THE TRADE UNIONS TODAY
IT seems unlikely that the sixty-seventh Trades Union Congress, which opened at Margate last Monday, is destined to make any sensational contri- bution to the history of the Labour movement. But that is in no way to its discredit. A period of patient, Plodding, unostentatious work may in the long run prove to be of more benefit to organised labour than a showy and provocative policy. Before the next Congress meets, it is true, a General Election will have taken place, and the Labour forces, whose main financial backing comes from trade union funds, will have had to test their strength against the Powerful combination of the National Government. 13ut there has been, so far as the majority of delegates Were concerned, little disposition to beat the drums loudly in anticipation of conflict. The instinct which restrained them was probably a sound one. Not only is there a large body of trade unionists who are disposed to support the National Government, but also in the country as a whole there is little eagerness for hot party controversy. The most sanguine members of the Labour Party scarcely expect, or even perhaps desire, a sweeping Socialist victory. But what is supremely important to them is that Labour should be returned as a powerful Opposition ; and that is more likely to be achieved by a moderate policy than by a policy which might frighten the electorate into voting Conservative. The industrial organisation of Labour has always had to do much of the spade-work for the political. Of the tWo, the former, in recent years, has been Much more closely in contact with realities. It is always confronted with the problem of membership, Which has been doubly affected since 1926, firstly, 13Y mistakes in leadership, and secondly, by general "employment. It has also to study its receipts from Political contributions, which, since the Trade Disputes Act of 1927, tend to fall off whenever national opinion sets strongly against Labour policy. In the years following the War the trade unionists were the extremists of the Labour movement. It was the 13-1.C. which turned its eyes towards Russia and talked most, loudly of direct action, whilst political Labour, with its eyes on the electorate, was more moderate. Today the position is reversed. The Labour Party feels it cannot afford to ignore its stormy petrels. The Trades. Union Congress cannot afford to tolerate them. The leaders have wisely realised that their problem now is utterly different from that of ten years ago. Then throughout the world, except in Italy, where the tide began to turn with the arrival of Fascism, Labour believed itself to be in a position to march to a quick victory. In Britain the trial of strength came with the General Strike, which only did not end with a complete disaster for trade unionism because the majority of people in this country of all classes were sympathetic with the saner ideals of the movement. The failure of the trade union leaders to emancipate themselves from a sectional view in the crisis of 1981 was a second deadly blow to political and industrial Labour, so crushing that thev have been on the defensive ever since. At the same time the position of organised Labour throughout the world has been threatened by the rise of dictatorships. It is of critical importance to the whole world movement that it should hold its own in Great Britain, and that it should retain the good will of a majority of people in this country. In this crisis it is to the credit of the trade union leaders that they should have realised that no militant social policy would serve their ends today. That they understand how closely their fortunes are bound up with world affairs is shown by the reception given to Mr. Kean's presidential address, which was concerned mainly with great international and moral issues as viewed by the Labour leaders. It is a wise instinct on their part to subordinate the sectional issues in their political policy to the national issues, and to mobilise the moral forces or Labour on behalf of a cause which is a national one. Fascism has become most obviously their principal enemy ; but if they are to carry the country with them in their antagonism to Fascism they must make it equally clear that they themselves are not allied to " other disruptive bodies." Hence the circular issued to unions by the General Council " with the object of preventing members of Com- munist and other disruptive bodies from holding official positions in the unions." The circular was attacked at the Congress on the ground that it was undemocratic ; it was defended on the. ground that it was improper to admit avowed enemies of democracy to key executive positions within their movement. In the vote on the motion dealing with this question the General Council secured an adequate majority. It was evident that the large minority which voted against it was motived in the main by: the desire to preserve union autonomy, and not by Communist sympathy. The Congress was able to congratulate itself on the fact that for the first time since 1930 there is an • increase in trade union membership. But, even so, it is no more than half what it was in its best year, 1920. To the obvious causes of this decline —excessive militancy in the past, trade depression, and the growth of new industries which lack the trade union traditions of the old basic industries— may perhaps be added another : the growing feeling that the problem of industry is no longer merely one between employers and employees, but a scientific one in which all sections of the nation are equally interested. But it would be regrettable in the extreme if the workers came to feel that the need for trade unions ended with the need for their assistance in fighting employers. They have con- structive tasks to perform in the reorganisation of industry, and the cause of peace would be promoted if all employers would encourage the co-operation of trade unions, and by so doing assist leaders who take the view that the strength of the movement is, not proportionate to its militancy. The sympathy, of the country today would be on the side of a strong trade unionism, watchful at all times of the interest• of the worker, but governed with moderation. That is a fact of which the leaders seem to be aware.
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