socialist standard
 
January 2008

Vol.104 No.1241
£1.50

 Journal of  The Socialist Party - Companion Party of  The World Socialist Movement
                 


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FEATURES

REGULARS

8
Jack London’s The Iron Heel
London’s widely read book of this title was published a hundred years ago. But how realistic was it and how much of a socialist was Jack London?

10 And they call this Democracy?
“It’s a truism, but one that needs to be constantly stressed, that capitalism and democracy are ultimately quite incompatible.” (Noam Chomsky).

12 The nature of human nature
The cultural anthropologist Ashley Montagu once said that what cultural anthropologists were really interested in was “the nature of human nature”. So what do they think it is?

14 “Socialism is Illogical and Irrational”
Free-market capitalism, left to its own chaotic and predatory devices would self-destruct in very short order.

16 The thoughts of Premier Brown (thirty years ago)
In 1975 Gordon Brown edited The Red Paper on Scotland, a collection of articles by leftwing Labour activists.

18 The trouble with gods
Those fortunate enough to live in relatively secularized societies should not underestimate global power of religion.

19 What they did to Thomas Hardy
The writer Thomas Hardy died, eighty years ago, in January 1928. Here’s what we said at the time.


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The Socialist Party of Great Britain

The next meeting of the Executive Committee
will be on Saturday 5 January at the address
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Correspondence should be sent to
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3 Editorial

Why the Green Party is wrong

4 Pathfinders
Why the minus 16.3 percent happy face?

5 Letters

5 Contact Details


6
Material World
Iran in the crosshairs

13 Cooking the Books 1

Dreaming of a super cycle

17 Cooking the Books 2

Bottom line building

20 Reviews

Chew on This; All Knees and
Elbows of Susceptibility and
Refusal;
The Class War Radical
History Tour of Notting Hill


21 Obituary
Edmund Grant
22 Meetings


22 50 Years Ago

Upset in Accra

22 Declaration of Principles

23 Greasy Pole

Money, Money, Money…

24 Voice from the Back

Old Age Fears, Heiress On The Run, and more


24 Free Lunch


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Socialist Standard January 2008

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