Il ventiquattro dicembre di novantanove anni fa ci fu la cosiddetta Tregua di Natale del 1914, una tregua spontanea invocata dai soldati che si trovavano sul fronte occidentale francese e che in alcuni punti continuò anche dopo il giorno di Natale. I soldati francesi, britannici e tedeschi, attratti dal suono dei canti di Natale che…

The Washington Post‘s E.J. Dionne Jr., predicts that the reemergence of the Democratic left will be a major political story in 2014 (“The Resurgent Progressives,” January 1). He argues that the American right has been unwilling to compromise on policy matters with moderate Democrats. As a result the populace has been dragged ever farther to the right — even…

Il grande H. L. Mencken definì il puritanesimo “la paura oppressiva che qualcuno da qualche parte si stia divertendo.” Io non vado nella New York di Michael Bloomberg da più di un decennio, ma se dovessi mai atterrare domani all’aeroporto LaGuardia non mi sorprenderei se ad accogliermi ci fossero poliziotti usciti dal quadro di Tompkins…

In recent years, “hoarders” — people who collect lots and lots of stuff, until it overpowers them — have become a hot topic in the news and on “reality television.” The mainstream consensus seems to be that “hoarders” are mentally ill, or at least socially abnormal, and need to be “helped,” or at least stopped…

Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco recently cancelled her “Righteous Retreat in the Big Easy,” a song-writing retreat hosted at the Nottoway Plantation and Resort, a former slave plantation in Louisiana. The venue choice provoked well-deserved outrage, prompting DiFranco to cancel. DiFranco issued what Callie Beusman at Jezebel called “a remarkably unapologetic ‘apology,’” defending her actions more than apologizing…

C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “The Libertarian Road to Egalitarianism” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. But we needn’t regard inequality as a weak point in our arguments for economic freedom, or as an issue on which we simply cannot win. Existing economic relations are not the product of freedom of exchange or…

Aqueles que veem o poder governamental e o poder corporativo como conflitantes e aqueles que veem os dois como simbióticos, tem cada um, um ponto. A aliança entre o governo e a elite corporativa é parecida com a parceria entre a igreja e o estado na Idade Média: cada um quer ser o parceiro dominante,…

C4SS Senior Fellow Gary Chartier talks to right libertarian John Stossel about Markets Not Capitalism and why advocates of freed markets should oppose capitalism. http://youtu.be/INfSOUgLHG8

Libertarianismo é um projeto redistributivo. Esse é um outro ponto de vista em que o anarquismo radical de mercado é justamente visualizado como parte da tradição socialista. Estatistas de esquerda e direita são a favor da redistribuição da riqueza. Libertários, pelo contrário, se assumem muitas vezes como totalmente contrários a toda forma de redistribuição. Mas…

Many statist-leftists in the Global North would probably bristle at the notion that their politics can promote disempowerment amongst marginalised and/or oppressed groups and communities. “On the contrary!” they might say, “My statist proposals will actively counter disempowerment of such groups and communities, by giving them more resources (e.g. financial aid), and preventing discrimination against…

Enjoy review 10! William Pfaff discusses how history will remember Obama Elizabeth Goiten discusses “good guys” and “bad guys” in the War on Terror. Bruce A. Dixon discusses how Obama won a court case to keep sentencing disparities intact. Chris Floyd discusses the murderous character of the American system. Chris Floyd discusses the NSA spying…

After working at the University of Sussex over the summer, myself and two of my best friends embarked on an interrailing trip around Europe. The trip was a wonderful experience and a fantastic chance to visit iconic cities and locations. We managed to see, and do, so much, as is evidenced by this brilliant video my friend made of our…

Durante tutta la durata della “chiusura” del governo americano, i politici democratici hanno paragonato i loro rivali repubblicani ad “anarchici”, dicendo che la “chiusura” dimostra la necessità di un governo. Un esempio è un recente intervento al senato della senatrice Elizabeth Warren, democratica. I fraintendimenti del suo intervento sono rampanti. Confonde cooperazione e governo dicendo: “Nella nostra…

Recently Mike Konczal (“‘Corporatism’ is the Latest Hysterical Right-Wing Accusation,” The New Republic, December 15) attacked “corporatism” as a pernicious right-wing meme, ostensibly aimed at exposing Obama’s policies for “enriching the well-off” but in reality a “reactionary” agenda freeing big business from accountability. I think he underestimates the extent to which the “corporatism” and “crony…

The Canadian Supreme Court recently struck down the anti-prostitution laws of the country. This sound legal decision provides an occasion for a deeper discussion of the dynamics of sex worker politics. In particular, it allows for a dialectical or contextual left-libertaian analysis. Chris Matthew Sciabarra ably describes dialectics as: “Dialectics is the art of context-keeping….

So last Sunday in the midst of a second wave of blockades of tech company buses in San Francisco and Oakland, a bus window was broken by some anarchist activists and the action immediately sailed to the top of countless news sites. Activists had been trying to draw attention to how the buses (collectively termed…

Nel 2011 partecipai ad una discussione pubblica presso King’s Books a Tacoma, nello stato di Washington. Si parlava dell’effetto che hanno le guerre sui soldati e le loro famiglie. Mi ero preparato a rispondere parlando dell’impatto che le guerre continue hanno sulle famiglie che incontravo nella sala parto dove lavoro. Durante questa discussione, però, fui…

“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want…

Christmas is now a commercial frenzy, a profusion of overplayed songs and overwrought sentiment, mixed with pleading to remember “the reason for the season” and to “keep Christ in Christmas.” But there’s something else that’s being lost and perhaps was never emphasized enough to begin with, something I think we need now more than ever-…

From Boing Boing: The ACLU has spent years in court trying to get a look at a top-secret FBI interrogation manual that referred to the CIA’s notorious KUBARK torture manual. The FBI released a heavily redacted version at one point — so redacted as to be useless for determining whether its recommendations were constitutional. However,…