Between these two opposite conceptions there arose an intermediate theory. The trades unionists of the later school and the Christian Trades Unionists, energetically as they rejected all economic dictatorship by the Councils, held, however, that there is something just and legitimate in such theories. Giesbert, who holds an important situation in the Christian Trades Unions and who was to be Minister of Posts, wrote in April: “We have not sufficiently appreciated and above all we have realized too late the degree of sound truth in the idea of the Councils. The reason for this is that this idea has come to us from Russia as a political conception, and also because it arrived accompanied by all the tragic manifestations of the Russian Revolution. If the system of Councils assures to the workers the right to participate more completely in the organization and development of economic life, then it cannot help but contribute, if this is done in a reasonable manner, to the reawakening of the love of work and the establishment of a close community of interests between employers and employés.”[60]
As for the Cabinet, it declared itself from the first against the Councils, and in an official communication on February 26, 1919, Scheidemann, President of the Council of Ministers, declared that the Cabinet never considered the introduction of the Councils System in Germany, and that above all, if any part should be accorded the Councils, it could only be that of an intermediary between the employers and the trade unions.
But it soon became impossible for either the Cabinet or the Trades Unions to remain in this almost completely negative position; for the struggle for the Mitbestimmungsrecht ceased to be merely a debate among theoreticians. At the beginning of March the workers in the metallurgical industry declared a general strike in Berlin; and in April the miners of Central Germany did the same.
The Cabinet found itself forced to modify its point of view. Receiving at Weimar a delegation of strikers come to present an ultimatum to him, Scheidemann recanted the communication of February 26, and engaged himself by a written promise to effect the recognition of the principle of Councils in the Constitution.[61] One month later he fulfilled his promise. On April 5, a new note made known under what conditions and to what extent the Cabinet envisaged the possibility of organizing and utilizing the Councils. He proposed to inscribe in the Constitution an article proclaiming in general terms the right of workers to participate in common and on equal terms with employers in the regulation of questions of wages and work, as well as in the development of the forces of production in the common economic interest. By the side of special Workers Councils there were to be mixed Councils which would have general economic authority.
On their side the Trades Unions also found themselves obliged to seek a working basis, and they concluded by agreeing to the introduction of Councils in German economic life, on the condition that a very sharp separation be marked between the powers of the Factory Workers Councils and the Economic Councils on the one hand, and those of the Trades Unions themselves on the other. Another condition was that assurance must be given the Trades Unions that the Workers Councils would fulfil their mission in accord with the Trades Unions. At the Congress of Nuremberg, July, 1919, the Trades Unions engaged themselves to use their whole influence to secure for the workers and employés the Mitbestimmungsrecht in the various industries and to help the Factory Workers Councils to play an effective part.
2.—CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS RELATIVE TO THE COUNCILS.
It was agreed, then, to recognize for wage-earners and salaried employés the right of co-operation in the conduct of industries and that all parties to the productive organization of the nation must co-operate in the regulation of economic questions. This idea is developed and in part realized in the provisions of [Article 165], which form the foundation of the future Economic Constitution.
The Constitution sets forth the idea that the economic organization of the country must pursue two different courses and should therefore have two different series of organs—the “Workers Councils” and the “Economic Councils.” This double organization is based on considerations that were expressed by Member of the Assembly Sinzheimer at the session of the National Assembly on July 21, as follows: “In economic life there is both a conflict and a community of interests. The conflict that exists in our economic life and which it is impossible not to perceive is the conflict between capital and labour. It is therefore necessary, since the employers are already represented publicly in Chambers of Commerce, etc., that the side of labour should also receive special public representation which should include all wage-earners and salaried employés. The mission of this representation should be to express all the interests of the working class, as such, in an organized manner, through a public organ of representation. This public organ of representation is the Workers Council. This Council is a unilateral representation of interests. It has as its purpose the increase and realization of the economic influence of the working class. But in economic life there is not only a conflict, there is also a community of interest. The latter is based on the common interest in production on the part of both employer and employé. The Economic Councils have as their mission, in contrast to the Workers Councils, to realize these common ‘duties of production,’ that are equally incumbent upon employers and employés. They must satisfy all the interests of production and bring into co-operation for production all the elements that participate in it, to increase production, diminish its costs and to regulate it as far as possible according to considerations of social good.”
Workers Councils are: Factory Workers Councils, for each establishment; District Workers Councils, organized for each economic district; and the National Workers Council, whose authority extends over the whole German territory. These Councils have as their mission the safeguarding of the social and economic interests of the workers.