Guild Socialism, championed by the ablest and most
industrious insurgents of the rising generation in the Society, raised
its issue with Collectivism only to discover, when the matter, after a
long agitation, was finally thrashed out at a conference at Barrow
House, that the issue was an imaginary one, and that Collectivism lost
nothing by the fullest tenable concessions to the Guild Socialists. A
very brief consideration will shew that this was inevitable.
Guild Socialism, in spite of its engaging medieval name, means nothing
more picturesque than a claim that under Socialism each industry shall
be controlled by its own operators, as the professions are to-day. This
by itself would not imply Socialism at all: it would be merely a revival
of the medieval guild, or a fresh attempt at the now exploded
self-governing workshop of the primitive co-operators. Guild Socialism,
with the emphasis on the Socialism, implies that the industries, however
completely they may be controlled by their separate staffs, must pool
their products. All the Guild Socialists admit this. The Socialist State
must therefore include an organ for receiving and distributing the
pooled products; and such an organ, representing the citizen not as
producer but as consumer, reintroduces the whole machinery of
Collectivism. Thus the alleged antithesis between Guild Socialism and
Collectivism, under cover of which the one was presented as an
alternative to the other, vanished at the first touch of the skilled
criticism the Fabians brought to bear on it; and now Mrs.
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