#18: What Anarchism Isn’t, Pt 1: Libertarianism and Anarcho-Capitalism
:Anarcho-capitalism & libertarianism; Jerry Koch interview; grand jury resistance
Listen to the Episode — 84 min
Summary
Anarchism ain't what it used to be … if you search iTunes or Youtube these days, you'll find defenders of capitalism and private property claiming the A word more than ever. In our 18th installment of the Ex-Worker, we kick off a two episode series discussing what anarchism isn't, as Clara and Alanis step in to debunk anarcho-capitalism. Surveying the range of libertarian ideologies in the US, we assess the similarities and differences between these opponents of the state and anti-capitalist anarchists, while clarifying how their free market fantasies fall short of a genuinely anarchist vision of freedom. Our critiques of private property and the free market conclude with a hilarious interview with an anarchist graphic designer about their misadventures laying out a book on "market anarchism." We also hear from recently released grand jury resister Jerry Koch about the insight he's gained into the importance of prisoner solidarity to anarchist struggle, while his lawyer explains how grand juries are used as tools of political repression and how we can resist them. Listeners offer corrections, suggestions, and updates on prisoner struggles, while plenty of news updates and announcements round out our longest episode yet! {February 12, 2014}
Notes and Links
If you’d like to read more about anarchist critiques of libertarianism and private property, check out the forthcoming CrimethInc essay “All the Freedom Money Can Buy: The Problem With Property.” It’ll be available soon via the CrimethInc blog.
We cited a few other critiques that anarchists have made over the years. A helpful starting place is the Anarchist FAQ, which has several online versions: we drew on the one on The Anarchist Library, one found at the Anarchist Writers article archive, and one accessed via the Free Republic website](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/707836/posts). Other sources included Anarchism: Arguments For and Against by Albert Meltzer, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s classic What is Property?, a Noam Chomsky interview, and our old pal Mikey Bakunin.
For more info on the impact of extreme neoliberal economic policies, don’t miss the terrific film “The Chicago Conspiracy,” which traces the impact of Milton Friedman and “the Chicago Boys” on the Chilean economy in the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship. We also cited Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine, which covers the Chilean case as well as post-Soviet Russia and post-Katrina New Orleans.
If you want to look into anarcho-capitalism, start with texts from some of the 19th and early 20th century individualist anarchists who influence contemporary market anarchists, in particular “Individual Liberty” by Benjamin Tucker and writings by Lysander Spooner. The Center for a Stateless Society, a “left market anarchist think tank and media center,” occasionally overlaps with anarchist perspectives that interest us. Praxeology, the website of Roderick Long (one of the contributors to the Markets Not Capitalism book), includes links to most of the core texts in the tradition; his organization, the Molinari Institute, promotes market anarchist ideas. You can also listen to the Final Straw podcast’s interview with Charles Johnson, co-author of Markets Not Capitalism.
In this episode, we recapped some of the other folks who use the label “anarchist” despite espousing views directly counter to core anarchist principles. We mentioned our coverage in Episode 11 of the so-called “National Anarchists”. Anti-fascist organizer Daryle Lamont Jenkins from the One People’s Project discusses them as well as the links between white supremacists and the Ron Paul/libertarian crowd in the US in an interview with the Final Straw.
Learn how to support the Westville, Indiana prisoners in resistance at the Dignity at Westville blog.
More updates on released grand jury resistor Jerry Koch will be available from jerryresists.net.
Keep an eye on the Free the NATO 3 support site for updates on their ongoing trial.
You can find updates from the prisoner hunger strike in Menard Correctional Center from the Anti-State St. Louis blog
To learn more about the FBI’s entrapment strategy for counter-terrorism cases targeting American Muslim communities, check out the fascinating “Terrorists for the FBI” feature from Mother Jones magazine, as well as Trevor Aaronson’s book The Terror Factory and an interview with him on Democracy Now.
For those interested in the radical possibilities opened up by heretical religious rebellions, one listener recommends Os Cangaceiros’ Millenarian Rebels as well as Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch, which we reviewed on the Chopping Block in Episode 2.
Upcoming events include Lady & Trans Fest in Dublin, Ireland, the BASTARD Conference in Berkeley, CA, and “Art, Atheism & Anarchy: A Poetic Convergence of Science of Civic Humanity” in Naga City, Philippines.
News briefs on the Hot Wire included the sentencing of animal rights activist Kevin Olliff and former Earth Liberation Front fugitive Rebecca Rubin, an Anonymous leak of an FBI terrorism warning against journalism covering animal abuse, arrest of Chilean anarchist Tamara Sol Farías Vergara, release of four Moscow anti-fascists, anti-right wing rioting in Vienna, Austria, indigenous grandmothers blockading Montana tar sands equipment megaload, police crackdown on Beirut landfill occuption, Mongolian “Fire Nation” environmental activists sentenced for terrorism, Indonesian anti-mining protestors shot by police, and more San Francisco Bay area protests against Google.
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Upcoming prisoner birthdays:
Kamau Sadiki (Freddie Hilton) #1150688
Augusta State Medical Prison, Building 13A–2 E7
3001 Gordon Highway
Grovetown, Georgia 30813
Address envelope to Freddie Hilton, address card to KamauShaka Cinque (Albert Woodfox) NIA #3-CCR
David Wade Correctional Center
670 Bell Hill Road Homer, Louisiana 71040
Address envelope to Albert Woodfox, address card to Shaka