Howdy, folks! It’s Sunday, which means I’m going to try and tear myself away from watching Marvel’s Luke Cage for like an hour and tell you a thing about the Center for a Stateless Society’s mark on the media world over the past week. That’s right, it’s your Media Coordinator Weekly Update.
The Week In Commentary
We’ve got some catching up to do, starting with pickups. We had some stragglers from September: Logan Glitterbomb’s “Of Flags and Football” got picked up by the Augusta, GA Free Press and my post, “Dismantle the Police,” was republished by CopBlock with added commentary.
More recent articles published in our Commentary slot are Chad Nelson’s piece on Angela Davis in defense of her veganism (published in the Augusta Free Press and Counterpunch), a piece on whether voting is a good idea, and Kevin’s article on the first veto override of President Obama’s career.
The Week Everywhere Else
Our writers have been busy elsewhere, too. In the last week we’ve published four new features, including Kevin Carson’s takedown of a “Libertarian” Dakota Access Pipeline shill:
You’d almost get the idea that the pipeline wasn’t being built almost entirely on stolen land. Shughart denies claims that First Nations weren’t consulted by the Army Corps of Engineers before construction, but the fact that the project was even considered in the first place, let alone treated as a matter of debate, is a gross injustice. The sacred land and burial sites on the pipeline’s route are already protected by treaty. The pipeline route comes within a half mile of a Hunkpapa reservation, and actually occupies land which itself was stolen from its indigenous inhabitants. By any standard of justice, the ACE’s jurisdiction for private land giveaways should be considered null and void.
Sheldon Richman’s denial of the claim that we must choose between democracy or elitism:
Need I point out that it is astonishing for a libertarian to cite licensing in defense of his plan for an unequal distribution of voting power? Formally, licensing is the state’s way of determining who may and may not engage in occupations supposedly in the interest of consumers. Actually, licensing is how incumbent practitioners of occupations exclude competition and hamper innovation in order to support the monopolistic incomes to which they have become accustomed. It’s a system of privilege. Why hitch political reform to it?
Logan Glitterbomb arguing for a more working-class libertarianism:
But since then, libertarianism in America is more commonly associated with capitalist business interests and vulgar “free”-marketers. Some, like Konkin, have tried to correct this by reinserting a class analysis into libertarianism and was successful in creating a philosophy re-uniting market libertarianism with the class struggle and feminism. His philosophy has even crossed over into mutualist libertarian circles with ideas of anti-capitalist agorism, similar in many ways to Proudhon’s strategy of dual power. So with Ron Paul and Gary Johnson inspiring more and more people to discover less class-based libertarian ideas, how can those truly concerned about classism bring these new members into the fold and combat a seemingly predominate form of vulgar libertarianism? How can we prove to the left that libertarianism and class struggle can co-exist?
And finally, Sheldon Richman’s send-off to the founder of Israel, Shimon Peres, who died last week:
Lebanon and Qana, as we see were not the jihadis’ only grievances against the United States, but Peres’s war was one more count in a long bill of indictment against the United States, whose government has underwritten the Israeli military to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Peres would have had no way of knowing that five years later his war would produce such a dramatic act of revenge against the American people. But that should not lessen our condemnation of him. His mission in life — Zionism — required the degradation and destruction of the indigenous people who did not fit into his vision. It was inevitable that some kind of vengeful backlash would result. As usual, the victims were innocent bystanders. Perpetrators like Peres get to die of old age.
Housekeeping
Just a couple of things before I wrap this lil shindig up:
- I will not be posting a Weekly Update on Sunday, Oct. 16, because I’ll be traveling to Austin, Texas for work. On a related note, if I have any friends in Austin you should hit me up that Sunday, because while I’ll be insanely busy through the week I’m likely gonna have n o t h i n g to do for an entire afternoon, and I’ve never been to Austin before.
- Our 10th Anniversary Essay Contest is in full swing! check out this post for more details and send your submissions to trevor@c4ss.org before Oct. 25!
- That’s literally all I have.
Thank y’all for your continued support, and since I don’t have a clever segue:
Donate! It’s how we get paid!
The Center for a Stateless Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Its rotating cast of Fellows and volunteers work tirelessly to bring market anarchist content to all corners of the world. The work we do – writing, translating, setting up discussion fora, tabling at events like the upcoming Students For Liberty Regional Conferences all over the United States, and more – is paid for by your contributions. We’ve just started a new month, which means you have plenty of time to help us out!
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