One cannot conclude the study of the economic powers of the Factory Workers Councils without saying a word on the question of the co-operation of these Councils in the socialization process. The supporters of the theory of Councils have always forcefully insisted on this co-operation to justify the necessity of giving the maximum power possible to the Factory Workers Council. But the law of February 4 does not grant these councils in economic matters anything but powers of deliberation, hardly even conceding them the right of decision; nor does it give them any privilege other than that of supporting and helping their employers in the achievement of the factory’s purposes. Thereby is denied all action on the part of the Factory Workers Councils that might directly influence the socialization of the factory itself. The law of February 4 seems to take the point of view opposed to that of socialization.
Socialization is a work relegated exclusively to the State and legislation. It cannot be included in the mission of the workers’ representations in a factory. To socialize is to modify economic organization and the right of property, and this change cannot be made except by law. Further, no particular factory can be socialized of itself, that is to say, be transformed by itself into the property of a community. The work of socialization must be undertaken by whole divisions of industry. To accomplish this work it is not the Factory Workers Councils that are competent, but only the parliamentary representation of the whole people.
However, among the partisans of the Factory Workers Councils, some hope that these Councils will be able to give the workers a socialist education by affording them the chance to participate in economic affairs. They believe that, thanks to the Workers Councils, there will finally be formed a working class ready, under responsibility, to fulfil administrative duties in a socialist commonwealth. The Factory Workers Councils according to them will be a school for socialism.[65]
4.—THE TRADE UNIONS AND THE COUNCILS.
Such, in outline, is the law of February 4, 1920. The first elections of the Factory Workers Councils were held during the month of May that followed. Immediately there broke out disputes and rivalries, more violent than before, between the Trade Unions and the partisans of the Councils systems over the rôle which the Factory Workers Councils should play, and particularly over the relations that should subsist between these Councils and the Trade Unions.
The union leaders wanted to maintain their traditional policy, “the wage policy” of the joint committee and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft. They held that economic and social reforms can only be accomplished progressively, given the complexity of economic phenomena, and they were convinced that the necessary evolution will take place naturally, thanks to co-operation of employers’ and employés’ organizations in the Arbeitsgemeinschaften.
The development of these organisms since the revolution seems to support their opinion. On the basis of agreements concluded in December, 1918, the Arbeitsgemeinschaften have taken on considerable extension. Little by little the organisms provided by the statute of December 4, 1918, have been created and expanded. Not only have individual Arbeitsgemeinschaften been established between employers’ and employés’ organizations, but these have also been formed into larger groups. For example, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft of the Ruhr mines, those of the Sarre, of Saxony and of Upper Silesia have united into a central Arbeitsgemeinschaft, that represents the interests of the whole coal mining industry of Germany. It is administered by a Central Council composed, of course, of equal numbers of employer and worker delegates. A great number of other industries have organized on the same model and they, too, have added above the local organs a Central Council that represents the general vocational interests. Finally, the Central Committees of the different industries have joined and thus created on December 12, 1919, a central Arbeitsgemeinschaft, which constitutes the supreme organization and which is charged with settling by direct agreements between employers and employés and on a parity basis all the problems that touch the life of the industries and trades in Germany. This is sub-divided into fourteen vocational groups: iron, provisions, construction, textile, clothing, paper, leather, transports, glass and ceramics, chemistry, oils and fats, forest and land workers, mines and lumber. The Central Executive Committee (Central Vorstand) is composed of twenty-three members chosen by the employers and twenty-three by the workers. Other Committees are created on which the Central Committee places part of its work. Seven such have already been constituted, on the study of wages, labour legislation, economic policy, raw material, coal and transports, tariffs, the execution of the treaty of peace and the internal regulations of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft.
All this movement, say the trade unions, represent undeniable progress. For the hostile interests of employer and employé is substituted the interest of the vocation as a whole, which creates in the employers and workers of the same vocation a consciousness of the community of their interests and engenders among the different industries a fruitful rivalry. In uniting the Arbeitsgemeinschaften of all the industries, conflicting interests are placed in equilibrium and neutralized and there remains only common consciousness of national interests.
What can the Factory Workers Councils do otherwise than enter into the framework of already existing organisms and, directed by the Trades Unions, aid in the development of these organisms? In other words, the Factory Workers Councils—and this is also the formal will of the legislator—should be the delegates of the Trades Unions in each factory to supervise there the application of the agreements adopted by the Trades Unions and the employers associations. In addition what could the Factory Workers Councils do if they had not behind them the power of the strong organizations of the Trades Unions? A Factory Workers Council, that could not count on the support of a strong union, could exercise no useful activity whatever. It would be soft wax in the hands of the employers. If they want to do efficacious work, the Factory Workers Councils, even though they are the direct emanation from the workers of the factory, must conduct themselves as organs of the Trade Union, and can only play an important rôle if they march hand in hand with the Trade Union.