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… read more »
SOME BACKGROUND This party (with its companion parties) claims to be the only socialist, Marxist, revolutionary movement. It declares that socialism cannot be established until an overwhelming majority has accepted its case, but since it was founded in 1904 its membership has failed even to keep up with the increase in the world population. It… read more »
SPANNER, a New Journal for New Thinking Issue No. 1 [address], 52 pages, occasional illustrations, £1 SPANNER claims to be A New Journal for New Thinking; the list of contents runs: The Green Wave, Common Ownership, That Frame of Mind (discussing the principles of a socialist society), Neo-Connectionism (on artificial intelligence), The Road to Socialism, Standing… read more »
Resistance to the Poll Tax has encouraged the less thoughtful reformers and revolutionaries to believe that at last the people are starting to move in their direction. As one journal, Counter Information, puts it: The Poll Tax need not be a single issue campaign. We do not live in a vacuum. Anti-Poll Tax groups whether… read more »
Anarcho-capitalists, and others in favour of the free market, will be pleased to learn that the Association of European Airlines is on their side. Faced with EC attempts to ban the cartel-like arrangements between airlines and force them to compete with each other, the incoming AEA president protests, and calls upon free market theories for… read more »
SOME BACKGROUND This party (with its companion parties abroad) claims to be the only socialist, Marxist, revolutionary movement. It declares that socialism cannot be established until an overwhelming majority has accepted its case and declares war on all other political parties. Since it was founded, in 1904, the world population has increased by thousands of… read more »
“Socialist Spain is not the only country to pursue policies of Thatcherism without Thatcher. Communist Vietnam is reported to be practising Thatcherite monetarism and advocating the importance of the market, while proclaiming Marxist-Leninism …” (Freedom 27 Jan 90) These two have to be added to the list of countries proclaiming economic collectivism while practising individualism…. read more »
George Woodcock’s Anarchism; a history of libertarian ideas and movements (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1962) is one of the standard books. It sometimes gives the impression that the author’s ideas are in the condition of a supersaturated solution, wanting nothing but a tap for them to crystallize out as systematic ideology. Here we present some of… read more »
PRO OR ANTI? This party claims to be propagating socialism but spends nearly all., its time and energy attacking capitalism. The eight Principles, for example, do not mention socialism except, indirectly, in No. 8. It is a tendency which began to appear at an earlier stage of ideological development; Karl Marx’s principal work was not… read more »
“The notorious sectarianism of the anarchist movement did not appear to be transcended… by any obvious sense of bonhomie, mutual interest or collaboration.” (After noting that the movement is constituted of “half a dozen discrete entities”): “This raises the question of what, analytically, is the common ground between anarchist groups apart from a recalcitrant attitude.”… read more »