The Labour Party Conference of October was remarkable for the prevalence of agreement; unlike earlier ones it did not justify Norman Tebbit’s description of the comrades and brothers as “firmly united in fraternal hatred of each other’s guts”. An editorial in the Independent of October 7 spoke of “a respectable measure of unity at most… read more »
Jeremy Treglown mentions a conference in Turin at which “Derrida and others, Eric Hobsbawm among them, also warned of some dangers in unity and unanimity, and extolled the values not only of autonomy and local identity, but of every kind of disagreement.” (TLS May 19) The warning seems uncalled-for; it is the right, rather than… read more »
Anarchists commonly claim that their movement relies upon co-operation, but a glance at a few issues of FREEDOM or BLACK FLAG will confirm that they spend much time and energy criticising and opposing each other. This tendency is strong enough to prevent them operating as a united movement and it sometimes provokes the assertion that… read more »
What is it breeds divisiveness? Disraeli’s hold one-nation dream? Churchill’s clear far-sightedness? Thatcher’s people-power theme? Is national unity more cleft By powers of the right – or left? By Bevan’s ‘Tory vermin’ scream? Or Bernie Grant’s ‘good hiding’ steam? Or Labour’s pledge to soak the rich with avaricious nose a-twitch? From class divisions Labour spoke…. read more »
When the left began to take part in British municipal government the enthusiasm of its supporters for setting up communal services earned its activities the title of ‘gas and water socialism.’ The Labour Party, during its periods of office, moved national life in the same direction. Education, sanitation, medicine, fuel, transport and, for a great… read more »
Here we continue our series of reprints of Walsby’s articles from the Socialist Leader, begun in IC27, with copy supplied by Ellis Hillman. This is from the issue of 29 April 1950; it completes the article “Dogmatic Nonsense” which appeared on 15 April 1950, reprinted in IC30. – GW Further to my previous letter, we… read more »
Louis Althusser is a French Marxist intellectual, and they don’t come any more intellectual than that. The TLS tells us his Essays on Ideology (London, Verso, 1984) is “the work of an acute intellect and contains extended passages of originality and brilliance”. Tribune: “Althusser demands patience from the reader but he rewards it with his… read more »
ETHOS AND EIDOS Since its origination by Harold Walsby systematic ideology has concentrated upon the assumptions and identifications which go to constitute ideologies. Insisting that each ideology is a whole, its form as well as its content significant (in the Foreword to the Domain of Ideologies Walsby presents this insistence upon form as a distinguishing… read more »
The Observer of 27 October included a report on the affairs of the Workers’ Revolutionary Party. (Its members call themselves Trotskyists, but the party might he better termed Redgravist; it seems to be the connection with the actress, rather than with the Russian politician, that wins it publicity). One group within the party wants to… read more »
Under this head IC presents instances of the political divisiveness displayed by the eidodynamics. When possible we also offer, for contrast, examples of the emphasis on party loyalty, faith in the leader and ‘don’t rock the boat’ of the eidostatics. (Co-operation being less newsworthy than conflict, these come less readily to hand). We invite readers… read more »