ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relevance of the common distinctions between reformist and revolutionary trade organisation in analysing the uneven roles reserved for mutual benefit systems in European trade unions using comparative analysis. The existence of mutual benefit systems alongside industrial action was no contradiction; they were one of its foundations and the basis for its successful prosecution. In the three countries, mutual aid societies were conceived as a spontaneous substitute for the vanishing obligation of the rich to protect the poor. They were complemented by the development of cooperative movements which protected workers as consumers. The help provided by mutual aid organisations varied widely: funerals were highly important, as demonstrated by the continuing popularity of informal burial clubs in Britain. In France and Germany the importance of this sector declined, to the profit of sickness societies. Such legislation imposed varying degrees of official control over forms of mutuality previously associated solely with developing workers' movements.
