Karl Polanyi by Gareth Dale;

Author:Gareth Dale;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Guild socialism13

Since the Great War a new current within the labour movement has been spreading from Britain towards the European continent and America. Its goal is the same: the realisation of socialism. But the path that it charts is new, and diverges sharply from both the collectivist-communist and syndicalist traditions. In essence, perhaps, it is nothing but the theoretical and practical reconciliation of these two strands, a synthesis of two antitheses, undertaken by English common sense. Maintaining all the proven and viable elements of Marxist thought, in particular the notion of class struggle, guild socialism nonetheless represents a modern reinterpretation of socialism that is rightly attracting a broad interest.

If we leave aside those final goals that fade into the distant future, we can say that the aim of collectivist socialism is comprehensive nationalisation, while syndicalism strives for the complete elimination of the state. The former places the management of production in the hands of the central administrative organs of the state, while the latter wishes to place economic power in the hands of the producers themselves.

Just as the state is today responsible for providing the public with postal services, it could take responsibility for all other functions of production and distribution in society – so argue the collectivists. Just as the private entrepreneur today carries out the tasks of production, workers could do the same, if they controlled the factories, the offices, the land – so respond the syndicalists. Wage labour, they add, will remain wage labour even if the state, rather than the private entrepreneur, becomes the worker’s master – if indeed the worker does not become a mere robot serving the leviathan of the state. The producer can only become truly free if he becomes the master of his own labour.

Against this, the collectivists legitimately point out that a capitalism of workers’ collectives is not the same as socialism; on the contrary, to substitute contemporary private monopolies with collective monopolies would only increase anarchy within the economy, weaken workers’ solidarity, and ultimately lead to the resurrection of private capitalism. Production is not an end in itself but ought to serve consumption; in this only the state and the community can effectively represent the consumer. For this reason, the control of production needs to be handed to the state and not left to the producers, who have regard only for their own private interests and not those of the public.

Guild socialism stands for the unification of these two conceptions. The state or the community should represent the interests of the consumer; the producers’ association should represent the interests of the producers. To this end, the current organisations of producers should be transformed into guilds.

During the medieval period, ‘guild’ was the name given to corporations in German speaking areas. Contrary to the degenerate corporations of Eastern Europe, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, etc. guilds were the true bearers of urban culture in medieval and early modern times. Material abundance, sophisticated crafts and genuine fraternal solidarity underpinned the flowering of the

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