning of industrial re-organization on more democratic principles. The absence of any constructive, policy on the side of the Government or the employers, taken in conjunction with the fact that Labour, through the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party and through the various Trade Union organizations, has put forward a comprehensive economic and industrial programme, has presented the workers with a sharp contrast from which they naturally draw their own deductions.

“It is clear that unless and until the Government is prepared to realize the need for comprehensive reconstruction on a democratic basis, and to formulate a constructive policy leading towards economic democracy, there can be at most no more than a temporary diminution of industrial unrest to be followed inevitably by further waves of constantly growing magnitude.

“The changes involved in this reconstruction must, of course, be gradual, but if unrest is to be prevented from assuming dangerous forms an adequate assurance must be given immediately to the workers that the whole problem is being taken courageously in hand. It is not enough merely to tinker with particular grievances or to endeavour to reconstruct the old system by slight adjustments to meet the new demands of Labour. It is essential to question the whole basis on which Our industry has been conducted in the past and to endeavour to find, in substitution for the motive of private gain, some other motive which will serve better as the foundation of a democratic system. This motive can be no other than the motive of public service, which at present is seldom invoked save when the workers threaten to stop the process of production by a strike. The motive of public service should be the dominant motive throughout the whole industrial system, and the problem in industry at the present day is that of bringing home to every person engaged in industry the feeling that he is the servant, not of any particular class or person, but of the community as a whole. This cannot be done so long as industry continues to be conducted for private profit, and the widest possible extension of public ownership and democratic control of industry is therefore the first necessary condition of the removal of industrial unrest.”

“This Meeting declares:—

“(1) That the coal of the country forms an obvious necessity to national life, and that its ownership should therefore be vested in the community.

“(2) That the mines, machinery, and other means for the production and distribution of coal, being essential to the industry, should also be owned by the country.

“(3) That the direction and conduct of the coal-mining industry, being of vital importance to the workers in the industry and the coal-consuming public, should be under the control of National, District and Pit Committees representative of the national Government and the various classes of workers including those engaged in the managing, technical, commercial and manual processes.

“(4) That the objects to be sought by National Ownership and Joint Control on the lines indicated are:—

“(a) To provide the maximum output of the coal consistent with the provision of adequate protection for the workers engaged in this most dangerous employment.

“(b) The introduction of labour-saving appliances on the widest possible scale.

“(c) A more economic working of coal mines consequent on the elimination of the interests of private land and royalty ownership.

“(d) The remuneration of the workers in this industry on a scale commensurate with the dangers endured and sufficient to provide a healthy natural life for all concerned.

“(e) The co-ordination of the distributive machinery of the trade by the elimination of existing private interests and the substitution of municipal and co-operative supplies at prices sufficient to cover costs of production and distribution.

“This meeting therefore calls upon the Government to bring forward legislation for the national ownership of coal mines and minerals on the lines indicated, and in accordance with the recommendations of the Majority Report of the Coal Industry Commission.”

“In view of the repeated refusal of the Government to nationalize the mines, in accordance with the Majority Report of the Coal Industry Commission, and in agreement with the terms of the resolution passed at the Glasgow Congress and the Special Congress held in December last, the Parliamentary Committee suggest the following forms of action as a means to compel the Government to adopt the nationalization of mines:—

“(a) Trade Union action, in the form of a general strike;

“(b) Political action, in the form of intensive political propaganda in preparation for a General Election;

“In the event of (a) being carried, the necessary steps be taken to give effect to it in accordance with the constitution of each Union.”

“That this Conference views with regret the failure of the Government to introduce legislation for the purpose of nationalizing the mining industry, and reiterates its conviction that this industry will never be placed upon a satisfactory basis in the interest of the community until it is publicly owned and worked between representatives of the State and the technical and manual workers engaged in it, and resolves to continue to educate and organize working-class opinions until the Government are compelled to bring about this fundamental change in the management and ownership of the industry.”

“The fundamental truth is that the supporters of capitalism have proved to the world that so long as industry is run on its present lines the workers will have to submit to periods of unemployment and periods of over-employment and that the present capitalist system must go before there can be any permanent solution.

“The workers, by the strength of their Trade Unions, may from time to time obtain improved conditions of employment, but until they obtain possession of the means of producing wealth, namely, the land, the mines, the railways, shipping, factories and workshops, they will remain dependent on a small section of the community providing them with employment. In other words, they will continue to be at the beck and call of those who own and control the capital of the country. They will, when the capitalists decide, be allowed to apply their labour to the production of wealth, but they will not be permitted to control its distribution.

“Before the workers will be permitted to control industry effectively, or even the distribution of the products of their industry, they will first require to own the machinery and materials of industry. Such ownership will only be acquired when we capture political power; and political power will come only as a result of hard thinking and intelligent action at the ballot-box. Political power will also enable us to control credit, money, banking and everything which is fundamental to a nation’s foreign policy, and is the cause of most, if not all, wars from which the workers of the world have suffered.”