What is Left-Libertarianism?

What is Libertarianism?• Equality of Authority: human beings are

fundamentally morally equal. • Individuals own themselves and any objects they

incorporate into their projects through voluntary trade or labor-mixing.• People and property are ends, never mere means.• Force only justified in self-defense.

Libertarianism and Statism• The State claims a territorial

monopoly on legitimatizing the use of force.• Laws enforced through

threat of violence. • State authority does not rest

on the explicit consent of the governed• Violates individual liberty

• Anarchism: social system based on free association and voluntary trade, not state force.

What is Leftism?• Ethic of Non-Domination• Opposition to

authoritarianism, privilege, exploitation, hierarchy, exclusion, subordination, and deprivation.

• Intersectionality • Systems of oppression and

privilege overlap or “intersect”

• Dialectics: • “Art of context keeping”• Society is a complex nexus of

interrelated institutions and processes and must be understood as such.

Leftism and Oppression• Cultural norms and rules

promote, reinforce, and tacitly approve of systematic bias in favor of certain characteristics and groups at the expense of other, minority characteristics and groups:• Racism, sexism, homophobia,

cissexism, ableism, ageism, bossism, classism, xenophobia, gross unequal access to resources.

Two Forms of Institutional Oppression

Institutional oppression denies voice and exit and restricts access to economic resources through two, often overlapping, ways:

1. Violent institutions (The State)2. Non-violent institutions (Racist, sexist cultural

norms)

Who is the State?

Individuals with their own goals, desires, prejudices, cultural attitudes, relationships, and special interests.

The State and the Birdcage: Social Justice Edition

• Social justice: concern for a fair, just, equitable society free of institutional oppression, domination, and privilege.• Libertarian conception of social justice

addresses state violence and its unique role in systematic oppression.

• Forms of oppression are mutually reinforcing. • State and society dominated by wealthy,

able-bodied, heterosexual, white cismales • Minorities marginalized through state law

and social norms

“Capitalism”?• “Capitalism” originated as

derogatory term for corporatists.

• Leads to conflating whatever system we have now with freed markets.

• Often refers to an economic system pervaded by gross economic inequality, hierarchical, oppressive workplaces, and managerial bureaucracy.

• No reason to emphasize one factor of production among many in freed markets.

Costs of Hierarchy • As firms grow larger, economies of scale (efficiency gains from larger

size) are eventually overtaken by diseconomies of scale (efficiency losses from larger size):• Internal calculational chaos as firms become insulated from market

feedback and price system• Transportation/distribution/advertisement costs• Capital maintenance and overhead costs

• Net effect of state intervention: artificially distorts the price system so that diseconomies of scale have less effect.

Political vs. Economic MeansPolitical Means: Unrequitedly appropriating

another’s labor.Use of forceZero-sum exchanges: one party benefits at the

expense of the otherUsed by the StateEconomic Means: Exchanging one’s own labor

for the labor of others.Voluntary trade between moral equals. Positive-sum: both parties benefit from the

exchange, otherwise it would never have been voluntarily agreed to in the first place.

Market exchange and free association• Libertarian Class Theory:The State uses political means to exploit those

who rely solely on economic means.

The State and the Birdcage: Economics Edition

• Systematic denial of voice and exit and access to economic resources through political means that benefit privileged elites:• Regressive taxation and regulation, licensing

laws, minimum wages and other price controls, intellectual property laws, health and zoning codes, publicly funded infrastructure, capitalization requirements, various subsidies, bank cartelization and monetary inflation, interventionist and expansionary foreign policy, Keynesian bailout schemes, and more.

• Free competition is a leveling force and ends class conflict.• Allows oppressed minorities to escape

majoritarian authority through increased choice, opportunity, or entrepreneurship.

Markets Freed from Capitalism• Smaller, flatter firms • More worker autonomy and control• Worker cooperatives• Strong voluntary labor unions,

unfettered from government control• Self-employment• Freelance work• Peer to peer sharing• Micro-enterprises• Gift economies• Mutual aid societies

• Less corporate hierarchy • More alternatives to

wage labor• Less bossism

A Left-Libertarian Strategy• Mass Education• Direct, bottom-up, grassroots action• Peaceful resistance, civil disobedience, mass protests, rallies,

demonstrations, sit-ins, mass awareness and divestment campaigns, public shaming and shunning.

• Alternative institutions• Agorist and black market networks, alternative currencies, community

workshops, p2p sharing, 3-d printing, worker cooperatives, wildcat unionism, strikes, slow-downs, mutual aid societies, and other social/technological acts of entrepreneurial activism.

Where Can I Learn More?• C4ss.org• S4ss.org• All-left.net• distro.libertarianleft.org• Molinari.co• Praxeology.net• AAEblog.com• Radgeek.com• Mutualist.org• Sheldonrichman.com