[OOO]|
The first step [OOO]| towards the Guild State must be, of course, the [OOO]| transformation of our present unionism, and the [OOO]| organisation in industries rather than in crafts. [OOO]| In many things we have a good start. Probably we [OOO]| are the most highly-organised country in the [OOO]| world, the number of unionists have swelled in the [OOO]| last ten years from 160,000 to over half a [OOO]| million. This amazing increase has, no doubt, been [OOO]| due to the official recognition of unionism [OOO]| through Arbitration Courts and Wages Boards, and [OOO]| to a developing social contempt for the blackleg. [OOO]| The union has a status in Australia that it has in [OOO]| no other country, and there is a growing tendency [OOO]| on the part of Governments to have direct dealings [OOO]| with the unions.
This is the most hopeful [OOO]| feature in our industrial life. Mr. Jensen, in the [OOO]| matter of outfitting transports, and Senator [OOO]| Pearce in his agreement with the Sydney coal [OOO]| lumpers, have shown a disposition to treat the [OOO]| town's unions as responsible bodies. Power [OOO]| commands respect automatically, and by making [OOO]| their organisations fairly blackleg-proof these [OOO]| waterside workers have given themselves something [OOO]| of the dignity that would inevitably accrue to [OOO]| members of a real guild.
But that is all [OOO]| that can be said. If we looked beneath the surface [OOO]| we should probably find that they did not seek [OOO]| this new dignity, but rather had it thrust upon [OOO]| them. Our unions are hopelessly lacking in ideas [OOO]| and in essential pride, and the material benefits [OOO]| of high wages and shorter hours seem to be their [OOO]| prime consideration. Yet, if they continue to be [OOO]| preoccupied with these things, they will [OOO]| inevitably end in decay and dissolution. It is the [OOO]| spirit alone that has brought to our Labor [OOO]| Movement whatever triumphs it has achieved, and [OOO]| the spirit cannot be nourished by a little more [OOO]| corn or cleaner water.
Hitherto craft [OOO]| unionism has been chiefly responsible for this [OOO]| narrow outlook and want of assertive spirit. The [OOO]| essence of craft unionism is defence ~~ defence [OOO]| against the employer and against other crafts as [OOO]| well. Despite the growing concentration of [OOO]| capitalist control, despite the encroachment of [OOO]| the semi-skilled machine-minder or skilled and [OOO]| unskilled alike, many unionists think first of [OOO]| increasing their own standard rate and bettering [OOO]| their own particular conditions. The pattern-maker [OOO]| in a big engineering firm thinks of himself as an [OOO]| aristocrat, and his attitude toward the fitter or [OOO]| laborer is one of the superiority. The clerk or [OOO]| cashier, again, thinks of himself as in a [OOO]| different class from either, apparently because [OOO]| his hands are stained with ink instead of with [OOO]| grease. Everywhere the man in a higher grade [OOO]| dreads the competition of the man in a lower one, [OOO]| and attempts to ward it off by all manner of [OOO]| artificial craft distinctions.
This [OOO]| attitude will have to change, and it is better [OOO]| that it should change, because of a more [OOO]| intelligent conception of realities than from mere [OOO]| force of circumstances. For it is becoming more [OOO]| evident every day that, for mere purposes of [OOO]| defence, a better weapon than craft unionism is [OOO]| needed. Organised employers can break the petty [OOO]| craft unions separately, as the woodsman broke the [OOO]| bundle of sticks, and combination will soon become [OOO]| as necessary for the union as it was for the [OOO]| individual. Sympathetic combination in times of [OOO]| strike is not enough, nor, on the other hand, is [OOO]| an indiscriminate passing in one big union. There [OOO]| must be a scientific and structural organisation [OOO]| in industries, with the brainworker included as [OOO]| well as the manual laborer, the salaried person as [OOO]| well as the receiver of wages.
That brings [OOO]| us to a point which is often neglected. Too often [OOO]| the industrial problem is regarded purely from the [OOO]| point of view of manual workers, and it is [OOO]| forgotten that the true industrial union must [OOO]| include everyone engaged in the industry [OOO]| concerned, whether he is a worker with hand or [OOO]| with brain. Not until the foreman, the [OOO]| draughtsman, the station-master, the clerk, have [OOO]| been brought into their appropriate unions can [OOO]| organisations rest on their oars, for the [OOO]| industrial union that is budding into a guild will [OOO]| want every jot and tittle of experience and [OOO]| ability it can bring to its aid.
But when [OOO]| such unions have been organised the fight will [OOO]| already have been won. Long before the culminating [OOO]| point, indeed, the union officials will have been [OOO]| approached by the employers and the State and [OOO]| proposals made to share the responsibilities and [OOO]| rewards of the industry. It needs no undue amount [OOO]| of optimism to forecast this state of affairs. All [OOO]| industrial history goes to show that, whenever a [OOO]| strike has become dangerous, or a workmen's [OOO]| organisation powerful, the employers have been [OOO]| more alive to the possibilities of the situation [OOO]| than the men themselves. Economic power is not an [OOO]| abstraction; it is a thing that can be felt; and [OOO]| before industrial organisation has reached its [OOO]| highest level the employers will be ready with [OOO]| offers of profit-sharing, dual control, anything [OOO]| almost that will allow them to retain some of [OOO]| their profits. Failing that, they will make [OOO]| frantic efforts to persuade the State to [OOO]| nationalise their industries, while there is still [OOO]| a chance of making a shrewd bargain.
It is [OOO]| in nationalisation, perhaps, that the easiest path [OOO]| lies to the Guild State. The State would take over [OOO]| the means of production, and would lease them to [OOO]| the individual guild under a charter, levying [OOO]| taxes in lieu of economic rest, and having a [OOO]| certain representation on the guild directorate. [OOO]| But, object some, how would any industrial union [OOO]| be able to exact these terms from the State? The [OOO]| answer is simple. They would have economic power, [OOO]| which (when intelligently used) is as great as, if [OOO]| not greater than military power, and which (when [OOO]| used for the ends of justice) can carry everything [OOO]| before it. We have seen how, in the present day, a [OOO]| mere craft union can make its terms with a [OOO]| Minister of the Commonwealth. How much more [OOO]| deference would accrue to the accredited spokesman [OOO]| of a guild that was national in its scope, and [OOO]| which included every member of its particular [OOO]| industry! They would not need to come cap in hand; [OOO]| they would be like the ambassadors of a powerful [OOO]| country.
For the present, then, the [OOO]| attention of unionism must be concentrated on [OOO]| organisation in industries and on raising the [OOO]| individual and collective status of the workers. [OOO]| All efforts directed to other ends are hardly more [OOO]| than a waste of time. It is the raising of status [OOO]| that is of paramount importance, and a proud and [OOO]| aggressive unionism at the present time would have [OOO]| more opportunity of asserting its right to share [OOO]| the control of industry than at any other period [OOO]| of history. There is in the community a large body [OOO]| of impartial opinion that would be ready to take [OOO]| the side of unionism if it showed definitely that [OOO]| it had a way out of the present anarchy and [OOO]| confusion, and was willing to assume [OOO]| responsibilities as well as to demand rights.
[OOO]|One thing is certain, and that is, that [OOO]| unionism will perish if it misses its chance. It [OOO]| cannot afford to bury itself in the mud or lose [OOO]| itself in the clouds. It holds the keys that will [OOO]| unlock the doors of the Guild State, and if it is [OOO]| waiting for a sign from a politician it will wait [OOO]| in vain.