IC has received a printed sheet, undated but evidently recent; bearing no indication of author or source it reports the development, in the USA and the USSR, of radiofrequency weapons. Impressive both in content and in its carefully understated, hysteria-free approach, it ends by speaking of them as “a new kind of weapon the world… read more »
Click to enlarge. Click to enlarge. from Ideological Commentary 52, Summer 1991.
REVIEWING a new life of Stalin [1] Robert Service remarks that Trotsky’s contempt, for him as a mediocrity “never explained how such a man could hoodwink and kill millions.” Nobody ever has explained this, and nobody ever will, for it didn’t happen; one only has to envisage those millions lining up for treatment and Stalin… read more »
IC50 commented on the reaction, of the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie, to his announcement of his conversion. IC51 printed a letter, from Nicolas Walter, strongly criticising the comment, with a reply. He has written again, but the main part of his letter adds nothing of substance and his side of that argument has already… read more »
The major ideologies have been pictorially presented in a variety of ways; as a system of levels, a pyramid, a circle, a series of points on a graph, or as nodes on a line of development. Each presentation illuminates some features of the system. Here ADRIAN WILLIAMS introduces a novel conception, and one likely to… read more »
Russia abandons the drive towards communism, America (with a little help) drives Iran out of Kuwait, Mrs. Thatcher resigns the premiership. Great events, all of them. And now, to crown the series (spotlight, roll of drums): IC GOES QUARTERLY. This issue carries the date Summer 1991, to be followed by Autumn, Winter and Spring. The… read more »
Revision of January 1990. IDEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY announces itself as an independent journal of systematic ideology, but it does not claim final knowledge of this theory; the formulation that looked like the ultimate last month needs alteration now, and the account given here will be subject to continuous revision. Systematic ideology is the creation of the… read more »
BEYOND POLITICS An outline of systematic ideology by George Walford 160 pages Paperback £2.95 Clothbound £9.95 For subscribers to IC and members of the (A-)SPGB paperback price is £1.95 BEYOND POLITICS shows that the influence of ideology extends beyond political parties and movements. In all our purposeful activities, whether playing with the children, practising a… read more »
THE SOCIALIST Standard (March 1991) quotes, with approval, a “socialist” saying that the only thing lacking for the building of “socialism” is “the intellectual factor.” Claiming to be materialists, claiming the conditions of production to be the final determinant of social behaviour, they also say that (what they regard as) the crucial decision, the choice… read more »
Freedom, the anarchist fortnightly (23 February), reported that British opposition to the Gulf War (it came mainly from eidodynamic movements) fell into disarray. A meeting of the umbrella committee “degenerated into a series of bitter disputes and separate meetings,” the leftist groups involved pursued “their private sectarian battles,” and there was no agreed polity nor… read more »