George Walford |

George Walford: The (Anarcho-) Socialist Party (63)

August 23, 2014

Having paid the larger subscription for the Socialist Standard we proudly declare ourselves now officially a Supporter of the Party. THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS At Chiswick Branch on Friday 22 January. A debate between the (Anarcho)-Socialist Party (SW4) and Lord Desai of the Labour Party. His lordship, in good Labour Party style, kept to reforms he… read more »

George Walford: The Progress of Conservation

August 23, 2014

One major ideology develops out of another, and it does so because the previous one falls short; along with some of the desired results it produces others both unintended and unwanted. As warnings of the precarious condition of the giant panda brought these animals into the news, so destruction of them increased, more being captured… read more »

George Walford: Cloak and Dagger

August 23, 2014

The Gadfly, by E. L. Voynich [1] Kipling wrote of the three-decker novel that it carried weary people to the Islands of the Blest. The Gadfly heads from oppression towards freedom yet it, too, carries the romantic cargo; not ‘stolen wills for ballast and a crew of missing heirs,’ but paternity unacknowledged, young love frustrated,… read more »

George Walford: The Ideological Pyramid (63)

August 23, 2014

The major ideologies, outlined on the facing page, have developed through history. Each of them provides the conditions which permit the next one to emerge, and each of them has fewer people attached to it than the one before. The diagram below indicates the outcome, the ideological structure of contemporary society, but the model needs… read more »

George Walford: The (Anarcho-) Socialist Party (62)

August 23, 2014

Letter from Stan Parker: Sir, I have to tell you that I did not like much of IC60. Some 30 years ago I left an intolerant and sectarian but otherwise politically persuasive SPGB, but last year I found it had changed. The 1904 principles are no longer holy writ, although still valid in essence, and… read more »

George Walford: Miscellanea

August 23, 2014

BACTERIA inhabited the earth by themselves for two billion years. They have not been eliminated in the course of further development. (C. Vita-Finzi) NATURE is an artificial construction. IDEOLOGY plays a larger part in current thinking than sometimes appears, its presence often disguised by coded language. When, for example, the socialists and communists assert that… read more »

George Walford: Hegel the Anarchist

August 29, 2014

Harold Walsby (originator of systematic ideology) once spoke of Hegel as the supreme anarchist. At the time I would have said that an anarchist was the one thing Hegel was most emphatically not, but the conversation moved on and I never did ask Walsby what he had meant. For many years the remark has been… read more »

George Walford: The Matter with the Word

August 22, 2014

Adherents of different ideologies find themselves talking past each other. Even when sincerely doing their best to communicate, misunderstandings arise, and one reason is that they use words in different senses. For an eidostatic, profit appears as a laudable part of the producrive system, providing both the incentive and the material means to keep it… read more »

George Walford: The Ideological Pyramid (61)

August 22, 2014

The major ideologies, outlined on the facing page, have developed through history. Each of them provides the conditions which permit the next one to emerge, and each of them has fewer people attached to it than the one before. The diagram below indicates the outcome, the ideological structure of contemporary society, but the model needs… read more »

George Walford: Ideology in the Reviews (60)

August 26, 2014

Adam Smith wanted government to stop meddling in markets, but he did not advocate unrestrained competition. No man might violate the laws of justice, and by that he meant that none might indulge in fraud or use force. These laws were to be enforced by government, protecting each member of society from oppression by others…. read more »