Functional socialism

FUNCTION 63

‘The wages of any section of workers must not be allowed to fall in such a way as to injure market stability, nor must they be allowed to rise so high as to inflict injury on the standard of life of other sections of workers, as consumers. It is not suggested that wages can or should be equal in all industries, but it is suggested that a system of wage negotiation should be devised which will enable us to ensure that they are equitable.

Here is the commodity valuation of labour, stark naked and unashamed. Mr. Macmillan, in the guise of a friendly observer, carries the competitive price of labour a step further. There is to be competition, not only with the commercial market, but with the other labour elements. The wage rate in one industry must, to some extent, determine the wage rates in others. Mr. Macmillan need not be alarmed. Wages are based on subsistence, plus certain additions that accrue by reason of skill or organization. He provides for a subsistence rate, slightly modified to ensure a minimum purchasing power; otherwise, no change.

The general conclusions reached by Mr. Macmillan are not disappointing, because they are precisely what we would expect. They are, of course, significant. They are the views and proposals that now come, in various forms, from a younger school of Toryism, having a reputation for intelligent sympathy with labour. In reality, what they want is the continuance of the existing financial, non-functional, system. They know they cannot secure this unless they can keep labour in bondage with less irksome