tem. Therefore, those who wish to capture the system must concentrate on first capturing the markets.
b. They also argued, that the consuming function of man is more vital than the producing function, and that therefore industrial society and life should be controlled from the consumption end.
c. According to this theory, labor should concentrate upon consumers' cooperation. In this way workers can capture the markets and then take over the factories producing for these markets.
d. The classic example of the success of this procedure is the cooperative movement of England which started as consumers' cooperation and now owns factories, plantations, steamships, etc.
e. Those who believe in producers' cooperation and Guild Socialism, hold that the producer function is the most vital and industrial life should be controlled from that end.
VIII.
a. Another group also endorses the belief that labor should emancipate itself through economic action and asserts that credit control is the only key to modern capitalism.
b. This element bases its contention on the ground that banks and great financiers dominate modern business and that labor must first organize its own banks and then after controlling credit, will branch out into controlling production and markets. By controlling credit, the other two basic economic activities will also be controlled.
c. This idea of credit control and labor banks was first broached in the forties. Some unsuccessful attempts were even made to launch labor banks.
d. But for various reasons, the radical and reform elements in the labor movement lost sight of this angle and busied themselves with attempting to capture production and markets.
e. Only recently has the labor movement again taken up credit control and labor banks, which are now cropping out throughout the country.
Readings:
Commons and Associates: History of Labor in the United States. Vol. I, Part II, Chap. II and VI; Vol. II, Part VI, Chap. XI.
Saposs, Labor Banks and Trade Union Capitalism, American Review, September, 1923.
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