It’s a strange thing that whenever Katharine Whitehorn is confirming what we say she writes better than when disagreeing. This happens even though to our knowledge she has never heard of IC or s.i. In the Observer of 26 April 1987 she writes of the way unrestricted competition tends to eliminate itself, producing monopoly instead…. read more »
Like the rest of their pseudo-scientific tribe, that four-legged combination of two S.P.G.B.-ers writing under the name of “Philoren” (in your correspondence, Feb 11) avowedly repudiate the “long term view of social evolution” and, along with it, the whole historical labour and working-class movement. (A movement, by the way, in which the I.L.P. has played… read more »
CORRECTION IC25 included a brief note correcting certain ideas put forward in Ideologies and their Functions. On page seven of this present issue these corrections are set out more fully. MOZAMBIQUE In Mozambique they starve while Europe wonders what to do with mountains of “surplus” food. But disgust is a gut-reaction that helps nobody; before… read more »
In the Socialist Standard for March 1987 there appears a full-page article entitled “Are Socialists for War?” It is written as a dialogue between an (anarcho-)socialist. ‘A’ and a mild patriot ‘Q,’ and it puts what the Party likes to call its case against war. In A’s words: Wars are not about freedom and democracy…. read more »
In IC26 there appeared a piece entitled “Principle Number One.” It quoted a Party speaker on Russia saying the power of the Russian rulers is politically based and Principle No. 1 as saying modern society is based upon ownership by the capitalistS. The speaker quoted has now sent the following reply: According to Mr. Walford,… read more »
Mathematical Science Fiction Story. from Ideological Commentary 27, May 1987.
In IC12 we presented a table of the patterns of thinking – which is to say the logics – used by the different ideologies. With revisions it goes like this: Protostatic: X and non-X are not logically differentiated. Epistatic: X and non-X are in principle distinct. Parastatic: X is X and not non-X. Protodynamic: X… read more »
LOTS OF LOVELY PEOPLE In this issue of IC we reprint another paper by Harold Walsby. It draws attention to the rate at which the population has been increasing and asks whether the purist ‘socialists’ – who tell us they need a majority have even been maintaining their relative numbers. It was written in 1951 and… read more »
Each epoch has its mental cliches; they hinder action and frequently turn out to have been false. One from which we suffer is the assumption that knowledge has become too extensive for any single mind to grasp. This encourages the growth of special interests, tends to produce a society made up of separate groups each… read more »
IC has had a good deal to say about the (Anarcho-)Socialists of the “SPGB”; now we turn towards the (Socio-)Anarchists of the “Anarchist” movement. Within anarchism there are two strands: First, the attempt to live anarchism within authoritarian society. Second, the attempt to establish a society which shall operate wholly or mainly in an anarchist way…. read more »