Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

How Libertarians plan to reclaim the Left

Tom Wheeler | 28.04.2003 07:21

The ground seems fertile for libertarians to forge alliances with the Left. And who knows? We might even "outflank" the socialists eventually and reclaim the Left for libertarianism!

From Why Not Reclaim the Left?
by Tom Wheeler, 26 June 2002

Is there, today, enough common ground between Leftists and libertarians to build a brand new coalition to smash Corporate Leviathan? Well, the Left's "official" leadership is now a toothless lapdog to the Democratic Party, on the verge of hanging its "out of business" shingle. The commies are out of the picture. But a "Newer" New Left is growing, made up mostly of young anarchists. A new anti-war movement is flowering on campuses in response to the current War Without End. A mass anti-IMF/World Bank movement has been up and rolling for a couple of years. (Remember Seattle, Quebec, Washington, DC?) As Raimondo writes: "[The Left] is where all the vitality, the rebelliousness, the willingness to challenge the rules and strictures of an increasingly narrow and controlled national discourse resides."

One group of radical libertarians has been laying the groundwork for a day of reconciliation with the Left since 1978. And they've actually made inroads. The Movement of the Libertarian Left (MLL) was founded by Samuel Edward Konkin III with this goal: to develop a coherent, long-term, non-political, anti-party strategy consistent with hard-core Rothbardian theory. Konkin and other Libertarian Leftists now interact regularly with New Leftists like Alexander Cockburn, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Oglesby, Jon Rappoport, and Noam Chomsky. MLL has a web page, a busy e-list, and newsletters and pamphlets appear frequently under its banner.

So the ground seems fertile for libertarians to forge alliances with the Left. And who knows? We might even "outflank" the socialists eventually and reclaim the Left for libertarianism!

Now, how do we approach the Left? And who do we approach specifically? Obviously, we shouldn't bother with lefties whose goals are generally hostile to individual freedom. But I think we can work with a growing number of today's young Left anarchists, with one proviso: abolition of the State must be their primary focus. Much contemporary anarchist literature, sadly, suggests that smashing governments is secondary to destroying businesses and shaping communal utopias. As the hardest of hard-core anarchists, we can't waste time with such socialist sentimentality. Our first duty is to stamp out all political power. But keep in mind that since we radical libertarians consider corporations creatures of the State and would abolish them to free the market, some of our laissez-faire ideas might intrigue and even persuade potential comrades on the anti-market Left.

We should, jointly and individually, dedicate ourselves to studying diverse Leftist movements--animal rights radicals, feminists, poverty crusaders, AIDS activists--to determine with whom we have points in common, or with whom we at least share some issues. This means we must tirelessly monitor Leftist magazines, journals, newsletters, and websites. The Nation, Z, and CounterPunch are a good start.

Opposition to war, the undeniable health of the State, is the one barometer we can rely on to judge suitable allies. We should feel free to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any Leftists at anti-war demonstrations, seminars, teach-ins, film festivals, etc. The anti-war issue is fundamental to our cause.

This may sound elementary, but we should take time to study or refresh ourselves in the insights of Etienne de la Boetie, the civil disobedience of Thoreau, and the non-violent resistance tactics of Gandhi. These ideas are fundamental to consistent non-political libertarian strategy. Possessing a "leftist hue," they also offer good common ground for reaching out to the Left.

Principled libertarians now stand at a crossroads. The Cato Institute and the so-called "Libertarian" Party, now mere front groups for the warmongering right-wing, have hammered a wedge into the libertarian movement. So I applaud Justin Raimondo's call for a libertarian rapprochement with the Left. We have a lot to talk about, and I look forward to the coming dialogue.

In the meantime, those afraid to make a sharp left turn and join us should heed Samuel Edward Konkin III's suggestion to "wake up and smell the tear gas!" And to those courageous enough to shrug off the right-wing, unite with other staunch enemies of the State, and reclaim the Left for libertarians, I say, "Forward to liberty!"

*******************************
Alternative Press Review - www.altpr.org
Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
PO Box 4710 - Arlington, VA 22204
 http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register

Tom Wheeler
- Homepage: http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/pfvs/2002II/msg00788.html

Comments

Display the following 7 comments

  1. Libertarians are evil people — Paul Treanor
  2. Bizarre — Paul Edwards
  3. loony tunes — Reality
  4. acid test — kurious oranj
  5. for real libertarianism — anarcho
  6. Definitions — Ilyan
  7. More on the values of libertarianism — pt
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech