Jeremy Treglown mentions a conference in Turin at which “Derrida and others, Eric Hobsbawm among them, also warned of some dangers in unity and unanimity, and extolled the values not only of autonomy and local identity, but of every kind of disagreement.” (TLS May 19) The warning seems uncalled-for; it is the right, rather than… read more »
Even casual reading of the newspapers makes it clear that the attempt to establish an exclusively communist society, in China, Russia and elsewhere, has not gone well. People who have kept in closer touch with what has been happening draw grim pictures. John Gray, in an essay entitled “Glasnostications” (TLS 21 July), speaks of the… read more »
Over the past months the golden aura of success around the Thatcher government has turned into a grey mist of depression, and Labour has made headway in the opinion polls. At the next election it will have been up to fifteen years since the last Labour government; many voters will have no very clear recollection… read more »
An article in the TIMES (22 Mar 89) discusses employment prospects and concludes that there is no need to worry about any shortage of labour in the near future. The bulge is to be followed by a demographic trough, but the number of young people coming out of the schools to 1995 will still be… read more »
The success of the Greens in the recent European elections has fluttered the political dovecotes. After full allowance for the tendency of the electorate to respond in one way to general elections and in another to those they feel not to be of the first importance – by elections, municipal elections and, perhaps, European elections… read more »
SUBSCRIPTIONS Contrary as usual, IC reduces its subscription charges. Beginning with this number a subscription for one year (six issues) will cost £2 including postage. Subscriptions outstanding at the old rate will be extended to compensate. (No subsidy yet from the CIA, let alone MI5 or MI6, but we keep hoping.) WHY ANARCHISM? When correspondents… read more »
Revision of May 1989 IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY is devoted to the development and exposition of systematic ideology, a theory originated and largely developed by the late Harold Walsby. We do not claim final or exhaustive understanding of it; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the partial account given here… read more »
SOME BACKGROUND IC undertakes to print any statement of up to 1,000 words carrying the approval of this party, or one of its branches. Letters from individual members will appear if they are cogent, interesting and concise, and if space permits. If you want your letter to appear unedited or not at all, please say… read more »
Dear Editor, Is it a wise policy on your part to keep on calling the SPGB the (A-)SPGB? If you want co-operation you must do something positive. Karl Marx’s quarrel with the anarchists has affected the SPGB and other socialist parties ever since; why not acknowledge this? In your Introducing IC (Revision of May 1989),… read more »
George Bernard Shaw was perhaps more successful as a character than as a thinker, but he did put the ideas and experiences of the socialist movement of his time with a clarity rare in political writing. He produced no full-dress autobiography but many fragments and contributions to biographies, and Stanley Weintraub assembled some of these… read more »