The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

On November 15, the unions concluded an agreement with the employers’ associations, which has served as the basis of an important development, begun on that date and known as the “labour board” (Arbeitsgemeinschaft). The Arbeitsgemeinschaft appeared several months before the end of the war, but assumed a rôle of prime importance in the new organization of economic Germany.

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft has been defined as “the combination of big associations of employers and of workers for the regulation of reciprocal relations between employers and workers and for the solution in common of all economic and social questions touching industry and labour.”[58]

The essential principle of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft is that of parity. In the agreement of November 15, the labour unions are recognized as the vocational representatives of the workers. The most complete liberty of organization is accorded them. The agreement specifies as its practical tasks the feeding of veterans, the distribution of raw material, and the regulation in common of labour disputes. For the settlement of pending questions there was organized a special committee composed one-half of employers and one-half of workers.

Several days later, December 4, 1918, there was drawn up the “statutes of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft of the employers and employés of Germany.” All German industries were divided into a certain number of groups, which had common organs composed half of employers and half of workers, each elected by their respective organizations. There was in addition a central council, which was the Arbeitsgemeinschaft of all the employers and organized workers of all German industries. Its members were elected by the groups from their membership; and these in turn elected a Central Committee, which executed the decisions of the Central Council.

All these organs—and this point must be emphasized—were composed half of employers and half of workers. The parity principle is at the basis of the whole organization of the Arbeitsgemeinschaften. Thus all economic and social questions concerning industry and labour were regulated by committees in which the employers’ associations and the labour unions were each represented by one-half in each committee. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft is a treaty of peace.

In addition on December 23, 1918, the Commissars of the People signed a decree “on collective agreements, workers and employers committees, and the arbitration of labour disputes.” This decree[59] maintained the committees which were developed during the war by virtue of the law for patriotic service, and increased their powers. Here, too, the whole mechanism rested on the parity principle. According to this decree, committees of workers and employers had to be organized in all industries, in all the administrative bodies and in all offices where there were at least twenty labourers or employés. These had as their mission the protection of the economic interests of labourers and employés against employers in the factories, administrative bodies and offices. The committees had to supervise in co-operation with the bosses the carrying out of the various provisions in the collective contracts. In factories where there was no collective contract the committees were supposed to co-operate in the regulation of wages and other conditions of labour in agreement with the economic representatives of the workers and employés. It was their task, in addition, to maintain good relations among the workers, as well as between the workers and employers.

It would seem that an evolution thus commenced could have continued normally and without difficulty, and that economic and social problems raised by the reorganization of Germany could thereafter be regulated by the Arbeitsgemeinschaften; that is to say, by direct agreement between employers associations and labour unions. But the problem was peculiarly complicated by the introduction and rapid diffusion in Germany of Russian revolutionary ideas. The Soviet differs essentially from the committee above described. Whereas in the latter employers and employés are placed on terms of equality and the committee itself becomes a purely economic institution, the Soviet, according to the Russian conception, is a political organization, whose purpose is to eliminate the employers and to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet must have in its hands all the political and economic power of the State.

As to this conception of the political omnipotence of the Council, we have seen that powerful opposition ensued on the morrow of the Revolution and that in January, 1919, the Social Democrats remained in full control of power after having eliminated the Independents. We know that this struggle continued, however, and it will be recalled what organizations the Independents provided for and wished to institute in order to assure to the Workers Councils the political sovereignty they claim. Parallel to the political struggle between the Social Democrats and the Independents, there developed another, on the economic field, between the Trade Unions and the Councils, which found themselves in conflict as much over what reforms should be demanded by the working class as over the rôle these two groupings should respectively retain in the struggle for the recognition of their claims.

The Trade Unions declared themselves satisfied with the agreement they had concluded with the employers, as well as with the decree of December 23, 1918, which Legien, President of the General Confederation of Labour, called “The Great Charter of Labour.” They were convinced that thereafter there was nothing more to do but to wait for time to develop logically and peacefully the rôle of the Arbeitsgemeinschaften and of the Committees provided for by the decree of 1918. They did not believe that in this evolution there was any room for Councils. It was they, the Trades Unions, that had theretofore been the only ones to occupy themselves with economic questions, and they did not propose to permit special groups, operating in isolated factories, to deprive them of their traditional mission. Legien in particular did not want to hear any talk of the Councils. They did not seem to him to be able to “incorporate themselves in the actual hierarchy of the organizations and agencies of the workers.” He protested against any concession to the system of Councils, and declared that the only organisms in position to defend the economic interests of the working class, were the Trades Unions.

But an increasingly important part of the working class, attracted by the ardent propaganda of the theoreticians of the Councils system, physically and mentally depressed by misery and unemployment, irritated by the mistakes of the Cabinet and disillusioned by the impotence of the Assembly of Weimar, rallied to the doctrines of the Councils. The Trades Unions were no longer believed by them able to lead the battle which would assure to the workers the preponderant rôle which should be theirs in economic matters. They showed during the war, co-operating with the militarists and the bureaucrats of the Empire, that they were always ready to compromise. They were directed by veritable functionaries, whose whole careers developed within the Trades Union administration and who had no qualification for representing the working class. In order to secure what the working class wants these claims must be taken in hand by organs issuing directly from the workers—militant organizations in position to lead a swift energetic fight—these organs being the Workers Councils. The Councils must be placed above the unions, and it is to them that belongs the right to decide on the campaigns that should be waged.