Carnival season is upon us and Mardi Gras Day is fast approaching! How are you celebrating this year? Hopefully you’ll choose to celebrate with us at Coup de Gras 2: Electric Luau!

Coup de Gras is an annual Mardi Gras festival thrown by Krewe de Main, the krewe behind the Coup de Main land project. The festival was started in 2020 to encourage people to come out and check out the project. The first Coup de Gras was completely word-of-mouth and hosted on the former homestead owned by a number of Krewe de Main members and consisted of camping, community meals, radical discussions, parties, and parades. We were even joined on Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras Days in New Orleans by the one and only Vermin Supreme, immediately following his 2020 presidential campaign stop at the Libertarian Party of Florida State Convention that weekend.

This year will be a little different due to the pandemic, legal restrictions, and the fact that we no longer have the homestead to host on but we are spinning that to our favor. Sponsored by the Vermin Supreme Institute, Beyond the Ballot, and the Green Market Agorist, we are hosting something far bigger in scope than last year and we are hosting it digitally. The plan is to hold a five day Mardi Gras festival starting the Friday before, February 12th, and continuing through Mardi Gras Day that following Tuesday, February 16th. It’s part anarchist bookfair, part Mardi Gras blow out.

The first three days will be your typical anarchist bookfair setup with panels ranging from presentations to discussions to skillshares to workshop to podcasts to film screenings and everything in between. If you have a panel idea and wish to host it at the event, feel free to apply here. Don’t be shy. Topics can be anything relevant to anarchist politics and/or Mardi Gras.

We have several guest speakers and panelists throughout the weekend including Carne Ross, Evan Greer, Justin “Beau” King, Ford Fischer, James Weeks, Mike Shipley, Jae Em Carico, the Solarpunk Farmer, and Aron from Re Education. Podcast Titles Are A Spook, Non Serviam, The Serfs, Green Market Agorist, and C4SS’ very own Mutual Exchange Radio will be hosting special episodes at the event, including a special Non Serviam interview with none other than scott scrow. If you’re an activist, organizer, writer, breadtuber, podcaster, content creator, or artist of any sort, feel free to share your projects with us by hosting a panel.

Lundi Gras Day (Monday, February 15th) will be an open mic art day where anyone can share art in any medium they wish. Mardi Gras is a creative time, with live music, dancing, people wearing costumes, and decorating floats and “throws” for krewes to toss to attendees while parading, and we wish to embody that spirit as best we can by allowing people to show off their costuming, writing, music, drawings, painting, sculpting, comedy, theatre, or whatever other forms of art they wish to share. So be sure to sign up ahead of time to secure a spot or check us out day of and see where we can fit you in.

And finally, the climax of the event is Mardi Gras Day. Whereas most krewes will throw parades and/or balls, we can do neither this year so we’re doing the next best thing:

We’re hosting a cabaret!

Complete with music, comedy, burlesque, theatre, and the traditional crowning of the krewe’s Mardi Gras royalty (don’t worry, they’ll get what they deserve!), the cabaret will be one hell of a show. So far the lineup includes such talent as Evan Greer, Injekt, Gilt, Puddled, Jy Mack, Jake Flores, Joey Thibodeaux, Aron from Re Education, Vermin Supreme, Aqua Annette, Daquiri, Phoenix Midnight, and so many more.

Just as with the panels and the open mic art day, the cabaret is open for participation if you have anything you wish to submit. Performances can be done live or pre-taped. Apply here or contact us today to discuss details.

The event will be streamed from February 12th-16th with a social media component Matrix so that folks can connect, network, chat, and share knowledge, ideas, and resources. Details regarding the platforms and schedule will be released closer to the start of the event on our website at CoupdeGras.wtf so head there and pick up your tickets today!

Tickets are $10-50 sliding scale, with no one being turned away due to an inability to pay, and all profits will go towards our mutual aid causes which this year include the Logan Glitterbomb Freedom Fund and the Coup de Main land project.

Have a happy Carnival and can’t wait to see y’all there!

Center for a Stateless Society is proud to announce the beginning of a brand new podcast christened The Enragés, which will feature questions and casual conversations with authors about recent pieces they’ve published on the C4SS site. In comparison to Mutual Exchange Radio, this podcast will focus exclusively on the specific works of authors on the C4SS website and try to more regularly take listener questions. And we are excited to announce that Joel Williamson of Non Serviam Media will be joining the C4SS team as the host!

The name of the podcast comes from the loosely affiliated anarchistic and proto-socialist group known in English as the “Enraged Ones,” who split from the Jacobin Club during the French Revolution in their radical demands against monopolists and support for the French lower class. To give a glimpse into their still-relevant views, Jacques Roux—in his 1793 Manifesto of the Enragés—states:

Freedom is nothing but a vain phantom when one class of men can starve another with impunity. Equality is nothing but a vain phantom when the rich, through monopoly, exercise the right of life or death over their like. The republic is nothing but a vain phantom when the counter-revolution can operate every day through the price of commodities, which three quarters of all citizens cannot afford without shedding tears.

The first episode “No Bosses, No Landlords, No Bureaucrats!” features a conversation with Senior Fellow and Karl Hess Chair in Social Theory at C4SS Kevin Carson on his article “The Myth of the Private Sector, Part I: Why Big-Small and Vertical-Horizontal Trumps ‘Public-Private’.” Give it a listen when it comes out this Friday!

The Molinari Society will be holding its mostly-annual Eastern Symposium in conjunction with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association via Zoom (7-9 and 14-16 January). Only those who cough up the hefty registration fee will be able to access the session, so no chance of free-riding this time around (the APA’s decision, definitely not ours; the APA is both pragmatically and morally confused about the costs and benefits of allowing free-riding at its conferences, but that’s another story). But there’s a substantial student discount, verb. sap. Anyway, here’s the schedule info:

Molinari Society symposium:
Radical Rights Theory

[Two timeslots back to back; we havent yet sorted the order of speakers or who’ll be in which timeslot – it depends on some logistical details that remain to be worked out (check back here for updates).]

12K. Thursday, 14 January 2021, 9:00-10:50 a.m. E
13K. Thursday, 14 January 2021, 11:00 a.m.-12:50 p.m. E

chair:
Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)

presenters:
Jesse Spafford (The Graduate Center, CUNY), “When ‘Enough and as Good’ Is Not Good Enough”

Daniel Layman (Davidson College), “Keeping the Proviso in Its Place”

Roderick T. Long (Auburn University), “How to Have Your No-Proviso Lockeanism and Eat It Too”

Jason Lee Byas (University of Michigan), “Alienation, Forfeiture, and Two Concepts of Natural Rights”

Cory Massimino (Center for a Stateless Society), “Two Cheers for Rothbardianism”

See the full schedule here.

Were it not for the pandemic, I’d be heading to Manhattan for this event, preparing to dine with my co-panelists, to see friends in the NYC area, to catch up with colleagues in the profession, to visit some new museums, etc. But alas!

Prolific C4SS writer Logan Marie Glitterbomb was recently featured on Non Serviam, a podcast “exploring the world of anarchist and anti-authoritarian ideas.” Logan joined host Joel Williamson to discuss:

Agorism, Environmentalism, problems with the ”justice system”, and how we might go about building a better one. We also talk about the intentional queer community she’s building, the exciting event she’s planning, and the unfortunate legal situation she currently finds herself in.

Logan Marie Glitterbomb is a writer, Breadtuber, and podcaster under the branding of Green Market Agorist. She’s a Fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society, an agorist, and an anarchist-without-adjectives. She’s also a gun rights activist, a hardcore police and prison abolitionist, a longtime member of the Industrial Workers of the World, a dues paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and a co-founder of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the Libertarian Party. She has lived collectively for a number of years, making a living as an agorist and freelancer, while dedicating her free time towards community organizing.

You can listen to the podcast here: Non Serviam Podcast Episode 25: Logan Marie Glitterbomb on Agorism and the Injustice System.

You can also follow Logan on Twitter, check out her Green Market Agorist Podcast, and contribute to her legal defense fund.

Emmi Bevensee, writer and editor at C4SS, and data scientist and misinformation researcher at Rebellious Data, was interviewed recently on the DOOMED podcast, “a leftist politics and culture show for our terrible times.”

Emmi joined host Matt Binder to discuss:

how white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and misinformation peddlers are using peer-to-peer technology to continue spreading their hateful beliefs even after being deplatformed from the big tech companies. We breakdown what P2P is, the various tech being used, is BitChute really peer-to-peer?, and much more!

They talk about some of the challenges involved in monitoring and investigating fascists as they are forced off of mainstream platforms, how anti-fascists can and are adapting as technology evolves, and how we will need to increasingly take responsibility into our own hands instead of outsourcing moderation to unaccountable tech companies.

You can listen to the podcast here: DOOMED Episode 145: Decentralized Web of Hate: Peer-to-Peer & White Supremacy (w/ Emmi Bevensee)

You can also learn more about Emmi’s research at Rebellious Data, check out their website emmibevensee.com, and follow them on Twitter.

In case you haven’t already heard, I have been hosting the Green Market Agorist podcast and YouTube/Bitchute channel in addition to my writings here at C4SS. My solo video output is sporadic at best but I keep a steady schedule with podcasts being released on the 15th of every month.

This month I was joined by our new C4SS coordinating director, Alex McHugh, to talk about his new role and plans for the Center moving forward, as well as fun stuff like egoism, mysticism, and religion. Previous episodes explore topics such as systematic racism, community defense, electoral politics, and more through a series of interviews with anarchists and other radicals who have inspired myself and other community organizers that I work with.

It is my joy to share these interviews and hope you enjoy listening to them. You can listen to the Green Market Agorist podcast on Anchor or Spotify and be sure to check out my YouTube and Bitchute channels while you’re at it. If you wish to support this project further and allow me more time and material resources to focus on it, you can do so by subscribing to the Green Market Agorist Patreon or SubscribeStar or by making a one time donation via PayPal or CoinPayments.

Philosopher, writer, C4SS Senior Fellow, and longtime anarchist theorist Roderick T. Long is facing steep medical costs and needs our help paying his bills.

Donate Here

In episode no. 14 of Agoric Cafe and in Part 2 of this 2-part interview, Roderick Long chats with Sheldon Richman about the Israeli occupation of Palestine; u.s. intervention in the Middle East; the meaning of Jewish identity; the relation between libertarian individualism and social cooperation; the communistic theories of Frédéric Bastiat; the theologico-political merits of Spinoza; Nathaniel Branden and George H. Smith on atheism; Thomas Paine and Lysander Spooner on deism; the philosophical failings of the New Atheists; rehabilitating the cost-of-production theory of value; the uses of coherentist epistemology for both theists and atheists; reading Wittgenstein for relaxation; the advantages and disadvantages of Randian approaches to knowledge and concepts; the sordid truth behind the special effects in Roderick’s videos (and in particular, what the deal is with Roderick’s hair); Sheldon’s case against open Borders; and the shocking misuse of libertarian think tank resources to photocopy body parts (but who did it, Sheldon or Roderick? and which body parts? watch and learn!). Watch here or below.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the ways in which you’ve supported our team and our writers over the years. Mutual aid is the foundational principle behind much of what we do, and it’s encouraging to see how far such a simple concept can take us.

Supporting each other through good or ill, we’re stronger together than we are on our own. Even in my own life, this community has helped me through a good few tough spots. One of the people who was always there to help was C4SS writer Kelly Wright.

Now, Kelly needs us to pay it back! She’s pursuing gender-affirming surgery that, as most probably know, tends to be prohibitively expensive and a difficult process to navigate. Click here or below to donate!

Kelly has long been a part of our network and she’s a powerful writer on transgender rights, police brutality, and militarism. You can see her work for C4SS, including a recent piece on Facebook’s ban of anarchist users and groups, here.

Here’s Kelly’s call for support:

Creating this fundraiser was probably inevitable, though I put it off as long as I could in the hopes of self-funding this major life milestone. Unfortunately navigating the bureaucracy of my insurance company is time-consuming and soul-deadening, and so I humbly turn to the philanthropic impulses of my social network.

Ideally my insurance company will eventually reimburse me for some of the costs associated with bottom surgery, but in the meantime I am on the hook for a considerable portion of the cost, including a $2,000 deductible.

The money generated through this fundraiser will go toward paying for my deductible, as well as other ancillary costs that my insurance company won’t pay for, like hygiene products and other costs associated with my recovery. I am already in the hole ~$800 as I am forced to pay out of pocket for electrolysis hair removal in advance of bottom surgery which is the primary roadblock standing between me and a surgery date. My insurance company is doing everything in its power to slow walk the reimbursement process and it will likely be months before I see that money.

Should I eventually get reimbursed by my insurance company, the funds will be reallocated toward other transition related costs, such as prescriptions, compensating various caretakers for their time and energy, copays, and therapy, among other costs.

I am anticipating actually having bottom surgery at some point in 2021, likely in the summer or early fall. I won’t have a definite surgery date on the schedule for a few more weeks, but will update this fundraiser as the timeline develops.

Any amount helps, and if you can’t contribute sharing on your social networks is greatly appreciated!

Major thanks to @AllyMenthol for help with the thumbnail 🙂

In episode no. 13 of Agoric Cafe and in Part 1 of this 2-part interview, Roderick Long chats with Sheldon Richman about his youthful enthusiasm for the Swamp Fox and his guerilla fighters; the Constitution as a betrayal of the American Revolution and the Articles of Confederation; defying YAF with Karl Hess at the March to the Arch; the positive externalities achievable by sitting next to Dave Barry; using Koch money to fight big business; Robert Bidinotto’s dark anarchist past; the perils of publishing Kevin Carson; going crazy for Thomas Szasz; the identity of Filthy Pierre; how to smoke like Gandalf; an atheist’s favourite Bishop; and which prominent Austrian economist experimented on Sheldon’s newborn infant. Watch here or below.

This episode is Part I of a two-part interview with Aurora Apolito and William Gillis, two of the lead contributors to our summer symposium on Decentralization and Economic Coordination.

Listen to Part II here. 

Aurora Apolito is a mathematician and theoretical physicist. She studied physics in Italy and mathematics in Chicago, and later worked for various scientific institutions in the US, Canada, and Germany. She also works on mathematical linguistics, and on mathematical models for neuroscience and has authored six books on various aspects of this work. I should also note that Aurora Apolito is a pen name meant to differentiate this research from her work in other fields.

Our other guest is someone most listeners will be familiar with, William Gillis. Will currently acts as technology coordinator at C4SS and was formerly our coordinating director. Will is a second-generation anarchist who’s worked as an activist in countless projects and capacities since getting involved in the lead-up to N30 (also known as the “Battle in Seattle”). Gillis studies high energy physics and has held a deep fascination with the egalitarian potential of markets since 2003. Their writing can be found at C4SS.org and humaniterations.net.

Here are both Will & Aurora’s essays in the summer Symposium: 

• The Problem of Scale in Anarchism and the Case for Cybernetic Communism, Aurora Apolito
• Action Is Sometimes Clearer Than Talk: Why We Will Always Need Trade, William Gillis
• Centrifugal Tendencies in Information & Wealth, William Gillis

Tuckered Out? Feeling Greene? Get a Spoonerful of de Cleyrification here!

So says Roderick T. Long! Coming up in January, he’ll be hosting a virtual reading group together with Cory Massimino on individualist anarchism in 19th-century America.

As you might guess from the tagline, they’ll be covering the big names in the American individualist tradition, folks like Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, and Voltairine de Cleyre. Here’s the full intro video from the Agoric Cafe YouTube channel: 

The application deadline is January 12th, and sessions are tentatively scheduled for Tuesday evenings, starting January 19th. You can find more details and the application form here.

In episode no. 12 of Agoric Cafe, Roderick Long chats with biologist James T. Bradley about the future of, and ethical issues surrounding, biotechnology and nanotechnology; global and civic responsibilities of scientists and of laypeople; intimations of immortality from William Godwin to Ray Kurzweil; the importance of interdisciplinary education, and of instruction in evolutionary biology; the 15th-century (trans)humanism of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the perils of invoking the Pope; Bradley’s three-week plan for solving a pandemic; the potential parallels between central planning for sociopolitical systems and central planning for ecosystems; the cosmological theories of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; that time the National Science Foundation awarded Bradley and Long a $200,000 grant (but they had to spend it all on, like, course stuff); how the universe uses stardust to become self-conscious; and the waning allure of cricket ovaries. Watch here or below.

You might have noticed a series of re-posts going up in the Commentary section over the past few weeks. No, we didn’t run out of content! Rather, with the Students For Liberty blog no longer archiving old posts, we got permission to republish here a handful of pieces by C4SS writers and fellows. 

So, in this collection you’ll find the work of Nathan Goodman, Jason Lee Byas, and Cory Massimino. While was originally published elsewhere, the pieces we’ve chosen to preserve are exemplary of the ideas, values, and debates at work in left wing market anarchist thinking. That’s why we’ve decided to republish them on a rolling basis rather than just adding them to the C4SS site archive. Those who prefer the more radical liberal end of the LWMA spectrum will find this series especially rewarding and I’m excited these pieces are getting a second life. 

And we’ve still got quite a few coming out soon. Enjoy!

In episode no. 11 of Agoric Cafe, Roderick Long chats with philosopher Kelly Jolley about Jane Austen and J. L. Austin, the veil of perception, Ohio land swindles, the tyranny of nouns, screwball comedies, anti-psychologism, apophatic theology, the arctic perils of SUNY Oswego, the philosophic uses of poetry, Wittgenstein vs. Augustine, 18th-century literary nanotechnology, real love in the spy life, Howard Hawks as an Aristotelean ethicist, the problem of other minds, the Typic of practical reason, Frege’s three principles, religious language and the ineffability of logic, feeling William James’s ‘but’, and Lewis White Beck philosophising with a hammer. Watch it here or below.

Kevin Carson was recently featured on the Hermitix podcast to discuss anarchism, post-capitalism, and organization.

Hermitix is a podcast focusing on one-on-one interviews relating to fringe philosophy, obscure theory, weird lit, underappreciated thinkers and movements, and that which historically finds itself ‘outside’ the academic canon.

The aim of the podcast is to allow autodidactic thinkers, amateur philosophers and the generally curious an insight into the work of thinkers who are often impenetrable to those outside of the academy.

Some of the topics covered in the interview included: Carson’s book, The Desktop Regulatory State; the already-existing seeds of post-capitalist transition; the history of technological pathways and potential alternatives; and some of the thinkers who have influenced Carson’s anarchism-without-adjectives.

You can listen to the podcast on podiant or on youtube.

UPDATE 12/18/2020 —

Hey everyone, thanks again for all the support and well wishes! I spoke with Logan on Monday (look out for an episode of her Green Market Agorist podcast with that conversation soon). She’s in high spirits despite facing so much and we’re all ready to fight this for as long as it takes.

With the updated cost estimate, we’re getting close to halfway. This is great because the first $7,500 payment is for the lawyer’s initial retainer. Paying that will allow Logan to turn herself in and start the defense process with legal representation in hand. It is crucial that we hit this amount as soon as possible!

But we’re getting close! And with the holidays and end-of-the-year charity, I’m hoping we can get that last bit covered in the next week or so. I know we can do it! The key is going to be sharing, sharing, sharing. Tell your neighbors. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Share to networks even if you don’t think anyone will give. You never know and every little bit helps s get closer to $7,500.

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to It’s Going Down, the anarchist news network, for signal boosting our fundraiser. You can read their call for solidarity here. Thank you everyone <33

UPDATE 12/7/2020 — 

So this is a good news, bad news update. To start with some positive developments, now almost halfway to our original goal and it’s been amazing to see the community come together so quickly and help us raise almost $5k in a few days. This is incredible and I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has given or shared the fundraiser so far. From encouraging notes, to truly generous gifts, you’ve all shown up in such an impressive way.

The bad news is that we’re not there yet. Halfway is, well, halfway, and we have a long way to go to make sure Logan’s legal defense is taken care of and that she can safely continue her work as a writer and activist. You may also notice that our fundraising goal has increased today. After a few negotiations, the full expense we’re looking at is $15,000. But with the response we’ve seen so far, I know it’s not impossible.

If you’ve shared the fundraiser already, please do share it again. Tag a few people. Share in groups. It really does help remind people to give and spread the word around new networks. Thank you in advance for doing all you can to keep the momentum going on this important community effort.

The other good news is that she’s going to be able to pay in two parts, and so we’re looking to try and hit $7,500 first and then focus on raising the rest. So, we’re still pretty close, and I know there’s a lot of energy left in the community. Thanks again, and feel free to reach out to editor@c4ss.org with any questions or offers of support.

* * *

One of our most prolific writers, Logan Marie Glitterbomb, is currently facing charges in Florida for self-defense. We’re calling on you, our friends and supporters, to help us raise funds for Logan’s legal fees in order to keep her out of prison. We need to raise approximately $10,000 to cover legal defense and related expenses. While it’s a steep goal, I’m confident our network is capable of getting us close, and I’d like to thank you all in advance for engaging in such a powerful form of mutual aid. 

We’re asking folks to give through PayPal so the funds can go directly to Logan without a delay. You can still donate via card though, you’ll just need to check out as a guest in the PayPal checkout system.

Long-time readers will know Logan’s work well, as her writing has formed the backbone of our commentary section for quite a while. And Logan’s work as an activist in her own community has been influential as well, most notably through her Coup de Main project, an intentional community meant to serve as a safe haven for queer and houseless folks as well as a resource base for local activism. 

Now it’s our turn to return the favor and show her the support she’s shown her community for so long.

Logan is currently facing firearms charges in Florida, after an altercation where she and a friend were attacked by members and supporters of the St. Augustine Patriots over a Black Lives Matter facemask. Logan let them know she had a gun to discourage attack and this successfully prevented the situation from escalating. Logan was later pulled over and questioned and now warrants have been issued for several related charges. 

This was a clear-cut case of self defense, which resulted in no harm to anyone, and arguably prevented an assault. This is the textbook reason for the existence of gun rights.

So, we’ve taken up this fundraising effort not only because Logan is a deeply loved member of our team, but because the issues at play should be of great importance to anarchists generally. The right to defend oneself is perhaps the most basic measure of human freedom. Help us defend Logan’s right to self defense and support her through this by donating whatever you can. 

In particular, Logan is living with chronic health issues that, on top of being trans, would make a prison stay very dangerous for her. We all know how terrible prisons are at getting people the meds they need and Logan’s currently relying on quite a few medications as well as a specialized diet to survive. This is why it’s so imperative that she’s able to access competent legal support and successfully advocate for her right to self defense. 

Please share widely and give what you can! 

And remember, we keep us safe. 

In episode no. 10 of Agoric Cafe, Roderick Long chats with philosopher Gary Chartier about Robin Hood, left-wing market anarchism, natural law, free speech and employer power, libertarian secularism, Seventh-day Adventism, religious epistemology, long-arc television, urban fantasy, Lawrence Durrell, Iris Murdoch, Whit Stillman, the evils of giving extra credit and taking attendance, and the attractions of being emperor. Watch it here or below.

In episode no. of Agoric Cafe, Roderick Long talks about what he forgot to mention back in Episode 7 (“Ayn Rand as a Writer”), namely how Ayn Rand’s fiction stands in the tradition of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People and Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. Watch it here or below.

In episode no. 8 of Agoric Cafe, Roderick Long chats with philosopher Eric Mack about walking out on Ayn Rand, clashing with Nazi Sikhs in Seneca Falls, libertarian rights theory, Kantian vs. Aristotelean approaches to fixing Randian ethics, Nozickian polymathy, the unselfishness of Samuel Johnson, the ethics of COVID lockdowns, physical distancing in Durango, the CIA as an argument against anarchism, shoving someone in front of a bus as a form of restitution, and the edibility of matter. Watch it here or below.