The corporate labour policy of Fine Gael, 1934

Corporatism or vocationalism had many advocates throughout Europe in the 1930s. Corporatists rejected the extremes of laissez-faire capitalism, with its attendant exploitation of workers, and totalitarian communism, with its emphasis on the doctrine of class struggle. They recommended a middle way between two hostile systems and sought to achieve social harmony by means of the establishment of corporations, representative of workers and employers, to regulate the various areas of national economic activity. These corporations were to secure co-operation between capital and labour, thus eliminating social conflict. In Ireland vocationalism had been popularised by the papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno, and it had strong proponents among certain elements in Fine Gael and the Blueshirts while both were under the leadership of General Eoin O’Duffy in 1933 and 1934. The spectacular failure of the Blueshirts and O’Duffy’s incompetence as Fine Gael leader resulted in the corporate-inspired Labour policy of Fine Gael, published in 1934, being ignored by historians. Yet it is worthy of attention, not least because it was the only significant policy formulation by vocationalists within Fine Gael. Furthermore, an examination of the proposals serves to illuminate reasons why corporatism and the Blueshirts were doomed to political failure.