The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

3.—THE CHAMBER OF LABOUR OR THE VOCATIONAL PARLIAMENT.

There is another project which was rejected in the name of the democratic principle but whose partisans declared to be compatible with this principle—one which in any event under different modalities has determined champions in almost all the parties. That is the plan for the creation of a Chamber of Labour (Kammer der Arbeit) or Vocational Parliament.

The idea of granting to vocational interests a special representation is not new, but since the Revolution it has been studied in Germany by a group of publicists and students of politics, who have delved perhaps more profoundly than ever before into the project and have given it a new form by introducing new concepts into it.

The supporters of the Chamber of Labour declare that at the present time, in contemporary states, the vital duty of a government is to organize the economic life of the nation. This obligation has particular force in a country whose whole economy had been overturned and ruined by a disastrous war and revolution, and which, unless it decides to enter upon a new road, runs the risk of crashing under the burden of its foreign and domestic debts.

In order to reconstruct Germany economically one cannot depend on a political parliament. A study of the history of the parliamentary system brings the conviction that if a parliament has proved to be an adequate organ of political legislation, it is nevertheless admittedly incapable of solving the economic and social problems it encounters. The parliamentary system, that is to say, the system that consists of the formation of a government with the parties of the majority, is much more a product of classical liberalism than the creator of new social and economic forms. All the ideas current to-day and which constitute the guiding principles of our political life, viz., democracy, national sovereignty, the forming of the popular will, division of powers, belong to an epoch in which the economic activity of the state was combatted with passion. When it has created its political system liberalism remains content with forms that answer only to purely political exigences.

But to-day ideas on the rôle of the state are changing. The state in the last few decades has little by little ceased to limit its activity to the rôle of “watcher of the night,” which liberalism assigned to it; and more and more the organs of the state have been forced to exercise an influence on public economy. Modern parliamentarism is insufficient to permit the state to fill its new duties. For the political chambers are divided in parties that group themselves according to changeable ideological conceptions, based on the idea of “what should be,” the idea that dominates the parties. But in taking a position in accordance with such articles of faith and political axioms, one does not acquire the necessary technical knowledge to gauge and judge economic questions. In this matter there is only one method of learning, that is to study the facts of economic life. What follows from this is self-evident. We must, if not actually suppress the political parliament, at least put beside it special organs charged with fulfilling the economic duties of the state. (See August Müller, Socialisierung oder Socialismus? Berlin, 1919.)

And these organs can be nothing but Councils, Workers Councils, Councils of Producers.

Let us not cry immediately, Bolshevism! It is true that the system of Workers Councils was born in Russia. First appearing under the Revolution of 1905, we see them reappear in 1917, but it was not the Bolsheviks who brought them into being. The Soviets were born because in pre-revolutionary Russia the law did not tolerate unions of workers. As a consequence the only form that an organization could take to combat the tyranny of the Czars was to nominate in every factory, shop, etc., men who could be trusted. In 1917, Russian Workers Councils formed the strongest support of the democracy; they were the firmest adherents of the government formed by Kerensky. But when the Bolsheviks seized power they crushed the democratic Soviets in the sense that they would not any longer permit them to elect their members to office, and they, the Bolsheviks, nominated men to represent these unions. In this fashion they erected their dictatorship, a dictatorship of a small group, with the slogan of, “All power to the Workers Councils!” But the advent of Workers Councils has nothing in common with Bolshevism.[19]

To political representation one must join economic representation, constituted essentially by the Councils. Workers Councils, somewhat like those which Däumig would organize, are retained; to them should be assigned the representation of workers’ rights, which have hitherto been defended by the unions.

But by their side should be created Councils of Production (Produktionsräte) charged, as their name indicates, with supervision of production. There will be organized in each locality and for each branch of economic activity a Council of Production. The enterprises of the locality will each be represented by an equal number of delegates of the employers and delegates of employés, for the principle of parity between employers and employés is absolute. Above the Councils of Productions of the communes there will be superimposed for each branch Councils of Groups, Councils of the Province, etc., culminating in Central Council of Production (Zentralproduktionsrat). There is thus for the whole territory of the Reich a Central Council of Metallurgical Production, a Central Council of Breweries, a Central Council of Chemical Production, etc.