The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

FOUNDATIONS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS 5

Its leaders, Broadhurst, Knight, Fenwick, Wilson and a score of craft union secretaries thundered against the notion of political interference. If this analysis of English character be approximately correct, then we may affirm that those early Individualist leaders of Congress more accurately interpreted the mind of Labour than did Keir Hardie. I do not mean that Labour has ever objected to meliorist legislation, such as the industrial protection of women and children, health and unemployment benefits or any measures evoked by social compunction ; but none of these is even remotely State Socialism. Industrial Control (the logical end of Trade Unionism) and State Socialism are mutually exclusive and Keir Hardie was a convinced State Socialist. It was on this vital issue that the New Age group left the I.L.P. and turned towards Guild Socialism.

Moreover, the same insistence upon the separation of politics and economics is modern Trade Union history. It is only a few years ago that an enthusiastic band of Labour politicians urged the disbandment of Congress and complete concentration on the Labour party. Labour would have none of it. The Trades Union Congress is to Labour precisely what the House of Lords is to Capital. Again with a difference; for whereas the House of Lords is the second Estate of the Realm, Congress is under law and the constitution not many removes from an illegal conspiracy.