4 1978 conten1s 3 eurowmmun1sm 4 · eurocommunism by fred kissin neither a comprehensive analysis...

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VoL83, No. 4 CONTEN1S APRIL1978 EDITORIAL: ONLY A GAME 3 EUROWMMUN1SM by Fred Kissin 4 HISTORY—A PREPARATION FOR LIFE? by Tom Hastie 8 LITERATURE AND THE ENGLISH INTELLIGENTSIA . by I. D. MacKillop 10 FOR THE RECORD . by the General Secretary 13 FORUM: TOWARDS A NEW SCHOOLING. 15 16 DISCUSSION: THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS or THE aosEn &tor. VIEWPOINT . 17 SOUTH PLACE NEWS. 18 COMING AT CONWAY HALL. .2, 19 Published by Conway Ha Munanist Centre Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

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  • VoL 83, No. 4

    CONTEN1S

    APRIL 1978

    EDITORIAL: ONLY A GAME

    3

    EUROWMMUN1SMby Fred Kissin

    4

    HISTORY—A PREPARATION FOR LIFE?by Tom Hastie

    8

    LITERATURE AND THE

    ENGLISH INTELLIGENTSIA .by I. D. MacKillop

    10

    FOR THE RECORD .by the General Secretary

    13

    FORUM: TOWARDS A NEW SCHOOLING.

    15

    16DISCUSSION: THE RIGHTS AND WRONGS

    or THE aosEn &tor.

    VIEWPOINT .

    17

    SOUTH PLACE NEWS.

    18

    COMING AT CONWAY HALL. .2, 19

    Published by

    ConwayHa Munanist CentreRed Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

  • SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYOFFICERS:

    Appointed Lecturers: H. J. Blackham, Richard Clements, oneLord Brockway, T. F. Evans, Peter Cronin

    General Secretary: Peter CadoganLettings SecretarylHall Manager: Robyn Miles

    Acting Hon Registrar: Robyn MilesHon Treasurer: C. E. Barralet

    Editor, "The Ethical Record": Eric WilloughbyAddress: Conway Hall Humanist Centre

    Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. (Tel: 01-242 8032)

    Coming at Conway HallSunday, April 2

    11.00 am—Sunday Meeting: COLIN FRY on The Quest of AnnieBesant. Contralto solos: Irene Clements

    6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble6.30 pm—Concert: Vesuvius Ensemble. Beethoven Septet, Mozart-

    ' Bach Fmi Adagio and Fugue, Crusell Clarinet Quartet CmiOp 4

    Tuesday, April 47.00 pm—Discussion introduced by Nicolas Waller. Scientific

    RationalismSunday, April 9

    11.00 am—Sunday Meeting: SIR JOHN LAWRENCE on Religionand Communism

    3.00pm—Forum: Education Otherwise (home ;teaching) with ShanazDurran; and others

    6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble6.30 pm—Concert: Rasoumovsky String Quartet. Bloch No I, Beet-

    hoven A Op 18, Mozart C, K. 170Tuesday, April II

    7.00 pm—Discussion introduced by Barbara Smoker. SecularHumanism

    Continued on page 19

    THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

    South Place Ethical Society

    WEDNESDAY, 31st MAY, 1978 at 7.00 pm

    (Refreshments from 6.15 pm)

    Resolutions and nominations for the General Committeeto the General Secretary by April 9th

    2

  • THE ETHICAL RECORDVol. 83, No. 4 APRIL 1978

    The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society

    Microfilm and reprints available—details on request

    EDITORIAL

    Only a GameVIOLENCE is one of the indicatorsof a sick society. It is synonymouswith boredom, frustration, a senseof being dominated and an admis-sion of guilt of poverty in think-ing.

    Vandalism and spontaneousviolence are abhorrent for theirlack of reason. Political violenceis at least motivated. But violenceamongst sport spectators is moresinister. And there have been somevery horrific examples of this inrecent weeks.

    Sport is surely one of the goodthings in life, for the participantsand the spectators. At least itshould be. Loyalty to a player orteam is commendable in a specta-tor, and more than one speaker inConway Hall has condoned loyaltyas a personal ethic, in recentmonths.

    Certainly there is rivalry in sportand amongst spectators. That isthe very essence of sport, and theinescapable companion of loyalty.

    But when that loyalty, thatrivalry, turns to fanaticism andhatred, surely it becomes out ofcontrol, and that seems to be thecase in football, at least.

    In early March, just one Satur-day afternoon produced a footballsupporter with a dart in his eye, agoalkeeper wounded in the leg bya throwing knife, several suppor-ters lacerated by flying coinswhbse edges had been filed intoblades, four houses extensively

    damaged by bricks thrown near afootball stadium—the list goes on.

    Surely this is quite the oppositeof sport, and as always, the manysuffer for the few. Restrictions toprevent the minority doing itsdamage at football grounds inrecent years have included thebuilding of fences and barriers,and new police procedures. Moveslike this take all the enjoymentout of spectator sport and trans-form the scene into a kind ofimprisoned mass of fearful people.

    Once again, commerce and busi-ness lie beneath the scenes. Thereis so much money in sport todaythat the competitive spirit has beenreplaced largely by profit and lossaccounts, and if the organisers ofsport place the action second totheir own personal motives, theycan hardly blame the renegadesupporters for doing similar, eventhough it is often desperate.

    Also, the ready supply of canneddrinks provides a two-edged terrorfor the genuine supporters. Thehooligans become affected by thealcohol, and then have empty cansto use as missiles and, in somecases, sharp-edged weapons.

    The football authorities are nowworking hard to try and improvematters, but so long as they arepursuing profit goals rather thansporting ones, they are unlikely towin any trophies against those whorebel against being used to financethe big business of sport—thosewho pay the entrance fees. •

    3

  • EurocommunismBY

    FRED KISSIN

    NEITHER a comprehensive analysis nor an exact definition of "Eurocom-munism" is as yet possible. Though the phenomenon is not•really new theissues linked with it are still in a fluid state. Besides, there are severaldistinct varieties of Eurocommunism. The Italian, the Spanish, the Frenchand the British Communist parties are usually described 'as "Eurocom-munist"; yet they differ from each other on points of substance, and thereare also important differences and shades of opinion within each "Euro-communist" party. All one can do at present is throw some light on theorigin and the history of this political concept, and on the principal fea-tures the parties and the politicians concerned have in common, and drawcertain conclusions regarding the probable future development of Euro-communism and its impact on the world communist movement as a whole.

    The emergence of Eurocommunism is not primarily, as some Westernobservers seem to assume, a switch by certain communist parties to amilder, more moderate version of communism. It is true that most ifnot all Eurocommunist parties are pursuing fairly flexible policies. Theyhave expressed preference for the peaceful-parliamentary road to power—as against revolutionary violence—and have pledged themselves to sur-render governmental power if, after winning an election, they 'should bedefeated in a subsequent poll. They have also abandoned the watchwordof the "dictatorship of the proletariat". But this softer line is not thecrucial aspect of the matter. The general line of the parties of the Com-munist International was just as conciliatory, just as much• at variancewith "Marxist-Lenninist" orthodoxy, between 1934 and 1939 when theComintern sections in a number of capitalist countries were committedto "Popular Front" tactics, i.e. to policies of alliance not only with SocialDemocratic but also with those anti-socialist "bourgeois" parties which,in international affairs, favoured some kind of accommodation or co-operation with the Soviet Union.

    Matter of AttitudesThe kernel of Eurocommunism is not its. moderation in the day-to-day

    struggle or the shedding of Maxist shibboleths but the attitude towardsthe leadership of the USSR and the Soviet Communist Party. The newheresy stems from the conviction of leading West European communiststhat their chances of success in the domestic arena depend on autonomyvis-à-vis the Kremlin, on their right to hammer out their own strategieswithout interference from Moscow. They have also reached the (correct)conclusion that without openly criticising some of the Kremlin's morerepulsive internal methods (e.g. the treatment of dissenters), and withoutdenouncing such clearly aggressive actions as Soviet intervention insatellite countries they would be apt to forfeit working class sympathiesat home.

    While the term "Eurocommunism" is barely a couple of years old (itwas apparently first used at the end of 1975), the political developmentwhich has led to the present critical rift began to take shape in the mid-fifties, in connection with "de-Stalinisation" in the USSR. To appreciatethe significance and the consequences of these events one has to callto mind the chief traits of the monolithic communism which prevailedunder Stalin.

    4

  • The international communist movement which emerged on the worldscene after the Russian October Revolution was not originally monolithic.the Bolshevik regime of which Lenin and Trotsky were the chief ex-ponents was, almost from the outset, a one-party dictatorship but not atotalitarian one. There was open controversy and dissent in the state andparty leadership, and in the Comintern, until about 1927-28. While Leninwas alive he enjoyed considerable authority in party circles, but he wasnot treated as infallible; leading colleagues sometimes openly disagreedwith him and criticised his actions. But when, some years after Lenin'sdeath, Stalin had finally triumphed over all opposition within the USSR,all genuine discussion was stifled, both in Soviet Russia and throughoutthe Communist International. All decisions were taken or approved"unanimously", all Stalin's, or his henchmen's, pronouncements wereendorsed and praised automatically. No-one contradicted Stalin with im-punity; even unspoken but suspected disagreement meant disgrace andliquidation within the Soviet Union, disgrace and expulsion (combinedwith calumny) in the Comintern parties outside the USSR.

    Changes in DestinyThings did not change immediately when Stalin died in 1953; but some

    dramatic events occurred in 1955 and 1956, after which things werenever the same again in international communism. Chief among theseevents were the Soviet reconciliation with the Tito regime in Yugoslavia,and Khruschev's denunciation of the Stalinist "cult of the personality".

    In his book Eurocommunism and the State, the Spanish communistleader Carillo explained the profound psychological effect of those hap-penings. When the anathema was pronounced in 1948 against Tito andhis friends, Carillo wrote, the Spanish communists, "following the tradi-tion of unconditional support for the Soviet Union . . . followed likea flock of sheep the condemnation levelled against comrade Tito and theother Yugoslav leaders . . . When Khrushchev had the courage publiclyto dismantle the whole edifice, we felt that we had been cruelly decievedand vilely manipulated".

    The members of other communist parties probably reacted in muchthe same way. It must be remembered that between 1948 and 1955 Titowas not just, in the eyes of official communist propaganda, a comradegone astray, a deviationist pursuing mistaken policies: he was a viciousenemy—the personification of fascist counter-revolution. In Stalinist de-monology he was cast for the role Trotsky had been made to play betweenthe wars. For allegedly collaborating with Tito and carrying out his "in-structions", Slansky, Rajk and other prominent communists had beenput to death. To be suddenly told, in 1955, that this devil incarnate wasreally an upright communist who had been slandered by the real enemies(Beria and Abakumov) must have come as a shock to all but the dullestand most mindless of rank-and-file communists.

    If Tito was execrated as a devil from 1948 to 1955 Stalin had been re-vered, from the late 'twenties until his death, and a little longer, as asort of demi-god, or at any rate a superhumanly wise, good and efficientleader. Coming on the heels of the rehabilitation of Tito, the relega-tion of the dead Stalin, in 1956, to the status of (almost) an un-person,must have seemed the end of the world as they knew it to the faithfulmilitants. Many of them surely felt like the Spanish communists thatthis (to quote Carillo again) "completed the demolition of what remainedof the mythical and almost religious element in our attitude towards theCommunist Party of the Societ Union".

    These events of the mid-fifties initiated a process of erosion of theKremlin's position as the central ideological and political authority of

    5

  • world communism, and this ultimately led to the rise of "Eurocommu-nism". Moscow's acquiescence in Tito's challenge to Soviet monocentrismprovoked the attempts then made in other East European states to obtainsomething like the autonomous status Yugoslavia had achieved: the partlysuccessful attempt by the Polish leaders in October 1956 and, later, bythose of Rumania, and the unsuccessful attempts—crushed by Soviettanks—in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The year 1961saw Moscow's open break with Albania; the Sino-Soviet split followedtwo years .later. After the Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslo-vakia several West European Communist parties openly dissociated them-selves from Moscow's action: this was perhaps the first demonstration ofEurocommunism—years before that phrase was .coined. Soon the twostrongest communist parties in the capitalist world, the Italian and theFrench, began to. 'criticise Soviet domestic policies; they also proclaimednew programmatic and strategic principles without soliciting and obtain-ing thefl Kremlin's sanction. The smaller but important Spanish partywent even further in condemning dictatorial practices inside the USSR.Its leader Carillo actually applied the term "Eurocommunism" to hisparty's political position; he also cast doubts on the socialist characterof the Soviet state. Some minor communist parties likewise adopted a"Eurocommunist" stance. Thus the new programme of the small BritishCommunist Party adandons the formula of the "dictatorship of the pro-letariat" and commits the party to respect the rules of the parliamentarygame. The position taken by this party (which has also criticised theSoviet authorities for their treatment of dissenters) eventually provokedan Oen split and the foundation of a hard-line breakaway group.

    Basics Still HoldThe Eurocommunists have by no means renounced all the basic tenets

    of Marxism-Leninism. They, or at least most of them, still stand for theabolition of capitalism and its replacement by socialism on a world scale.In day:to-day politics they still denounce American "imperialism", andgenerally side with the Soviet Union against Communist China—althoughthere are differences in this and in other respects within the Eurocom-mimist canip. They generally favour the dissolution of all military blocs in-cluding both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Complete rupture between themand Moscow is apparently not on the cards, but cannot be for ever ex-cluded. Another Soviet action against a rebellious satellite might producean immediate break, but not necessarily with all Eurocommunist parties:the French communists would probably be more lenient towards theRussians than their Italian or Spanish comrades. But even if no such acutecrisis materialises, Soviet intransigence, or over-reaction to Eurocommu-nist criticism, could lead to schism.

    Are the Eurocommunists sincere? There is no universally valid answerto this question which is asked by many. Some Eurocommunists are pro-bably more sincere than others. There is certainly no concerted plot (assome people profess to believe) between the Eurocommunists and theKremlin leaders, to the effect that the "Euros" sham independence fromMoscow for electoral purposes, but would toe the Soviet line again im-mediately on gaining power. Certain Eurocommunists may have mentalreservations regarding some of the new programmatic points, such as thepledge to accept an adverse electoral verdict: they. might feel that sucha contingency is unlikely td arise since, in accordance with their doctrine,the establishment of a genuinely socialist regime would soon eliminatethe socio-economic basis of anti-sdcialist opposition, even without thestat& organs taking repressive measures: The Eurocommunist criticismsof SOviet foreign and ' domestic policies are definitely sincere. It could

    6

  • even be said that in openly censuring Soviet methods and actions theWestern communists are for the first time sincere: in the days of monocentric and monolithic communism individual "comrades" in the capitalistcountries often criticised Soviet pronouncements or policies in private—but endorsed them publicly.

    A contributory factor accounting for the rise and consolidation ofEurocommunism at this particular time is most probably the worldwidetrend towards nationalist recrudescence, which has prevailed since theend of the second world war. One aspect of this trend is the dissolutionof the old colonial empires and the birth of a multitude of new "ThirdWorld" nations; another is the emergence of fissiparous tendencies, ofsecessionist movements (based on genuine or spurious claims to separatenationhood) in the minority regions of even such old-established statesas Britain, France, Spain and Canada. The international ("Euro-)com-munist revolt against monocentrism might likewise be a facet of thisgeneral upsurge of nationalism, in that it reflects the unwillingness ofcertain communist parties to go on carrying loyalty to the Soviet Unionto the point of damaging their dwn interests and those of the nationalworking class.

    There is an instructive historic parallel between intra-communist de-velopments today and the situation existing in Western Christendom be-fore and during the Reformation. The problems of the European Churchwere stronglY affected by the awakening of national crinsciousness inthe fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This became apparent, forexample, in the "Great SchisM" at the end of the fourteenth and the be-ginning of the fifteenth century, when the various parts of Central andWestern Europe lined up on the side of either of the rival Popes onsharply national lines. Czech nationalism proved an elemental force inthe' fifteen century, in the militant Reformational movement- and thebellicose ventures sparked off by the teachings, and the death at thestake, of John Hus. National aspirations also played a major part, in thesixteenth century, in the readiness of European peoples to endorse -theReformers' repudiation of the doctrinal claims and the practices of adegenerate Roman Curia, and in their support for ecclesiastic indepen-dence. Emergent nationalism thus contributed to the end of the mdno-centric religious unity that had been a constant feature of WesternChristianity throughout the Middle Ages, just as resurgent nationalismin our days seems incompatible with the survival of a communist mono-centrism which presupposed the subordination of national movementsto an alien supreme authoritY..

    Rivalling Russia

    If this interpretation is correct the Eurocommunist challenge to Mos-cow's monocentric position must be regarded as basically an act of nationalself-assertion, in keeping with a worldwide trend. And the operation ofthis trend would pose thc issue of the future not only of internationalcommunism but of the multi-national Soviet Union: her population,comprises only about 50 per dent "Great Russians"—the ruling nationwhose communist leaders have inherited the Tsarist policy of - "russify-ing" the minority regions. Will this last remaining multi-national empire forever withstand the universal upsurge of national consciousness, the "windsof change" which have swept away the Western colonial empires:1 Therehave been reports, in the last 20 years or so, of growing nationalist un-rest, of separatist tendencies in the Ukraine, the Baltic provinces andother non-Russian areas of the USSR. It would be premature to predict,on the strength of such reports, the early disintegration of the SovietUnion (or of the Yugoslav Federation where a similar constellation pre-

    7

  • vails on a much smaller scale). But there is no reason either to assumethat the communist super-power will indefinitely be by-passed by thatmovement of global dimensions which, as we have seen, transcends thedivision between the developed and the "Third" world. The Eurocom-munist revolt and the restiveness displayed, from time to time, by thepeoples of the East European satellite countries indicate that communistideology and repression are not -reliable weapons against the historicalprocess.

    (Summary, by the speaker, of a talk given on Tuesday, November 15)

    History—A Preparation for Life?BY

    TOM HASTIE

    IN MY VIEW, Education itself must be a preparation for life and, as ahistory teacher, I am concerned that I should use my special skills andknowledge to play my part in preparing young people for life. Since veryfew pupils go on to become professional historians, there is little pointin teaching history merely for examination purposes. By far the majorityof pupils will become adults, however, so more and more history teachersapproach their teaching now in a way which will develop in their pupilsskills'and attitudes likely to stand them in good stead in the adult world.

    Among them must be the attitude which stresses the importance ofevidence and includes an awareness of how evidence can be used andmisused, how evidence can be "re-arranged" to offer different interpre-tations of given events. The cultivation of such an attitude—and historyis full of instances of the use and abuse of evidence—must surely be ofvalue to adults surrounded by "the hidden persuaders", by the politicalparty pamphlet, the glittering phrases of the advertising world and thechicanery of the occasional unscrupulous salesman.

    Many history teachers encourage their pupils to become detectives, asit were, by studying historical evidence in a variety of forms to try tofind out what did happen, or probably happened, on this of that occasionin the past. The Schools Council project, "History, 13-16", uses such atechnique whereby each pupil is given what purports to be the contentsof the wallet supposedly found on the body of a young man found by aroadside in Kent and is asked to try to find who he is, what he mighthave been doing on that stretch of road when he was killed, and so on.The technique is then applied to the genuine historical case of the mur-der of the Princes in the Tower and pupils are introduced to the evi-dence and to a tape of a dramatised version of a "trial" of Richard IIIon a charge of murdering the princes.

    Another kit, "Thinking through History" contains several exercisesin thinking and informulating decisions before looking at the case ofRichard III, too. This is followed by a study of propaganda posters, ananalysis of the five basic tricks of the trade of the propaganda mongerand some exercises in identifying them. The kit then supplies materialon Nazi Germany, including Nazi statistics and policy statements andquotes from Hitler, so that pupils are enabled to see for themselves throughthe propaganda smokescreen.

    History also encourages us to see things in perspective so that we seenot merely today's events but the long term policies and chains of cir-cumstances have brought them about. Such a view makes one less likely

    8,

  • to.make glib, snap judgements based on this morning's headlines.Also, looking at events in perspective often reveals that a so-called

    modern problem, such as inflation, is nothing of the sort and has oftenoccurred earlier in human affairs, e.g. in China in the third century BCand in sixteenth century Europe to quote merely two cases which comereadily to mind. Again, this discourages superficial judgements aboutthe contemporary occurence so that scapegoat explanations for the phen-omenon in question may be disregarded and a deeper search made forthe real explanation.

    The study of history can also widen pupils' horizons in space as wellas time and during the past ten years or so a great deal has been donein London secondary schools to introduce pupils to the history and theculture of at least one non-European people. Some schools have a worldhistory course which introduces pupils to what has been aptly called "theshaping forces of our time" and also to the crucial awareness that civil-isation is something to -which all races and creeds have contributed. Suchcourses do not require an abandonment of our own national history, -ofcourse, for it is clear that history is a form of collective memory andjust as individuals are said to suffer from loss of memory, so can humancommunities.

    The Chinese went even further. One of their. terms for history was"the reservoir of human experience" and emperors and provincial gov-ernors constantly consulted 'historians in times of crisis for information.about similiar phenomena in the past to see if the records could offersome guidance on policy- for -the contemporary situation.

    Readiness to ChangeHistory also reveals that Change is the- great constant in human affairs,

    so pupils may be encouraged to adopt an elasticity of mind which 'willacknowledge the role of change in human affairs. This is not to say thatpupils are led to believe that change merely for the sake of change isdesirable or commendable. Rather are they encouraged to consider .thepossibilities of change and to effect change as the result of Man's con:scious decisions which need to be controlled in pace and•-degrees to com-bine the maximum of social justice with the minimum of friction. -•

    A study of the past also reveals the truth of Burke's dictum, "All that is•necessary for Evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'-'. Indeed,at the conference for history teachers called by the council of Europe,.in 1971, one of the Swiss delegates insisted that one of the purposes ofeducation should be to encourage young people to analyse and. criticisethe world around them and to inspire them to .resist abuses- of -authority -through the development of what he called "civil courage". -

    The exercise- of civil courage, however, demands the capacity not -onlyfor critical thinking but also for decisiveness. Many history teachers are -already encouraging such' traits through the medium' of games and simu-lations which place pupils in certain real, or typical, situations of thepast where they have to solve 'a problem or carry out a given policy:Typical topics covered by this technique are the building of the trans-continental railways in the United States, the Congress of Vienna, - thecarrying out of a Georgian Enclosure Act, the setting up of an eighteenthcentury ironworks, and so on. Such exercises introduce pupils to decision-making itself and td the realities of the economic and political worldsmuch more effectively than any books. could ever do.'

    To sum up,' history in schools can develop an awareness of the impor-tance of evidence, the nature of evidence, al sense of perspective and asense of proportion, by providing practice in analysis of events or data tobe f011owed by decision-making, by exposing the techniques of the pit-

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  • pagandists -and by 'revealing that to be an adult is not just .a matter ofgreater-physical strength or sexual activity but that it involves a capacityto exercise judgement, to be committed and to accept responsibility forone's actions. Is this not a preparation for life?

    (Summary of a lecture given on November 13)

    (The talk was introduced by two readings from a speech on "Educationfor Democracy" by Bertrand Russell in 1937, in which he recommendedseveral changes in the content and method of teaching, changes now be-ing introduced 40 years later.)

    Literature and the English IntelligentsiaBY

    1 D. MACKILLOP

    THE WORD "intelligentsia" is Russian and was first introduced by thenovelist Boborykin in the 1860s. It soon became established as the termfor an intellectual class close to political authority, on occasion exercisingpower, but more often alienated and dissident. The word still has aforeign sound in this country, because arguments about the role of intel-lectuals have usually taken place abroad, witness (to take two examplesfrom the 1950s) Raymond Aron's Opium of the Intellectuals about Franceor the Partisan Review debates in America. The relative docility of theEnglish intelligeritsia has almost forfeited it a right to the name. TodayI wish to present a recent, swashbuckling attack on the contentment ofthe English intelligentsia made in a 1975 essay called "The EnglishLiterary Intelligentsia" now reprinted in Bananas (Quartet Books), a selec-tion from the literary newspaper of that name. The author is Tom Nairn,an acute political analyst; another of his essays, relevant to the •subject,is worth looking up: "The Twilight of the British State" in New LeftReview, February/April 1977. To offset Naim's view I shall present thatof another writer, the literary critic and melancholy humorous novelist,Malcolm Bradbury. His attitudes contradict Nairn's. Although he has neverengaged in direct debate with Nairn he may be said either to present ananswer to him, or be an example of what Nairn is talking about. Here Ishall draw on the novel, The History Man (1975), and a general study,The Social Context of Modern English Literature (1971).

    Nairn's view may be summarised by expanding one of his similes, of aMountain Railway. The Railway is sense, progressiveness, modernisation;young intellectuals ride it optimistically, deploring the passing show ofdecadence and sloth on the Mountain it climbs: the Mountain is Englishlife. However, the travellers begin to feel insecure and leave the train forthe slopes, to absorb a sense of the organic integrity of English life. Oncethere they find that the view from the train was an illusion: they arenow in a "myth landscape", a mere dream of England. Some stay todream, others return disconsolately to the railway, and the remainder,frustrated by shortage of alternative options, return to crankery, to"harmless, pulverized individualism".

    According to Nairn the "myth landscape" was devised by the Romantics.After 1789 the old bourgeois elite tamed the new industrial bourgeoisieand prevented this radical and utilitarian class from forming an alliancewith the violently dispossessed industrial workers. Had this alliance been10

  • formed English society might have been restructured, but the creation of`;synthetic conservatism" contributed to preventing this happening. Itsdream seduced the new bourgeoisie. The dream was critical (anti-money,anti-city, for example), but not basically anti-capitalist. Nairn uses theGerman terms of social science to describe the dream, saying that itevoked Gemeinschaft, a community of authetically human relations. Sucha dream resisted the opposite structure which was the model of Europeandevelopment in the nineteenth century, that is, Gesellschaft or society notas organism but .as organisation, consciously planned, progressive, and

    •modernising. •"Synthetic conservatism" developed from William Blake through' a line

    of nineteenth century literary social analysts. The dream helps to preservean England tliat is sheltered and rather like an Indian reservation in whichvarious crafts and totems are preserved. Its inhabitants can shrivel utili-tarianism with a spell; they are "Protestant, individualist, empirical;disintegrative of universals"; their revered crafts and totems are in litera-ture, especially the Novel. Special significance is also given to theuniversity.

    Varsity VolumeOn which subject we may turn to Malcolm Bradbury, whose novel,

    The History Man, is about a university. What interests me is that in hissocio- literary historical book, The Social Context of Modern EnglishLiterature,. Bradbury describes the Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft distinction,shows precisely the preference (for Gemeinschaft) that Nairn attributesto the English. literary intelligentsia, and goes on to dramatise this dis-tinction in The History Man, which is about a university as an exampleof Gesellschaft or modernisation. The abstract account of modernisationin Social Context can be exactly matched in the fiction. For instance,modernisation "works by constantly seeking a more effective manipulation

    ' and rationalisation. . . . The point about the industrial revolution, whichdistinguishes it from all other revolutions, is that it is one that neverstops". The hero of The History Man is Howard Kirk, a jumped-up littlecrook of a sociologist (Bradbury's judgment, I hasten to add), who is amovement man, " 'We wanted to live with the movement, the times' ". Byseeing (I quote Social Context) the "historical process as the only thingthat matters" Howard seeks in the long run "to monopolise it" "byselectively describing it". This, claims Bradbury, is a characteristicmanoeuvre of committed people, "more often than not on the left"— asof course, is Howard, who monkeys with his Department's agenda.Howard's world is liberated but also mechanical, appropriate in theGesellschaft world where "identity is increasingly self - defined, less createdby the social web; (people) are therefore open to increased confusion andanxiety" (Social Context). Authority becomes technical-bureaucratic ratherthan mystical and sacred. Thus in The History of Man there is a nicecharacter, writing a book on "charisma" which he cannot finish and hiswife cannot pronounce. (He attempts, probably, suicide, a sign, in thisnovel, of grace for those close to Howard, whose wife does as well:both attempts, by the way, are on jagged high windows — Larkin reader§may note.) Confusion and anxiety are created by the university's teachingmethods which "often resemble physical assault": tutorials are events or"happenings", like Howard's parties, for which a comment may be foundin Social Context. Today, says Bradbury, all the forms and styles of thepast are simultaneously available and calls this proletarianization. In TheHistory Man "all the forms and styles of the past have been made syn-chronic and here, in Howard's own house . . . (they have) convergedand blurred• performers from mediaeval mystery plays, historical

    I

  • romances, dramas of trench warfare . . . play simultaneously in oneeclectic, post modern collage that is pure and open form, a self-generatinghappening". This is the motley costumed pageant of Howard's acquain-tance. History proposes, and Howard Kirk disposes, making his house an"environment", "conscious of groupings, setting out spaces"—a hint of aTV studio, which evokes Bradbury's view (in Social Context) of masscommunication "which may contain minority culture, but creates its ownsuper-culture in offering to us all the detached, serial, bland nature of itsexistence as totality". The technology of the mass media prevent "indi-vidual intervention"; they are run by people with no training in "selectivevalues", or, novelists, in short. One novelist appears in The History Man,perhaps Bradbury himself before this book's success, a sad figure who hadonce written novels full "as novels then were (of) moral scruple andconcern". But this man's talent has been defeated by the "pressure• ofcontemporary change".

    Trouncing Tradition •"Contemporary change" is what Bradbury is getting at in The' History

    Man; his target is contemporaneity and lack of rootedness. These con-ditions are challenged in the novel and in Social Context. In The HistoryMan we have Humanities, of Miss Callendar (" 'I've just joined the EnglishDepartment. I'm their new Renaissance man. Of course, I'm a woman' ")and in Social Context there is the Novel which is seen as a sort of curefor History for three reasons: first, the novelist's freedom of invention isan example of how "historical necessity" may be defeated; second, thenovel (in one of its traditions) teaches moral finesse or "a sense of thecontradictions, paradoxes and dangers of living the assertive moral life";and third:novels promote the free run of ideas, contrary to the historymen's selective handling of them and give means for a sounder under-standing •of ideas, because in literature (or the Novel) they become "nolonger quite ideas, but part of a differently realised world of experience,•in which (they) are related to linguistic enactments and to speakers".

    This is precisely the point at which we may decide, as I said initially,whether Bradbury presents an answer to Nairn's critique of the wayliterature is valued by the English intelligentsia or whether his attitudes arean example that illustrates Nairn's case. Whichever, Bradbury's work isimportant whether it refutes or bears out Nairn: if the first it showsthat Nairn's accusation has less weight than at first appears, if the secondit shows there is a reality to which Nairn's sometimes rhetorical analysiscorresponds.

    Today my aim is to sketch the debate, and not solve the problem•just stated. I• will, though, not stay completely silent on the fence. Itseems to me that Bradbury's defence of the utility of literature (or theNovel) is vulnerable in two respects. For one thing his idea of literature(or the Novel) is selective and personal. Concluding Social Context helists key imaginative works; some are Jude the Obscure, The Rainbow,Ulysses, 'The Waste Land', Keep the Aspidestra Flying, Angus Wilson'sLate Call and Nigel Dennis's Cards of Identity. With the greatest tenta-tiveness I suggest that something like nostalgic pessimism informs the list—or the dream of Gemeinschaft. Could not other works by the same writersconvey quite a different spirit, say, Lawrence's Women in Love or AngusWilson's As If By Magic? Then, my second doubt concerns Bradbury'sconception of how ideas change when they get into literature (or the.Novel). I cannot help feeling that what he really means is that they goaway. This worried attitude to ideas is hardly one an intelligentsia canafford—and it is not one that has been held by any a Bradbury's heroes.A saner view is perhaps to be found in D. H. Lawrence, who remarks

    12

  • at the beginning of Fantasia of the Unconscious that one has an absoluteneed "for some sort of satisfactory mental attitude towards oneself andthings in general" which makes one "try to abstract some definite con-clusions from one's own experience". This is refreshing when set againstBradbury's anxieties about "the assertive moral life' and the manipulabilityof ideas.. It may actually be a true voice of the English.intelligentsia.

    (Summary of a lecture given on January 15)

    For the RecordBY

    THE GENERAL SECRETARY

    FOR years I have awaited the day when I would first be asked to conductour Naming Ceremony for the Dedication of Children—and on 25 Feb-ruary it happened! The ceremony was rewritten and updated to meetthe needs of today and further amended by the mother and father of thechild—eight weeks old Jeremy. Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet yielded twoexcellent readings. This is one of them:

    "Your children are the sons and daughters of life,They come through you but are not of you,And though they are with you, they belong not to you.

    You may house their bodies, but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,Which you may not visit.

    You are the bows from wh ch your children as living arrows,are sent forth".

    We managed to resolve a rather difficult crisis. The father's family areSalvationists and the mother's Positivists—it is hardly possible to imaginea deeper division. I was talking to the Positivist grandfather after theceremony and he told me about the old Positivist Church in! Liverpoolthat lasted until the last war and of which he was a member. On enter-ing the Church you were met by an image of the Virgin and Child (butstay! ) Comte had declared the Virgin to be the symbol of Humanity andthe Child our generation! Elaborate rituals, clearly based on those ofthe Catholic Church, were used and all the names of the months werechanged. I began to see why the Positivist Churches failed (there weretwo of them near Red Lion Square) and we did not.

    Helped by the gentle tolerance of our ceremony, the convivial atmos-phere of our Library and the splendid spread put on for the guests (thefather and mother run a small hotel in the West Country and know aboutfood!) all was sweetness and light. Baby Jeremy behaved in an exemplaryway throughout!

    13

  • And changing the subject (to the other end of life) the Unitarian Minister.of Hyde in Cheshire recently asked to see a coPy of our funeral ceremony'stext and has written as follows:

    "In its simplicity it sums up what the majority of folk really believe• and would find of genuine comfort. It is a pity that your approach

    to this subjea (and to others! ) is not more widely known. I fear thateven the revised and modernised funeral services now commonlyused by various denominations have but little to say to those whomourn".

    COMING IN APRIL

    For years I have been hoping to find someone who has done a lot ofwork on that extraordinary woman Annie Besant who was once on theCommittee of South Place, who led the match-girls, founded modern familyplanning, established a University in India and was inspired by MadameBlavatsky. Cohn Fry spent years doing exactly that and the quest of AnnieBesant will be his subject on the 2nd. Sir John Lawrence edited BritishAlly in Moscow during the war and is today the Chairman of the Centrefor the Study of Religion and Communism. He will be with us on the 9th.Tom Evans has been in Germany and will talk about the German dimen-sion, as he sees it, on the 16th. The 23rd sees a welcome return of RonaldMason after a fairly long absence. The air and the papers have been fullof Thomas Hardy recently so we should come to his lecture well prepared.

    Different Kinds of HumanismThis is the theme of the Tuesday discussions for April with Nicolas

    Walter (4th), Dr Harry Stopes-Roe (11th), Barbara Smoker (18th) and my-self (25th). I don't suppose we shall arrive at anything definitive but travell-ing, we know, is at least as important as arriving; and with all the speakersbeing themselves senior officer-bearers in the movement the discussion ismore than academic. I hope we get a good turn-out.

    The Forum on April 9 will be on Education Otherwise—Teaching atHome—you may have seen the Open Door programme on this. Peoplecan teach their own children—if certain conditions arc met it is perfectlylegal. Speakers to be announced. On the 23rd the barrister GeoffreyRobertson who took part in the blasphemy case will take on: Blasphemyand Obsenity: Should the Law Be Involved?

    AROUND THE SOCIETY

    o My lecture on Blake is still echoing it seems. I have been asked torepeat it for the Walsby Society (in Ealing) on 12 July. In preparing thelecture I had no idea that a major Blake exhibition at the Tate was im-minent. It is now on and will last until 21 May. One of our memberssuggested that the April Ramble might take the form of an organisedvisit to the exhibition with myself as the guide. That has now been arrangedfor Saturday, 8 April. Meet at the Hall at 2.15 pm. I shall say somethingabout the exhibition before we go because it might be rather difficult onthe spot. Back for tea later. Will those who have cars let me know inadvance?

    D Charlie Bryson, our Assistant Caretaker for the past two years, hastaken a job on London Transport. We are sorry to see him go.

    o The BHA has announced an essay competition in association with theIHEU Congress this summer. The subject is "Work for Human Needs

    14

  • in a Just Society"..Essays should be 3/4000 words long. Prizes £70. and£35. More details and also on the Congress itself from Kenneth Furness,BHA, 13 Prince of Wales Terrace, London W8. The Congress fee (lunches,reception, special event, papers, etc) is £50, which seems to us to be onthe steep side but that is how it is. The Congress mill take place at theLSE 31 July to 4 August.

    All four kindred societies are co-operating to feature the 200th Anni-versary of Voltaire's death at a special meeting at the Flail on 30 May.

    The sad saga of the wall of the Small Hall is over. There was damp init and it ruined one coating of paint after another. Eventually we had tohave all the plaster off and remake the wall. 'Tis now done and the paintis a pleasant and permanent non-institutional pink.

    A thought for the month from A. N. Whitehead . . . The author ofone of the most difficult theoretical works of the century Process andReality he argued that he didn't have a theory but rather "a mode ofidentifying the nature of an experience. It is to the experience, not tothe idea of it, that continuing and ultimate reference must be made". Atheory is' an imposition of an idea. I think that is quite enough to thinkabout for now!

    PETER CADOGAN

    FORUM

    . Towards a New SchoolingNIGEL WRIGHT, author of the recent book Progress in Education, startedwith three propositions.

    Firstly, he said, given the resources put into schooling the results are onthe whole pitiful. Even given their very limited aims, the schools fail in thecase of the majority of young people.

    Secondly, the situation has never been otherwise. The education of themajority of the population has always been a failure. Thirdly, modernreforms are not making things any better. Progressive methods, unstreamedclasses, curriculum changes and comprehensive schools themselves do notappear to have made any significant changes.

    If we put these three propositions together an important conclusionfollows from them: it is that the old traditional methods and the modernprogressive methods are not significantly different and the results are there-fore the same. All educational methods to date have failed to educate themajority of our children. It follows then that if we want the future differentwe must look for something completely different. We need to find a thirdway.

    There are at least five respects in which a new way of education wouldbe fundamentally different from the old. It includes the abandonment ofthe commodity view of knowledge, the abandonment of the ages betweenwhich formal education should take place, the abandonment of assumptionsabout places where schooling should take place, the abandonment ofcompulsion and the abandonment of examinations in favour of a new kindof self-motivation. (The testing of techniques and talents for specificpurposes is another matter and has no relation to education as such.)

    A new schooling would be conducted on a small scale, i.e. in schools ofabout 50 pupils. It would be continually experimental and geared both to

    15

  • the unfolding psyche of the pupil and the nature of the society in which helives. It would be non-coercive, at least until there is a new social consensusto which there can be universal commitment. Its function would be gearedto work, understanding that word in its creative sense and not signifyingemployment as such. It would be geared to the practical needs of life andfurther to the discovery and enjoyment of a deeply satisfying style of living.

    As regards the immediate situation it is important to oppose and defeatthe present backlash manifest in intensified selection, testing, compulsorycurriculum, greater state control of teachers and a return to "traditionalmethods". It is important to make use of the bonus we have in the fallingbirth rate, and therefore fewer pupils at school, to set up smaller units withmore variety. We should get rid of examinations in schools and let univer-sities, institutions, further education and employers devise and implementtheir own selection procedures.

    Finally, we need to greatly extend the debate about education itself andinvestigate a whole series of fundamental questions. Do people requireformal education? What for? What do we mean by it? Given the qualityof the teacher is fundamental, what is the present situation in that respect?What can we do about it? Exactly why is it that our Schools do so littlefor 75 per cent of the population? Do we need these vast, enormouslyexpensive specialised buildings when education is essentially based on theteacher and the learner working together? Are we happy about what we aredoing for the mentally and emotionally subnormal? What will be involvedin the abolition of examinations? What is the right pupil-teacher ratio?

    We have had education on a mass scale since the Forster Act of 1870.It was based on the class assumptions that then underwrote the system. Ifthe sins of the fathers are visited upon the children until the third andfourth generations it is now the fourth generation that has to get rid ofthem. PC

    •(Summary of a Forum talk given on January 8)

    DISCUSSION

    The Rights and. %tongsof the Closed Shop

    TONY BARRETT, for years a militant docker, now working in the printingtrade, opened the discussion by pointing out that group ethics arose fromthe total situation in a society.

    In Western countries, however, for historical reasons, the producer ofwealth has always been regarded as a lesser being. Ile had in consequenceno direct say in the way society was organised. This situation obtained untilcollective organisation in trade unions began during the 19th century. In1824 William Cobbett described industrial workers as "enlightened slaves";the unorganised workers faced a closed shop of masters and it wasimportant to recognise that the idea of a closed shop applied to both sidesof industry and therefore cuts both ways.

    The fact is that whenever any minority controls an enterprise without letor hindrance from* without it can gear everything to its own ends. In theMiddle Ages the Catholic Church, baronial landowners and master crafts-men of the guilds were in that position. Peasants on the land and journey-men in the towns were forbidden organisation of any kind.

    Tinde Unionism is a belief in a collective of working men to regulatewages and conditions. Up to 1947, for example; there would be a thousand

    16

  • dockers looking for a hundred jobs. They were in a hopelessly vulnerableposition vis a vis their employers who could do what they liked over ratesof pay and conditions of work. In circumstances like that the closed shopis an excellent idea, in practice, in the struggle to establish elementaryjustice.

    We would be well advised to remember, contrary to the impression givenby, the newspapers, that the closed shop is by no means the exclusive con-cern of the militant trade unions. Lawyers, licensed victuallers, otherprofessions and trades, have made full use of closed-shop procedures formany years and, in so doing, established privileged positions for the few.The House of Lords is also a closed shop.

    Regulations are threatened against the closed shop. These are always tobe directed at industry and never at the professions. Nevertheless, it is amistake to assume that trade union progress depended upon the closedshop. In the great breakthrough in the gas workers' strike in 1888 therewas no closed shop. Militant activity secured the eight-hour day.

    The closed shop has significant limitations as well as advantages. Whenit prevails in a healthy fashion it means that all the workers concernedenjoy the protection of a trade union in its defence of their interests andno minority group gets any benefit without paying its dues. It also meansthat blacklegging is impossible in case of strikes and that shop stewards aresafeguarded against victimisation.

    On the debit side, however, the closed shop is- sometimes used by thebureaucratic leadership of the big general unions to recruit memberswithout doing any work. They then exercise their power tyrannically overthose members.

    There is no simple conclusion to be drawn from the closed shop argu-ment. On balance it has been a very important part of the workers'legitimate defence of their own interests. It can, however, be abused ifand when trade union leadership gets out of touch with members. Wehave to face up to this and work our way through it.

    (Report of a discussion held on January 31)

    ViewpointPast Present and Future of Money

    In this lecture I spoke from notes and so Mr Cadogan did a very goodjob of summarising my rather technical speech which you reported in yourFebruary issue. Indeed he improved it in some respects. Unfortunately afew gremlins crept in. I will not trouble you with them all but (1) themacute (not mercute) was a unit of account and cannot be classed as amedium of exchange, (2) the temporal dimensions of money are better de-scribed as the past: obligation incurred loans etc; the present—the moneyactually circulating in some form or another and the future—the act ofcreating money or granting credit against which value in terms of goodsor services is to be produced.

    Also while I spoke in favour of a universal unit of account I did ack-nowledge that it poses enormous theoretical, political and practical prob-lems. I am trying to reconstruct my speech: if successful I shall ask thata copy be placed with the Society's records.

    My thanks to your members who attended and were such a constructivelycritical .audience.Northwood, Middx. MICHAEL FLEMING

    17

  • D. H. LawrencePeter Cadogan's introduction to his lecture on the "apocalyptic human-

    ism of D. H. Lawrence" (For the Record, March) suggests that his pan-theon is getting so crowded that it is upsetting his facts and his metaphors.

    He says that Lawrence is "the most influential humanist of our -time",although he died nearly half a century ago, was hardly a humanist, andhas little influence today. He says that the failure of "organised" human-ists to recognise Lawrence is "one of the main reasons" for our failureduring "the last ten years", without suggesting how a Lawrence cultcould have madc any difference. He says we have "failed to take off"and must therefore "stand the existing situation on its head" even if "athousand sparks fly", which sounds a peculiar procedure.

    Can't we get back to humanism?NICOLAS WALTER

    Harrow, Middlesex

    South Place NewsNew Members

    We are pleased to welcome the following: Mr C. Sydie, N22; Mr H.P. Roberts, SW6; Mr P. Rollins, Surrey; Mr J. M. Phillips, W4; Mr R.M. Patel, W2 and Mr L. Jacobs, Essex. •

    Mrs Ray LovecyMembers of the Society will be pleased to know that the present Chair-

    man of our General Committee, Mrs Ray Lovecy, was recently electedChairman of the Humanist Housing Association, in succession to the lateMiss Rose Bush. Ray Lovecy is a Life Member of SPES and also (since1975) one of our Trustees. She is well known to those who attend ourSunday meetings and Forum teas.

    Country Dancing •This month's session, conducted by Eda Collins, will take place in the

    Library on Saturday, 15 April at 3.00 pm, beginning with the usual basictuition for the first half hour. Everyone is welcome, including beginners.Please note, this is the final indoor meeting of the season, and the groupwill resume in September. In the interval, monthly dances will he arrangedby the Progressive League in members' town or country gardens.

    Sunday SocialThe guest speaker at this month's Sunday Social on 16 April will be Mr

    Martin Page on "The Work of the Probation Officer". Martin has beenworking in the probation service for a number of years, and we forecastan interesting afternoon.

    The Social is at 3 pm, with tea at 4.15 to 4.30 pm.

    Bridge DriveThe April bridge drive will be held on Thursday, 20 April starting at

    6.30 pm sharp. Prizes will be competed for and refreshments will be served.The Bridge Club will also meet for bridge and Scrabble on Sunday even-ings during the month from 6.00 pm to 9.30 pin.18

  • Theatre visit- A theatre visit has been arranged for the 5.00 pm matinee of the new

    play Bodies by James Saunders, at the Hampstead Theatre Club on 22April. The play, which has won an Evening Standard drama award starsGwen Watford and Hinsdale Landen. Tickets are £1.25; pensioners 50p.Full details from Connie Davis (01) 328 5038.

    Kindred organisationsThe Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union is

    being held in London this year. It takes place at the London School ofEconomics, Houghton Street, WC2, from 31 July to 4 August. The themeis Work for Human Needs in a Just Society, and the speakers will indude James Dilloway, Howard Radest, James Robertson, Mihailo Mar-kovic, Renate Bauer, James Hemming, Peter Draper and Piet Thoenes.The Congress fee is £50 (£30 for full-time students, and there will be manyopportunities for organised and informal discussion.

    Forthcoming events of Humanist Holidays include one or two weeksat Keswick, Lake District, August 5 to 19. Secretary Marjorie Mepham isgathering opinions on a repeat of the Malta Xmas and New Year event(cost about £150). Tel: (01) 642 8796.

    Continued from page 2Saturday, April 153.00-6.00 pm—Country Dancing (See South Place News)

    Sunday, April 1611.00 am—Sunday Meeting: T. F. EVANS on The German Dimen-

    sion. Oboe solos: John Gowdy3.00 pm—Sunday Social (See South Place News)6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble6.30 pm—Concert: Nonie Morton, Margaret Cable, Ian Partridge,

    Christopher Keyte, Jennifer Partridge, Peter Pettinger.Brahms Liebeslieder 1 and 2 vocal quartet and piano duet,Schubert Lebenssturme, March Characteristique No 2 pianoduets

    Tuesday, April 187.00 pm Discussion introduced by Dr Harry Stopes-Roe. Creating

    PurposeThursday, April 20

    6.30 pm—Bridge Drive (See South Place News)Sunday, April 23

    11.00 am—Sunday Meeting: RONALD MASON on Thomas Hardy3.00 pm—Forum: Blasphemy and Obscenity: Should the Law be In-

    volved? with Geoffrey Robertson6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble6.30 pm—Concert: Alberni String Quartet. Haydn C, Op 74 No 1,

    Martinu No 4, Beethoven Emi Op 59, No 2Tuesday, April 25

    7.00 pm—Discussion in trod uced by Peter Cadogan. ReligiousHumanism

    Sunday, April 30No meeting

    6.00 pm—Bridge and Scrabble6.30 pm—Concert: Manoug Parikian, Amaryllis Fleming, Bernard

    Roberts. Schubert Bfl Op 99, Beethoven G Op 1, Haydn DHob XV24

    19

  • South Place Ethical SocietyFOUNDED in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement which today advo-cates an ethical humanism, the study and dissemination of ethical principlesbased on humanism, and the cultivation of a rational religious sentimentfree from all theological dogma.

    We Invite to membership all those who reject supernatural creeds andfind themselves in sympathy with our views.

    At Conway Hall there are opportunities for participation in many kinds ofcultural activities, including discussions, lectures, concerts, dances, ramblesand socials, A comprehensive reference and lending library is available, andall Members and Associates receive the Society's journal, The Ethical Record,free. The Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 haveachieved international renown.

    Services available to members include Naming Ceremony of Welcome toChildren, Memorial and Funeral Services.

    The Story of South Place, by S. K. Ratcliffe, is a history of the Societyand its interesting development within liberal thought.

    Membership is by £1 enrolment fee and an annual Subscription.Minimum subscriptions are: Members, £1 p.a.; Life Members, £21 (Life

    membership is available only to members of at least one year's standing). Itis of help to the Society's officers if members pay their subscriptions byBankers' Order, and it is of further financial benefit to the Society if Deedsof Covenant are entered into. Members are urged to pay more than theminimum subscription whenever possible, as the present amount is notsufficient to cover the cost of this journal.

    A suitable form of bequest for those wishing to benefit the Society bytheir wills is to be found in the Annual Report.

    MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM

    TO THE HON. REGISTRAR, SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYCONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRERED LION SQUARE, LONDON WCIR 4RL

    Being in sympathy with the aims of South Place Ethical Society, I desire tobecome a Member and I enclose £1 enrolment fee and, as my annualsubscription, the sum of £ (minimum El) entitling me (accord-ing to the Rules of the Society) to membership for one year from thedate of enrolment.

    NAME (BLOCK LETTERS PLEASE)

    ADDRESS

    OCCUPATION (disclosure optional)

    HOW DID YOU HEAR OF THE SOCIEry?

    DATE SIGNATURE

    The Ethical Record is posted free to members. The annual charge to subscribersis LI. Matter for publication should reach the Editor, Eric Willoughby,46 Springfield Road, London El7 8DD, by the 5th of the preceding month.

    David Nell & Company Dorkina Surrey