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Katherine Lim: The Theory of Judicial Independence in the Context of Systematic Ideology: Precision or Domination?

August 14, 2012

Winner, 2008 George Walford International Essay Prize. The independence of the judiciary is something which is precious to every single member of the community. You must be able to go into court and know that the person sitting in judgment is neutral. – Sir Igor Judge [1] It is well known that women in… read more »

Alan Bula: George Walford Memorial

August 19, 2012

I am delighted that you are publishing a memorial for George Walford. His unique Ideological Commentary is unforgettable and his efforts to continue Harold Walsby’s thinking deserves a follow-up, particularly as the freelance scholar has become almost an extinct species. Intellectual thinking is all but monopolised by institutions. SI: IGNORED, ALONE AND ILLUMINATING Until S.I.,… read more »

George Walford Memorial Notes and Quotes

August 19, 2012

I FIRST MET GEORGE in 1948 after being introduced to the group by Peter Shepherd and after several sessions with Harold Walsby. My situation was rather different from that of other newcomers in that year – there was a campaign directed against the SPGB, as the result of which several new members were recruited. By… read more »

George Walford: Doing the Splits (63)

August 22, 2012

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 »

George Walford: Whiteway

August 22, 2012

Whiteway Colony, the social history of a Tolstoyan community, by Joy Thacker. Published by Joy Thacker, Fairhaven, Whiteway, Stroud, Glos. 13.99 pounds. Reviewed by George Walford. This community has a particular interest for IC. The early members included Francis Sedlak, escapee from Czechoslovakia via the Foreign Legion, and partner of Nellie Shaw (herself a founder-member)…. read more »

George Walford: Control Against Ownership

August 22, 2012

As capitalism advanced it divided people, in the main, into two classes; the small number who owned enough (sometimes much more than enough) to be able to live without working and the great numbers who did not; the few lorded it over the many. From the early Nineteenth Century the socialist movement strove to alter… read more »

George Walford: Notes & Quotes (63)

November 6, 2012

NIAT: Is it not absolutely true that the earth moves round the sun? ‘There is no privileged position in space. In one sense it is therefore as true to say that the sun moves round the earth, as it is to say that the earth moves round the sun.’ (M. Payne, S&MN Newsletter 51) DEPRESSED… read more »

George Walford: Ideology in the Reviews (62)

August 24, 2012

REVIEWING The Dammed by Fred Pearce (Bodley Head) Alex Wilks supports the book’s thesis, that big dams do more harm than good. He argues that a better approach to the problems they are intended to solve would be to ensure that water should be controlled ‘not by governments and companies, but by communities who will… read more »

George Walford: Liveried Lackeys

April 16, 2013

One might have expected the various movements opposing hierarchy and exploitation – socialism, communism and anarchism – to work together against the common opponents. But most murders take place within families, and each of these movements reserves its bitterest venom for its close predecessors in the series. Here is Trotsky on reformist socialism: Together with… read more »

George Walford: NIAT (62)

August 25, 2012

IC stands committed to the proposition that Nothing Is Absolutely True (giving the acronym NIAT). The journal concerns itself with discussion, with propositions, and NIAT asserts that no one of these is completely true in every sense, at all times, without reservation and under all conditions. It is an instance of the only fully universal… read more »