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Editorial on CND
“Perhaps the only lesson to be learned from four years of campaigning for Nuclear Disarmament is that there is no simple way in which a political campaign can calculate its effect upon people and Governments. It eludes all the fixed categories of "politics". From the Central Hall meeting . . .” read more
Oxford Opinions
“two articles “reviewing” university lectures in the Oxford student magazine Isis have aroused considerable and much publicised controversy. The University Proctors (a special disciplinary body peculiar to Oxford and Cambridge) banned further lecture reviews, and the Isis editor’s indignant, but gleeful protests won a considerable sympathetic response, . . .” read more
The New Frontier
“there is now considerable discontent brewing about education. It arises from many different quarters—among teachers and administrators (Cf. the recent controversy in The Observer between Mr. Amis and his colleagues and Dr. Petersen), academic authorities (Cf. the reports of several recent conferences), parents (Cf. the recent PEP . . .” read more
Intellectual Liberalism?
“there’s little in Thompson’s “Revolution Again” (NLR 6) with which one can disagree in substance. That the working class or class consciousness are not concrete slabs hoisted into Shapes by History, but subtle things that owe some, at least, of their existence to our own efforts, must . . .” read more
Student Journals
“there is nothing that I know of to match the flood of university journals which have been irrigating the newstands in recent months. Undaunted by rising costs and a high death-rate, new journals with an unexpected level of seriousness and technical proficiency have continued to flow through. . . .” read more
Socialism and Affluence
“harry hanson’s arguments (“Socialism And Affluence”, NLR 5) are remarkably like those of Tony Gosland in the October issue of Encounter, though his conclusions are quite different. Unfortunately, while Crosland’s conclusions follow logically from his analysis, Hanson’s are so loosely attached to the body of his argument . . .” read more
Comment on 'Revolution' by E.P.Thompson
““groups have never thirsted after truth,” said Freud. “They demand illusions, and cannot do without them. They constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real.” If Labour’s electoral losses are seen as the sharp death of an illusion that had gripped a decade—an illusion that . . .” read more
Comment on 'Revolution' by E.P.Thompson
“in the past, the apparent basic division in the socialist movement was between those who accepted the evolutionary path, and those who advocated revolution, usually associated with a measure of violence. I use the word apparent, because, beneath the surface, the two concepts of a socialist society . . .” read more
Comment on 'Revolution' by E.P. Thompson
“the notion that socialism will come along, without putting anyone unduly out of joint, as simply an inevitable series of links in the evolutionary chain, is about as useful as a torn cartilage. The day of piece-meal reformism, considered as a total philosophy designed to bring about . . .” read more
Dr.Abrams and the End of Politics
“dr. mark abrams’ survey of political attitudes, “Why Labour Has Lost Elections”, published in four consecutive issues of Socialist Commentary, and shortly to achieve wider distribution as a Penguin “Special”, does not tell us anything new about the reasons for Labour’s defeat, nor does a . . .” read more
Countermarching to Armageddon
“long before the custard-pies started to fly around at the Summit, the preparations for the Countermarch were well in hand. The 100,000 Easter demonstrators had scarcely drifted away from Trafalgar Square before the Top People’s CND (Committee for Natopolitan Defence) was in session, getting everything ready for . . .” read more
Campaign for a Foreign Policy
“In the last decade, military propositions have taken precedence over political principle in foreign policy. Can the campaign for unilateral nuclear disarmament become, in the next few months, a campaign for a new foreign policy? And what would such a policy be?” read more
Apathy into Politics
“in “revolution”, Edward Thompson wrote, “that the point of breakthrough is not a narrow political concept; it will entail a confrontation throughout society between two systems, two ways of life. In this confrontation, political consciousness will become heightened. . .” This is one of the most important . . .” read more
Changes of Quality
“Comments On Revolution In NLR 3 we published the final Chapter from Out of Apathy, E. P. Thompson’s “Revolution”. This article discussed the new antagonisms bred by capitalism, and suggested that Britain was “overripe” for socialism: it also raised the question of the “transition to socialism” and the . . .” read more
Apathy: A Case to Answer
“i read “Revolution” three or four times, trying to make out the serious ‘immediate policy’ advertised on the back cover of the New Left Review. But what remains in my mind is less a policy than a political allegory, a Pilgrim’s Progress through the 1960’s. The hero . . .” read more
The Commanding Heights
“In Part 1 of this article, John Hughes depicts the contemporary landscape of power with its commanding heights. He attacks the popular myth that ownership is no longer relevant, and pinpoints the particular forms of social irresponsibility taken by private bureaucratic power in the economy.” read more
Shell Watches Over Us
“the public outcry against Mr. Cotton’s plans to wreck the Piccadilly Site with a 170 ft. advertising hoardingcum-office block of monumental ugliness, has had some effect. The Minister has been obliged to reject the scheme: and the Report had some tart things to say about Mr. Cotton’s . . .” read more
Shipbuilding up the Creek
“last year, PEP produced a dispassionate and critical pamphlet about the deplorable state of British shipbuilding. The leaders of the industry reacted like cavalry generals who had just been told by Capt. Liddell Hart that the tank was here to stay: they refused to be driven into . . .” read more
Summer Manoeuvres
“last month’s aphorism was that when the Government’s Defence policy collapsed, it was the Opposition which was thrown into confusion. This is not as funny or as paradoxical as it sounds. From the rearmament of West Germany through to “Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent”, official Labour Party orthodoxy . . .” read more
Magic of Monarchy
“flanked on one side by the Central Purchasing Department of I.C.I. and on another by the Imperial Headquarters of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Association, Buckingham Palace stands—bulwark of an outgoing empire, fulcrum of the still feverishly rotating wheel of British privilege and power.” read more
Lady Albermarle’s Modest Proposals
“when experts come together to discuss the aims and needs of a particular section of society, it must surely occur to them that the needs of that section must be seen in relation to those of society as a whole. Most Government Commissions fail to face up . . .” read more
The Brighouse Defeat
“the first by-election after the defeat of Labour in October; a knife-edge majority of 47; “the eyes of the nation upon Brighouse and Spenborough; Boycott month in Africa Year; the Government decision to set up an early-warning station at Fylingdales: surely, the ingredients for a vital election, . . .” read more
Men and Motors
“This article—the first of two on the motor industry—discusses trade union structure and organisation, the tangled pattern of wages, the role of the shop steward, the problem of automation, and the political attitudes of motor workers in the Midlands. Much of the factual industrial and trade union . . .” read more
Crowther in Cold Storage
“Hailed by everyone as forward-looking, the Report has been officially welcomed and officially shelved. The welcome is hardly surprising, since the major recommendations are no longer controversial. It established for the late-Sixties, targets for full and part-time education which were recognised as basic in the 1944 Act. But . . .” read more