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George Walford: Alive or Equal?

February 2, 2013

Would you rather be alive or equal? The right wing tend to think it an achievement that five thousand million people should be alive, regarding equality as certainly unattainable and probably undesirable. The reformers and revolutionaries tend to pursue equality (or the suppression of socially-imposed inequality), taking the maintenance of the population for granted. In… read more »

George Walford: Editorial Notes (35)

January 30, 2013

Readers of IC who have been in touch with s.i. from its early days will already know that Harold Walsby left a quantity of papers, some concerned with ideology, some with other subjects, such as his dialectical algebra. With the approval of his widow these have now been deposited with the International Institute of Social… read more »

Harold Walsby: What Makes the Socialist Tick?

January 28, 2013

(Here we continue reprinting the articles Walsby contributed to the SOCIALIST LEADER, from copy supplied by Ellis Hillman. This one appeared in the issue of January 5, 1952 – GW.) How do people become socialists? What is it that enables some people to see with striking clarity that capitalism cannot function in the interest of… read more »

George Walford: The (Anarcho-)Socialist Party (33)

January 26, 2013

IC holds out a continuing invitation: We undertake to print any statement of up to 1,000 words carrying the approval of this party, or one of its branches. Letters from individual members will appear if they are cogent, interesting and concise, and if space permits. If you want your letter to appear unedited or not… read more »

Elizabeth Hope: Divisiveness

January 25, 2013

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 »

George Walford: Togetherness

January 25, 2013

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 »

Harold Walsby: Socialism, ‘Pure’ and Scientific

April 16, 2013

Here we continue reprinting Walsby’s contributions to the Socialist Leader in the 1950s, from copy supplied by Ellis Hillman. His piece in the issue of 8 December 1951 is not clear apart from the letter it refers to, so we print the relevant extracts from that first; it starts by referring to the article by… read more »

George Walford: Green

January 24, 2013

We recently attended a meeting at which the speaker represented what used to be the ecological or conservationist movement, now coming to be known as ‘the greens.’ For the readers of IC we need not recite what was said; it was all familiar. The interest begins when one asks why these calm, sensible propositions do… read more »

George Walford: The Ideological Structure of Revolutions

January 24, 2013

Thomas S. Kuhn’s book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd Edition, University of Chicago Press, 1975) does a lot to destroy the image of scientists as coldly rational creatures free of prejudice. Before an experimental result can carry any meaning it has to be set against a picture of the world (or that part of… read more »

George Walford: The (Anarcho-) Socialist Party of Great Britain (32)

January 26, 2013

IC holds out a continuing invitation: We undertake to print any statement of up to 1,000 words carrying the approval of this party, or one of its branches. Letters from individual members will appear if they are cogent, interesting and concise, and if space permits. If you want your letter to appear unedited or not… read more »