Page:George Henry Soule - Recent Developments in Trade Unionism (1921).pdf/17

 general strike in the Russian and other questions. At the same time it has grown numerically, until now it is the largest party outside the Coalition government. It has already captured many local governments, and hopes before many years to have a majority in Parliament. Organized labor is almost solidly behind it, and it has long been supported by trade-union funds.

The continental labor movement is not so similar to the American as is the English, and on account of the confusion and destruction of the war its recent tendencies have not been so stable and significant. In some countries its character has been affected by revolutions and the installation of nominally socialist governments, as well as by the formation of more radical, communist groups. In others it has been severely handicapped by reaction.

The most interesting developments have been in Germany and Italy. In Germany at present there is rapidly developing a councils movement similar to the British shop-steward movement. It is unofficial, and not encouraged by the trade-unions themselves. It consists of shop councils including all the workmen in a plant, regardless of the union or the political party to which they belong. These shop councils are in turn being affiliated by indus-