C4SS trustee and senior fellow, Gary Chartier, presents his Students for Liberty philosophical seminar on Achieving Social Justice Through Liberty.
http://youtu.be/q2kRdY0N_es
Today is the national day of action to free the Holy Land Five, who have been imprisoned by the US government. Why are they being locked up? Their donations of food and medicine to impoverished Palestinians were deemed “material support for terrorism.” I’ll let the Committee to Stop FBI Repression explain:
The Holy Land Five need our urgent solidarity. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in late October whether their final appeal will even be heard. The Holy Land Five are five Muslim charity leaders wrongly imprisoned due to U.S. government political repression. They are being punished for publicly sending charity to Palestinians, at a time when U.S. domination is being challenged in the Middle East.
The first Holy Land trial ended in a hung jury, but a second one — using secret witnesses who were never identified to the defense, hearsay evidence and a ‘shock video’ showing protesters in Palestine burning an American flag — contributed to prejudicing the jurors. The result is that five men, who did nothing wrong, are suffering long sentences, between 15 and 65 years.
The lead prosecutor who used these dirty tricks in court is Barry Jonas. Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is now in Chicago, conducting the ongoing investigation of 23 Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists. Jonas is a pro-Israel ideologue, politically motivated and willing to trample on people’s rights.
As thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters learned this past year, the U.S. is becoming a more repressive place. For more than ten years now, hundreds of Arabs and Muslims have faced and are facing unjust prosecutions. Many are already behind bars. Help us turn this injustice around!
This is naked political repression by the state, and amounts to nothing less than the criminalization of compassion and solidarity. To learn more, visit http://freedomtogive.com/
C4SS fellow Stephanie Murphy is back from Libertopia 2012 and we are glad to have a recording of her breakout session regarding modern concepts and approaches to Mutual Aid.
Be sure to follow along with her follow powerpoint presentation.
From the Markets Not Capitalism audiobook read by C4SS fellow Stephanie Murphy.
From Leah’s tumblr leahxvx:
First and foremost, do not panic.
Leah wanted for us to express these points to you with this news:
- She is extremely traumatized and experienced a lot of very, very bad things, but she is alive. The state of her mental health is also very bad.
- She asks that people do not jump to wild conclusions about her release because they do not apply.
- She spent her whole time in SHU / Administrative Detention (solitary confinement) and was told that that is where she would stay for the duration of her incarceration, up to 18 months. She was classified as “different” from Matt and Kteeo.
- She received probably near 200 pieces of mail, books, postcards in 4 days (mail was not delivered to her every day) and was glad for it, and knows probably a similar amount is being returned to sender right now. She urges people to step up support for Matt and Kteeo on all fronts. Books that didn’t get to her probably go into the prison library, which is still a good thing because from what we heard their selection is limited to romance novels and religious literature.
- More information is going to be released. At this time, Leah needs space from media. She is overwhelmed by all the publicity. Regardless of who you are, if you have her personal information,PLEASE do not call her, email her, or try to locate her in order to question her. Give her space until she asks otherwise.
- She was released the night of 10/17. She did not make it public immediately because she did not want the “media shitstorm” to jump down her throat yet.
- She is very moved by the amount of support and solidarity there has been for her, she expressed concern that Matt and Kteeo were not getting as much publicity. Please write them, support them, send them books.
Again, to reiterate, more information is going to be released in a few days.
Thank you all for keeping an ear to the ground and for supporting these people.
-mod
Whenever political talk turns to tax cuts, a primary objection is that such cuts have to be “paid for.”
By whom? And for what?
When you read a headline such as “Romney’s deduction caps don’t pay for tax cuts,” what’s actually being said is that the plan would require government to cut not just taxes, but spending as well (or else add to deficit and debt).
The underlying premise is that all previously contemplated or projected future spending is sacrosanct — the money in question already belongs to the government, and forgoing that money and whatever the politicians want to spend it on is somehow a “payment” from government to the taxpayers from whom they propose to steal the money in the first place.
Sooner or later, the equation balances as “taxes = spending.” Debt is just a way of deferring collection of taxes for awhile (and increasing them due to interest). If there are no spending cuts, there can be no tax cuts.
From the Indiana University broadcast website:
Elinor and Vincent Ostrom were world renowned for their original and influential research on resource management and democratic governance. Indiana University administrators, faculty and students will celebrate their lives at 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, in the IU Auditorium in Bloomington.
Elinor Ostrom, Distinguished Professor and Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and the only woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, died June 12. Vincent Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science, died June 29.
Writing at Forbes.com, Todd Ganos observes something important and far too seldom commented upon by writers in the elite media — that is, the very concrete facts of the practical, working relationship between capital/Big Business and the state. Ganos offers us a study conducted by no less a stronghold of radicalism than the National Bureau of Economic Research, which set out to see just how consistently our lawmakers in the upper house could be relied upon to come through for the powerful rich. Looking at 6,000+ Senate votes over two decades, the report found — shock! — that, in Ganos’ words, you guessed it, “our senators’ votes are influenced.” Imagine that. The study thus stands to bear out the consistent refrain of market anarchism throughout its history in the United States, that rather than restraining big business for the common good, the state is what enables and sustains its continued domination of economic life. You can find the rest of Ganos’ piece here.
From reddit.com/r/Anarchism:
Why not take a few minutes and fifty-some cents and send mail to a comrade who is inside, suffering for their convictions? Remember to try to keep it light, at least mostly, and think about putting your letter on the back of some news articles, crosswords or other word-puzzles/games, to give them additional time-fillers.
Send Letters to Leah at:
Leah-Lynn Plante
#42611-086
FDC SeaTac PO Box 13900 Seattle, WA 98198Send Letters to Matt at:
Matthew Kyle Duran #42565-086 FDC SeaTac P.O. Box 13900 Seattle, WA 98198Send Letters to KteeO at:
Katherine Olejnik
#42592-086 FDC SeaTac, P.O. Box 13900 Seattle, WA 98198
In its 67th edition, El Libertario, an anarchist newspaper from Venezuela, predicted Hugo Chávez’s victory in yesterday’s election, and reflected on the consequences that such victory would entail for the country:
“Chávez’s victory will only be enabled by the oxygen provided by an opposition candidate ideal for his interests, a representative of Venezuela’s oligarchy who participated in the coup d’état back in 2002. Capriles gave Chávez the perfect scenario for revitalizing the polarization, with a discourse focused in the middle class and scarce connection with the popular sectors. Despite pretending an inclusive approach, it was never a secret that key decisions were always made by the high command of the country’s most reactionary and conservative party: Primero Justicia. And despite the evident disenchantment with the results of Chavez’s administration and the sustained increase of social conflict, held at bay by the charismatic expectations of the caudillo, in this scenario Capriles is unable to convince dissident Chavistas and wide sectors of the populace. The future would bring stronger statism in the communal sector, exclusion of more people from the benefits of public policies due to political reasons, and via a domino effect, the Bolivarian hegemony of provincial and city governments in the upcoming local elections.”
From the Markets Not Capitalism audiobook read by C4SS fellow Stephanie Murphy.
Cuba’s Yoani Sanchez: Detained for 30 hours for pissing off Raul Castro.
California’s Kevin Cogill: Sentenced to two months of house arrest for pissing off Cary Sherman.
Actor Daryl Hannah and Eleanor Fairchild have been arrested for “criminal tresspass” and “obstructing a passageway” during a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.
Quoth a spokesman for TransCanada, the corporation building the pipeline: “It is unfortunate Ms Hannah and other out-of-state activists have chosen to break the law by illegally trespassing on private property.”
TransCanada claims to “own” the land because they got the state of Texas to forge a fraudulent new title to it using the pernicious doctrine of “eminent domain.”
The real owner/occupant of the land? Eleanor Fairchild.
Yeah, there’s some trespassing going on all right.
The latest Cato Unbound features my essay “From State to Society” on “privatization.” Among other things, I argue that this term doesn’t quite get at what radical libertarians want. Commentary by Leonard Gilroy and Dru Stevenson has been posted. A final comment, by Randal O’Toole, will be posted Tuesday.
Who would have thought it? Printing guns is frowned upon. Even in the US.
Cody Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, found this out last week when Stratasys, the company that made the uPrint SE 3D printer he was leasing, got wind of his plans to design a 3D-printable handgun and took back their equipment.
…
In a letter to Wilson, lawyers for Stratasys cited his lack of a federal firearms manufacturer’s licence as their reason for the repossession, adding that it does not knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes.
Our first peek at the iron fist (the velvet glove is already making the rounds)?
From the Markets Not Capitalism audiobook read by C4SS fellow Stephanie Murphy.
Translations for this article:
- Spanish, El Mercado Liberado.
Authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old woman in the suburban San Diego area after she allegedly hit a Border Patrol agent with her car.
Naturally the “she should have known better” crowd is out in full force, blaming the victim, Valeria Alvarado. But the video attached to the story clarifies things a little bit.
The agent was “undercover.”
In other words, he was dressed as a mundane gun-waving thug — unaffiliated, or perhaps affiliated with a lesser unit like Otay or Varrio Chula Vista, possibly a carjacker or drug-crazed loon — rather than sporting the full colors of the Brown People Abduction Crew of America’s largest street gang, its “federal government.”
So, Valeria Alvarado defended herself, and Valeria Alvarado died. If the hooligan had bothered to put on a “raid jacket” before running wild in the street, she’d probably have put it in park, prostrated herself, and survived.
Just another gangland murder, but these perps have a better marketing department than MS13 or The Mexican Mafia.
Bill Moyers just released a new special report about the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. You can watch it here. Because the report is primarily produced by liberals and progressives, it largely accepts the myth that ALEC is primarily promoting policies that decrease the scope of government. However, it also illustrates the cronyism between corporations and politicians that ALEC facilitates, and left-libertarians should be able to recognize the authoritarianism and statism of many of the ALEC bills discussed. I have previously written a C4SS op-ed about ALEC, as has Kevin Carson.
When it comes to understanding ALEC, I think Carson said it best:
ALEC’s proposals represent “free enterprise” in much the same way that a chain gang from one of their “private” prisons represents “free assembly.”
“[A]t what point,” asks Zen Anarchist at Everything Voluntary, “is somebody libertarian enough for your vote?”
I think Zen is asking the wrong question, at least to the extent that he’s addressing most non-voting libertarians.
We aren’t not voting for Gary Johnson because he’s “not libertarian enough.”
Even if he dropped his support for “humanitarian war,” stopped promoting the “Fair” Tax, and retracted/apologized for his call to conscript every business owner in the United States as an unpaid ICE agent, etc., voting for him (or for any other candidate) would not — in the opinion of non-voting libertarians — advance liberty.
Your mileage may vary, of course, and that’s fine — I understand the various arguments in favor of voting, and unlike some non-voting libertarians I don’t consider voting to be a moral failure as such — but my own position is that if we want to get rid of the state, one easy first step to take is to join the non-voting, non-consenting majority and get on with more important things than voting.
When “privatization” just means transferring the state’s coercion and use of taxes to private companies, it’s not a reduction in statism. Instead, it builds up perverse incentives and makes the state less transparent. This can be seen quite clearly in the case of the for-profit prison industry. It turns out that while for-profit prisons still receive our tax dollars and still lock peaceful people in cages, they’re not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
And while we’re on the subject, profiting from caging humans isn’t just for the prison operators. An excellent report released this week documents how Wells Fargo is getting in on the authoritarian action.
