Labour policy—false and true : $b A study in economic history and industrial economicsMacassey, Lynden Livingston
History
Labour policy—false and true : $b A study in economic history and industrial economics
Macassey, Lynden Livingston
Industrial policy -- Great Britain; Labor economics -- Great Britain; Labour Party (Great Britain)
“Seeing that the land alone of all the factors of production is
both indispensable to man and incapable of expansion by human
agency, it is pre-eminently the rightful property of the nation
as a whole. The present system which treats land as private
property and prevents free access to it, hampers industry,
checks production, crowds the towns by depopulating the
countryside, obstructs the provision of good housing, lowers
the standard of public health both physical and moral; this
Conference strongly urges the Government to bring forward, as
early as possible, some scheme for the nationalization of land
so as to abolish the present unjust system of land ownership
and land leasing. It strongly deprecates the action of the
Government in preventing the completion of the valuation of
the land, and demands that such valuation shall be completed
as early as possible, with a view to the ultimate complete
socialization of all land and minerals.”
The Control of Industry
In view of divergent proposals and the general lack of any precise
information as to the Party’s intentions in regard to the control of
industry, it is not surprising to find this resolution passed at the
Southport Conference, 1919, and, significantly, moved by the British
Socialist Party:
“That it be referred to the Executive Committee to consider
and report to a further Conference on the arrangements to
be introduced into industry in order to provide Labour with
facilities to control industry—that is to say, to participate
in the promotion of undertakings, the negotiation of
contracts, determination of the product, and the selection
of markets—and the extent that such control by Labour can
be secured, or is desirable, on the basis of the private
ownership of land and capital. The Executive shall indicate the
distinction between conciliatory Labour and Capital and the
actual control of industry by the workers, and to that end is
instructed to report on:
“(_a_) The Industrial Councils and their bearing on the
question.
“(_b_) The co-partnership of Labour and Capital.
“(_c_) The means to achieve the democratic management of
industries in national ownership.
“(_d_) How far the representation of Trade Unions, through
their Executives or by ballot of the members, could ensure
participation in actual control, and whether, for effective
control, it is not necessary that the employees in the workshop
or the pit shall construct an organization, integral to any
scheme of democratic management.
“(_e_) Whether the sole or partial management by Labour of
industries in national ownership should be confined to the
actual workers therein, or should include workers in other
occupations.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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