tl;dr. There’s two beautiful new booklets available for ordering from the ALL Distro. This month’s Market Anarchy is a collection of five contemporary pieces on spontaneous order and freed-market social movements. This month’s Anarchist Classic is a sleek new edition of the oldest known English-language Anarchist tract. You can get one free sample copy of either series (or both) to check out, if you’re considering a monthly subscription for individual copies or monthly packs to distribute in the radical space of your choice. Sound good? Contact me for details. Also, we have some new ALL buttons, now available through the distro page.
Scatter tracts, like raindrops, over the land….
–William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, March 1831.
Two things.
1. The Lit
First, I’m happy to announce that earlier this week I mailed out the first orders of this month’s newest additions to the Alliance of the Libertarian Left Artwork & Agitprop Distro. Issue #18 of the now-monthly Market Anarchy Zine Series is a collection of five contemporary pieces on spontaneous order and freed-market social movements. Issue #6 of the Anarchist Classics Zine Series is as classic as it gets — the earliest known extended defense of philosophical Anarchism in the English language.
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In “Five Theses on Freed-Market Social Movements and Self-Regulating Anarchy,”
Sheldon Richman, Charles Johnson, and David D'Amato look at the social and
economic possibilities for social order to emerge without the need to impose
social control – for spontaneous order and people-powered social movements
against capitalism, racism, and ecocide within an anarchic freed market.
Richman's "Regulation Red Herring" discusses the demand for "regulation" and the
power of unplanned spontan- eous order; Johnson's "We Are Market Forces"
considers the meaning of "market forces" and the possibilities for DIY social
change in a self-regulating market anarchy; and in "I Oppose Civil Rights Acts
because I Support Civil Rights Movements," "The Free Market's Regulatory Model,"
and "The Clean Water Act vs. Clean Water," Johnson and D'Amato apply the
analysis to freed-market social activism against racism and environmental
destruction.
In a freed market, who will stop markets from running riot and doing crazy
things? And who will stop the rich and powerful from running roughshod over
everyone else? We will.
In a freed market, if someone in the market exploits workers or chisels
customers, if she produces things that are degrading or dangerous or uses
methods that are environmentally destructive, it's vital to remember that you do
not have to just let the market take its course — because the market is not
something outside of us; we are market forces.... When liberals or Progressives
wonder who will check the power of the capitalists and the bureaucratic
corporations, their answer is—a politically-appointed, even less accountable
bureaucracy. The libertarian answer is—the power of the people, organized with
our fellow workers into fighting unions, strikes and slow-downs, organized
boycotts, and... alternative institutions.... [I]f you want regulations that check
destructive corporate power, that put a stop to abuse or exploitation or the
trashing of the environment, don't lobby—organize!
$1.50 for 1; $1/ea in bulk.
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The "Vindication of Natural Society," published anonymously in 1756, is the earliest known English-language tract to offer an extended defense of philosophical Anarchism – arguing for a peaceful social order based upon individual conscience and mutual agreement, without legal constraint or political authority. It was later discovered to have been written by Edmund Burke, then a radical Anglo-Irish journalist. This booklet is based on the original edition of the Vindication, which appeared anonymously and without further explanation. In later editions, after his authorship was discovered, Burke, who had retreated from his earlier views and begun a new career as a member of Parliament, added a new Preface, in which he disowned his anarchistic conclusions and stated that the entire argument was originally intended as satire. Many Anarchist readers, however, point out that the vigorous, coherent argument of the "Vindication" does not read like satire, and take Burke’s later disavowal as careerist damage control.[] In any case, whatever the authorial intent, the "Vindication" went on to become a major influence on early English-speaking Anarchists such as William
Godwin and the mutualist followers of Josiah Warren.
To prove, that these Sort of policed Societies are a Violation offered to Nature, and a Constraint upon the human Mind, it needs only to look upon the sanguinary Measures, and Instruments of Violence which are every where used to support them. Let us take a Review of the Dungeons, Whips, Chains, Racks, Gibbets, with which
every Society is abundantly stored, by which hundreds of Victims are annually offered up to support a dozen or two in Pride and Madness, and Millions in an abject Servitude, and Dependence.... I acknowledge indeed, the Necessity of such a Proceeding in such Institutions; but I must have a very mean Opinion of Institutions where such Proceedings are necessary....
I now plead for Natural Society against Politicians, and for Natural Reason against all…. My Antagonists have already done as much as I could desire.... The Monarchic, Aristocratical, and Popular Partizans have been jointly laying their Axes to the Root of all Government, and have in their Turns proved each other absurd and inconvenient. In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with the Abuse. The Thing! the Thing itself is the Abuse!
$2.00 for 1; $1.50/ea in bulk.
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As I mentioned last month, both the Market Anarchy Zine Series and the new Anarchist Classics Zine Series have become regular monthly publications. One issue in each series is published every month. I’ve been working out the publication schedules, and from here on out, new issues will be announced (and made available for pre-order) around the first Friday of every month. Issues will be mailed out to subscribers and pre-orderers during the third week of the month.
As before, I hope that the new projects and the regular publishing schedule will help out ALL locals, hometown radicals and market anarchists out to make a point. I can provide nicely printed copies at low cost; and for those who want super-low-cost zines to give away for free or just prefer to DIY, I’ll also be providing regular access to ready-to-print electronic copies to anyone who subscribes, orders or donates to the project. (For details on ready-to-print electronic copies, see below.)
As always, you can order individual copies, sampler packs, or bulk orders for tabling, infoshop-stocking, and other special events. You can also set up a monthly subscription for individual copies, or for bulk packets for distributing through your ALL local, at outreach tables, or through local radical libraries and infoshops. If you’re considering subscribing, you can contact me to request a free sample copy for you to check out, compliments of the Distro; then, if you like it, continue the subscription for the rest of the year at the following rates:
| Market Anarchy Zine Series |
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Individuals |
Bulk Distribution Packets |
$1.50/issue
(= $18/year) |
No. of copies !!!@@e2;153;2022; 80¢/issue
(= N !!!@@e2;153;2022; $9.60/year) |
| Anarchist Classics Zine Series |
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Individuals |
Bulk Distribution Packets |
$2.25/issue
(= $27/year) |
No. of copies !!!@@e2;153;2022; $1.25/issue
(= N !!!@@e2;153;2022; $15/year) |
For details on all your options (including ready-to-print electronic versions, customization with local contact information, and discounts for quarterly shipments), see Market Anarchy Mailed Monthly.
Prices include shipping & handling costs. If you decide not to continue the subscription, the sample issue is yours to keep. Intrigued? Contact me forthwith and we’ll get something worked out.
2. The Buttons
Second, I am also happy to announce that we have three big new 2.25!!!@@e2;20ac;b3; ALL buttons available for order through the Distro. One is a revised version of a button we’ve had since 2009; the other two are brand new designs.
Enjoy!
See also: