guild socialism

Early 20th-century movement in Britain whose aim was to organize and control the industrial life of the country through self-governing democratic guilds of workers. Inspired by Catholicism, it was anti-materialistic and attempted to arrest what it saw as a spiritual decline in modern civilization. The National Guilds League was founded in 1915, and at the movement's height there were over 20 guilds, but the league was dissolved in 1925.

Guild socialism was the British variant of syndicalism. The movement was begun in 1906 under J A Hobson to bring about the restoration of the medieval guild system on modern lines. The trade unions were to be organized as guilds to control their respective industries after they were nationalized. In 1915 the National Guilds League was formed and many trade unions joined it. Five years later the National Guild Council was formed and a building guild was organized to carry out an ambitious plan, formulated by the council to erect houses.

The collapse of this scheme ended the league, which was dissolved in 1925. Guild socialists believed that value was created by society as a whole rather than by individual producers and entrepreneurs. They accused capitalist economists of defending the acquisition of wealth without considering its responsibilities and opportunities for rendering services to the community.