WEBVTT NOTE XXXIII. Syndicalism and Corporativism 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Chapter 33, Syndicalism and Corporativism 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:10.000 1. The Syndicalist Idea 3 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:17.000 The term syndicalism is used to signify two entirely different things. 4 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Syndicalism as used by the partisans of Georges Sorrel means special revolutionary tactics to be resorted to for the realization of socialism. 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:38.000 Labor unions, it implies, should not waste their strength in the task of improving the conditions of wage earners within the frame of capitalism. 6 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:47.000 They should adopt action direct, unflinching violence to destroy all the institutions of capitalism. 7 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:55.000 They should never cease to fight, in the genuine sense of the term, for their ultimate goal, socialism. 8 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:05.500 The proletarians must not let themselves be fooled by the catchwords of the bourgeoisie, such as liberty, democracy, representative government. 9 00:01:05.500 --> 00:01:16.500 They must seek their salvation in the class struggle, in bloody revolutionary upheavals, and in the pitiless annihilation of the bourgeois. 10 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:22.000 This doctrine played and still plays an enormous role in modern politics. 11 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:29.440 It has provided essential ideas to Russian Bolshevism, Italian Fascism and German Nazism. 12 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:35.440 But it is a purely political issue and may be disregarded in a catallactic analysis. 13 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:43.360 The second meaning of the term syndicalism refers to a program of society's economic organization. 14 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:50.080 While socialism aims at the substitution of government ownership of the means of production 15 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:53.000 for Private Ownership. 16 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.220 Syndicalism wants to give the ownership of the plants to the workers employed in them. 17 00:01:58.220 --> 00:02:04.960 Such slogans as the railroads to the railroad men, or the mines to the miners, best indicate 18 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:08.460 the ultimate goals of syndicalism. 19 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:14.940 The ideas of socialism and those of syndicalism in the sense of action direct were developed 20 00:02:14.940 --> 00:02:21.900 by intellectuals, whom consistent adepts of all Marxian sects cannot help describing as 21 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:23.900 bourgeois. 22 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:30.060 But the idea of syndicalism as a system of social organization is a genuine product of 23 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:32.500 the proletarian mind. 24 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:39.660 It is precisely what the naive employee considers a fair and expedient means for improving his 25 00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:42.580 own material well-being. 26 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:58.780 If one were to take these plans seriously, one would not have to deal with them in a 27 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:02.380 discussion of the problems of interventionism. 28 00:03:02.380 --> 00:03:10.060 One would have to realize that syndicalism is neither socialism, nor capitalism, nor interventionism, 29 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:14.340 and a system of its own, different from these three schemes. 30 00:03:14.340 --> 00:03:21.660 However, one cannot take the syndicalist program seriously, and nobody ever has. 31 00:03:21.660 --> 00:03:28.620 Nobody has been so confused and injudicious as to advocate syndicalism openly as a social 32 00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:30.420 system. 33 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:35.660 Syndicalism has played a role in the discussion of economic issues only as far as certain 34 00:03:35.660 --> 00:03:40.740 and programs unwittingly contained syndicalist features. 35 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:46.820 There are elements of syndicalism in certain objectives of government and labor union interference 36 00:03:46.820 --> 00:03:49.160 with market phenomena. 37 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:56.700 There are, moreover, guild socialism and corporativism, which pretended to avoid the government omnipotence 38 00:03:56.700 --> 00:04:03.460 inherent in all socialist and interventionist ventures by adulterating them with a syndicalist 39 00:04:03.460 --> 00:04:07.020 Admixture 2. 40 00:04:07.020 --> 00:04:10.460 The Fallacies of Syndicalism 41 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:15.740 The root of the syndicalist idea is to be seen in the belief that entrepreneurs and 42 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:23.220 capitalists are irresponsible autocrats who are free to conduct their affairs arbitrarily. 43 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.700 Such a dictatorship must not be tolerated. 44 00:04:26.700 --> 00:04:31.660 The liberal movement, which has substituted representative government for the despotism 45 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:44.660 The system of hereditary kings and aristocrats must crown its achievements by substituting industrial democracy for the tyranny of hereditary capitalists and entrepreneurs. 46 00:04:44.660 --> 00:04:54.660 The economic revolution must bring to a climax the liberation of the people which the political revolution has inaugurated. 47 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:58.660 The fundamental error of this argument is obvious. 48 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:03.700 Entrepreneurs and capitalists are not irresponsible autocrats. 49 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:08.740 They are unconditionally subject to the sovereignty of the consumers. 50 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:12.080 The market is a consumer's democracy. 51 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:17.820 The syndicalists want to transform it into a producer's democracy. 52 00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:25.380 This idea is fallacious, for the sole end and purpose of production is consumption. 53 00:05:25.380 --> 00:05:31.440 What the syndicalist considers the most serious defect of the capitalist system, and disparages 54 00:05:31.440 --> 00:05:38.260 as the brutality and callousness of autocratic profit-seekers, is precisely the outcome of 55 00:05:38.260 --> 00:05:41.420 the supremacy of the consumers. 56 00:05:41.420 --> 00:05:47.700 Under the competitive conditions of the unhampered market economy, the entrepreneurs are forced 57 00:05:47.700 --> 00:05:53.880 to improve technological methods of production without regard to the vested interests of 58 00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:55.560 of the Workers. 59 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:02.200 The employer is forced never to pay workers more than corresponds to the consumer's appraisal 60 00:06:02.200 --> 00:06:04.480 of their achievements. 61 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:10.440 If an employee asks for a raise because his wife has born him a new baby and the employer 62 00:06:10.440 --> 00:06:16.000 refuses on the ground that the infant does not contribute to the factory's effort, the 63 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.860 employer acts as the mandatory of the consumers. 64 00:06:20.860 --> 00:06:27.380 These consumers are not prepared to pay more for any commodity merely because the worker 65 00:06:27.380 --> 00:06:29.900 has a large family. 66 00:06:29.900 --> 00:06:35.980 The naivete of the syndicalists manifests itself in the fact that they would never concede 67 00:06:35.980 --> 00:06:42.220 to those producing the articles which they themselves are using, the same privileges 68 00:06:42.220 --> 00:06:45.300 which they claim for themselves. 69 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:50.880 The syndicalist principle requires that the shares of every corporation should be taken 70 00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:58.920 away from absentee ownership and be equally distributed among the employees. 71 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:04.260 Payment of interest and principal of debts is to be discontinued. 72 00:07:04.260 --> 00:07:09.040 Management will then be placed in the hands of a board elected by the workers, who are 73 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.020 now also the shareholders. 74 00:07:12.020 --> 00:07:18.380 This mode of confiscation and redistribution will not bring about equality within the nation 75 00:07:18.380 --> 00:07:20.060 or the world. 76 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:25.220 It would give more to the employees of those enterprises in which the quota of capital 77 00:07:25.220 --> 00:07:32.160 invested per worker is greater, and less to those in which it is smaller. 78 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:38.440 It is a characteristic fact that the syndicalists in dealing with these issues always refer 79 00:07:38.440 --> 00:07:43.800 to Management and never mention entrepreneurial activities. 80 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:50.480 As the average subordinate employee sees things, all that is to be done in the conduct of business 81 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:56.720 is to accomplish those ancillary tasks which are entrusted to the managerial hierarchy 82 00:07:56.720 --> 00:08:00.720 within the frame of the entrepreneurial plans. 83 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:07.720 In his eyes, the individual plant or workshop as it exists and operates today is a permanent 84 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:14.840 Establishment. It will never change. It will always turn out the same products. He ignores 85 00:08:14.840 --> 00:08:20.720 completely the fact that conditions are in a ceaseless flux, and that the industrial 86 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:29.240 structure must be daily adjusted to the solution of new problems. His world view is stationary. 87 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:35.560 It does not allow for new branches of business, new products, and new and better methods for 88 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:38.600 for Manufacturing the Old Products. 89 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:44.760 Thus the syndicalist ignores the essential problems of entrepreneurship, providing the 90 00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:51.360 capital for new industries and the expansion of already existing industries, restricting 91 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:58.120 branches for the products demand for which drops, technological improvement. 92 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:05.400 It is not unfair to call syndicalism the economic philosophy of short-sighted people, of those 93 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:12.080 Adamant conservatives who look askance upon any innovation and are so blinded by envy 94 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:18.000 that they call down curses upon those who provide them with more, better and cheaper 95 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:19.360 products. 96 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:26.480 They are like patients who grudge the doctor his success in curing them of a malady. 97 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.620 3. 98 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:32.620 Syndicalist elements in popular policies. 99 00:09:32.620 --> 00:09:39.060 The popularity of syndicalism manifests itself in various postulates of contemporary economic 100 00:09:39.060 --> 00:09:40.700 policies. 101 00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:46.400 The essence of these policies is always to grant privileges to a minority group at the 102 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:49.520 expense of the immense majority. 103 00:09:49.520 --> 00:09:56.220 They invariably result in impairing the wealth and income of the majority. 104 00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:02.900 Many labor unions are intent upon restricting the number of workers employed in their field. 105 00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:09.260 While the public wants more and cheaper books, periodicals and newspapers and would get them 106 00:10:09.260 --> 00:10:15.220 under the conditions of an unhampered labor market, the typographical unions prevent many 107 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:19.060 newcomers from working in printing offices. 108 00:10:19.060 --> 00:10:25.200 The effect is, of course, an increase in the wages earned by the union members. 109 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:31.440 But the corollary is a drop of wage rates for those not admitted, and an enhancement 110 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:34.520 in the price of printed matter. 111 00:10:34.520 --> 00:10:39.840 The same effect is brought about by union opposition to the utilization of technological 112 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:45.560 improvements and by all sorts of feather-bedding practices. 113 00:10:45.560 --> 00:10:52.180 Radical syndicalism aims at entirely eliminating payment of dividends to shareholders and of 114 00:10:52.180 --> 00:10:54.660 interest to creditors. 115 00:10:54.660 --> 00:10:59.780 The interventionists, in their enthusiasm for middle-of-the-road solutions, want to 116 00:10:59.780 --> 00:11:05.900 appease the syndicalists by giving the employees a part of the profits. 117 00:11:05.900 --> 00:11:09.420 Profit-sharing is a very popular slogan. 118 00:11:09.420 --> 00:11:15.300 There is no need to enter anew into an examination of the fallacies implied in the underlying 119 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:16.940 philosophy. 120 00:11:16.940 --> 00:11:23.580 It suffices to show the absurd consequences to which such a system must lead. 121 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:29.940 It may sometimes be good policy for a small shop or for an enterprise employing highly 122 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:36.780 skilled workers to grant an extra bonus to employees if business is prosperous. 123 00:11:36.780 --> 00:11:42.860 But it is a non sequitur to assume that what under special conditions may be wise for an 124 00:11:42.860 --> 00:11:48.500 individual firm could work satisfactorily as a general system. 125 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:54.100 There is no reason why one welder should make more money because his employer earns high 126 00:11:54.100 --> 00:12:00.580 profits and another welder less because his employer earns lower profits or no profits 127 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:01.960 at all. 128 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:07.220 The workers themselves would rebel against such a method of remuneration. 129 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:11.540 It could not be preserved even for a short time. 130 00:12:11.540 --> 00:12:18.140 A caricature of the profit-sharing scheme is the ability-to-pay principle as recently 131 00:12:18.140 --> 00:12:23.020 introduced into the program of American labor unionism. 132 00:12:23.020 --> 00:12:29.380 While the profit-sharing scheme aims at an allocation to the employees of a part of profits 133 00:12:29.380 --> 00:12:36.420 already earned, the ability-to-pay scheme aims at a distribution of profits which some 134 00:12:36.420 --> 00:12:42.080 external observers believe the employer may earn in the future. 135 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:47.340 The issue has been obfuscated by the fact that the Truman administration, after having 136 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:53.460 accepted the new union doctrine, announced that it was appointing a fact-finding board, 137 00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:58.560 which would have the authority to examine the books of the employers in order to determine 138 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:02.340 their ability to pay an increase in wages. 139 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:10.240 However, the books can provide information only about past costs and proceeds, and past 140 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:13.200 profits and losses. 141 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:18.860 Estimates of future volume of production, future sales, future costs, or future profits 142 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:24.680 or losses are not facts, but speculative anticipations. 143 00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:29.200 There are no facts about future profits. 144 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:35.020 There cannot be any question of realizing the syndicalist ideal, according to which the 145 00:13:35.020 --> 00:13:41.120 proceeds of an enterprise should completely go to the employees, and nothing should be 146 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:45.860 left for interest on the capital invested and profits. 147 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:53.200 If one wants to abolish what is called unearned income, one must adopt socialism. 148 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:59.520 4. Guild Socialism and Corporativism 149 00:13:59.520 --> 00:14:07.040 The ideas of Guild Socialism and Corporativism originated from two different lines of thought. 150 00:14:07.040 --> 00:14:13.400 The eulogists of medieval institutions long praised the eminence of the guilds. What was 151 00:14:13.400 --> 00:14:19.280 needed to wash away the alleged evils of the market economy was simply to return to the 152 00:14:19.280 --> 00:14:26.240 The Well-Tried Methods of the Past However, all these diatribes remained sterile. 153 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:31.960 The critics never attempted to particularize their suggestions or to elaborate definite 154 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:36.600 plans for an economic reconstruction of the social order. 155 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:42.880 The most they did was to point out the alleged superiority of the old quasi-representative 156 00:14:42.880 --> 00:14:50.960 Assemblies of the type of the French Etat-Generaux and the German Ständische Landtagge as against 157 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:54.040 the modern parliamentary bodies. 158 00:14:54.040 --> 00:15:00.640 But even with regard to this constitutional issue, their ideas were rather vague. 159 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:05.980 The second source of guild socialism is to be found in specific political conditions 160 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:08.140 of Great Britain. 161 00:15:08.140 --> 00:15:15.640 When the conflict with Germany became aggravated and finally in 1914 led to war, the younger 162 00:15:15.640 --> 00:15:20.540 British socialists began to feel uneasy about their program. 163 00:15:20.540 --> 00:15:26.860 The state idolatry of the Fabians and the glorification of German and Prussian institutions 164 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:32.820 was paradoxical indeed at a time when their own country was involved in a pitiless struggle 165 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:35.080 against Germany. 166 00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:39.840 What was the use of fighting the Germans when the most progressive intellectuals of the 167 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:44.640 country longed for the adoption of German social policies? 168 00:15:44.640 --> 00:15:50.080 Was it possible to praise British liberty as against Prussian bondage, and at the same 169 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:55.640 time to recommend the methods of Bismarck and his successors? 170 00:15:55.640 --> 00:16:01.280 British socialists yearned for a specifically British brand of socialism, as different as 171 00:16:01.280 --> 00:16:04.460 possible from the Teutonic brand. 172 00:16:04.460 --> 00:16:12.380 The problem was to construct a socialist scheme without totalitarian state supremacy and omnipotence, 173 00:16:12.380 --> 00:16:17.040 an individualistic variety of collectivism. 174 00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:22.780 The solution to this problem is no less impossible than that of the construction of a triangular 175 00:16:22.780 --> 00:16:24.020 square. 176 00:16:24.020 --> 00:16:28.500 Yet the young men of Oxford confidently tried to solve it. 177 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:34.340 They borrowed for their program the name Guild Socialism from the little-known group of the 178 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:41.420 by the eulogists of the Middle Ages. They characterized their scheme as industrial self-government, 179 00:16:41.420 --> 00:16:48.020 an economic corollary of the most renowned principle of English political rule, local 180 00:16:48.020 --> 00:16:53.460 government. In their plans, they assigned the leading role to the most powerful British 181 00:16:53.460 --> 00:17:00.060 pressure group, the trade unions. Thus, they did everything to make their device palatable 182 00:17:00.060 --> 00:17:01.780 to their countrymen. 183 00:17:01.780 --> 00:17:08.860 However, neither these captivating adornments nor the obtrusive and noisy propaganda could 184 00:17:08.860 --> 00:17:11.260 mislead intelligent people. 185 00:17:11.260 --> 00:17:15.960 The plan was contradictory and blatantly impracticable. 186 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:22.180 After only a few years it fell into complete oblivion in the country of its origin. 187 00:17:22.180 --> 00:17:25.060 But then came a resurrection. 188 00:17:25.060 --> 00:17:30.860 The Italian fascists badly needed an economic program of their own. 189 00:17:30.860 --> 00:17:35.860 After having seceded from the international parties of Marxian socialism, they could no 190 00:17:35.860 --> 00:17:38.620 longer pose as socialists. 191 00:17:38.620 --> 00:17:44.080 Neither were they, the proud scions of the invincible Roman legionaries, prepared to 192 00:17:44.080 --> 00:17:50.460 make concessions to Western capitalism or to Prussian interventionism, the counterfeit 193 00:17:50.460 --> 00:17:55.980 are ideologies of the barbarians who had destroyed their glorious empire. 194 00:17:55.980 --> 00:18:01.940 They were in search of a social philosophy purely and exclusively Italian. 195 00:18:01.940 --> 00:18:07.780 Whether or not they knew that their gospel was merely a replica of British guild socialism 196 00:18:07.780 --> 00:18:09.700 is immaterial. 197 00:18:09.700 --> 00:18:17.280 At any rate, the Stato Corporativo was nothing but a re-baptized edition of guild socialism. 198 00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:22.880 The differences concerned only on important details. 199 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:28.620 Corporativism was flamboyantly advertised by the bombastic propaganda of the fascists, 200 00:18:28.620 --> 00:18:32.420 and the success of their campaign was overwhelming. 201 00:18:32.420 --> 00:18:38.220 Many foreign authors exuberantly praised the miraculous achievements of the new system. 202 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:43.680 The governments of Austria and Portugal emphasized that they were firmly committed to the noble 203 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.780 ideas of corporativism. 204 00:18:46.780 --> 00:18:54.460 The Pope's encyclical, Quadra Gessimo Anno, 1931, contained passages which could, but 205 00:18:54.460 --> 00:18:59.580 need not, be interpreted as an endorsement of corporatism. 206 00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:05.460 At any rate, Catholic authors supported this interpretation in books which were published 207 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:09.060 with the imprimatur of the Church authorities. 208 00:19:09.060 --> 00:19:15.340 Yet neither the Italian fascists nor the Austrian and Portuguese governments ever made any 209 00:19:15.340 --> 00:19:20.700 Any Serious Attempt to Realize the Corporativist Utopia. 210 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:27.660 The Italians attached to various institutions the label corporativist and transformed the 211 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:35.460 university chairs of political economy into chairs of economia politica e corporativa. 212 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:42.260 But never was there any question of the much talked about essential feature of corporativism, 213 00:19:42.260 --> 00:19:47.260 of Government of the Various Branches of Trade and Industry 214 00:19:47.260 --> 00:19:59.260 The fascist government clung first to the same principles of economic policies which all not outright socialist governments have adopted in our day, interventionism. 215 00:19:59.260 --> 00:20:11.260 Then, later, it turned step by step toward the German system of socialism, that is, all-round state control of economic activities. 216 00:20:11.260 --> 00:20:17.540 The fundamental idea both of guild socialism and of corporativism is that every branch 217 00:20:17.540 --> 00:20:24.580 of business forms a monopolistic body, the guild or corporazione. 218 00:20:24.580 --> 00:20:27.700 This entity enjoys full autonomy. 219 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:34.580 It is free to settle all its internal affairs without interference of external factors and 220 00:20:34.580 --> 00:20:38.920 of people who are not themselves members of the guild. 221 00:20:38.920 --> 00:20:44.840 The mutual relations between the various guilds are settled by direct bargaining from guild 222 00:20:44.840 --> 00:20:51.560 to guild, or by the decisions of a general assembly of the delegates of all guilds. 223 00:20:51.560 --> 00:20:56.760 In the regular course of affairs, the government does not interfere at all. 224 00:20:56.760 --> 00:21:02.760 Only in exceptional cases, when an agreement between the various guilds cannot be attained, 225 00:21:02.760 --> 00:21:05.840 is the state called in. 226 00:21:05.840 --> 00:21:11.300 In drafting this scheme, the guild socialists had in mind the conditions of British local 227 00:21:11.300 --> 00:21:16.800 government and the relation between the various local authorities and the central government 228 00:21:16.800 --> 00:21:18.980 of the United Kingdom. 229 00:21:18.980 --> 00:21:23.160 They aimed at self-government of each branch of industry. 230 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:29.720 They wanted, as the webs put it, the right of self-determination for each vocation. 231 00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:35.440 In the same way in which each municipality takes care of its local community affairs 232 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:40.640 and the National Government handles only those affairs which concern the interests of the 233 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:47.360 whole nation, the Guild alone should have jurisdiction over its internal affairs, and 234 00:21:47.360 --> 00:21:52.600 the Government should restrict its interference to those things which the Guilds themselves 235 00:21:52.600 --> 00:21:54.400 cannot settle. 236 00:21:54.400 --> 00:22:00.480 However, within a system of social cooperation under the division of labor, there are no 237 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:08.040 No such things as matters of concern only to those engaged in a special plant, enterprise, 238 00:22:08.040 --> 00:22:12.960 or branch of industry, and of no concern to outsiders. 239 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:19.600 There are no internal affairs of any guild or corporazione, the arrangement of which 240 00:22:19.600 --> 00:22:22.560 does not affect the whole nation. 241 00:22:22.560 --> 00:22:27.920 A branch of business does not serve only those who are occupied in it. 242 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:30.080 It serves everybody. 243 00:22:30.080 --> 00:22:35.880 If within any branch of business there is inefficiency, a squandering of scarce factors 244 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:42.600 of production, or a reluctance to adopt the most appropriate methods of production, everybody's 245 00:22:42.600 --> 00:22:45.840 material interests are hurt. 246 00:22:45.840 --> 00:22:51.500 One cannot leave decisions concerning the choice of technological methods, the quantity 247 00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:57.400 and quality of products, the hours of work, and a thousand other things to the members 248 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:03.500 of the Guild because they concern outsiders no less than members. 249 00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:09.840 In the market economy, the entrepreneur in making such decisions is unconditionally subject 250 00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:12.160 to the law of the market. 251 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:15.280 He is responsible to the consumers. 252 00:23:15.280 --> 00:23:20.840 If he were to defy the orders of the consumers, he would suffer losses and would very soon 253 00:23:20.840 --> 00:23:24.240 forfeit his entrepreneurial position. 254 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:28.720 But the monopolistic guild does not need to fear competition. 255 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:35.100 It enjoys the inalienable right of exclusively covering its field of production. 256 00:23:35.100 --> 00:23:41.820 It is, if left alone and autonomous, not the servant of the consumers, but their master. 257 00:23:41.820 --> 00:23:47.360 It is free to resort to practices which favor its members at the expense of the rest of 258 00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:49.320 the people. 259 00:23:49.320 --> 00:23:55.040 It is of no importance whether within the Guild the workers alone rule or whether and 260 00:23:55.040 --> 00:24:00.440 to what extent the capitalists and the former entrepreneurs cooperate in the management 261 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:02.200 of affairs. 262 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:07.240 It is likewise without importance whether or not some seats in the Guild's governing 263 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:11.620 board are assigned to representatives of the consumers. 264 00:24:11.620 --> 00:24:17.940 What counts is that the Guild, if autonomous, is not subject to pressure that would force 265 00:24:17.940 --> 00:24:31.700 It is free to give the interests of its members precedence over the interests of consumers. 266 00:24:31.700 --> 00:24:37.340 There is in the scheme of guild socialism and corporatism nothing that would take into 267 00:24:37.340 --> 00:24:43.260 account the fact that the only purpose of production is consumption. 268 00:24:43.260 --> 00:24:55.540 When the American New Deal embarked upon the National Recovery Administration Scheme, the 269 00:24:55.540 --> 00:25:00.820 government and its brain trust were fully aware of the fact that what they planned was 270 00:25:00.820 --> 00:25:08.380 merely the establishment of an administrative apparatus for full government control of business. 271 00:25:08.380 --> 00:25:13.980 The short-sightedness of the guild socialists and corporativists is to be seen in the fact 272 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:20.700 that they believe that the Autonomous Guild, or corporazione, could be considered a device 273 00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:25.100 for a working system of social cooperation. 274 00:25:25.100 --> 00:25:31.980 It is very easy indeed for each guild to arrange its allegedly internal affairs in such a way 275 00:25:31.980 --> 00:25:35.780 as to satisfy its members fully. 276 00:25:35.780 --> 00:25:41.740 hours of work, high wage rates, no further improvements in technological methods or in 277 00:25:41.740 --> 00:25:47.220 the quality of the products which could inconvenience the members, very well. 278 00:25:47.220 --> 00:25:53.940 But what will the result be if all guilds resort to the same policies? 279 00:25:53.940 --> 00:25:58.460 Under the guild system there is no longer any question of a market. 280 00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:03.220 There are no longer any prices in the catallactic sense of the term. 281 00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:07.900 There are neither competitive prices nor monopoly prices. 282 00:26:07.900 --> 00:26:15.180 Those guilds which monopolize the supply of vital necessities attain a dictatorial position. 283 00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:20.820 The producers of indispensable foodstuffs and fuel and the suppliers of electric current 284 00:26:20.820 --> 00:26:26.740 and of transportation can with impunity squeeze the whole people. 285 00:26:26.740 --> 00:26:32.180 Does anybody expect that the majority will tolerate such a state of affairs? 286 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:38.700 There is no doubt that any attempt to realize the corporativist utopia would in a very short 287 00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:45.120 time lead to violent conflicts if the government did not interfere when the vital industries 288 00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:48.360 abused their privileged position. 289 00:26:48.360 --> 00:26:54.580 What the doctrinaires envisage only as an exceptional measure, the interference of the 290 00:26:54.580 --> 00:26:57.460 government, will become the rule. 291 00:26:57.460 --> 00:27:05.460 Guild Socialism and Corporativism will turn into full government control of all production activities. 292 00:27:05.460 --> 00:27:13.460 They will develop into that system of Prussian zwangswirtschaft, which they were designed to avoid. 293 00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:18.460 There is no need to deal with the other fundamental shortcomings of the Guild scheme. 294 00:27:18.460 --> 00:27:22.460 It is as deficient as any other syndicalist project. 295 00:27:22.460 --> 00:27:33.460 It does not take into account the necessity of shifting capital and labor from one branch to another, and of establishing new branches of production. 296 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:42.460 It entirely neglects the problem of saving and capital accumulation. In short, it is nonsense.