Some years ago, I coined the term “vulgar libertarianism” to refer to a particular, egregiously bad form of right-libertarian analysis. I did a long series of posts (“Vulgar Libertarianism Watch”) at my now mostly inactive blog, in which I applied the concept to a considerable volume of absolutely wretched material from the right-libertarian commentariat. I…

Come ridare vita alla fiera del libro anarchica Di William Gillis. Originale pubblicato il 21 marzo 2019 con il titolo The Mall or the Agora? Revitalizing the Anarchist Bookfair. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. La fiera del libro rappresenta uno dei momenti migliori per un anarchico. Una fiera del libro ha una struttura gerarchica evidente. C’è…

Anarchist bookfairs are one of the most interesting features of anarchist life. A bookfair is immediately recognizable as hierarchical. There are the booksellers and there are the consumers. What separates the two is not merely the physicality of a table, but the capital investment it represents. Those distroing have usually been required to purchase space…

Di Ruairi McCallan. Originale pubblicato il 5 dicembre 2018 con il titolo Bolsonaro, Brazil & the Dangers of Free-Market Myopia. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Quando Jair Bolsonaro è stato eletto presidente del Brasile, molti hanno reagito prevedibilmente: choc, orrore, e incredulità per l’ascesa al potere di uno come Bolsonaro, un uomo che elogia apertamente il…

When Jair Bolsonaro became president-elect of Brazil, the reaction from many was as expected: shock, horror, and questions over just how Bolsonaro — a man who openly praised Brazil’s past dictatorship — came to power.  Less expected was the ringing endorsement of Bolsonaro from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Praising Bolsonaro’s ability to give progressives,…

Di William Gillis. Originale pubblicato il 12 giugno 2018 con il titolo The Failure of Soviet Privatization. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Quando “Il Mercato” è Soltanto il Luogo dove si Riciclano i Soldi Insanguinati dello Statalismo Quando cadde l’Unione Sovietica, tra i programmi di “privatizzazione” c’era la distribuzione delle azioni delle aziende ai loro dipendenti….

When “The Market” Is Just Money Laundering the Bloodsoaked Riches of Statism When the USSR fell one of the “privatization” schemes was to just hand workers stock certificates in the companies they worked at. The problem of course was that the economy was seized up and everyone was starving. So gangsters and the children of…

Prima parte Di Kevin Carson. Articolo pubblicato originariamente su Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism, 11 gennaio 2005. Pubblicato su C4SS il 17 dicembre 2012 con il titolo Vulgar Libertarianism Watch. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Non appena ho pensato di aprire un blog, mi è venuta l’idea di scrivere una rubrica chiamata “Osservatorio del Libertarismo Volgare”,…

Should free-market advocates applaud the deal Donald Trump brokered to keep some Carrier jobs from being transferred to Mexico? I believe the right answer is no. A virtue of the market process is precisely its impersonal nature. People are free to engage in exchanges subject only to the freedom of others to refuse offers they…

This essay argues that markets are an ideational construct, constructed through a milieu of ideologies, power structures and authority relations. Rather than modern markets being spontaneously ordered mechanisms that have evolved naturally from the progressions of history, they are in instead constitutions of power and ideas, acting as a semiotic mechanism for underlying socio-economic realities….

Ever since the famous communist Joseph Déjacque coined the political use of the term libertarian in a letter to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon back in 1857 as a way to differentiate his views from those of the authoritarian communists within the anti-capitalist movement, the philosophy of libertarianism has always implied working class rebellion. At least until a…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Steve Horwitz‘s “Will Truly Free Markets be Truly Different?” read and edited by Tony Dreher. As I have argued before, I find it a very convenient coincidence that the left-libertarian picture of a free market society just happens to line up almost exactly with the world that many on the traditional…

In a video produced by the Future of Freedom Foundation (“The Libertarian Angle: Do Libertarians Really Hate the Poor?“), Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling obviously intend a smashing, unanswerable rejoinder to the left-wing stereotype of right-libertarians as “pot-smoking Republicans” who hate the poor. Sadly, it only reaffirms that stereotype. It’s exactly what left-wing critics of libertarianism…

In the contemporary parlance, it is largely supposed that a capitalist is one who favors a free market economic system, yet this wasn’t always the case. In the nineteenth century, as the descriptor capitalist came into more frequent use, it was virtually always deployed as a term of abuse, in identification of exploiters; it was…

Steven Horwitz’s Response to Kevin Carson. There is much to like in Kevin Carson’s lead essay and even where I think he goes astray, he performs a valuable service by reminding us of the ways in which the state has affected the evolution of really-existing capitalism and he thereby challenges us to think more critically…

It’s hardly news that Charles and David Koch are longtime supporters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). For example, Institute for Humane Studies “Koch fellows” are heavily represented in staff jobs at ALEC, and frequently go on to head the task forces that draft model legislation. The Kochs stated some time ago their preference…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “Toward a New Lexicon of Liberty” read by Dylan Delikta and edited by Nick Ford. Libertarianism is viewed in the mainstream political conversation as the ideology of capitalism, of corporate greed and a toxic expression of globalization, McDonalds, Nike, and all the rest nodding along to rote libertarian…

In a July 10 article at Reason, David Harsanyi (“Bernie Sanders is the Future of the Democratic Party“) describes the rise of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as “a completely predictable outcome of the Democratic Party’s trajectory,” and a portent of the party’s “socialistic future.” I’m more worried about what Harsanyi portends for the future…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Kevin Carson‘s “Something Stinks in the Deodorant Debate” read by Dylan Delikta and edited by Nick Ford. Mass-production corporate capitalism is statist to the core — a creature of the state. And the kind of mass consumerism and market segmentation that results in 23 brands of deodorant is absolutely vital to the…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “The Free Market as Class Warfare” read by Mike Godzina and edited by Nick Ford. That is, if a “free market” just means a system in which free individuals are able to associate and contract with one another without outside interference, protected in their legitimate private property rights, then the…