Upcoming Events

Cork | History and Heritage

no events match your query!

New Events

Cork

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Sat Apr 12, 2025 10:15 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Why Has the Daily Sceptic Been Put on Tortoise Media?s Climate Naughty List? Sat Apr 12, 2025 09:00 | Ben Pile
Tortoise Media ? fresh from acquiring the Observer ? has created a climate sceptics naughty list ? and the Daily Sceptic has made the cut! Ben Pile wonders if slow news is meant to mean news by slow people.
The post Why Has the Daily Sceptic Been Put on Tortoise Media’s Climate Naughty List? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Quaker Political Interference Has Got Out of Control Sat Apr 12, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
There was uproar when police raided a Youth Demand meeting in a Quaker meeting house. But there's nothing innocuous about the Quakers, says Charlotte Gill: they're behind some of the most well-funded activism in Britain.
The post Quaker Political Interference Has Got Out of Control appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Mother Arrested for Theft and Held in Cell for Seven Hours for Confiscating Own Children?s iPads Fri Apr 11, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
A mother of two was arrested for theft and held in a police custody cell for more than seven hours after she confiscated two iPads belonging to her own children.
The post Mother Arrested for Theft and Held in Cell for Seven Hours for Confiscating Own Children’s iPads appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link West Yorkshire Police?s Anti-White Hiring Policy Says the Quiet Bit Out Loud Fri Apr 11, 2025 15:00 | Paul Birch
West Yorkshire Police's anti-white hiring policy says the quiet bit out loud. Former cop Paul Birch says those in the police have known this has been going on for years ? and the public doesn't know the half of it.
The post West Yorkshire Police’s Anti-White Hiring Policy Says the Quiet Bit Out Loud appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Audio: Early Irish communist - William Thompson

category cork | history and heritage | opinion/analysis author Thursday March 29, 2007 19:25author by Joe Report this post to the editors

From 2007 Dublin Anarchist Bookfair

William Thompson was one of the of the first people to critically engage with political economy and attempt to turn it around to defend the improvement of the condition of the working class and rural poor. He was from a Anglo- Irish landowning family from West Cork and was to become a leading figure in the early Co-operative movement. In this talk from the anarchist bookfair Paul Bowman talks about the importance of Thompson and the relevance of his ideas today

Download is 9.1 mb MP3 file, just over 41 minutes in length.

Its also the last audio I recorded at the bookfair so I'm interested in feedback from anyone who has listened to them as to whether it was worth recording them.



Paul Bowman on William Thompson
audio Paul Bowman on William Thompson 9.52 Mb

author by Andrewpublication date Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:16author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There is quite a comprehensive wikipedia entry on Thompson at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thompson_%28Cork%29

On the WSM site there is a page on him at http://www.wsm.ie/thompson which includes links to three of his key writings

Inquiry: Preliminary Observations
http://www.wsm.ie/story/2142
The "Preliminary Observations" is the introduction to his first, and possibly most important book, the lengthily entitled "An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth most conducive to human happiness; applied to The Newly Proposed System of Voluntary Equality of Wealth" of 1824. It is this work of which the anarchist historian Max Nettlau remarks: "[this] book, however, discloses his own evolution; having started with a demand for the full product of labour as well as the regulation of distribution, he ended up with his own conversion to communism, that is, unlimited distribution".

Inquiry: Chapter 5
http://www.wsm.ie/story/2047
This is the crucial fifth chapter of the Inquiry. This is the turning point of the book where Thompson accepts that his original project of creating a liberatory economics on the basis of classical liberalism, albeit taken far further than any previous exponent had dared, had been overtaken by an acceptance of the limits of even the most perfected system of "free" exchange.

Practical Directions: Explanation of Leading Terms
http://www.wsm.ie/story/2143
From the opening of Thompson's last book before his untimely death, "Practical Directions for the Speedy and Economical Establishment of Communities, on the Principles of Mutual Co-operation, United Possessions and Equality" of 1830. In the main was a practical "build your own community" manual

 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy