Labour policy—false and true

by Lynden Livingston Macassey

Labour’s Refusal to Co-operate with the Government, 1921

In January 1921, the Government decided to set up two Committees on unemployment and invited Labour to join one of the Committees. Labour took the view that the terms of reference were too narrow to serve any useful purpose, whereupon the Government at once expressed its willingness to widen the terms, but on January 11, at a Joint Committee of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and the Executive Committee of the Labour Party, it was unanimously decided that Labour would not accept the invitation of the Government to join in any inquiry into unemployment. The public resentment aroused by that attitude soon convinced the Labour movement that it had put itself entirely in the wrong, and it tried energetically to put the blame for its decision on the Government. Labour leaders charged the Government with lack of frankness and straightforwardness in regard to the terms of reference, without giving any corroborative particulars whatsoever beyond that unsubstantiated general statement; they contended that co-operation with the Government had never led to anything—forgetting entirely the many benefits which during the war were secured to Labour both in rates of wages and conditions of employment wholly through co-operation with the Government. Truly memories were short. Then finally Labour unconvincingly charged the Government with failing to keep faith, or, if faith had been kept, with keeping it unwillingly and ungraciously, and only as a result of Labour’s agitation. The first proof adduced in support of this latter contention was the action of the Government in regard to the Joint Industrial Conference of 1919. The Conference, Labour said, was originally called by the Government; the Joint Committee presented a unanimous report which the Conference accepted; the Government took no action to give effect to the recommendations of the report and the Committee ultimately resigned, and the Conference dissolved. The second case on which Labour relied was that of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry of 1919; the majority findings recommended alteration of the then existing system of control of the mining industry; “to these the Government refused to give effect.” The inaccuracy of this statement will be seen from [Chapter XIV]. The Government would not accept nationalization. “Labour,” so it was declared, “has lost all faith in the good intentions of the Government, and refuses to allow itself to be used once again as a smoke screen.”

Labour’s Statement of Policy for Unemployment, 1921

As a counterblast to the Government’s Committees of January 1921, the Labour Party in that month produced an elaborate programme to deal with unemployment. This will be found in a pamphlet entitled Unemployment: A Labour Policy, issued in January 1921. The whole of the suggestions fall under two main heads:

(1) Maintenance of the unemployed and under-employed, and

(2) Provision of work.

The categorical demand was repeated that work should be provided by the Government, and that if work is not, or cannot be, provided, then all unemployed and under-employed should be fully maintained at the expense of the State.

In regard to unemployment benefit, every one for whom no suitable work was available at the Employment Exchanges, or through his or her Trade Union, was to be paid maintenance, which, including benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, should amount at least to 40s. per week for each householder and 25s. per week for each single man or woman over eighteen, with additional allowances for dependants. Increases in these rates were subsequently claimed as the year went on. Neither maintenance nor benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Acts should be limited to any period of time, but should continue as long as no suitable work was available. In the case of under-employment resulting from short-time, the maintenance allowance should be of such an amount as, when added to the actual earnings, would yield a sum equal to the amount of maintenance which the worker would receive if he were totally unemployed.