Using a copy supplied by Ellis Hillman, IC28 reprinted from the Socialist Leader (journal of the Independent Labour Party) of 1950 a reply by Harold Walsby to two members of the (A-)SPGB who had used the pseudonym “Philoren.” On 4 March 1950 another pseudonym joined in: a letter criticising what Walsby had said came from… read more »
The movements working to have the bomb banned tell us that if only this were done we should be safe from the risk of nuclear war. It isn’t so. To ban something is not to ensure that it will not be used. Not by a long way. Every advanced country bans addictive drugs and every… read more »
Revision of June 1987. 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 »
The pamphlet by Karl Marx, known in our anarcho-socialist days as “Value, Price and Profit,” was re-issued in 1947, and reprinted at least up till 1976, by Progress Publishers, Moscow, under the title “Wages, Price and Profit.” It still includes the statements by Marx which amount to an assurance that no revolution is necessary. It… read more »
In the orthodox view ideology appears as a distorting influence which shrivels under the hard light of science, but systematic ideology suggests otherwise. It shows science to be as much an ideological activity as politics, for here, too, the course of action depends upon the assumptions accepted, and assumptions are the units of which ideologies… read more »
(Revision of a paper presented to the Walsby Society in 1976). The foundation-work of systematic ideology, Harold Walsby’s Domain Of Ideologies (1947), closes with a declaration that the study is of more than academic interest: With the development of scientific knowledge of the various ideologies… it becomes possible to apply this knowledge… in social and… read more »
It’s a strange thing that whenever Katharine Whitehorn is confirming what we say she writes better than when disagreeing. This happens even though to our knowledge she has never heard of IC or s.i. In the Observer of 26 April 1987 she writes of the way unrestricted competition tends to eliminate itself, producing monopoly instead…. read more »
IC has been running, intermittently, a series of short pieces under the heading ‘Yesterday’s Solutions are Today’s Problems.’ In the TLS of 16 January Edward Norman offers a different and perhaps a better formulation of the same perception: There is a kind of ‘steady state’ of injustice in the world: as soon as one set… read more »
This is being written shortly before it is decided which party, or which combination of parties, shall have the job of guarding our freedom during the next five years. The winners will also have to decide how that splendid, banner-waving word is to be interpreted. Choices have to be made. You can’t have both unlimited… read more »
Ideologies and their Functions was published eight years ago, and since then the theory of systematic ideology has moved forward. A more up-to-date statement of it is being prepared, and the present short account of some of the main changes is intended to help bridge the inevitable gap before this appears. The book set out… read more »