Jn'dercurrents41 John Southgate and Rosemary is remarkably similarp 'These things. John and Rosemary have taken on tandall have put together in cartoon an essential task in describing the under- . ' we declare t o be our native rights .I arm t t à ˆ ~ d i r e experiences c of worklying unconscious proce,sses that sh ig yith-co-ops in understanding any group experien6:They have do teir dy(Hun1Cs,while drawing what it without losing touch with whit is ley wantin the way ~f theow from on the surface, so. their approach h l o Freire, Wilhelm Reich and should not immediately frighten off Alfred Bion among others. What .:,,,+,tho* who do not easily -pt that wire,. Reich or would thinkof :, & r e influenced in our actions and reie use made oftheir workis any- ., actions- bv~our,own unconscious desires ody's guess; what matters t o , ~- ., ' - ~ . and defences. One can recognise from 0tmtial Users o f the bookis .'its their examples.that they are talking . . -., :: ,,.-;-ihn,,+:.bility-to make sense to them.:.
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m y . FrancesTomlinson hasdo*. . . to positiveuse; they do, howie drawings, and together they have =.b;~,ever,tend to idealise the creative group. Diggers today eveloped q style that is Simple with-. : ::j.$~~or'example,they use B~on'saccount . service, equality before the l a y - a basic assumption behaviour with. u t being banal. The Barefoot Psycho- .;,:of .. :-liberal programme withno mention of . .>:~;, wlyst is at an individual level a *reference to a destmctive.group, while :? redistributionof or for that ofthis manual of Co-operahe would have seen this as characterismatter of common The p dynamics. tic of all Small groups. In Such Ways - " s : . ~ i may ~ ~ ~fall ~ ~into a different cate1 was a member of a workshop John they m w leave others feeling envious :?:-?:mry, .. b u t thebook con&traGs overnd Rosemary have just done at North or disbelievingin their own energising '&eimingly. (and rightly, inview of ohdon Polytechnic. They used. :-*...,so*. . ,. . . - capacities.,. .. . . their relative importance at,thetime) f the cartoons du.ti'rtgthejvof@hop; Those working co-operatively have on the Levellef$kndbdescribe them ie usual.form~t@$j$.!ps? tins ; . to achieve and maintain and readjust : isina senseto do tfieman. vtoo^s,theft ft> get!,fitqp0mç.e)s-'-: . aibalance of reflection and action. injustice., . . e r i e n t i a k x e r i i ~ , ' : then ~ ~ t o run T!iqe cartoons demonstrate a ,yay o f I n anothersense, however, the ..:: f time for further discussion, .whfeh."'' exploring the cpnnections - and any- . :. Levellersdo representan mti;authorimilled o ~ e r i n ~ t pub. h e So I have a .-. oneic'an joi~..'n. ,, I . . ,;:. . tarian strain (Liiburne's integrity and ~1 of how they tryto, resolve the ,!: . , ,--A^*:&.:::;.; . lik ~ ~ r l i & t & bravery in thid role are perhaps the iiemma of being the custodians of ,< :~:%:.. ~. . , ,.,, >'... , .; ,. . . . .. . outstanding features of the story) :. . .. anventional (or unconventional) .: .,.. ' ..-, .. which became atldmark o f early isdom, and at the sametime provok-. . British socialism (Keir Hardie entering tgothers t o focus their own thought #. Parliament i n a cloth cap, for example). i d feeling into creative action. The All this, though, is: academic. What irtoons i n the book give much of . makes this bobkgood is the content, ie same feel, encouraging t o those . the way it'is +it!@ +n?:alsosome i remarkableinsights~OnCromwel1:'His h o want totake risks. The ippioach i s constructive, with ' . action begantoreveal histrue nature,. 1 emphasis on what i s good i n group seeking influence where power was'. orking, without seeing all aspects Or on the Agitators: fThe Agitators, wh f the group asproblematic arid desBritain's.Flrst ~oiialists- b y Fennet - .; it should be remembered,were the uctive. Thfr'workshop~ov~d (he. ,: . Brockwy, Introduction by Tony Beno.. ^elected spokesmen of each regiment tea of the'creative~ofSasmiccycle..Th:is: :.Quartet Books £5.95 :..... t.,. w(direct ancestors of the shop stewards lay have hadas muihfi~d6'withiour 11, .: THIS IS a good yhe factthat^,$: >.,.. . j,? factorieytoday~~,..~ rivate desires as our dedimion to . - . & , written by a manofover 9 0 , .; -:;: The latter indicates another feature ie Desire the group. But it ..,.:.M it remarkable. For, while it isnot o f both the book and the events with to negative . ;?' a work o f first hand research (as the : -^, ;which it is concerned; their relevance to pects: a'so'tiring these a"thor freely admits in hi$ introduction) ' us in the late twentieth-century. Brock1life, so that wecan laugheven as we +% a I;,+, a way deserves credit for bringing this out account," ip on the banana ski:% .'.' . :  full of insights the general reader, One comparison he doesn't make thoug The workshopexerci&s.~eme?.to ' $:of ideas and actions of Britain,s is the similarity between events o f the (pose a proass of exponential '.!: pfrst socialists- the Levellers, Diggers 1940s here a"& those at present unfoldrexity- Questioning leads 'more natur- @ ^,:; Agitators of the English Revolution, , ing in 1 r a n . I ~both cases we have the ~. . .,. . l y tb more questions , than to , P e r h a p s the main quibble with the fall of a monarch claimingsome'kind of its iswersi As the group >'book: isthe title. Itcertainly leaves it 1. .,-divinetight succeeded by the, rise of a wn life$ the participants did feligiouslyintolerant clique (the t the ciiallenge o f t h e material but : ': ..opento the accusation of ceadinghis- 3::. : tory backwards, calling the great 17th <.: Presbyterians filled this role in England' live with c?mpJexity rather. century revolutionarips socialists. The revolution). It will beinteresting? wght ian close down options:. . Levellers were much more forerunners . see ifthese parallels run into the future. liberalism than Perhaps it i s a paradox of t h e a r - - i o f if they :.it canonly be hoped that revolumns that their apparent simplicity : - . ..anticipated any important thread of ,. , - .tionwill in the long run provide as lcourages us to take account ofour ..political thought (and the modern I a source of liberating ideals as Wà private sub-text to the headlines, ynature of much of ,their nd's did 330 years ago. And hile a more detailed analytic account .. kway can surely be excused of outd leave us screaming for simple .. . : alism,s greatest ng history backwards; for the iswers. A bonus i s the sense of fun Hers had a remarkable ability to , -,Declaration of Independence - ,we tat need not be lost when we take ., hpld these truths t o be self-evident ' read history forwards. , urselves ,seriously. ... . .- , .. " -. .,
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