George Walford: Doing the Splits (47)

During a squabble in the House of Commons one Tory whip described the condition of the Parliamentary Labour Party as “total anarchy.” His own side, on the contrary, is run like the Praetorian Guard: “If the chief whip says ‘jump out of the window’ we form an orderly line and out we go.” (Sunday Times 8 July)

“Does anyone really know what constitutes the ‘anarchist movement?’ Though small, it is far more diverse and amorphous than, for example, the Revolutionary Communist Party! Do you include Class War activists, anarcho-punk-hippie squatters, animal liberationists, new age travellers? (Karen Goaman in Freedom 30 June).

On the Anarchist Research Group: “Members of the group and its speakers seem such a motley crew that I doubt whether you could get them to agree on what anarchism is all about… ” (Brian Morris, ibid).

“…the worst enemies of anarchists have been other anarchists and libertarians. Divided we fell.” (Peter Cadogan in Bulletin of Anarchist Research July 1990)

from Ideological Commentary 47, September 1990.