One comment received, in response to the talks at Friends House, was that the key terms used ought to have been defined. The trouble with definition of terms is that it presupposes a number of terms, with meanings thoroughly understood and universally accepted, that can be used to construct the definition. Failing this, one is… read more »
At Friends House, on October 3, 10, 17, George Walford delivered a series of three public lectures on systematic ideology. This was a new departure for the WS, whose meetings devoted to systematic ideology had previously been (semi-) private. The speaker did not use the protostatic-paradynamic series of terms for the major ideologies, but referred… read more »
This sheet and the enclosure concern The Walsby Society. It is a society which has no members. Those who attend its meetings, or read its leaflets, do so for the purpose of opposing speaker, author, and each other. Where other societies, groups and organisations have members or supporters, the Walsby Society has OPPONENTS. So: Dear… read more »
From Byron onward the rebellious artist has appeared as a stock figure in the social drama, joined later by the revolutionary worker. The one character stands on no better ground than the other. Some artists have rebelled as some workers have taken part in revolutions, but artists as a group, like workers as a group,… read more »
Prominent among the more chewy nuggets of unorthodox political literature stands The Ego and his Own, the case of the individual against authority, [1] first published in 1845 and written by Johann Kaspar Schmidt under the pseudonym Max Stirner. Marx tackled it in The German Ideology, and the question whether Stirner ranks among the anarchists still… read more »
The State normally takes care to act within the limits set by what the general body of the people are willing to accept. But occasionally it gets out of line, trying to do something that large numbers will not tolerate, or to refuse something they demand; when that happens the outcome shows that final power… read more »
In two vigorous contributions to Freedom (December 1988 and January 1989) the Anarchist Communist Federation supported the National Health Service, a system under which the state imposes compulsory payments for medical services. The Editors of Freedom added their voice in the December issue, describing the present system, under which the coercive powers of the state… read more »
Writers in Freedom often traduce the state. They speak as if it were imposed on us by the rich, the rulers, the bosses, when in fact it is established and maintained mainly by the great body of citizens and subjects. Those who wield the power of the state, the prime ministers, generals and police chiefs,… read more »
Quentin Crisp wrote How to Become a Virgin. Whether he would call himself an anarchist I have no idea, but he has come up with a phrase that hits off, with grace and economy, the present relationship between government and anarchy: “The function of government is to create a walled garden in which anarchy can… read more »
Would anarchists find capitalism acceptable if it were more efficient? The article “Profit and Loss” (Freedom, February 1989) comes close to implying that they would. It lists the recent British disasters – the Zeebrugge ferry, Piper Alpha, Kings Cross, Clapham, Lockerbie, and the Boeing that crashed on M1, and ascribes them to “a profit system… read more »