I have uploaded my graduate paper on Spanish Anarchism in the years 1900-1936.

The paper is an analytical essay examining why anarchism was prevalent among the Spanish working classes during the years 1900-1936. It is neither a comparative essay concerning anarchism in different regions or time periods, a treatise on justice or righteousness, nor an examination of how to apply the lessons of the period to any other setting. Likewise, the defeat of Spanish anarchists in the Civil War is outside the scope of the essay. However, it will likely be useful in addressing all of these issues.

Though I earned an A- in the class I know I could have done a better job writing this essay. An extra day of writing and editing, or even better an extra few weeks of researching additional sources, would have made for a better product. Also, I don’t know much Spanish, so primary sources were largely inaccessible for me. I would like to tackle this project in greater detail, but there’s a good chance it will be one of those things that gets buried under other ambitions. However, the paper is a product of detailed research and analysis, and will contribute to understanding the Spanish anarchist movement.

Thesis:

Anarchism was prevalent in Spain during the period 1900-1936 because of its suitability to Spanish economic, cultural, and political conditions, and because Spanish anarchists were successful at organization and cultural projects. Anarchists were able to create a strong movement that addressed the concerns of the Spanish working classes. During this period the movement was resilient enough to survive repression, flexible enough to be apply itself to different tasks, and ideologically-driven enough to prevent being co-opted by the state.

Download the .pdf: Spanish Anarchism 1900-1936

The AltExpo YouTube channel now contains another video of the anarchist history talk I gave at Porc Fest 2010.

The New Yorker has published an article on the influence of the Koch bros. Jesse Walker responded at Reason. I found both at Roderick Long’s blog, where they are discussed here and here.

Radley Balko brings a useful counterpoint when he says “I’d like to thank the Koch brothers for six years of funding my right-wing, corporatist work on police abuse and criminal justice reform.” Cato also hosted Roderick Long’s Corporations Versus the Market article. There is more to the story than the pursuit of corporate profits.

Of course, Samuel Konkin, who invented the word Kochtopus, talked about this thirty years ago in New Libertarian Manifesto and elsewhere.

The story reminds me of politicians who conflate their personal interests (exercising power) with the common interest.

And it is pronounced “Coke-topus.” “Cock-topus” is the lovable mutant who pulls the strings at Thinking Liberty. His henchman is a bear from Canada rumored to be an ultra-rich marijuana tycoon.

This is a line of thought I’ve been considering lately. Maybe I’ll adopt it some day. I figured I’d post it here for discussion and note-keeping purposes. I’m probably not the first person to think of it but I don’t recall seeing it elsewhere.

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Whatever Western culture was, it destroyed itself in the First World War.

The revolutionary aspirations of the 1960s were the result of widespread attempts to break free from the philosophical nihilism that prevailed from 1914 to the mid-sixties. These aspirations were largely co-opted by Marxist-Leninist authoritarians and professional liberals into support for a more stable kind of domination, but still had lasting beneficial effects.

This implies that saying you fight for “Western Civilization” is a nicer way of saying you support Western domination over global civilization.

Shortcomings with this thesis:

1) It’s very simple, so it is inherently limited to providing one model for thinking about one brief period of history.

2) How do anti-colonial, particularly post-WWII era, struggles fit in?

3) Should massive anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements within Western nations during the era 1914-1964 (eg, Insurrectionary Ukraine, Revolutionary Spain) be seen as attempts to create a new world that were not as widespread/noticeable/broad-based as those of the 1960s?

4) Naturally a counter-culture was growing below the dominant ideas during this time – that is what emerged in the 1960s to challenge the dominant culture.

But noticeable advances in applying classical liberal ideas, which seems to be the defining positive factor of 19th Century Western culture, did occur during the 1914-1964 era. Regardless of what one thinks of voting as a measure of freedom, women’s suffrage does represent a measure of greater social equality than before. Efforts towards racial desegregation gained ground during this era. And the defeat of the European Axis powers unquestionably resulted in greater liberty for millions, despite the unnecessary deaths, strategic bombing murder, and the ceding of Eastern Europe to Stalinist rule.

5) Let’s not pretend that racism, sexism, and religious discrimination are “solved” problems in the West, or let Westerners off the hook for supporting murderous politicians. But nations considered “Western” in general seem to be environments where more tolerant and open cultures predominate than in nations considered “non-Western.”

65 years ago today, the United States government dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, condemning to death and agony thousands of individuals who were not responsible to the war. I can’t think of a culture that dropped two atomic bombs on civilians primarily to demonstrate national power as something worth preserving. The golden days are ahead of us.

“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time.” – attributed to Edward Grey

Thanks to bile, the History of Anarchism presentation I did at AltExpo 6 is now available as an mp3 download.

Grab it below:
A History of Anarchism.

At this year’s Porcfest, I did a presentation at the AltExpo on the history of anarchism. I was overly ambitious with what I could fit into an hour, and really ran through some things that I would have liked to explain more. Particularly a lot of the post-WWII history was not given the depth it could have used.

But it was a good introduction to a lot of the concepts and names that have shaped the history of anarchism. Audience members said they liked it and I think many of my readers will enjoy it too.

Much thanks to Bile for filming the presentation and posting it online so quickly.

WikiLeaks recently posted a video showing a US military helicopter fire on over a dozen individuals. The helicopter crew appears to believe that some of the individuals were carrying weapons. When a van stops and its driver attempts to carry some of the wounded away, the helicopter crew shoots into the van until there is no more movement. Two young children are seriously wounded. The US government tried to keep the video from being viewed by the public since the 2007 killings.

View the video at WikiLeaks.

During the recent Alternatives Expo at New Hampshire Liberty Forum, I gave an informal talk on the connection of free-market libertarian thought to the left. I went through some history, discussed things of value in the present anti-authoritarian left, and noted some philosophical and strategic reasons for thinking in terms of left rather than right or neither.

I do think it would have been better if I’d got more sleep (Liberty Forum creates a lot of fun, fatigue-obscured memories), if I’d talked a little about the often complicated relationship between libertarian socialism and free market libertarianism, and if I’d given more examples of mutual aid, solidarity, and left/post-left anti-authoritarian groups (though I will take credit for bringing Situationist ideas to Alt Expo). It also would have been good to discuss why a libertarian society hasn’t existed on a continental scale at least for a very long time, and why that doesn’t make it unfeasible for one to exist in the future.

But it went really well, and everyone in the room seemed to enjoy it.

Bile already posted the video of the speech online. He also recorded the Q&A session after my speech, as well as Charles Johnson’s Liberty Forum talk, but hasn’t had time to post them yet. Stay tuned to Blog of Bile Video for the goods. [Update: the Q&A session is now online and posted below.]

Much thanks to the Free State Project, the Liberty Forum staff, and Jack and the Alt Expo crew for an outstanding weekend. Thanks to Bile and Laur for video, carpooling, and general tomfoolery. Thanks to everyone who came to my talk and to everyone else who made Liberty Forum and the Alternatives Expo such a good time. I’m really looking forward to Porc Fest, and have a few plans to contribute to its awesomeness.

Sheldon Richman’s outstanding “Capitalism Versus the Free Market” lecture can be viewed online courtesy of the Future of Freedom Foundation.

The talk very effectively explains crucial economic and political history and theory. It will positively contribute to any viewer’s understanding and advocacy of liberty.