Tag: state
Israel’s War in Gaza: Don’t Look Behind the Curtain
A story I missed back in April just came to my attention today. It seems Fatah (the secular nationalist guerrilla organization that formed the single largest component of the PLO) and Hamas announced their reconciliation and plans to form a unity government — “a development that could see the Palestinian territories under a unified leadership for the…
Protesters, Preventive Detentions and the Kafkian Nightmare
Franz Kafka‘s The Trial follows the tribulations of Joseph K., a white-collar bank employee who finds himself amidst an incomprehensible penal system. He cannot figure out what he’s accused of, nor the steps of the trial, and his possibilities of defense are limited. A murky bureaucracy permeates everything and secrets reinforce the uncertainties of Joseph K.’s condition….
Gaza: Israel’s Chickens Come Home to Roost
One fact that gets little attention in the debate over Israel’s attack on Gaza is Israel’s role in the rise of Hamas. That’s right. Never mind that the rockets fired out of Gaza are amateurish things that could be crafted from hobby shop supplies, causing barely one percent as many casualties as Israeli reprisals. Never mind…
Fracking: Poster Child for the Corporate Welfare State
Just about every week another story comes to my attention confirming the complete and total government-dependency of fracking — beloved of so many self-proclaimed “free market” advocates on the libertarian right. Something about eminent domain to build the pipelines, or liability caps for spills, or regulatory approval of unsafe pipelines superseding tort liability for negligence, and…
“Economic Patriotism”: The Last Refuge of a Tax Scoundrel
In mid-July, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew proposed that Congress prohibit US-based companies from moving offshore in search of more favorable tax climates, citing an ostensible need for a “new sense of economic patriotism.” The resort to “patriotism” theater stands out as the most egregious aspect of legislation whose retroactive status would blatantly violate the…
Volume 1, Issue 3 of THE NEW LEVELLER now online!
“Are you interested in individualist anarchism, or at least so frightened by it that you want to keep an eye on its progress? Are you frustrated by capitalism’s love for central planning and communism’s conservative view of human potential? Do you suspect that abolishing the institution responsible for war, police brutality, and mass incarceration might…
We’re All Illegalists Now! on Feed 44
C4SS Feed 44 presents Ryan Calhoun‘s “We’re All Illegalists Now!” read and edited by Nick Ford. Being that the drug world is literally under siege by a domestic military operation, it is beyond anyone’s imagination how markets like the Silk Road could keep their doors open without a serious injection of class consciousness. All those involved in…
The Coming White Terror
There is going to be a time of repression in this country. It may be quite harsh. For many, including libertarians, it may be frightening and discouraging. For the only vaguely committed it will be too much to bear and they will move back to safe positions in liberal-land or conservative-country, those establishment enclaves whose…
ISIS: Yes, Mr. Blair, You Did Build This
Last month, in a tone which might best be called unlikely insistence, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reassured the public that “we” — the UK and United States — “have to liberate ourselves from the notion that we caused” the destabilization of Iraq by the ISIS insurgency. Well, actually you did. Let’s go back…
Why We Do Not Vote
The following article was written by Dyer Lum and published The Alarm, October 31, 1885. Another election is at hand. Again the seductive voice of the politician is heard appealing to ignorance to establish justice. It is not new to our ears; we once trusted it. We have fully realized the emptyness of its professions. What do…
Henry George
What is necessary for the use of land is not its private ownership, but the security of improvements. It is not necessary to say to a man, ‘this land is yours,’ in order to induce him to cultivate or improve it. It is only necessary to say to him, ‘whatever your labor, or capital produces…
Anarchism and American Traditions on Feed 44
C4SS Feed 44 republishes Voltairine de Cleyre‘s “Anarchism and American Traditions” read and edited by Rhonda Federman. Feed 44: http://www.c4ss.org/ http://www.youtube.com/user/c4ssvideos https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/c4ss-media/id872405202?mt=2 http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/smash-walls-radio/c4ss-media?refid=stpr https://twitter.com/C4SSmedia Bitcoin tips welcome: 1N1pF6fLKAGg4nH7XuqYQbKYXNxCnHBWLB
A Call To (Direct) Action
My first call to Direct Action was sparked by the scores of undocumented immigrants from Central America that ICE has been shipping to Phoenix. An AZ Central article reports that “The Border Patrol says about 400 migrants were flown from Texas to Arizona because of [a] surge in migrants being apprehended in Texas.” This mass…
Lo Stato Balia Uccide
Da quando Katiele e sua figlia sono state catapultate nella cronaca, in Brasile scarseggia il dibattito sulla necessità di legalizzare la marijuana. Katiele lotta per curare l’epilessia di sua figlia con il cannabidiolo (CBD), una sostanza estratta dalla marijuana. La domanda è: qual è la posizione dell’Anvisa, l’equivalente brasiliano dell’istituto superiore di sanità, in materia?…
Speaking to Nonlibertarians
If libertarians want to change how nonlibertarians’ think about government, they will need to understand how nonlibertarians think about government. By “nonlibertarians,” I mean the majority of people who spend little if any time pondering political theory, or what Murray Rothbard called political ethics. They may focus at times on particular government programs and actions,…
Guerra Cibernetica: Il Nemico Sei Tu
Bloomberg ha pubblicato una notizia secondo cui “il più grosso gruppo d’affari di Wall Street ha avanzato la proposta di un consiglio stato-industria che si occupi di guerra cibernetica,” consiglio che sarebbe guidato da “un grosso rappresentante della Casa Bianca” e composto da rappresentanti dell’alta finanza e di almeno otto agenzie federali. Il suddetto “gruppo…
W.C. Owen
“For the last century, or more, we have been experimenting with the rule of democracy–the bludgeoning by governors whom majorities, drunk with power, impose on vanquished minorities. This last is probably the worst of all, for we stand to-day steeped to the lips in a universal corruption that is rotting every nation to the core….
Open the Borders Now and Forever
Market anarchism is grounded in the sovereignty of each individual and the simple idea that all relationships between adults ought to be voluntary and consensual, permitting everyone the freedom to do anything she wishes, as long as she respects the identical right of all others. The “market” in market anarchism refers to the fact that…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist And Chess Review 38
Patrick Cockburn discusses the growing lack of support for the Iraqi prime minister, Maliki. Kevin Carson discusses whether government is just things we do together. Lawrence Wright discusses the savage strategy of ISIS in Iraq. Jacob G. Hornberger discusses why we need an enlightened citizenry invested in liberty. Ajamu Baraka discusses Western policy on Iraq….
How Libertarians Should — And Should Not — Approach Millennials
In recent weeks both Thoughts on Liberty and Reason have published articles on the Millennial generation’s social and political attitudes, as they relate to libertarianism. One is a good example of how libertarians should approach Millennials. The other most decidedly is not. Let’s start with how to. Rachel Burger, at Thoughts on Liberty (“Millennials And Left-Libertarianism…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory