From: swilbur-AT-wcnet.org
Subject: RE: New book on anti-capitalism
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:55:48 US/Eastern


Mark writes:
> Pro-capitalist viewpoints are off-topic for an anarchist 
> list.  I reject attempts to redefine anarchism to support
> capitalism.  Everyone has the right to express their view
> in a free market of ideas.  But anarchists should be allowed
> a safe place to dialogue amongst ourselves, unmolested by
> those who try to tell us that unchecked profiteering somehow
> creates the best society for everyone.  I don't go to Libertarian
> lists and tell them to abandon capitalism; nor do I go to
> Socialist lists and tell them to abandon the state. I would hope
> that non-anarchists will likewise refrain from coming in and
> preaching their views.  

Mr. Johnson has actually been around long enough - at least off
and on - on this list that he could probably claim squatter's
rights, even if it wasn't the case that next to nothing is really
"off topic" on this particular anarchist list. Perhaps anarchists
should have safe places, but, by some combination of design and
benign neglect, this one has always been pretty wide open.

But there's more at stake, as well. You cite the FAQ, large 
portions of which grew fairly directly out of such "off-topic"
debate. It's a strange but true fact that a good deal of work
on anarchist history has come out of attempts to get to the 
bottom of the relationship between anarchism and "anarcho-
capitalism." I think it's become pretty clear that the latter
label has been applied to and by at least two distinct sorts
of folks, some of whom believe pretty much what (socialist,
anti-capitalist) mutualists believe, but confuse "capitalism"
with genuinely free markets, and some of whom attempt to
appropriate the anarchist label, despite being entirely at
odds with anarchist tradition. 

If you look at the kinds of debates going on amongst "left
libertarians," geolibertarians, etc, then it becomes clear
that there's a whole range of positions covered by labels like
"anarcho-capitalism" and "Libertarianism," and that an awful
lot of the most interesting practical discussion about living
in a free society is taking place outside the mainstream of
the anarchist movement. 

-shawn

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