Functional socialism

156 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

creed of the Syndicalist is because he realizes that the virtual conquest of the production and distribution of wealth brings in its train, not only widespread prosperity, but an endless chain of noneconomic movements for social change; opens up vistas of a new life to which our eyes, now heavy with anxiety or privation, must needs be blind.

Apart from the precise theory or detailed proposals of Guild Socialism, which time may or may not have modified, its most urgent lesson to this new generation is the pressing necessity for the separation of our economic activities from our political life. Non-functional citizenship is plainly incapable, through its political machinery, of directing the functional work of our vast industry. But the separation of industry from politics is, in itself, useless unless industry itself is transformed into a public service and ceases to be a vulgar and shabby system of personal aggrandisement. Whether Guild Socialism experiences a rebirth depends, firstly, upon the insistence of the community upon an industrial revolution or re-integration; and, secondly, whether any other theory or vision of a new society has a sounder basis or a stronger appeal. The last decade has been eaten by locusts; now we begin where, ten years ago, Guild Socialism left off. I believe it still holds the field as the only coherent scheme of a new life, appealing both to our practical genius and political instinct.