Functional socialism

ON SWEEPING OUR OWN DOORSTEP 25

play. That means the prompt separation of all the economic functions from the confusions of nonfunctional politics, largely poisoned by the old conception of subjective rights. We must, in short, organize our economic life upon a functional basis, bearing always in mind, not only de Maeztu’s categories, but the economic task of co-ordinating production with a sane system of distribution based on economic plenty.

FUNCTION IS DEMOCRATIC

Before proceeding further, it is imperative to face a stupendous fact not usually mentioned amongst the intelligentsia who proclaim their various panaceas. It is this: the ultimate control of functional values can only be found in the fifteen million manual and brain workers who, day in, day out, in season and out of season, keep the industrial machine going. It is so easy to suggest that by a mere turn of the hand, a touch of financial magic, or what not, we can resolve our difficulties. Sheer delusion! Function, like knowledge, is democratic and it is in the wise direction of our industrial democracy that we shall win through to economic salvation. A dangerous fallacy largely prevails to-day. It is the assumption that, because Labour, both politically and industrially, is badly led, it can be ignored. With nearly fifty years’ intimate association with the Socialist and Labour Movement, I can affirm with conviction that no great economic or political revolution is possible without the assent of the rank and