In our final episode for the season, Ash P. Morgans talks to host Alex McHugh about egoism, anarchism, and religion. This conversation was an excellent cap-off to our Mutual Exchange symposium on egoism and anarchism and continues some of the discussions that came up throughout the symposium. Particularly, we explore the intersections of ethics, morality, anarchism, and religion from the egoist or Stirnerite perspective.

Look out for more MER in the new year, with Zachary Woodman returning as host! If you’re not already a supporter of C4SS on Patreon, please consider becoming a patron today. You get access to bonus content, some thank-you swag, and it really helps us keep these shows going on a regular basis. Happy new year!

Kick off the new year and the road to Coup de Gras with the Anti-Nazi Gaming League!

On Friday, Jan. 6th we’ll stream from 7-10pm EST with a variety of special guests including Kevin Carson, Nathan Goodman, Evan Pierce, and many more.

• Watch on Twitch for the first time ever! @antifa_gaming
• Or YouTube: https://youtu.be/D79vO_SSGjw
• Or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1316909995822171

Time doesn’t stand still: In a daring approach to pacifying the inner city of Berlin and restricting the amount of motorized traffic, the Berlin senate – featuring a governing coalition of Greens, SocDems, and Left – have passed a rather interesting resolution, as German center-left paper taz reports.

Among other changes, parking dues for bikers (of any kind of bike) will cease to exist. This includes bipedal bikes, e-bikes, and motorized bikes. Already, cars in Berlin are not solely entitled to the city’s public parking space. Prior to this resolution, however, hardly any biker knew they could also use these spaces, even though they would have had to pay the same dues that car owners would. Thanks to the new resolution, however, the culture war will hit the streets shortly and, looking at online comment sections… dang will it hit. The new resolution, enabling bike users to reclaim public space by parking bikes without paying dues, has brought attention to the fact that it has, in fact, always been legal. Activists could, hypothetically, simply claim all of Berlin’s parking space (given they can provide the labour and number of bikes). Car owners cannot displace parking bikes, that would be illegal. Of course, this doesn’t prevent car owners from taking to the internet and threatening all kinds of counter-activism against an expected wave of anti-car activism.

Resonating through online comment sections is the argument that this, rather than providing a positive solution, simply exacerbates an ongoing conflict, pushing it towards real escalation this time. People say it is a politically sponsored culture war move, and it is. But does it matter? Any democratic society, even one that aims to be such, should on the one hand be accustomed to conflict. Diversity and pluralism imply conflict and conflicts drive conclusions.Wouldn’t we have to rely on such conflict to achieve political patronage because resolutions depend on gates closed by the state to be opened, given true freedom of association enabling modes of peaceful resistance, many more conflicts would much earlier reach the light of day and eventually be sorted. Also, how many politically sponsored culture war moves has the conservative to reactionary side of the political landscape pulled the last 80 years, thanks to such state patronage? In a statist society, the government keeps the gate for all substantial change. A gate has been opened. I, for once, look forward to seeing this conflict here unfold – in all its greatness.

Join the Anti-Nazi Gaming League TONIGHT (12/16) at 7:00 PM EST as we bring some family on the stream to celebrate the holidays, play the Die Hard NES game, and discuss everything from the 2022 Game Awards, to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and more.

You can watch on Facebook here.

Or on YouTube:

Senior fellow of C4SS Kevin A. Carson joins the Cyber Dandy Podcast to discuss his new book The State: Theory and Praxis.

Kevin is the author of several works including Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective, The Homebrew Industrial Revolution: A Low-Overhead Manifesto, and The Desktop Regulatory State, all of which are freely available to read at kevinacarson.org.

Watch the interview on Youtube:

Things are at a bit of a standstill with the Laurance Labadie Archival Project, and this is mainly due to the fact that on top of all the other work I’m doing I simply do not have the time or energy to transcribe, edit, and respond to each of his works. The last of these efforts was intended for me to be able to immerse myself (as much as is possible) in the kind of discourse that Labadie himself was doing: a back and forth between lay philosophers and political theorists in publicly available magazines. And I stand by this effort as it has allowed me to engage with Labadie in a way that feels very personal. 

That being said, I’ve come to the realization that to do that for every one of his pieces is unnecessary and makes the effort more about myself than the actual subject of this project. So going forward, I plan to focus first and foremost on transcribing and publishing Labadie’s works—the point of the project in the first place—while adding responses when I feel compelled. I will continue to edit these pieces (and noting the edits) as many of them are only drafts and deserve some final touches before being published. In the meantime, I think I will sit down with my copy of Anarcho-Pessimism and dive back into Labadie’s fascinating thinking.

Update 12/16/22: I will also be foregoing footnoting corrections I make to spelling and grammatical mistakes in Labadie’s collection of drafts. My goal was originally to be absolutely transparent with the editing in the archive but marking down each and every error at the bottom of someone else’s work has become obviously cruel. I will continue to note corrections that have a significant impact on the writing.

On the 21st installment of The Enragés, host Eric Fleischmann was joined by Cathy Reisenwitz (@CathyReisenwitz) to discuss her 2014 article Know Thine Enemy: Political Ignorance and Libertarianism (https://c4ss.org/content/28154).

Cathy Reisenwitz runs the Sex and the State newsletter on Substack and has bylines in TechCrunch, The Week, VICE, Daily Beast, and other fine publications.

Support C4SS – https://www.patreon.com/c4ssdotorg

Recently I received an email from eBay outlining the following:

Tell Congress to Stop Requiring Unnecessary Tax Reporting and Protect Seller Privacy

A problematic tax reporting provision will force millions of Americans to receive confusing and burdensome IRS forms. These additional income tax forms (1099-K) will be issued for the sale of virtually all goods, even used or pre-owned goods, where no income tax is owed. This new change will mean even people selling only a few things a year online will receive confusing tax forms intended for businesses. 

We need your help to change this law before January 1, 2023.

Now normally I would ignore an email from a large corporation asking me to help change legislation, but this struck a chord with me as not just an anarchist but more specifically an agorist [1]. While it certainly is not going to be the central catalyst for the emergence of a stateless non-violent society, eBay—or rather the people using it—is still in many ways part of the counter-economy (particularly from a green market agorist perspective) and should be defended from these types of interventions. These new regulations would, as the email outlines, require marketplaces “to report sellers who have more than $600 in annual sales to the IRS. That means millions of eBay sellers, including those who may only sell a few items a year, will have their sales reported and will need to keep careful records of their transactions—even if no taxes are owed.” This is an obvious attempt at greater legibility, surveillance, and profitability for the state from voluntary, horizontal exchanges online and, even if it isn’t the most pressing issue at the moment, should be opposed by agorists, anarchists, and libertarians alike. See here to send a letter to Congress.

1. For a good introductory overview of agorism, see Derrick Broze’s “What is Agorism? A History of Agorist Theory and Practice.”

This month we’re joined by Cathy Reisenwitz. Cathy is the creator of the Sex and the State newsletter and has bylines in TechCrunch, the Daily Beast, The Week, Reason, and more. We’ll be playing Overcooked! and discussing pumpkin fucking discourse on Twitter, as well as new and upcoming releases like Wendell & Wild.

Tune in this Friday, November 18th at 7:00 PM EST.

Watch on Facebook: C4SS Facebook page

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We’re excited to announce that Kevin Carson’s latest book, The State: Theory and Praxis is now available for purchase on Amazon! 

Adding to Carson’s large body of work, this book covers many important topics for anti-capitalists of all stripes. In this new manuscript, Carson:

… examines the class nature of the state, navigates between the contending errors of reformism and accelerationism, and considers how best to engage with a dying system and manage its decline while simultaneously carrying out our primary task: creating a successor system within its interstices.

Get it today on Amazon for $10, and be sure to check out the rest of Carson’s work, including Exodus, The Desktop Regulatory State, and Organization Theory.

Help us support and house C4SS writer and friend of the center, Jessicka Lamb!

Jessicka is staying in Dallas, TX with no housing and no ID. After moving to Dallas a few years ago, Jessicka’s wallet — including all her ID documents — was stolen. Shortly after, a series of abusive relationships, that took her from Dallas to Tennessee and back again, prevented Jessicka from getting a new ID and accessing housing.

Without valid ID, Jessicka is cut off from accessing housing, proper medical care, benefits, and many other necessities. She is also suffering from severe stomach problems and was seeking an official Crohn’s diagnosis before moving to Dallas.

Donate here or use the button to the right.

Our hope is that some financial support from the LWMA community can help Jessicka secure housing and get much-needed medical care.

Please give what you can, share this fundraiser, and reach out if you’re familiar with the area and can help connect Jessicka to reliable leftist communities in the Dallas area.

For the 20th installment of The Enragés, host Eric Fleischmann was joined by Selena Q. Rose (@anarcho_gender) to discuss Selena’s articles How State Power Perpetuates Transphobic Violence (https://c4ss.org/content/56360) and Gender Anarchism: Tearing Down the Gender Hierarchy (https://c4ss.org/content/54814).

Selena Q. Rose (she/they) is a nonbinary transgender woman and a market anarchist who advocates for the abolition of unjust hierarchies, including the gender hierarchy and the state. They believe a major ascendant force in state coercion is the oppression of transgender and gender nonconforming people, and that anarchists of all varieties should strive for the abolition of gender hierarchies.

Donate to the ACLU – https://action.aclu.org/give/now

Support C4SS – https://www.patreon.com/c4ssdotorg

Join us this Friday, October 21st at 7:00 PM EST for more Multiversus action. The ANGL team will continue exploring the game while we discuss some recent shows like She-Hulk and Andor, the upcoming Velma series, and G4TV’s short second life.

Tune in THIS Friday, October 21st at 7:00 PM EST

Watch on Facebook: C4SS Facebook page

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Now available for pre-order from AK Press, ¡No Pasarán! is:

” … an anthology of antifascist writing that takes up the fight against white supremacy and the far-right from multiple angles. From the history of antifascism to today’s movement to identify, deplatform, and confront the right, and the ways an insurgent fascism is growing within capitalist democracies, a myriad of voices come together to shape the new face of antifascism in a moment of social and political flux.”

The book features essays from C4SS writers Emmi Bevensee and Frank Miroslav along with many from friends of the Center, all of which offer important commentary on contemporary antifascism. With a focus on actionable, grounded antifascism, this collection offers an excellent and historically informed resource for antifascist activists.

​​For the (very delayed) 19th installment of The Enragés, host Eric Fleischmann was joined by Logan Glitterbomb (@MakhnoTits) to discuss Logan’s article Libraries Offer a Model for the Sharing Economy (https://c4ss.org/content/55523).

A Catholic anarchist-without-adjectives, Logan Marie discovered anarchism through the punk scene in high school and went on to join the Industrial Workers of the World in college where she studied theatre arts. She is a former editor, writer, and co-publisher of the queer anarchist news ‘zine Pink&Black, co-founder of the Libertarian Anti-Fascist Committee and the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the Libertarian Party, member of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the DSA, co-founder of the anarchist Mardi Gras krewe Krewe de Main and their festival Coup de Gras, and current organizer with the IWW’s Freelance Journalists Union. She spends her free time performing comedy, cosplaying, and writing comics.

Support C4SS – https://www.patreon.com/c4ssdotorg

In this episode of Mutual Exchange Radio, Elizabeth Nolan Brown discusses abortion, sex work, moral panics, conspiracies, feminism, libertarianism, and more.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason magazine, a co-founder of Feminists for Liberty, and a journalism lecturer at the University of Cincinnati. You can follow her on Twitter at @ENBrown.

C4SS needs your help to table at LibertyCon 2022!

LibertyCon (October 14-15) is one of the biggest libertarian gatherings of the year and its participants always receive us warmly. We started tabling here in 2015 and our booth is consistently among the most popular. Now we have another opportunity to share left-market anarchist ideas with the broader libertarian movement and expose new people to liberty’s radical and revolutionary potential.

Our goal was to raise the tabling funds by September 15th, but we have until September 22nd to actually reserve tabling space. Every penny counts and C4SS greatly appreciates any and all support. See you in October!

C4SS scholars Kevin Carson and Nathan Goodman join us to play Multiversus and talk economics in the gaming and comics industries. We’ll touch on indie game pricing, the recent Warner Bros. merger, and some new game, show, and comic premieres.

Tune in THIS Friday, September 16th at 7:00 PM EST.

Watch on Facebook: C4SS Facebook page

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Longtime C4SS Fellow, Mutual Exchange Coordinator, and contributor Cory Massimino was recently interviewed by Aaron Ross Powell on (Re)Imagining Liberty about anarchy, political authority, the viability of stateless societies, and the relationship between anarchism, liberalism, and modernity.

Check out their interview below.

I am not a[n official] historian. I have never worked professionally in any field of historical studies. Difficulty in the details of the Laurance Labadie Archival Project is therefore bound to happen, with the latest conundrum being how the surname Labadie is pronounced. In my recent appearance on Mutual Exchange Radio, I used the pronunciation lɑˈbɑdi (or ‘luh-bah-dee’) and when prompted explained how that was the way I have heard it said (this is in reference to informal conversations I’ve had with other leftists). I would therefore like to (very briefly) outline the reasoning behind that pronunciation, speak on the possible mistake of said pronunciation, and place the whole thing into a context of multiple difficulties with fully understanding Laurance Labadie’s name.

The name Labadie is, according to House of Names, a Norman surname indicating “that the original bearer lived at or near an abbey. The word occurs in contraction with the article, le, meaning the, and thus appears Labbey.” I made my best go at a French pronunciation and my assumption was that its ‘Americanization’ would sound something like lɑˈbɑdi. It appears, however, that many would disagree with me. For one, the port of Labadie in Haiti (spelled Labadee by Royal Caribbean Cruise for ease of pronunciation by English speakers) is apparently pronounced something likeˈlæbədi (or ‘la-buh-dee’). Even more pertinent is the pronunciation apparently used by the folks at the Joseph A. Labadie Archive (the basis of which is the book and document collection of Laurence’s father), which is the same as the Royal Caribbean Cruise advertises it.

Despite these two pieces of evidence, it is unfortunately not easy to say how either Labadie—son or father—preferred his name to be pronounced beyond ‘that’s how I heard it said.’ Since the younger was somewhat hermetic and to this day relatively obscure, there’s not a lot of documentation on the specifics of his name, and this has led to confusion about more than just the pronunciation. For example, the Laurance Labadie anthology Anarcho-Pessimism released by Little Black Cart spells his first name as “Laurence.” Elsewhere in the piles of documents—digital and physical—by and about Labadie that I have lying around, there appears to have been confusion on whether Labadie preferred to be called Laurance or Larry (with the former being more likely). My point is that we may never be certain as to the specifics of Laurance’s preferences about his name, so I’ll just keep saying it the way I have bee saying it until I come across something on the pronunciation from Laurance himself or one of his contemporaries.