Correspondence; [The Socialist Attitude To Trade Unions.] (1909)

Letter to the Editors from the October 1909 issue of the Socialist Standard

H. Harrison (Salford) asks :

“How does a Trade Unionist stand in respect to membership of your Party seeing that he supports palliative measures—8 hours day, etc.—and in many ways upholds the present system ?”

Reply:

A member of the S.P.G.B., like others, has to live, and in some trades cannot do so without being a member of a trade union. He is often warranted in adhering to a trade union because it to some extent slackens the tendency of working-class conditions to worsen : it offers the means of somewhat more effectively resisting the employers than were he isolated.

But your S.P.G.B. member remains a Socialist though a member of a trade union, and will not fail as opportunity offers to point out the weakness of the trade union position, its lack of understanding of capitalism and its consequent faulty tactics. He will oppose the support of “Labour” M.P.s as far as possible and generally carry on the work of a Socialist, which is, at the present juncture, mostly the work of propaganda. How much of his time and energy may be advisedly spent with the trade union his experience will decide.—Ed. ” S.S.”