In past issues of IC we have drawn attention to recent events in China and Russia indicating that economic individualism had been only suppressed, not eliminated or even much weakened, by the attempted imposition of socialism or communism. As soon as the pressure was relaxed “private enterprise” began to function again, to the benefit of… read more »
While I admire your persistence in the matter of the SPGB, something quite sizeable will have to happen before I can get interested. I was greatly heartened by “Anti-Freeze;” it is a fine demonstration of s.i. analysis at work. Your “New Readers Start Here” does not actually define eidostatic and the other terms and I… read more »
Part One We recently attended an (A-)SPGB branch meeting at which the subject was “How We Can Feed the World.” The method proposed was – of course – that we should establish “socialism.” This would release the productive and distributive potential of modern technology, frustrated under capitalism. As usual with this party, the speaker was… read more »
The paper which was delivered to the Fourth Annual Conference of the Counselling Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, held at Regent’s College, London, 18-19 September 1986. Does counselling work? This question matters to everybody who might spend time or money on counselling, and it seems at first sight to be a matter of… read more »
The story of Christmas and its significance in human affairs makes a fascinating study for the socialist. It is a story bound up with so many different and seemingly unrelated things: sun-worship, human birth, the annual seasons, man’s guilty conscience, Big Business, the Golden Age, Christianity, symbolism, the Roman Saturnalia, magic and the Brotherhood of… read more »
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS NUMBER Our leading item in this issue is “The Christmas Story” by Harold Walsby. On the face of it this is nothing more than a factual account of the origins of what we now know as the Christmas festival, but one of the more substantial propositions of s.i. lies just below the surface…. read more »
Ideological Commentary announces itself as “an independent journal of systematic ideology,” but we do 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. The theory was created and largely developed by the late Harold… read more »
THE GOOD AND THE BAD It is tempting in politics to see things in stark black and white terms: if a regime is obviously “bad” then those who oppose it are necessarily “good.” This tendency to reduce complex situations to simplistic terms has nowhere been more evident in recent times than in the Philippines: Marcos… read more »
Frances Cairncross comments on a series of reforms, extending over more than three decades and costing immense amounts, which have now come to be seen as rather harmful than beneficial: more public money is a cure for poverty to be applied with great caution. We tried it for thirty-five years: we built ghettos in which… read more »
Our Farnham, which art in Hendon, Harrow be Rye Lane; Thy Kingston come, Thy Wimbledon, In Erith as it is in Hendon; Give us this day our Leatherhead And give us bypasses As we forgive them who overpass us; And lead us not into Thames Ditton But deliver us from Ewell; For thine is the… read more »