File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0301, message 53


Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 12:44:12 -0500
From: shawn wilbur <swilbur-AT-wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: libertarian


Folks, I'm going to try to avoid the sort of brain-dump on the
subject of the struggles within and over libertarianism of which
i am notoriously capable. Suffice it to say that pretty much
anyone who claims to be a "libertarian" these days, except perhaps
some of the more passive Libertarian Party types, knows they are
claiming contested terrain. The claimants range from syndicalists
and mutualists, to so-called anarcho-capitalists and minimal-
statists. There are two competing FAQs on anarchism online
which grew out of a debate drawn a number of years ago on
pretty strict socialist vs capitalist lines. One of the points of
contention was the actual doctrines of the 19th century mutualists
and individualist anarchists, from Thomas Hodgskin and Josiah
Warren through Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker.

That debate has drawn a number of us into extensive research
on radicalism in both the 19th and 20th century, with a focus
on anti-capitalist market anarchists (many of whom considered
themselves socialists) - a surprisingly common position prior
to the conflict between Marx and the (roughly) mutualist sections
of the First International. Marx's was not the only break with the
"utopian" aspects of Owenite socialism (for which the term was
coined), nor was he the only one to attempt to posit a "scientific"
alternative, or to attempt to organize on an international scale.
His victories in the IWA helped him to be the front-runner, of
course. They also colored the term "socialism" for radicals who
might otherwise have seen themselves as part of the
International. [SEK3, of the Movement for the Libertarian
Left, which most of us  would suspect of being somewhat to the
right, claims that "capitalism" as Marx used the term, was a
coinage of Hodgskin, an early "anarchist" (a little too early for
the term to be in use) with a fine critique of capitalism, if a bit
too much faith in The Market.]

In the US, by the 1890s, otherwise identical political positions
might be considered by their proponents socialist or anti-
socialist, with equal ardor. A few red scares later, as Austrian
economics gained footholds in the antistatist movements here,
and the Randite use of "capitalism" in an ideal sense gained
currency, we've now developed a sort of inverted babble, where
everyone speaks the same language and nobody really knows
what anyone else means. Right now, with political stakes high,
there seems to be some willingness among a significant if
small group of "anarchists" and "libertarians" of various sorts
to move the debates beyond the semantic level. Historical
discussion is helping clarify what the various positions
actually amount to on the ground. Naturally, not everyone on
the left is happy that some of us are actually taking the time
to talk to self-identified "capitalists." A group of us received
email calling us "fascists" when a friend of mine had the gall
to note on infoshop.org that many early anarchists had made
a distinction between capitalism and commerce.

Ken MacLeod seems to be one of the folks talking to what
we've generally considered "the other side." The Mutualist
FAQ at mutualist.net is being compiled by folks from the
Voluntary Cooperation Movement.

In a debate with George H. Smith, on the Movement for the
Libertarian Left list, i predicted that the more seriously we
looked into the actual histories of socialism, anarchism, and
libertarianism, the less any of our preconcieved notions were
likely to be flattered. My experience is that this is true, and
will be. But it has been a pleasant surprise to find that at
least some of the apparent disagreements between different
sorts of "libertarians" are only apparent, matters of language
and tradition, while others can at least be clarified. We're
filling in a lot of blank spaces in our histories, finding
plenty of defeats and apparent wrong turns, but also
perhaps the grounds for solidarity on a broader scale.

-shawn


   

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