The Rudolf Steiner Archive

104. Works Councils and Their Relationships with Transportation and Economic Councils

[ 1 ] Thankfully, there are people in Germany who have a sincere desire to do their best to help rebuild the fatherland and who do not shy away from going public with their proposals, which they believe are suitable for this purpose. Among them is Dr. Rudolf Steiner, who has recently attracted a great deal of attention with his theory of the threefold social order and who, like all public figures, must endure criticism from those who, for whatever reason, cannot follow his line of thought or consider the implementation of his proposals impossible. He considers it impossible to solve the various social issues from a single source and therefore proposes a division into three main areas: 1. the spiritual, 2. the legal or political, and 3. the economic. Each of these areas should be administered independently, but all together they should be placed on the broad foundation of a social life yet to be built, where they intersect and complement one another to form a unified new form of state life in which all forces are put to fruitful use for the benefit of all humanity.

[ 2 ] To implement Steiner’s proposals, an association for the threefold social order has been formed; at its invitation, many men and women gathered yesterday evening in the Kugel Hall to hear a lecture by Dr. Steiner on works councils and their relationship to the transportation and economic councils. Before speaking on this topic, he picked up where he left off in the lecture he gave here a few weeks ago and outlined the key points of his vision for resolving social issues. One may or may not agree with him on specific points, but taken as a whole, his proposals can likely be put to good use in building a new form of state and economic life, and it would be highly desirable that the useful elements of them not be lost. The works councils, as proposed by Steiner, should not be confused with the workers’ committees that already exist in larger enterprises. They are to be composed of employees and workers, and may even include the business owner himself, if he so desires. Their task would be to regulate production and the distribution of goods according to consumption, not—as has been the case, at times exclusively, in capitalist economic life up to now—according to profit. Together, the works councils would form a council system for a defined economic region (for example, a state assembly for Württemberg), which would address all fundamental issues, while the works councils themselves could take into account the specific circumstances of each individual enterprise. This system of works councils would also have to encompass the entire transportation system (railroads, postal service, etc.). In this way, genuine socialization—which would be impossible for individual enterprises—could be achieved. – The speaker’s remarks, which were followed with great attention, were met with lively applause from the assembly.

[ 3 ] The evening’s chair, Mr. Hüttelmeyer, thanked him and called on white-collar workers (employees, etc.) to engage more closely with blue-collar workers than they had in the past and to work together to find solutions to social issues. A lively discussion then ensued, in which Messrs. Haupt, Dill, Pfisterer, Klein, and Lorenz participated. Their remarks generally agreed with Steiner’s ideas, though differences of opinion emerged on specific points, to which the main speaker responded objectively in his closing remarks. The course of the evening made a very favorable impression. It was a sincere exchange of views among people who care about creating good social conditions, and one would hope that such discussions involving participants from all walks of life would take place more often. For it is not through mutual conflict, but through understanding, that social contradictions are resolved and paths to improvement—when necessary—are found.