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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
This month on Mutual Exchange Radio, we are joined by Eric Fleischmann, leading an informative and inspiring conversation about their comprehensive Laurance Labadie archival project, Labadie’s special relevance for the market anarchist tradition, their study on Historical Materialism and more.
Eric Fleischmann (he/they) is an undergrad student working in the solidarity economy and pursuing a double major in anthropology and philosophy. He is an anarchist indebted to communistic and continental thought but engaged primarily in the traditions of mutualism, North American individualist anarchism, and modern left-libertarianism. He has been involved in various capacities with numerous leftist, left-leaning, and labor-oriented organizations—generally ones which promote forms of politico-economic decentralization and democratization and/or degrees of left unity (Center for a Stateless Society, Industrial Workers of the World, Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, Resource Generation, and his college’s Leftist Coalition). He has also played in and currently plays in several punk, hardcore, and alternative bands (Soy., Consumerist, Manbitesdog, and Nope) and has released multiple albums.
C4SS scholars and Batman aficionados Roderick Long and Cory Massimino join us as we discuss the launch of the “Rippaverse” comics, re-cap San Diego Comic Con, and remember Alan Grant.
Tune in on Friday, August 19th at 7:00 PM EST.
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There is a stereotype perpetuated by the political right that anarchists tend to be rich, white kids radicalized by the ‘postmodern neo-Marxists’ that have apparently taken over institutions of cultural production. This is clearly a tactic to strategically simplify and obscure both the complicated relationships between Marxism and postmodernism and the multicultural, working class origins of anarchism. However, there are indeed many anarchists—like myself—who do come from some type of class/wealth privilege. And it is therefore the responsibility of such anarchists to not only participate in standard anarchistic organizing and activism (and in the process work to contribute without centering our voices) but also to put our money where our mouths are and commit to voluntary wealth and land redistribution, mutual aid projects, and immediate reparations to working class BIPOC individuals and organizations. We must become the good kind of class traitors. To do anything less is to make our identification as anarchists a joke.
One avenue for this kind of work—specifically wealth redistribution—that C4SS does not officially endorse but I would like to individually ‘advertise’ for using the platform the Center has provided for me is Resource Generation (RG). Founded in 1998 by Tracy Hewat and Lynne Gerber, Resource Generation is, according to the official website, “a multiracial membership community of young people (18-35) with wealth and/or class privilege committed to the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power.” The org is national campaign partners with both the Center for Popular Democracy and the Movement for Black Lives as well as part of the New Economy Coalition and Unmasking Fidelity. Utilizing the collective structure of RG, members are able to independently raise large sums of money (the goal for 2022 is $100,000,000+) to contribute to BIPOC-led solidarity and redistributive projects as well as participate in campaigns focused on challenging and transforming our current socio-economic systems.
Though not an anarchist organization, RG includes people who identify as anarchists as well as other anti-capitalist and leftist ideologies. It is also certainly anti-capitalist as a whole in its goal to reorganize wealth and ownership and, in its own internal structure, does have a central hub but its chapters—at least in my experience—tend to be both highly autonomous and if not fully consensus based, still directly democratic and largely horizontalist. With this in mind, I would highly recommend that any anarchists with material privilege should step up, read about RG further, and either start or join a local chapter. To begin, take the Class Privilege Quiz! If the future is to be equitable and decentralized in terms of wealth and land, then we need to start now!
Longtime C4SS contributor and activist Kelly Wright was recently interviewed by Aaron Ross Powell on (Re)Imagining Liberty about trans myths, trans identities, and trans rights; about the increase in the amount of openly transgender people and the reactionary political-cultural backlash; about the connections between gender affirming care, social acceptance, and suicide rates; and about the importance of self-authorship for liberty.
Check out their interview below.
Longtime C4SS Fellow, activist, and economist Nathan Goodman was recently interviewed by Aaron Ross Powell on (Re)Imagining Liberty about the feedback loop between militarization at the border and militarization abroad, the role of social capital in public policy, and how good social science can help correct for the errors of the political process.
Check out their interview below.
This month we are joined by Logan Marie Glitterbomb, leading an awesome conversation about the fundamentals of Agorism, as well as its lesser-known forms and environmentalist potential. We’re also talking about Mardi Gras, Logan’s legal incident, gun control and more.
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.
Find her work and support her legal fund here:
