It has been more than a couple of months since the last Director’s Report; everyone at C4SS has been extremely busy and C4SS has been going through some changes. C4SS has gone through so many changes, in fact, that I need to tell you about them.
Old Positions, New People
Early 2015, Thomas Knapp handed the torch of C4SS English Media Coordinator to Trevor Hultner. And, in July 2015, Hultner passed the position to C4SS’s Portuguese Media Coordinator Erick Vasconcelos. This has been bittersweet transition: We lost Knapp and Hultner, but we gained more Vasconcelos. Tom Knapp took his place among our Senior Fellows, Trevor Hultner is working on other important projects, like The Anarchist Audio Archive. On the other hand, Erick Vasconcelos is a veteran media coordinator and translator that has done amazing things for C4SS in Brazil and for our supporters around the world that read Portuguese. We at C4SS are excited to see where Vasconcelos takes us as both our Portuguese and English Media Coordinator.
New Positions, New People
As C4SS continues to grow and its responsibilities expand, the need for a dedicated Senior Editor became more and more apparent. The C4SS Senior Editor, in a nutshell, oversees all of C4SS’s printed material — Commentaries, Features, Reviews, Studies, Blogs, everything — and coordinates with all the writers to get their material publish-ready. We are honored to have Chad Nelson, whose editor skills have benefited Anti-War.com, as C4SS’s first Senior Editor.
C4SS has a Mutual Exchange program, an organized discussion between members of C4SS with other scholars or influential persons within the liberty or anarchist community covering topics of particular interest to C4SS. Unfortunately, this program has been sporadic and, at times, disorganized. C4SS now has a Mutual Exchange Coordinator dedicated to organizing topics and communicating with prospective writers for a regular monthly discussion. The perfect person for this job, who comes fully experienced for the task, is Cory Massimino.
We have a few more notable additions to the C4SS Family. We are humbled to have Jeff Riggenbach take a position as a C4SS Senior Fellow. Libertarian Scholar Mikayla Novak is one of our newest C4SS Fellow after her wonderful study: Gender Identity and Libertarianism. Our other C4SS Fellows are our previous interns: Dylan Delikta and James C. Walker.
Speaking on the C4SS Internship Program, we are happy to congratulate James C. Walker for being the first intern to successful negotiate all of writing tasks that comprise the Program. Walker’s graduation brings the program one step closer to being fully tested and ready to accept applicants. For the next six months C4SS will be nurturing, not one, not two, but three interns: Benjamin Blowe, Kelly Vee and T.J. Scholl.
The Month to Month
As C4SS moves through 2015, we continue to maintain a Tor Relay Node and publish videos to our youtube channel: Feed 44. We are happy to report that Feed 44 has passed the 1,000 subscriber mark and is growing everyday. A regular C4SS podcast is also in the works.
C4SS has, through our parent organization The Molinari Institute, been granted 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. All of your donations to C4SS or The Molinari Institute are tax-deductible.
On the other hand, if you are interested in supporting your favorite C4SS writers directly you can probably find them on Patreon.
We are able to report that the C4SS Political Quiz is getting fixed. We have raised enough money to give it a complete overhaul, and it should be ready soon.
That is enough for now, I will report more progress next month. All of this progress is dependent on your support. Every little bit helps and is immensely appreciated.
Please Support Today!
All of this work is only sustainable through your support. If you think the various political and economic debates around the world are enhanced by the addition of left libertarian market anarchist, freed market anti-capitalist or laissez faire socialist solutions, challenges, provocations or participation, please, donate $5 today. Keep C4SS going and growing.
ALL the best!
P.S. An added feature to the regular Director’s Report, I have asked C4SS’s Senior Editor, Chad Nelson, to pick out a few articles that caught his eye each month to get some extra attention.
C4SS Senior Editor’s favorite articles for July 2015:
Kevin Carson’s “An Open Letter to the Greek People“
In his commentary, Carson speaks directly to the Greek people on behalf of C4SS. In doing so, he extends not only C4SS’s sympathies for their plight, but also our stateless solutions to their capitalist-created debt crisis. Says Carson, “Our goal is to render existing institutions irrelevant.”
Nick Ford’s “The Tortured Logic Behind Using Torture“
Ford lays bare the American government’s immoral and ineffectual torture regime. He also suggests that rather than tinker with “small ball” political reforms like NDAA amendments, Americans ought to demand wholesale abolition of the dreadful National Security State.
Chad Nelson’s “Carly Fiorina Claims She’s Not Part of the Professional Political Class“
Fiorina stands little chance of becoming POTUS. But her claim that she’s divorced from the political class because she spent her professional years as a Fortune 100 CEO is a myth worth dispelling. The dots are connected here for the corporate apologists who fail to see big business and the state as partners in crime.
For August 2015:
Kevin Carson’s “Education: Guaranteeing Access Isn’t Enough“
In “Education: Guaranteeing Access Isn’t Enough,” Kevin Carson questions the very foundations of America’s current education system. While the mainstream left focuses on “guaranteeing access” to a deeply flawed system, Carson pushes abolition, favoring a self-directed model that truly serves students, rather than the bloated administrative class.
Kelly Vee’s “Will the Real Feminists Please Stand Up“
Kelly Vee challenges self-proclaimed feminists like Lena Dunham who object to Amensty International’s call for legalization of sex work in her commentary “Will the Real Feminists Please Stand Up?” Says Vee, their opposition to sex work stems from “a place of privilege…ignorance about the realities of sex work,” and a lack of respect for female self-ownership.
Cory Massimino’s “Sanders’s Immigration Comments Prove We Need a Radical Left“
Is Bernie Sanders deserving of the progressive pedestal he’s been put on? Cory Massimino says one look at Sanders’s conservative and reactionary immigration stance should send true progressives running for the hills. In his piece “Sanders’s Immigration Comments Prove We Need a Radical Left,” Massimino claims that Sanders’s presidential candidacy merely illustrates our desperate need for a truly radical left.
