Anarcho-Capitalism's topics - tribe.net

Sidis

2009-08-20T13:54:20Z

Cross-posted:

From the newsletter of uber-genius William James Sidis 1938 (written by 10 year old high school girl):

Mr. Roosevelt is my shepherd.
I live in want.
He maketh me to lie down on park benches.
He leadeth me beside still factories.
He leadeth me into the paths of destruction for his party's sake.
Yes, though I walk through the valley of the Depression,
I anticipate no recovery, for he is with me.
He annointeth my small income with taxes.
My expenses runneth over.
Surely unemployment and poverty shall follow we all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in a mortgaged house forever.
What a man!

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Dreaming the NEW American Dream

2009-04-04T17:36:40Z

California poets Ava Bird & Rex Butters, and....

Santa Cruz artist Russell Brutsche - Karen Kwiatkowski of Virginia

Protests to stop immigration raids ... and more.
____________________

http://www.newamericandream.net

The New American Dream

What's New?

* Karen Kwiatkowski column
* Ava Bird poetry
* Rex Butters poetry
* Gary Mennie poetry

Columns:
Sherwood Ross — why not shut down a few prisons in the United States as well?
Mickey Z — Americans are cowards, too comfortable, will never-ever-not-in-one-million-years revolt-or-even-bother-to-stand-up — no matter what the rich folks do to them.
Lydia Sems — It's The American Dream that is the problem.

and more from Jack Saunders ...

Resistance:
* Planned civil disobedience in Minnesota to stop raids against immigrants
* Protests at Creech AFB against U.S. drone terroristic activity
*100 days of protest against Guantanamo to culminate

All this, Northern Exposure, The Big Lebowski, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights ... a certificate for free toast ... and more.

Join us.

The New American Dream
Dude.
... because ... Sister Mary Anne told us, "There are no wrong questions, if you don't know the answers."

... from the Dream Team

http://www.newamericandream.net

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Jailed Liberty Activists

2009-02-01T21:26:33Z

Hi. A lot of Liberty happenings and groups in New Hampshire where activists are confronting the system's victimless laws daily.

The latest ... Liberty activists in New Hampshire have started some websites for Liberty activist to keep informed and support jailed activists.
http://jailedactivist.info/
http://www.mail-to-jail.com/

If you know of any liberty activist or would like to support those struggling towards freedom more details, forums and links can be found at www.NHFree.com or listen to www.freetalklive.com

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Anarch-Caps in New Hampshire

2009-01-06T04:02:22Z

There is a growing network of like minded individuals in New Hampshire and more coming for the mutual support and understanding of non aggression. No victim=no crime.
Check it out for yourselves, is it time to stop talking and put some action to your ideas where others are willing assist you.
www.nhunderground.com
www.ridleyreport.com
www.freetalklive.com
www.freemindstv.com
www.nhliberty.org
www.freestateproject.com

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

The VOTE

2008-11-04T21:11:13Z

Just wondering how many went out to vote today...and how many have decided to extract themselves from the process...and how many have just given up?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

Conspiracy History compilation DVDs torrents

2008-03-06T14:58:58Z

**************************************************

Greetings to all my relations.

This is the last step of our project History Watch. If History is
defined and known by the texts, we can now add to this definition the
recorded events of the filmed archives. Animated images are harder to
deny than printed words. Our objective is to spread out freely some of
the little broadcast, even hidden informations about our collective
History.

We put online a collection of 391 documentaries and other selected and
recut videos, to offer to a wide public the best of the infos
available on the net in english and in french. If you are interested,
you have the time, the right equipment and connection, all you have to
do is open the joint document and decompress it if needed (but normaly
your system should do it automaticaly). You'll find therein nine links
that will open the torrents for the nine DVDs we compiled (around 4.6
Gig each, for a total of a little over 41 G, being over 100 hours of
videos).

Otherwise, you can go directly to btjunkie.com and search for these titles.

11 Septembre 2001 - 9-11
Bush family & friends
Capitalist & Communist regimes
Capitalist conspiracy
Mind Kontrol - Secret Programs
New World Order - Secret Societies
Secret services - cover up - covert ops
Secret weapons - UFO
Terrorism Theories propaganda

Torrents are a system of peer to peer data transfer. The more people
download a torrent, the faster it spreads and the longer it stays on
the net. If you don't have a bittorrent software, we suggest that you
download uTorrent on utorrent.com. If you want to participate in
facilitating the diffusion of these infos about our collective
History, download these torrents on as many computers as possible,
whether it is in cybercafes. It takes one or two minutes to open up
the links and the downloading will keep proceeding on its own.

Please spread this out, take part in this action for social education
on a planetary scale. Thanks.

For more info: watch.history@gmail.com History Watch

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Fraud Alert regarding North Coast Earth First! Aka NCEF! Media. Completely independent from any activist group!

2008-02-18T20:45:37Z

16 views since posting on Sunday, December 2, 2007
Location California

enlarge photo
NCEF! Media in Humboldt County Ca.(AKA NORTH COAST EARTH FIRST!), is accused of fraud and donation embezzlement. Caution! Do not support this lone wingnut's scam! Active and legitamate groups exist in the area. Caution! Do not be fooled by NCEF! Media and his fraudulent outreach. Shunka Wakan exists completely seperate from any active affinity group.

Read about how he perpetuated a lawsuit under the guise of EF! against a legitimate environmental nonprofit:

From: northcoastjournal.com/100407/...004.html

October 4, 2007

"Money On Trees"

Big cash nearly fell into Shunka Wakan's lap. Other Earth First!ers are kinda happy it didn't.

by Heidi Walters

As the jury trial for the civil suit Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation puttered to a start last week inside Courtroom 3 at the Humboldt County Courthouse, Shunka Wakan — a key witness for the plaintiff — spent mornings sitting on the hard wooden benches in the long hallway outside the courtroom. During breaks, Miller's attorney Linda Mitlyng, would come out of the courtroom to join him. But otherwise, as other people and their legal affairs swirled around him in a warm, odiferous bath of humanity, Shunka sat alone. Or, sometimes, he stood alone, straight-spined, his small, stocky body swallowed by the huge, stiff blue suit out of which his newly shorn, razor-scraped bald head poked vulnerably — as if, at any moment, the suit could gulp once more and he'd disappear completely. Always, he clutched a paper folder with a wolf's face on its cover.

The North Coast Earth First! Media guru had shaved off his woolly rust-tinged brown hair and beard the night before jury selection started, after discussing it with attorney Mitlyng. Now, it took an uncertain moment to recognize him. Then, of course: Shunka's light blue eyes in the pink-pale face, Shunka's closed-lip smile, Shunka's trademark husky murmur, "Mm-hmm, for sure," in response to a comment.

In Courtroom 3, the amiable but no-nonsense Judge Christopher Wilson's domain, the fate of a $185,000 donation dangled. Would the plaintiff, donor Kathryn Miller, prevail in her claim that the defendant, the Trees Foundation, was not in fact the intended recipient of her generous gift? That Shunka Wakan's NCEF! Media Center and the treesitters were? Or would the Trees Foundation convince the jury that, in fact, the money was intended all along for Trees, with no instructions attached for funneling it elsewhere?

Richard Idell, left, who is defending the Trees Foundation against a lawsuit filed by Kathryn Miller, confers with Doug Wallace, community support coordinator for Trees. Photo by David Lawlor.

In her opening arguments, Miller's attorney, Mitlyng, said the case came down to "fraud and broken promises." "She believed [Trees] would hold [the money] in trust, for the benefit of North Coast Earth First!" said Mitlyng. The defense's attorney, Richard Idell, countered in his opening argument that the donation was an unconditional gift and Miller never wrote letters of instruction — as Miller claims she did. "Ms. Miller ... didn't do anything. She took the check [from her mother's estate] and flipped it over and wrote on the back, 'Payable to the Trees Foundation,'" said Idell.

Miller's claim sought the return of her $185,000, plus interest.

Out in the hallway, Shunka waited to tell his side of the story. Maybe he thought about the magical donation that never materialized, and now probably never would. Maybe he thought about the other times he'd been in this courthouse — dozens of times, along with other activists, often before Judge Wilson, answering to charges of trespassing and other forms of civil disobedience in the woods. Likely, he wondered when they were finally going to call him in to testify — it was taking forever in there. He'd even sent out an e-mail prematurely to the several hundred subscribers to his NCEF! online group erroneously announcing he would be first up to testify.

By the end of Friday's court session, Miller was still on the stand. Perhaps Monday it would be Shunka's turn. Whenever it was, he would be testifying on Miller's behalf; but he wasn't a party to the lawsuit. And in the end, after hearing all of the evidence, the jury would be determining who was telling the truth about intentions and letters of instructions. Shunka was just there to provide context and evidence in a contract dispute.

But to a number of forest activists, including a half dozen or so who appeared in the audience last Friday to watch the trial unfold, that context matters more to them than the legal questions. They say this lawsuit has placed a strain on the environmental community that could do as much damage as an ill-felled redwood that takes down other giants in its descent. They disapprove of the lawsuit, and they blame Shunka for it. And, they say, it's just another example of how Shunka has commandeered the North Coast Earth First! identity and used it for purposes that nobody else in the amorphous but consensus-driven local Earth First! movement has agreed to.

"For a lot of us, when we read about the lawsuit, this is kind of like Shunka on trial," said long-time forest activist Deane Rimerman last Friday, calling from Olympia, Wash. "And, to what extent is he worthy of that money?"

Kathryn Miller wanted her money to go toward saving trees, she said on the witness stand last Thursday. The slender 59-year-old was dressed in a pink print skirt and white sweater, with her gray-streaked dark hair pulled back into a neat, thin braid tinted slightly green. (Little did the jury know that Miller had spent the night in jail, in blue jail duds, and then had been "dressed out," in court lingo, in her street clothes before being escorted into the court by the bailiff. Miller had been arrested the week before, on Sept. 17, when she arrived in civil court for the pre-trial readiness hearing; according to the misdemeanor criminal charges filed against her, Miller allegedly had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation all hours of the day and night.)

On the stand, Miller described how she became an activist. She remembered how, when she was a child in Orinda, her mother decided to stop spraying the beautiful oak trees on their property after reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. "And then, when my son was 9, we were watching the news on TV about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. And my son said to me, 'I wish I'd never been born. I don't think I'll get to live a full life.'"

She protested the building of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. She started a peace action group in the late 1980s in San Jose. She did nonviolent protests at the Nevada Test Site. And in 1990, she came up with some of her fellow protestors to help set up the camp for Redwood Summer, and to take part in demonstrations. She's been on and off involved in Earth First! actions in Humboldt ever since, she said, including huffing in supplies for treesitters and huffing out their garbage. She'd also, at one point, bought a condo in Arcata.

In 2004, Miller sold her condo and bought an acre of farmland, already planted with coffee, in Guatemala. She put in fruit trees to shade the coffee. That same year, her mother, who lived in Sonoma, died. "The last time I saw her was in 2003," said Miller. "She told me when she died, she was going to leave me some money. I told her I'd use it to further my work for the forest. And she was pleased, because she loved the treesitters and the forest."

Shortly after learning of her mother's death, Kathryn Miller sought out Shunka Wakan in front of the food co-op in Arcata, where he "tabled" to raise funds for the North Coast Earth First! Media office — selling T-shirts, and stickers, offering pamphlets, accepting donations. She'd known Shunka for about five years, she said.

"I said to him, I was going to inherit some money: What was the best way to get that to the North Coast Earth First!?"

In the spring of 2005, Shunka Wakan was floating above the treetops. "I was so excited," the 32-year-old said in an interview a few weeks ago, sitting inside his tiny but colorful North Coast Earth First! Media office in Arcata, walls covered in art and topo maps — including one of Buckeye Mountain, where in 2000-2001, during the "Mattole Free State" action, Shunka and others hiked 14 miles through waist-high snowdrifts to save trees.

Kathryn Miller, he recalled, had come up to him excitedly as he walked along the sidewalk outside the Arcata Co-op and said, "I just donated $185,000 to North Coast Earth First!'"

She'd talked to him the year before about making the donation — she'd said she was anticipating an inheritance from her mother's estate, and she wanted to make a big donation to his group. He'd told her to make it through the Trees Foundation, which handled the NCEF! Media office's finances through an arrangement that had been established years ago. (The Trees Foundation is an umbrella organization formed in 1991 to assist smaller environmental groups. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, it can accept large, tax-deductible donations on behalf of affiliates, and provide professional resources. And it can lead large campaigns, like the one to save the Headwaters Forest back in the '90s.)

Well, now she'd finally done it.

Miller and Shunka agreed to meet at Fiesta Café in Sunny Brae, so she could tell him how she wanted the money spent: She wanted, straight away, for someone to organize a mediated workshop for the local Earth First! activists on ageism and sexism, issues she thought were fracturing the movement. And, she wanted the bulk of the donation to help support the forest activists who blockade logging roads and hunker up in ancient redwoods to fend off loggers' saws.

Not long after, Shunka was on his way to have lunch with some folks from the Trees Foundation, where they'd talk about Miller's wishes.

"Our media outreach was going to get a big boost," Shunka said. "The donation would keep the EF! office going for many years. So I walked into the Wildflower Café feeling elated, thinking we got all this money."

Barbara Ristow and Doug Wallace of the Trees Foundation were there. "I was super excited," Shunka said, "and I said, 'This is great, this big donation. Isn't it wonderful?' We ordered food, and still I'm all excited, talking about the money, but I notice they're looking nervously at each other. [Finally], they said, 'Well, we're just shocked that you think this money was for you.' And I was like, 'I just met with the donor, and that's what she said.' And they're like, 'Well, let's go ahead and plan the workshop and deal with that later.' I remember that, because it put me at ease."

After that, Shunka said he gave Trees a list of people he thought might benefit from the mediator-run workshop. "Some were people I knew had beefs with me, but I was willing to bring 'em into the circle and talk about it."

According to some vague accounts, the workshop was a disaster. One person who was there claims that Shunka, at one point, pounded his fists on the floor, blustered, then got up and stormed out, yelling as he walked away. Shunka says that's overblown.

"The letter from Kathryn Miller to Barbara Bristow said she wanted the mediation to be a safe place, safe to be emotional," he said. "And I think people are saying 'I freaked out.' The freak-out reports are exaggerated. It's just part of this ongoing character assassination. People say I was 'red-faced.' But my face is naturally red."

In late 2005, while Shunka was in Seattle, a friend called him from Arcata to say a woman had come by asking for the office key. She had a list of equipment she wanted to take away. The friend didn't give her the key.

When Shunka got back from Seattle, he discovered his reimbursement funds from Trees had been "frozen." He also learned about a letter someone in the NCEF! movement had circulated for signatures and then sent to Mark Knipper, who handled the Trees Foundation transactions for the NCEF! Media office. It said, in essence, "We don't want Shunka running EF!"

"I called the Trees Foundation," Shunka recalled. "I was sick, it was the middle of the winter, I'm trying to table, it's raining, it's cold. And Barbara Ristow told me, 'You just need to have a meeting [with the other Earth First!ers] and come to a group consensus on what the Trees Foundation funding should be used for."

The meeting never happened — nobody could agree to meet, said Mark Knipper, also in an interview last week. Knipper is a social worker and a long-time activist who had been the contact person between Trees and NCEF! Media. "So it ate itself," Knipper said. "And although I'm former Navy, a mariner, I said I'm not going down with this ship. So I divorced myself from it ... and signed it all back to Trees."

The NCEF! Media office was dropped from the Trees Foundation altogether.

Shunka and the NCEF! Media office never did see any of the big donation. Miller didn't even know that, he said, until she phoned him up in the summer of 2006, more than a year after she made the donation, to ask about a guy named "Jungle," who had been reported as missing on the NCEF! hotline. Miller was spending much of her time in Guatemala now, where she was raising fruit trees; after she'd made her big donation, Hurricane Stan had struck — she spent the ensuing year mopping up the mess.

First, Shunka told her Jungle was still missing. Then he told her about the money.

"I said, 'Yeah, they told me it wasn't for us,'" said Shunka. "And she said, 'I meant for all of it to go to you guys.' She sounded real upset. And I was like, 'I knew it! I knew it!'"

Shunka tried to sue Trees in small claims court, but it went nowhere.

Miller filed a claim against the Trees Foundation on Oct. 5, 2006, in Humboldt County Superior Court, seeking the return of the $185,000 plus interest so she could distribute the money herself.

And if she wins? "She may just spread it out more," said Shunka. "She's got tree planting ideas. Maybe she could buy a grove. She'd maybe not give it all to Earth First! this time. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Trees blew for us."

On an uncomfortably hot afternoon last week, four forest activists who'd agreed to an interview for this story — Jeff, Shaggy, Sparrow and Farmer — sat on the ground at the Arcata Marsh next to a log bench on which a teeming crew of red ants worked a splintered notch. Someone had come along here in 1999 and carved a grouping of faces — bearded, grimacing, possibly mourning faces — onto the log and signed it Daniel. The carving had been drenched in red paint, and burnished by years of sitters.

"It kind of reminds me of the memorial for Gypsy," said one of them. "With the red paint."

Gypsy was the forest name of David Nathan Chain, who in September 1998, during an Earth First! action at Grizzly Creek, was crushed to death by a tree felled by an enraged logger. Farmer, actually, was there — he was just 16, but had a year of activism already under his belt. And Shunka was there — it was Shunka's first forest action.

Farmer, Shag, Sparrow and Jeff first made it clear that they spoke for themselves alone, although they participate in various forest defense affinity groups: Farmer works for the Mattole Wildlands Defense Group now, watchdogging the California Department of Forestry for new timber harvest plans, and keeping an eye on a Pacific Lumber Co. watershed analysis. Shag, who saw his first redwood about five years ago, helps keep the Fern Gully treesit village in Freshwater functioning. Jeff, who grew up in the high desert, and fell in love with the woods, works with the Nanning Creek treesit just outside of Scotia, as well as other groups. Sparrow, who was drawn to forest action because the cultural landscape was "like a folktale" he couldn't resist, is with the Fern Gully affinity group. These groups are all part of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association, a collective with a website but no formal structure.

The HFDA sprang into being six years ago — about the time the entity called North Coast Earth First! had essentially dissolved. It would take a book to describe that drawn-out dissolution — a book of lost causes, won causes, waning media interest, Judi Bari's death, Gypsy's death, ego-spurred squabbles, interpersonal catastrophes, a war overseas, hurricanes. And while the HFDA activists might still cherish the Earth First! name — the movement — in their hearts, it's now been further complicated by what you might call the Shunka effect.

"I still feel in many ways solidarity with the greater Earth First! movement abroad," said Farmer. "But in this county, in this climate, if you say you're with the North Coast Earth First!, many people associate you with North Coast Earth First! Media."

Shunka revived the North Coast Earth First! office around 2002. And he did what previous office managers had done — tabled, put out news releases, wrote articles for other publications. But it wasn't like the old days, in the '90s, when hundreds of people were getting arrested in forest actions and the jail support phone and legal resources were in constant use.

Shunka first worked in an office in Eureka, then later moved to Arcata. He called his outfit the NCEF! Media Center. For a time, he and other "affinity groups" tried to work together. But he alienated some people. He took over the North Coast Earth First! website. He controlled the North Coast Earth First! email list of 300 or more subscribers to the news alerts. He sent out press releases on his own.

"I felt the North Coast Earth First! Media Center was a unilateral effort on Shunka's part," said Farmer. Whereas, in the old days, "spokespeople were decided on by the group. And if you wrote an article it was passed by everyone. I feel Shunka appointed himself spokesperson at some point."

Many also claim they've been subject to a lashing anger from Shunka.

"I won't work with him because I pledge nonviolence in my actions," said Shag. "I don't believe he pledges the same thing. He has exhibited violent behavior towards me and towards other activists in my presence."

"He's a bear," said Jeff, making claw-fists with his hands.

But the sad thing is, all of this infighting probably has done nothing to help the actual trees. And the mediation workshop Kathryn Miller wanted didn't fix matters. Now, there was her lawsuit.

"When I heard about this lawsuit, I thought, the Trees Foundation does not deserve to be attacked in that way," said Farmer. "There's much bigger issues that need to be dealt with — with Maxxam and old-growth logging. ...If you look at Fern Gully and Nanning Creek (the Bonanza timber harvest plan), there's hundreds of old growth acres still standing whose fate is unclear."

Shag put it more bluntly: "If [Miller] knew Shunka and wanted to get the money to North Coast Earth First! Media, she should've given it to Shunka. But if she was trying to get it to treesits and forest defense, then the money went to the right place.

"My problem is this whole representation thing. There's people in the trees — how do you know who to get the money to, to help them?"

Shunka knows that a lot of fellow activists aren't happy with his role in the donation dispute. He also knows how some people talk about him and say he's hard to get along with. "I'm just standing up for the truth," he said. "And people don't like it. To me, it feels like a small clique of people who don't like me. I feel a lot of love and support in this community."

He certainly doesn't come off right away as someone who's angry, or who lashes out, or who locks the office and doesn't let people in. Why, recently, he helped a young woman hook up with the treesitters so she could learn the ropes. (Shaggy said that's proof Shunka doesn't have direct connections with the people doing direct action; but you can't deny it's a connection.)

It's probably a bad idea to ask Darryl Cherney, one of the founders of the local Earth First! movement, what he thinks of Shunka Wakan, whose real name is Jason Wilson. (Shunka tells a story of how he was named by a Lakota medicine man on the banks of the Cheyenne River in South Dakota in 1995. "Shunka Wakan," meaning "great dog," is only part of it. There's a secret part after that — altogether, his name means "the humble man called horse.")

"Shunka's a wingnut," Cherney said over the phone last Friday, sounding cheerfully vitriolic. "I have a 10-verse song about Shunka."

Here are the last few verses:

Who's at the co-op spanging a donation
Shunka, Shunka
Who's got a lawsuit 'gainst the Trees Foundation
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka
Who's gonna keep on fighting the fight
Shunka, Shunka
With four of his friends at swimmers delight
Shunka, Shunka
Shunka, Shunka (Shunka voice: It's the last of the revolution)

There's no other word for it but "mean." But Cherney and Shunka have history — not all of it sour. Cherney said Shunka laughed when he heard the song, at least the first time.

"I met Shunka in 1998," Cherney said. "And I know he knew Julia ["Butterfly" Hill, whom Shunka had come west to find]. That was a good thing, helping Julia. That was good Shunka."

Cherney had even pushed for Shunka to go to Houston to talk with Charles Hurwitz, whose Maxxam Corp. bought out the old Pacific Lumber company back in 1985 and quickly became the forest activists' number one villain. Shunka went.

But now? "The current status of Shunka and me," Cherney said, "is that Shunka has sent me five or eight or nine e-mails threatening to sue me. Shunka is a joke."

Cherney can talk for hours about the problems he's had with Shunka over the years. His main point, though, is what has Shunka done for the trees lately?

"My question is, where's your topo maps?" he asked. "Where's your wilderness preservation proposal? Where's your lobbyist team in Sacramento?"

It has to be that, on some level, even the people in the movement who don't like Shunka understand somewhat where he's coming from. So he's emotional. Passionate. Perhaps he's caught up so completely in the cause he can't let go. Or, who knows — maybe he's a phony, like he accused Knipper of being back in 2005.

But being a forest activist comes with perils beyond the obvious physical ones.

"I'm really trying to have compassion for Shunka, even though he's kind of attacked us," said Susy Barsotti by phone from Laytonville a couple of weeks ago. Barsotti is president of the Trees Foundation board, and she says the lawsuit has held Trees hostage, unable to function fully. "I've been mystified and dismayed that he's participated like this in the suit. But Shunka witnessed Gypsy's death. And I think he may have post-traumatic stress syndrome. I don't think he's recovered from it. And that can affect your behavior."

A number of people mentioned this, actually, about Shunka. And he often refers to Gypsy's death himself. In an article titled "What Luna has taught me," posted on the website of Julia "Butterfly" Hill's organization, Circle of Life, Shunka writes: "I decided to commit to doing ground support after witnessing the death of David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain on September 17, 1998 ... I remember looking across the valley as we hiked up that day, seeing the rolling hills of forests and clear-cuts, and thinking out loud, "That's why we're here!" Seeing Gypsy's life taken from him, and then seeing the corruption and lies of the Humboldt County Sheriffs ... really opened my eyes to the situation our old-growth forests face."

Later, he did ground support for Hill in her second year in Luna. And in the same article on her website, something else Shunka writes indicates how ready he was to devote himself to a cause: "Being on the support team was the top priority in my life, and I was happy knowing that everything else revolved around when I'd be needed for the next supply run. I never felt lost because I knew what I was doing. That was a feeling I had not felt in years, between feeling dissatisfaction with life in college, and then more dissatisfaction with life as a minimum-wage worker after college. Before joining Julia's ground support team I was unhappy, even to the point of tears, wondering if my entire life was going to be a minimum-wage nightmare ...."

Pure devotion, without benefit of a little hypocrisy, could drive anyone batty. Deane Rimerman, the activist from Olympia who said it is Shunka who is on trial, said it's not uncommon for intense, stressful movements like Earth First! to produce an army of walking wounded. And he's been around, in forest actions up and down the coast, for long enough to know; he was the one, in fact, who "got the maps and led the first hikers up to the hill" to the Gypsy Mountain campaign and Luna treesit.

"In the forest activist movement, there's very little that's rewarding," Rimerman said. "There's a lot of post traumatic stress syndrome. All of us get it. Once you've been through the court process, and the jail process, and seen 1,000-year-old trees get cut down that you really cared about and thought you could save — it's devastating."

That alone, setting aside the troubles with Shunka, could explain the many rifts that have occurred within the local EF! ranks over the years. Josh Brown, who moved to Humboldt in 1995 right before the peak of the Headwaters campaign, said one of the unique qualities of Earth First! is that it "is primarily a youth movement."

"A lot of people that come through are young, are passionate — and it's a wonderful thing," he said. They get thrown into leadership positions quickly — and then they get burned out. Many move quickly on to other things. Brown stayed in longer than most. "When I left [in 2001], I was 30 years old. And I'd been a full-time activist since I was 18."

Paradoxically, said Brown, the youthful draw and the departure of seasoned activists leaves the movement with "no elders to kind of sit around and coach the [new kids]."

The movement also draws strong personalities, he said. Tenacious ones, too, like Shunka's.

"Shunka, I think he really does have a big heart," said Brown. "And I think he does care for the forest."

Last Friday, following the morning session of Miller v. Trees, a group of the Humboldt Forest Defense Association activists stood on the courthouse steps talking. The door opened, and Shunka walked out and down the steps toward the group. They didn't greet him. After a time, he tried to talk to one of them, Jeff. Jeff walked away. Shunka followed him, then stopped and talked to another guy. Then he stood alone again.

From: northcoastjournal.com/101107/...011.html

"Trees Foundation Wins"

October 11th, 2007

The jury in the civil case Kathryn Miller v. the Trees Foundation decided in favor of Trees, after deliberating all day Tuesday. (See "Money on Trees," Oct. 4).

Miller is the long-time forest activist who inherited a bundle from her mother and then signed $185,000 over to the Trees Foundation. In her lawsuit, she claimed she had intended the money to be passed through Trees to one of its affiliates, North Coast Earth First! Media, run by Shunka Wakan. She claimed she had made her intentions clear, verbally and in writing, and that Trees had agreed to the conditions, then broken its promise and kept the money. Trees denied making such promises, and said it had never seen any letters or heard of instructions to give the money to NCEF! Media. (Also, somewhat relatedly, in criminal court on Tuesday Miller pleaded no contest to charges that she had made annoying phonecalls to Barbara Ristow of the Trees Foundation.)

So, that's that. Now, there are only the pieces to pick up.

For Shunka Wakan — featured in last week's Journal as a central figure in a messy nest of infighting that has fractured the current ranks of local Earth First!ians — it could be a long, lonely patching together of lost friends and broken alliances. Not only did he and Miller lose their attempt to retrieve her donation, but now he's been banned from the North Coast Co-op.

Yes, that happened last week. It was Thursday, around 4:15 in the evening, and two activists with the Humboldt Forest Defense Association were tabling — hawking brochures and such — outside the Co-op. It's an activity Shunka himself has spent many a day doing in that very same spot, raising cash to pay for his NCEF!Media outreach work and other causes. And, well, these two fellows, Jeff and Farmer, were on Shunka's shit list, now. They'd spoken gently, but unfavorably, about Shunka's doings in the North Coast Earth First! arena — said he lashed out at people, said he commandeered NCEF! resources, and so forth. Here's a snippet of Jeff's account of what happened, which he sent to the NCJ in an e-mail on Friday:

"Shunka was removed from the Arcata Co-op yesterday after a scuffle with myself and another activist around 5 p.m. Well, he wasn't exactly removed, but APD was called. He was asked to leave after threatening to flip over the HFD donation table while stating he was 'like Jesus in the marketplace ...'"

Sue Coulter, manager of the Arcata Co-op, recounted on Friday how an employee walking by heard the argument and went inside to get her. "So I went out to talk to [Shunka], because it's not the first time we've had problems," she said. "Most of the time, he's fine. Most of the time, I stick up for him." One time, she said, she even called the police to protect Shunka after someone had threatened him. "But he gets into arguments. I tried to talk to him. I told him to leave. ... He was causing a scene, right by the door, and I can't have it. He refused to leave. ... I said, fine. I went into the store. He followed me into the store, and he was still yelling at me, 'Oh, now you're going to call the police on me.'" Coulter called the police, but Shunka left before they arrived.

Shunka, waiting in the courthouse for the jury verdict Tuesday, said Coulter did indeed ask him to leave and he did, indeed, refuse to. As for the HFD tablers, he said he merely asked them why they had Trees Foundation literature on their table. "I said, 'Why do you want to represent these people?'" And then, he said, "Jeff accused me of embezzling — he said this in public. He said, 'You've embezzled thousands of dollars from the Earth First! movement through the years.' And I complained to one of the employees who was walking by. Because that's serious, accusing someone of embezzling."

But Shunka said the whole thing's yet another attack on him. "I don't consider I was yelling. We were talking. I'm an emotional person, I concede to that. I speak from my heart. I don't scream at people. I would love to — but I don't."

In his email, Jeff with HFD predicted Shunka would leave town within weeks, if not sooner. But at the courthouse, even before the verdict, Shunka said he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm just going to continue to run the Earth First! office and continue to call Humboldt County home," he said. He's also going to write a letter to the Co-op, complaining about how he gets scapegoated and booted out of there even when other people, he says, are the culprits. And, as for the Miller v. Trees case, he said, he and Miller may now take their complaint to another venue.

-- Heidi Walters

Posted by Anonymous
respond to this listing title message
Send Response
more listings like this kinderfrau
MANHATTAN BEACH - 10 views since 11/22 by Iris (no connection)
kinderfrau
MANHATTAN BEACH - 5 views since 11/22 by Anonymous (no connection)
Fashion Consultant
- 7 views since 11/20 by Alwyn (no connection)
EN-670 Software Sr. Product Developer – Staff – Anaheim, CA
- 12 views since 11/06 by Tim (no connection)
EN-678 Sr. Software Dev / Lead Staff - San Francisco or...
- 12 views since 11/06 by Tim (no connection)
Posted by Anonymous

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Please help

2007-11-14T09:52:15Z

please go to this website to send a fax to the related US
congress and senate members to Request a Congressional Hearing on the
Sujiatun case. it's a very easy to Fill out form, With just a click, the fax will be sent.
thank you,
joshua

here is the link:
http://publicpetition.unvcc.com/UN/index.php

there is more information about Sujiatun on the website:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 5 replies

2008?

2007-11-06T12:24:04Z

Wondering how many plan to vote in the 2008 cycle.

Yeah, I know (hahaha!) - but there is a difference between being philosophically anarchist and the practical path to lead one there. So anyway, who plans to vote, and of those who do, will you vote Libertarian, Ron Paul, or other?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 57 replies

Moral Fitness Obligation

2007-11-03T04:24:22Z

This came up elsewhere - thought I'd get everyone's perspective here.

Does a human being have a moral obligation to be in top physical condition?

Yes?

No?

Other?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 5 replies

Lysander Spooner

2007-08-12T03:07:13Z

Anybody else a big Lysander Spooner fan? He is, in my opinion, the single most underrated writer in human history. His works are brilliant- concise, logical, and direct to the point.

Here's a couple of my favorites:
http://www.lysanderspooner.org/LetterToBayard.htm
http://www.lysanderspooner.org/NaturalLaw.htm

Check them out, and tell me what you think.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Homeland Security says you are a terrorist

2007-07-28T15:35:49Z

http://www.chrisbrunner.com/2007/05/09/libertarians-are-terrorists-says-the-state-of-alabama/

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security (ALDHS), established in June of 2003, has recently constructed a website that defines Domestic Terrorists as those who oppose gun control and a strong federal government.

Under the heading “Anti-Government Groups”, the site displays a flag that is widely considered one of the first symbols of American patriotism and reads, “In general, these terrorists claim that the U.S. government is infringing on their individual rights, and/or that the government's policies are criminal and immoral. Such groups may hold that the current government is violating the basic principles laid out by the U.S. Constitution…”

While Anarchism is defined by a lack state control and Communism is a maximization state control, two polar opposite concepts, the page that follows reads, “Anarchists groups are the 21st Century’s version of left wing or communist groups of the last. Anarchists believe that any government or organization that has power over others…will eventually become corrupt and abusive.”

If I’m not mistaken, the idea that government, if not kept in check, will become corrupt and abusive was first made popular in this country by our founding fathers, not a bunch of terrorist anarchist groups. This was the very reason for the implementation of the United States Constitution! In fact even Section 35 of the Alabama Constitution warns of this danger is it declares, “the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.”

The Alabama.gov site continues, “Most of these groups operate around larger urban areas and colleges/universities… Some are focused on issues such as World Trade, International Debt, and military involvement in foreign cultures… The theme is always the same. Big [government] is bad. Rich are using the poor to stay rich. Our government in particular is using its power immorally.”

In short, if you oppose gun control, taxes, military intervention, most of our national debt being held by foreign nations, or just a large federal government, you might be a terrorist!

The very idea that those who value their personal rights and liberties are being labeled terrorists by the State of Alabama is not only absurd and egregiously offensive, it completely contradicts the ideals our federal and state governments were founded on! The people of Alabama should be outraged!

These Alabama.gov pages can be reached by visiting the Alabama Homeland Security TAP Course, clicking on "Domestic Terrorists", and then on "Anti-Government Groups".

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 4 replies

Book recommendation: "The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier"

2007-05-08T16:54:29Z

I just started reading this book, and so far it is great. Relates to previous discussions about where property rights came from.

http://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-West-Economics/dp/0804748543

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Would you want to trade with a country that harvests prisoners for organ transplants?

2007-05-03T04:00:48Z

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3960142867c4.htm

An Execution for a Kidney [Lions Club and Organ Harvesting in China]

Foreign Affairs Extended News News Keywords: CHINA, LIONS CLUB, MALAYSIA, INVOLUNTARY HUMAN ORGAN HARVESTING, PRISONERS, EXECUTIONS, KIDNEYS
Source: International Herald Tribune
Published: June 15, 2000 Author: Thomas Fuller
Posted on 07/02/2000 21:18:48 PDT by Ironword (return of)

An Execution for a Kidney

China Supplies Convicts' Organs to Malaysians

By Thomas Fuller
International Herald Tribune

Paris, Thursday, June 15, 2000

MALACCA, Malaysia -- The night before their execution, 18 convicts were shown on a Chinese television program, their crimes announced to the public. Wilson Yeo saw the broadcast from his hospital bed in China and knew that one of the men scheduled to die would provide him with the kidney he so badly needed.

Mr. Yeo, 40, a Malaysian who manages the local branch of a lottery company here, says he never learned the name of the prisoner whose kidney is now implanted on his right side. He knows only what the surgeon told him: The executed man was 19 years old and sentenced to die for drug trafficking.

''I knew that I would be getting a young kidney,'' Mr. Yeo says now, one year after his successful transplant. ''That was very important for me.''

Over the past few years at least a dozen residents of this small Malaysian city have traveled to a provincial hospital in Chongqing, China, where they paid for what they could not get in Malaysia: functioning kidneys to prolong their lives.

They went to China, a place most of them barely knew, with at least $10,000 in cash. They encountered a medical culture where kidneys were given to those with money and a doctor could stop treatment if a patient didn't pay up. Surgeons advised them to wait until a major holiday, when authorities traditionally execute the most prisoners.

China's preferred method of capital punishment, a bullet to the back of the head, is conducive to transplants because it does not contaminate the prisoners' organs with poisonous chemicals, as lethal injections do, or directly affect the circulatory system, as would a bullet through the heart.

More than 1,000 Malaysians have had kidney transplants in China, according to an estimate by Dr. S.Y. Tan, one of Malaysia's leading kidney specialists. Many patients go after giving up hope of finding an organ donor in Malaysia, where the average waiting period for a transplant is 16 years.

Interviews with patients who underwent the operation in China reveal how the market for Chinese kidneys has blossomed here - to the point where patients from Malacca negotiated a special price with Chinese doctors.

In 1998, two doctors from the Third Affiliated Hospital, a military-run complex in Chongqing, came to Malacca and spoke at the local chapter of the Lions Club about their procedures. Kidney patients worked out a deal with the doctors: Residents of Malacca would be charged $10,000 for the procedure instead of the $12,000 paid by other foreigners.

It goes without saying that the kidney transplants these doctors perform are highly controversial. The Transplantation Society, a leading international medical forum based in Montreal, has banned the use of organs from convicted criminals. Human rights groups call the practice barbaric.

But patients here who have undergone the operation in China say they were too desperate at the time to consider the ethical consequences.

Today they are simply happy to be alive. The trip to Chongqing offered them an escape from the dialysis machines, blood transfusions, dizziness and frequent bouts of vomiting. And why, they ask, should healthy organs be put to waste if they can save lives?

''Ethics are only a game for those people who are not sick,'' says Tan Dau Chin, a paramedic who has spent his career working with dialysis patients in Malacca. ''Let me put it this way: What if this happened to you?''

Simon Leong, 35, a Malaccan who underwent a successful operation two years ago in Chongqing, says the principle of buying an organ is ''wrong.''

''But I was thinking, I have two sons. Who's going to provide for them?''

Corrine Yong, 54, who returned from Chongqing two months ago after a successful operation, was told that if she did not receive a transplant she would probably not live much longer.

''I didn't have a choice,'' she says of her decision to go to China.

For kidney patients in Malaysia the chances of obtaining a transplant from a local donor are slim. Despite an extremely high death rate on Malaysian roads - in a country of 22 million people, an average of 16 people are killed every day in traffic accidents - the organ donation system is woefully undeveloped.

Kidneys were transplanted from just eight donors last year. Thousands of people are on the official waiting list.

Dr. Tan, the Malaysian kidney specialist, says the small number of donors in Malaysia is partly due to religious and cultural taboos.

Malaysian Muslim families in particular are reluctant to allow organs to be removed before burial, although this is not the case in some other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which has a relatively high number of donors.

Organ donation has always been an uncomfortable issue. The terminology is euphemistic and macabre: Doctors speak of ''harvesting'' organs from patients who are brain-dead, but whose hearts are still beating.

And when the issue of executed prisoners comes into play, transplants become politically explosive.

''It is well known that the death penalty is often meted out in China for things that most people in Western countries would not regard as capital crimes,'' said Roy Calne, a professor of surgery at both Cambridge University and the National University of Singapore.

Using organs from executed prisoners is not only ethically wrong, he says, but discourages potential donors to step forward in China: ''If the perception of the public in China is that there's no shortage of organs you're not likely to get any enthusiasm for a donation program.''

It is impossible to know exactly how many Asians travel to China for organ transplants. But data informally collected from doctors in at least three countries suggest the numbers are in the hundreds every year.

Also impossible to confirm is whether all patients in China receive organs from executed prisoners and not other donors.

But patients interviewed for this article say doctors in China make no secret of where the organ comes from. The day before convicts are executed - usually in batches - a group of patients in the hospital are told to expect the operation the next day.

Melvin Teh, 40, a Malacca businessman who received a kidney transplant from a hospital in Guangzhou two years ago, says doctors did not offer the names of the prisoners. ''They just tell you it was a convict,'' he said. ''They don't tell you what he did.''

Mrs. Yong says doctors told her that the donors were all ''young men'' who had committed ''serious, violent'' crimes.

Chinese officials have admitted that organs are occasionally taken from convicts, but deny that the practice is widespread.

''It is rare in China to use the bodies of executed convicts or organs from an executed convict,'' an official from the Health Ministry was quoted as saying in the China Daily in 1998. ''If it is done, it is put under stringent state control and must go through standard procedures.''

That view does not jibe with the stories that patients from Malacca tell, where kidneys are essentially handed out to the highest bidders, often foreigners.

Mr. Leong, the Chongqing patient, and his wife, Karen Soh, who accompanied him to China, say money was paramount for the surgeons involved in the operation. They recounted how another Malaysian kidney transplant patient who suffered complications while in Chongqing had run out of cash.

''They stopped the medication for one day,'' Mrs. Soh said, referring to the anti-rejection drugs. The patient was already very sick and eventually died of infection upon her return to Malaysia, according to Mrs. Soh.

Patients say they are advised by friends who have already undergone a transplant to bring the surgeons gifts. Mrs. Yong brought a pewter teapot and picture frame. Mrs. Soh and her husband brought a bottle of Martell cognac, a carton of 555 brand cigarettes and a bottle of perfume for the chief surgeon's wife.

''They call it 'starting off on the right foot,''' Mrs. Soh said.

After the operation was complete, the couple gave two of the doctors ''red packets'' filled with cash: 3,000 yuan ($360) for the chief surgeon, and 2,000 yuan for his assistant. Other patients also ''tipped,'' although the amounts varied.

It might be tempting to see the market for Chinese organs as part of the more general links that overseas Chinese have with the mainland.

Many of the patients are indeed ethnically Chinese and come from countries - Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand - with either links to the mainland or large ethnic Chinese populations.

Yet if the experience of Malaysian patients is any indication, the trip to China provides a severe culture shock. Patients recalled unsanitary conditions, and for those who did not speak Mandarin the experience was harrowing.

Mr. Leong, who speaks little Mandarin, was helped by his wife who wrote out a list of phrases for her husband to memorize. The list included: ''I'm feeling pain!'' ''I'm thirsty.'' ''Can you turn me over?'' Mr. Leong would simply say the number that corresponded to his complaint and the nurse would check the list.

But more difficult than communicating is paying for the transplant. For the Leongs it involved pooling savings from family members and appealing for funds through Chinese-language newspapers. The cost of an operation amounts to several years' salary for many Malaysians.

Yet despite financial problems and culture shock, all four patients interviewed for this article said they had no regrets.

Mr. Yeo enjoys a life of relative normalcy, maintaining a regular work schedule and jogging almost every day.

He says he was so weak before his transplant that he had trouble crossing the street and climbing stairs. Four-hour sessions three times a week on dialysis machines were ''living hell.''

Does it disturb him that an executed man's kidney is in his abdomen?

''I pray for the guy and say, 'Hopefully your afterlife is better,''' Mr. Yeo said.

And has he ever wondered whether the prisoner might have been innocent?

Mr. Yeo pauses and stares straight ahead. ''I haven't gone through that part -- the moral part,'' he said.

''I don't know. I can't question it too much. I have to live.''

[End of article transcribed from paper edition]

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 3 replies

Towards an Anarchist Economic Reality

2007-04-04T20:37:32Z

Are already there and just not leveraging our inherant power within the economic model?

Scott, and others, what are the steps and choices before us and available to us towards juking ourselves out from uner the thumb of banking monopolies?

Is it possible, and is it worth it, to de-stereotype the 'Capitalist' model amongst the progressive liberal groups who have it confused with State Socialist systems?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 7 replies

relevancies towards a more evolved capitalism : environmental reality.

2007-03-30T17:12:25Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29SmweJCaOQ

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

swarm ! swarm!

2007-02-28T19:02:09Z

http://anarchism.tribe.net/thread/97c48d82-4d55-459c-9aef-1de61108e2ce

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 34 replies

The Death Wish of the Anarcho-Communists

2007-01-26T01:20:17Z

The Death Wish of the Anarcho-Communists

by Murray N. Rothbard

Now that the New Left has abandoned its earlier loose, flexible non-ideological stance, two ideologies have been adopted as guiding theoretical positions by New Leftists: Marxism-Stalinism, and anarcho-communism.

Marxism-Stalinism has unfortunately conquered SDS, but anarcho-communism has attracted many leftists who are looking for a way out of the bureaucratic and statist tyranny that has marked the Stalinist road.

And many libertarians, who are looking for forms of action and for allies in such actions, have become attracted by an anarchist creed which seemingly exalts the voluntary way and calls for the abolition of the coercive State.

It is fatal, however, to abandon and lose sight of one's own principles in the quest for allies in specific tactical actions.

Anarcho-communism, both in its original Bakunin-Kropotkin form and its current irrationalist and "post-scarcity" variety, is poles apart from genuine libertarian principle.

If there is one thing, for example, that anarcho-communism hates and reviles more than the State it is the rights of private property; as a matter of fact, the major reason that anarcho-communists oppose the State is because they wrongly believe that it is the creator and protector of private property, and therefore that the only route toward abolition of property is by destruction of the State apparatus.

They totally fail to realize that the State has always been the great enemy and invader of the rights of private property.

Furthermore, scorning and detesting the free-market, the profit-and-loss economy, private property, and material affluence – all of which are corollaries of each other – anarcho-communists wrongly identify anarchism with communal living, with tribal sharing, and with other aspects of our emerging drug-rock "youth culture."

The only good thing that one might say about anarcho-communism is that, in contrast to Stalinism, its form of communism would, supposedly, be voluntary. Presumably, no one would be forced to join the communes, and those who would continue to live individually, and to engage in market activities, would remain unmolested.

Or would they?

Anarcho-communists have always been extremely vague and cloudy about the lineaments of their proposed anarchist society of the future. Many of them have been propounding the profoundly anti-libertarian doctrine that the anarcho-communist revolution will have to confiscate and abolish all private property, so as to wean everyone from their psychological attachment to the property they own.

Furthermore, it is hard to forget the fact that when the Spanish Anarchists (anarcho-communists of the Bakunin-Kropotkin type) took over large sections of Spain during the Civil War of the 193Os, they confiscated and destroyed all the money in their areas and promptly decreed the death penalty for the use of money. None of this can give one confidence in the good, voluntarist intentions of anarcho-communism.

On all other grounds, anarcho-communism ranges from mischievous to absurd.

Philosophically, this creed is an all-out assault on individuality and on reason. The individual's desire for private property, his drive to better himself, to specialize, to accumulate profits and income, are reviled by all branches of communism. Instead, everyone is supposed to live in communes, sharing all his meager possessions with his fellows, and each being careful not to advance beyond his communal brothers.

At the root of all forms of communism, compulsory or voluntary, lies a profound hatred of individual excellence, a denial of the natural or intellectual superiority of some men over others, and a desire to tear down every individual to the level of a communal ant-heap. In the name of a phony "humanism," an irrational and profoundly anti-human egalitarianism is to rob every individual of his specific and precious humanity.

Furthermore, anarcho-communism scorns reason, and its corollaries long-range purpose, forethought, hard work, and individual achievement; instead, it exalts irrational feelings, whim, and caprice – all this in the name of "freedom." The "freedom" of the anarcho-communist has nothing to do with the genuine libertarian absence of interpersonal invasion or molestation; it is, instead, a "freedom" that means enslavement to unreason, to unexamined whim, and to childish caprice. Socially and philosophically, anarcho-communism is a misfortune.

Economically, anarcho-communism is an absurdity. The anarcho-communist seeks to abolish money, prices, and employment, and proposes to conduct a modern economy purely by the automatic registry of "needs" in some central data bank. No one who has the slightest understanding of economics can trifle with this theory for a single second.

Fifty years ago, Ludwig von Mises exposed the total inability of a planned, moneyless economy to operate above the most primitive level. For he showed that money-prices are indispensable for the rational allocation of all of our scarce resources – labor, land, and capital goods – to the fields and the areas where they are most desired by the consumers and where they could operate with greatest efficiency. The socialists conceded the correctness of Mises's challenge, and set about – in vain – to find a way to have a rational, market price system within the context of a socialist planned economy.

The Russians, after trying an approach to the communist moneyless economy in their "War Communism" shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, reacted in horror as they saw the Russian economy heading to disaster. Even Stalin never tried to revive it, and since World War II the East European countries have seen a total abandonment of this communist ideal and a rapid move toward free markets, a free price system, profit-and-loss tests, and a promotion of consumer affluence.

It is no accident that it was precisely the economists in the Communist countries who led the rush away from communism, socialism, and central planning, and toward free markets. It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a "dismal science." But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance. Yet this sort of aggressive ignorance is inherent in the creed of anarcho-communism.

The same comment can be made on the widespread belief, held by many New Leftists and by all anarcho-communists, that there is no longer need to worry about economics or production because we are supposedly living in a "post-scarcity" world, where such problems do not arise. But while our condition of scarcity is clearly superior to that of the cave-man, we are still living in a world of pervasive economic scarcity.

How will we know when the world has achieved "post-scarcity"? Simply, when all the goods and services that we may want have become so superabundant that their prices have fallen to zero; in short, when we can acquire all goods and services as in a Garden of Eden – without effort, without work, without using any scarce resources.

The anti-rational spirit of anarcho-communism was expressed by Norman 0. Brown, one of the gurus of the new "counter-culture":

The great economist von Mises tried to refute socialism by demonstrating that, in abolishing exchange, socialism made economic calculation, and hence economic rationality, impossible … But if von Mises is right, then what he discovered is not a refutation but a psychoanalytical justification of socialism … It is one of the sad ironies of contemporary intellectual life that the reply of socialist economists to von Mises' arguments was to attempt to show that socialism was not incompatible with "rational economic calculation" – that is to say, that it could retain the inhuman principle of economizing. (Life Against Death, Random House, paperback, 1959, pp. 238–39.)

The fact that the abandonment of rationality and economics in behalf of "freedom" and whim will lead to the scrapping of modern production and civilization and return us to barbarism does not faze our anarcho-communists and other exponents of the new "counter-culture." But what they do not seem to realize is that the result of this return to primitivism would be starvation and death for nearly all of mankind and a grinding subsistence for the ones remaining.

If they have their way, they will find that it is difficult indeed to be jolly and "unrepressed" while starving to death. All this brings us back to the wisdom of the great Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset:

In the disturbances caused by scarcity of food, the mob goes in search of bread, and the means it employs is generally to wreck the bakeries. This may serve as a symbol of the attitude adopted, on a greater and more complicated scale, by the masses of today towards the civilization by which they are supported … Civilization is not "just here," it is not self-supporting.

It is artificial … if you want to make use of the advantages of civilization, but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization – you are done. In a trice you find yourself left without civilization. Just a slip, and when you look, everything has vanished into air. The primitive forest appears in its native state, just as if curtains covering pure Nature had been drawn back. The jungle is always primitive and vice versa, everything primitive is mere jungle. (José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, New York: W.W. Norton, 1932, p. 97.)

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 6 replies

European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs

2007-01-23T06:22:42Z

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html

CONTROLLED CHAOS
European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs

By Matthias Schulz

Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and
regions in Europe are giving it a try -- with good results.

Drachten in the Netherlands has gotten rid of 16 of its traffic light
crossings and converted the other two to roundabouts.
"We reject every form of legislation," the Russian aristocrat and
"father of anarchism" Mikhail Bakunin once thundered. The czar
banished him to Siberia. But now it seems his ideas are being
rediscovered.

European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and
directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free
and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of
the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions,
restrictions and warning signs.

A project implemented by the European Union is currently seeing seven
cities and regions clear-cutting their forest of traffic signs. Ejby,
in Denmark, is participating in the experiment, as are Ipswich in
England and the Belgian town of Ostende.

The utopia has already become a reality in Makkinga, in the Dutch
province of Western Frisia. A sign by the entrance to the small town
(population 1,000) reads "Verkeersbordvrij" -- "free of traffic
signs." Cars bumble unhurriedly over precision-trimmed granite
cobblestones. Stop signs and direction signs are nowhere to be seen.
There are neither parking meters nor stopping restrictions. There
aren't even any lines painted on the streets.

"The many rules strip us of the most important thing: the ability to
be considerate. We're losing our capacity for socially responsible
behavior," says Dutch traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the
project's co-founders. "The greater the number of prescriptions, the
more people's sense of personal responsibility dwindles."

Monderman could be on to something. Germany has 648 valid traffic
symbols. The inner cities are crowded with a colorful thicket of
metal signs. Don't park over here, watch out for passing deer over
there, make sure you don't skid. The forest of signs is growing ever
denser. Some 20 million traffic signs have already been set up all
over the country.

Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such
exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored
by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to
treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He
may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel
justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every
other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of
making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.

"Unsafe is safe"

The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of
prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're
constantly in search of their own advantage, and their good manners
go out the window.

The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of this
vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them to
take responsibility for themselves. They demand streets like those
during the Middle Ages, when horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and
people scurried about in a completely unregulated fashion. The new
model's proponents envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending
into a colorful and peaceful traffic stream.

It may sound like chaos, but it's only the lesson drawn from one of
the insights of traffic psychology: Drivers will force the
accelerator down ruthlessly only in situations where everything has
been fully regulated. Where the situation is unclear, they're forced
to drive more carefully and cautiously.

Indeed, "Unsafe is safe" was the motto of a conference where
proponents of the new roadside philosophy met in Frankfurt in mid-
October.

True, many of them aren't convinced of the new approach. "German
drivers are used to rules," says Michael Schreckenberg of Duisburg
University. If clear directives are abandoned, domestic rush-hour
traffic will turn into an Oriental-style bazaar, he warns. He
believes the new vision of drivers and pedestrians interacting in a
cozy, relaxed way will work, at best, only for small towns.

But one German borough is already daring to take the step into
lawlessness. The town of Bohmte in Lower Saxony has 13,500
inhabitants. It's traversed by a country road and a main road. Cars
approach speedily, delivery trucks stop to unload their cargo and
pedestrians scurry by on elevated sidewalks.

The road will be re-furbished in early 2007, using EU funds. "The
sidewalks are going to go, and the asphalt too. Everything will be
covered in cobblestones," Klaus Goedejohann, the mayor, explains.
"We're getting rid of the division between cars and pedestrians."

The plans derive inspiration and motivation from a large-scale
experiment in the town of Drachten in the Netherlands, which has
45,000 inhabitants. There, cars have already been driving over red
natural stone for years. Cyclists dutifully raise their arm when they
want to make a turn, and drivers communicate by hand signs, nods and
waving.

"More than half of our signs have already been scrapped," says
traffic planner Koop Kerkstra. "Only two out of our original 18
traffic light crossings are left, and we've converted them to
roundabouts." Now traffic is regulated by only two rules in Drachten:
"Yield to the right" and "Get in someone's way and you'll be towed."

Strange as it may seem, the number of accidents has declined
dramatically. Experts from Argentina and the United States have
visited Drachten. Even London has expressed an interest in this new
example of automobile anarchy. And the model is being tested in the
British capital's Kensington neighborhood.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

America Freedom to Fascism Authorized version

2006-11-13T01:25:48Z

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175242198&q=

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Free Alex Jones films on Google!

2006-09-18T18:59:54Z

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Alex+jones&hl=en

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Happy Loyalty Day everyone

2006-05-26T13:46:42Z

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html

TRUTH is stranger than fiction.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 2 replies

Viva! - Los Angeles

2006-04-30T00:45:39Z

Home to the laid-back, apathetic and a-political, who would have thought Los Angeles would become a hub of social change.

Her People, Her Mayor, Her Police Chief!

VIVA!~ El Pueblo Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles!

Which can be translated as - The Town of Our Lady Queen of Angels
Otherwise known as The City of Angels. Or Los Angeles... for short.

I've waited a lifetime for this, and could not be more pround of Her.

I am a, died in the wool, economic conservative.
Economist by training, Capitalist by socialization and Business-person by self interest. Protectionism in any form really chaps my ass and immigration quotas and anti-immigration laws are amongst the most heinous in terms of causing market inefficiencies (read lost money). It hurts from every economic cost angle you can think of.

(This message brought to you by your token rich white middle-aged male native Los Angeleno.)

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 7 replies

New Tribe - For a Gold Standard

2006-03-29T16:04:19Z

Because inflationism is a form of control
http://tribes.tribe.net/goldbugs

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 35 replies

New Witness Confirms Existence of Chinese Concentration Camp, Says Organs Removed from Live Prisoners

2006-03-18T03:05:08Z

Please help to end this horrible persectuion. knowledge is our greatest weapon, please share this information. together in peace we can make a difference. Falun Dafa is a peaceful meditation practice that teaches putting others before yourself, kindness, always telling the truth and being tolerant of others. We are literally being killed for being good people. The national media has been of little help because of trade issues with China. It is up to us to let the world know. Please help us.

By Ji Da
The Epoch Times Mar 17, 2006
www.theepochtimes.com

The witness, a former employee at the Liaoning Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, and says the bodies of Falun Gong practitioners are cremated immediately after the organs are removed. (The Epoch Times)
[High-resolution image ] A former employee of Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine told The Epoch Times during a recent interview that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in China was actually a part of a hospital. The concentration camp has engaged in taking organs from Falun Gong practitioners when they were still alive and selling the organs. Since 2001, the concentration camp has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners, none of whom have been able to leave the camp alive. The hospital removed many kidneys, livers, and corneas from the practitioners. After the organ removal, the practitioners were thrown into an incinerator, which was converted from a boiler. Their ashes were dumped together with burned charcoal.

Organs from Three Quarters of the 6,000 People Were Removed
Those whose organs were removed were in various states of health. Because many of the victims were illegally detained, there was neither an arrest warrant nor identification as to who these people actually were. Often after their organs were removed, nobody claimed the bodies. Sometimes their bodies were picked up by crooks who pretended to be their family members.

About three-quarters of the 6,000 people died after their hearts, kidneys, corneas, or skin was removed; their bodies were then burned. This witness, whose family member participated in the removal of Falun Gong practitioners' organs, said that approximately 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners remain in the hospital. She was afraid that the authorities would kill all of them to destroy evidence.

The Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine is located at 49 Xuesong Road, Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. It was the first hospital in China to specialize in the heart, the brain, and surrounding blood vessels. The hospital is composed of several organizations, including the Liaoning Traditional Chinese Medicine College Teaching Hospital and the Shenyang Thrombosis Treatment Center.

Concentration Camp Details
The hospital site is 21,087 square meters, with 17,564 square meters of building area. It employs 460 people in 24 departments and 20 specialized offices. Information from the Chinese government shows that the hospital was established in December 1988, and was formerly named the Shenyang Research Institute of Thrombosis and Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. In June 1998, it was renamed China Traditional Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center.

The Chinese Business Morning View said in a story on July 4, 2004, that a farm worker died of abnormal causes in Sujiatun, Shenyang and was later cremated. The death certificate was provided by the Chinese Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center in Sujiatun. The news caused a stir in China.

A copy of the death certificate. (The Epoch Times Archives Photo)Below is the transcript of an Epoch Times reporter's interview with the former staff member of the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in Sujiantun, Shenyang City. Questions were posed by the reporter and answered by the staff member being interviewed.

Epoch Times: Did the hospital's medical staff inside the concentration camp know about this?

Answer: This hospital has a small number of officials and some doctors involved secretively in the operation of organ harvesting. Some other staff in the hospital knew about this, but this is absolutely a taboo [to talk about]. They all are afraid of being killed or courting trouble, so they all avoid the issue. Only those highly trusted doctors could be chosen to be the surgeons for organ harvesting operations.

ET: Were Falun Gong practitioners alive when their organs were harvested? Did their families know about this?

Answer: Falun Gong practitioners who were imprisoned there came mostly from Dabei Prison, Masanjia Labor Camp, and other prisons in Shenyang, or they were Falun Gong practitioners arrested in parks or residential homes. Because they refused to denounce Falun Gong, they were arrested without formal warrants, and their families did not know their situation. Many did not even have their names [recorded]. In addition, since the Chinese authority exercises a policy of "not being responsible" for killing Falun Gong practitioners, the death of Falun Gong practitioners is not a very big issue for prisons. The Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong, [but] these medical personnel were told Falun Gong practitioners were facing death because they killed people, or they were sentenced to death because of crimes, or they had become insane from practicing Falun Gong.

Those Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were harvested came from several types.

Organs harvested from live bodies are worth far more than organs taken from dead bodies. Many Falun Gong practitioners were still alive when their organs were taken. After their organs were cut out, some of these people were thrown directly into the crematorium to be burnt, thus leaving no evidence. For some others, after their organs were stolen, the doctor sewed up the wound and asked the family or family representative to give a signature for cremation. Family members did not know at all that the dead had their organs taken out.

Furthermore, there were some healthy Falun Gong practitioners in prisons in other areas who were injected—without their knowledge—with psychoactive drugs that made their minds confused. They then were transferred to Sujiantun concentration camp to suffer further torture, till in the end their organs were harvested and their bodies were cremated in secret.

Among the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were harvested, some were weak and some were healthy. Since most of them were illegally arrested, there were no arrest warrants or identification cards. After their organs were taken out while they were still alive, no one came to claim their bodies; or [sometimes] people using fake identities claimed their bodies.

None of these people have come out [of the concentration camp] alive; three-quarters of these 6,000 people have died, having their hearts, kidneys, retinas, and skins harvested and their bodies disposed of. I think now about 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners are still in this hospital, and I am afraid now that the authority will destroy all evidence and kill them.

Question: How did you know these things? Were you yourself a doctor involved in organ harvesting?

Answer: I worked at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Shenyang. This is exactly where this concentration camp is located. One of my family members was involved in the operation to harvest Falun Gong practitioners' organs. This has brought great pain to our family.

Question: Please tell us what you knew about.

Answer: From 2001, our hospital started to detain Falun Gong practitioners. At the beginning, these people were detained in the single-storey houses in the back yard of the hospital. Later, the hospital authorities demolished the single-storey houses, and it was unknown where in the hospital the Falun Gong practitioners were transferred. Many staff of the hospital discussed in private that these Falun Gong practitioners had been secretly transferred to the underground chambers of the hospital. According to some people working inside the hospital, the hospital has a huge system of secret underground chambers.

At the time when we went to work there, the person in charge of logistics and purchasing in the hospital said that the quantity of disposable sterile gloves used for operations and daily supplies that the hospital authorities asked to be purchased had increased dramatically. The logistics people estimated based on the scale of purchases at that time that there were at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners detained in this hospital.

These Falun Gong practitioners were not detained in the 4-story building under the in-patient department and administration at the front of the hospital, in order to keep the hospital staff from seeing them at all. We only occasionally saw Falun Gong practitioners being sent on a mobile intensive care bed to the first floor for physical examinations. These people were very weak. For the majority of the Falun Gong practitioners, nobody knew where they were being secretly kept. While they still did not know where these people were kept, some staff inquired to the hospital authorities about why so much food and so many sterile gloves and daily supplies were purchased. The hospital authorities said, "You only need to do your job well. There is no need for you to ask any other questions."

Starting in 2001, a family member of mine participated in organ-harvesting operations. My family member tried to keep me from knowing about this at the beginning. The hospital authorities selected doctors they trust in different aspects to perform the secretive operations. After a period of time, I found that my family member was in a lot pain, often had nightmares, and appeared panic-stricken. After repeated inquiries, this family member told me the truth. The leader of the hospital had asked my family member to participate in the organ harvesting operations on Falun Gong practitioners as early as 2001. It was 2003 when my family member confessed. A few years after, my family member felt so much pain from participating in this incident that it was impossible to continue with the evildoing. My family member decided to go abroad to get away from this matter.

My family member also told me: "you don't understand my suffering; those Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It might be easier for me if they were dead, but they were alive."

Question: Were there any other doctors from the hospital taking part in the operations of cutting out Falun Gong practitioners' organs?

Answer: I know there were some. All these things have been carried out secretly. Many doctors at our hospital involved were practicum doctors transferred from other hospitals. Because the government does not want to be responsible for Falun Gong practitioners' bodies and lives, their lives are treated as garbage by the regime, and their bodies were used in experiments by new doctors doing their practitcums.

Many doctors came and left the hospital because they suffered a lot after having been involved in these kinds of things. They either requested to be transferred to other places, or changed their names. Some might have been killed to eliminate the evidence, their identity files were taken out from the hospital's filing system, or their names were changed. Nobody knows where the doctors have gone.

The hospital staff all know that the rear part of the hospital is forbidden. It is always watched. The staff avoids talking about the place.

Question: It is said the hospital is equipped with an incinerator. The person whose organs were removed will be burned when he or she is still alive. Is that true?

Answer: The employees in our hospital call this place "the incinerator." Actually, it is a boiler room. Some poor farmers from nearby places were hired to work in the boiler room. They were penniless when they first came here. But they could scrape up some watches, finger rings, necklaces, and so on. The amount is not small. It is said by the employees in the hospital these jewelry and watches were collected from the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs had been removed when they were about to be thrown in the boiler to be burned. It is also said by the employees in the hospital, some were still alive when being thrown into the boiler.

Question: Do they get injection of anesthetic when in surgery?

Answer: Yes. There is a cap to the anesthetic quantity used in mainland China's hospitals. Generally, the supply of anesthetic was determined according to the accommodation of the hospital. To the public, the number of patients in our care appears to be very small, and publicly reported number of surgical procedures performed is quite low. But the equipment and articles used in surgery are abundant. Because the amount of anesthetic is limited, these secret surgeries could not use the normal anesthetic doses. In order to save anesthetic, they economized on the anesthetic used in surgeries on these Falun Gong practitioners. The amount of anesthetic used was very small. However, many whose organs were removed were still alive. You can imagine the pain suffered by the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were removed.

Question: Are there any survivors among the 6,000 people detained since 2001?

Answer: Nobody has come out alive. The number of them gets smaller and smaller. The Falun Gong practitioners detained at Sujiatun are fewer now than before. But I believe that the sin of removing the organs of the Falun Gong practitioners is still continuing.

Question: Where are these organs usually sold to? Do the higher authorities in the government know about this?

Answer: They are mainly sold to Thailand, but I believe they are also sold to other regions of the world. Nowadays, there are many patients in China who need human skin, corneas, and kidneys for organ transplant surgeries. Many patients have to wait in line to purchase organs. Currently, a kidney can be sold up to the price of 30,000 to 100,000 U.S. dollars. The profit from selling organs is simply too great. The people who benefit from this are not only the top leaders of hospital and the officials of the Chinese Communist Party's Heath Department. This is a crime present across the entire nation. People ranging from government officials to doctors to organ sellers are all involved in this and are profiting greatly.

Question: Why did they target Falun Gong practitioners as the source of organs?

Answer: Because relatives of many Falun Gong practitioners don't even know that their family members were arrested. So if the Falun Gong practitioners are killed, there will be no one to come and claim their dead bodies.

Question: Why did you want to expose this? This may bring great danger to you.

Answer: I know that there are many Falun Gong practitioners who are currently detained at the hospital. I would like to expose this to the international community, so those who are not yet killed can be saved. Also, I would like to expose this as an atonement for my family.

I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. But as a former staff member of the hospital, I have the responsibility to expose the truth, and let the world to save those Falun Gong practitioners who are still alive. Organs of some Falun Gong practitioners are still living on patients' bodies. I would like to call on all society to pay attention to this issue and stop this shocking crime.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

The Ethics of Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard

2005-12-09T14:24:37Z

I just finished reading this book. It is clear, accessible, and stunningly consistent logically. You can download it for free here:

http://thegoldengate.net/2005/12/03/the-ethics-of-liberty

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

New tribe - objectivist singles

2005-11-28T04:54:29Z

If you're single and are 'real' and honest with yourself and want to meet others like yourself, come check out objectivist singles. If you think Dagny Taggart or Howard Roark in Atlas Shrugged were hot, come on over.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

Global Government...

2005-10-07T17:51:24Z

U.S. Stands Firm Against World Tax

Some Members of Congress Take Notice; Offer Praise, Support

By James P. Tucker Jr.

United Nations bureaucrats, meeting in New York, are trying to shove through Bilderberg’s demand for a direct tax on world citizens but, so far, the United States is firmly opposed. UN bureaucrats used euphemisms to hide their tax plan in the 40-page “Draft Outcome Document of the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly of September 2005.”

The document, if finally agreed upon, is to be taken up by 170 heads of state at the UN. It calls for “innovative and additional sources of financing for development on a public, private, domestic or external basis” and “solidarity contributions on plane tickets to finance development projects” and “other solidarity contributions that would be nationally applied and internationally coordinated.”

For years, Bilderberg has pressed for a direct UN tax on the world, and for at least three years such proposals have been pending before the world body. Bilderberg’s favorite form of UN taxes has been a levy of 10 cents a gallon on oil. This would, initially, be so small the consumer would not notice the fraction of a penny on gasoline, even with today’s sky-high prices. But the principle would be established and, like the U.S. income tax, it would be tuned up in the years ahead.

The oil tax would be imposed under the language of “other solidarity contributions.”

There is a growing awareness of this threat to U.S. sovereignty. Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) secured unanimous agreement in the House to oppose any UN taxes. The Senate should enact the same prohibition. At the UN, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has taken this document apart, demanding 40 changes, including purging language supporting taxing authority for the UN. “The U.S. does not accept . . . global taxes,” Bolton wrote.

(Issue ..40, October 3, 2005)

Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003

The Law of the Sea Treaty is not just a bad idea; it is a very dangerous legal document that heralds a major step into world government and grants vast powers to the UN.

Some bad ideas just keep coming back again and again, like a vampire that hasn’t been properly disposed of with the wooden stake to the heart. The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) is just such a creature. Pronounced dead several times over the past couple of decades, it was largely forgotten — except by its internationalist sponsors. It has been resuscitated and now stands poised for action in the U.S. Senate.

The Law of the Sea Treaty is not just a bad idea; it is a very dangerous, concrete thing, a revolutionary legal document that heralds a major step into world government and grants vast powers to the United Nations. All of the blather, bombast and assurances of its supporters notwithstanding, there’s no way to get around that fact. The treaty does create new jurisdictions and governing structures with real powers that threaten our national sovereignty. Among other things, LOST establishes an International Seabed Authority (referred to as ISA, or "the Authority"), a new UN agency to control the minerals and other wealth of the sea floor. This also means granting the ISA control over two thirds of the Earth’s surface — no trifling matter. LOST designates this vast, watery commons as "the Area."

Article 136 of the treaty declares: "The Area and its resources are the common heritage of mankind." And Article 137 informs us: "All rights in the resources of the Area are vested in mankind as a whole, on whose behalf the Authority shall act." That’s certainly reassuring: The UN kleptocracy that has given us the massive Iraqi oil-for-food rip-off, and that has proven to be a bottomless sinkhole of corruption for nearly 60 years, is to administer the wealth of the oceans for the benefit of "mankind."

In case you didn’t know, "the Authority" is already up and running; the ISA was launched in 1994, when the 60th nation ratified LOST. Like all UN-formulated entities, the ISA mimics the UN, with a sprawling bureaucracy and a confusing, Byzantine system of geopolitically weighted voting and representation. For the past decade, the ISA has been growing like The Blob. Headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, it is comprised of a Secretariat, Assembly, Council, Legal and Technical Commission, Finance Committee, and the usual proliferation of committees, commissions, panels, task forces, etc. For dispute resolution there is an International Tribunal ("the Tribunal") in Hamburg, Germany. Or, if you prefer, you may opt for the International Court of Justice at The Hague, where Judge Shi Juiyong of Communist China sits as President. Some choice!

There are now 145 member nations, the only major holdout being the United States. As with the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Protocol and other efforts by the UN and one-world elites to install what they euphemistically call "global governance," U.S. resistance to joining this new collective regime is being portrayed as contempt for "the world community" and disrespect for "the rule of law."

The Law of the Sea Treaty opened for signatures at the UN in 1982. At the UN’s 20th anniversary celebration of that event in 2002, Korea’s Tommy Koh, president of the 3rd UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, declared that LOST is nothing less than "a comprehensive constitution for the oceans" covering "every aspect of the uses and resources of the sea." It’s difficult to get more comprehensive than that. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at the same event, echoed President Koh, referring to the treaty as "a constitution for the oceans." Acting President of the UN General Assembly Clifford S. Mamba of Swaziland may have unintentionally let the cat out of the bag on that occasion, declaring that the treaty represented a major effort to achieve a "just and equitable international economic order."

Back in 1974, you may recall, a raucous UN General Assembly led by Fidel Castro and the Soviet-directed "Non-Aligned Movement" voted for a Marxist manifesto entitled "A New International Economic Order," or N.I.E.O. The Law of the Sea was a key element of the N.I.E.O. scheme for global socialist wealth distribution. It still is, though its advocates at the UN have learned that they make more progress toward their goal if they are less strident and more honeyed in their utterances.

Under LOST, the UN will finally have the tax and regulatory powers it has lusted after for so long, together with a commercial income stream, independent of the purse strings of national legislatures. Any entrepreneur wishing to explore or mine the ocean floor would have to pay the Authority and provide technical assistance to "the Enterprise," the ISA’s own commercial ocean mining corporation. Articles 192 through 237 are loaded with environmental legalese that will provide UN globocrats and their NGO allies at Greenpeace and the Sierra Club with previously undreamt-of opportunities for regulating not only commercial, recreational and naval shipping, but also land sources of marine pollution, such as agriculture, manufacturing, mining, construction, logging and urban waste management.

If you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to tell your senators to send this fanged fossil back to the grave — permanently.

© Copyright 2004 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Liberty411

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

have something to share with young, impressionable intellectuals?

2005-10-01T13:19:59Z

if you have an idea or lesson to share - please come present it to sharp college students at Stanford. We are ready to put forth a lot of effort during our time here to engage the latent libertarians (we think they are everywhere!) in active discussion about our world and the potential for voluntary change in the U.S. right now. We can whine about our (humanity's) current status and its problems, but there is so much positive energy in the world to counter it. Entrepreneurs, economists, parents, waitresses, please come join for an evening of free dinner, reimbursed gas, and shared stories.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Educate people thorugh film in Boston, MA/Portland, ME

2005-09-13T20:02:32Z

CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND LIVE IN THE AREA:
Ryan of Portland, Maine
congratsyousoldout@yahoo.com
Filming will be done September/October/November

I'm doing a documentary to educate college students on the understanding of people who don't conform to social and political convention in America [(particularly in New England) Boston, Portland, Providence, etc.]. Most people look down upon a type of mentality/lifestyle because they don't understand or see past what the government feeds to them on a daily basis. I'm creating this documentary not only for myself, but to create an outlet for people who what to speak out and inform people about other things in life that aren't mass media driven. Hypocritical i must say...but if media is the only way to get attention...then we can use it to our advantage. Thanks for reading.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

questions for the anti-free-market folks....

2005-09-09T11:47:42Z

This is a serious question for those who come in here to rail against the free market.

If we presuppose an anarchist system, and people are free to associate and dissociate as they choose, then I have a few questions for those anarchists who oppose the free market system:

1) Do you think that the new alternative to free markets would be so wonderful that everyone would freely choose to abandon free market systems in favor of the new system?

2) If you think case number 1 applies, what makes you think future generations would not ever revive free market economies?

3) What if, under the new anarchist system 80% of the people choose to participate in the new economic system, 10% of the people choose to abstain from all economic transactions and "do it on their own," and 10% choose to participate in a free market economy?

4) In any of the cases above, what do you do if some of the people choose a free market economic system over the new alternative provided?

5) Are such people allowed to continue with their free market?

6) If they're not allowed to continue, why not?

7) If they are not allowed to continue, what do you do with them if they refuse, and continue anyway?

8) If they are not allowed to continue, who decides which economic systems are valid and which are invalid?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 5 replies

Wrong Tribe

2005-08-23T00:46:15Z

After reading through the post to this Tribe I now understand I am in the wrong Tribe. The Anachism I studied practice and beleive in is completely incompatible with Capatalism.

The folks in this tribe aren't Anarchists but pure capatalists, the ultimate in pampered self centeredness. If you lived in the Liberatarian (as in Libratarian Party) society you envision you would certainly die.

You should drop the Anarcho and just call this tribe Capatalism. I hope someday you wake out of your greedy revery and start thinking collectivly because tha is what Anarchism is. Read Bukunin and Kropotkin please.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 30 replies

Is it worth my time to start a market anarchist Zine?

2005-08-22T23:48:00Z

There's zine fever in the air, and I have the urge to stick to the State by distributing a cheap, photocopied, self-published, rant-filled journal extolling the views to market anarchy. No craven compromise like Reason, no immpenetrable scholarly tone, just a bunch of entertaining, informative, and useful articles. Plus maybe a few cartoons. And maybe a few reviews. A few.
My question is, would a zine help "the cause"? It would be a shoestring operation, with no budget. Are there other, better market anarchy zines out there that I don't know about that are already filling this niche? And in this new world of No-Treason.com, Lewrockwell.com, Anti-state.com, etc., should I concentrate on a website instead, and forget what may be an obsolete medium?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 6 replies

"The free market fails again" (debunk this post)

2005-08-05T17:15:28Z

Saw this post in the politics forum and figured this tribe might have some fun taking it apart. The opinions expressed within aren't mine I'm just putting them here to see what the anarcho-capitalists think:

--------------------------------------------

Tue, July 26, 2005 - 3:25 PM
" -- The free market has spoken, US science education is undesirable, now China is catching up in science --

Private industry has chosen to hire scientists in India and China, thus students in America have begun to show less interest in the sciences in college.

Now China, with their planned economy, is set to catch up to America.

The US really should have kept these high end jobs here and plowed a lot more funding into science education... but since we have not, now everyone of consequence agrees that we're losing our lead.

The free market has failed us again. "

http://www.nber.org/papers/W11457
http://www.dailybrowse.com/index.php
-----------------------

Here's the original thread:
http://www.tribe.net/thread/6631671a-0997-440a-80f7-5999660ab9ce?tribeid=076f9e56-be6a-4f97-a6f3-2665d62ca32e&r=1

So what do the anarcho-capitalists have to say to this latest charge against the free market and in favor of planned economies?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 20 replies

Hmmm.m.m.m.m

2005-08-04T15:28:10Z

In your ideal "anarcho-capitalist" utopia
what would happen to wal-mart?
business as usual?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 59 replies

Move On California

2005-07-21T15:41:51Z

Please visit the website of the Committee to Explore California Secession, http://www.moveonCalifornia.org

Join at moveoncalifornia.tribe.net

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 27 replies

Somalia

2005-02-09T22:34:21Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/somalia/default.stm

In-depth report on Somalia, much of which is about the lack of government there, including how some normally government-run services are provided by the private sector with some success. This is particularly interesting because it's a mainstream source without a left or right wing political axe to grind, and because it's real data instead of just theorizing.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

Oakland, California: The City That Shoots Peaceful Protestors

2005-02-07T01:29:00Z

OAKLAND — The City Council on Tuesday night agreed to pay $145,000 to 24 anti-war demonstrators who claimed they were injured when Oakland police officers opened fire with less-than-lethal ammo on an April 2003 protest at the Port of Oakland.

However, 34 other protesters and longshoremen will take their claim to trial, maintaining the Oakland Police Department violated their civil rights by using excessive force to control the protest on the eve of the Iraq invasion. The trial is now scheduled for January.

Of those who agreed to settle, 14 will get $5,000 each, and the other 10 — who required medical treatment for their injuries — will get $7,500, according to city officials. The settlement, approved unanimously, includes no admission of wrongdoing.

Agreement not appealing

Jim Chanin, who along with attorneys John Burris and Michael Haddad represent the 58 plaintiffs, said he was not pleased with the agreement.

The city made no effort to negotiate with the most seriously injured people, said Chanin, who represents all of the plaintiffs who chose to settle. There was no negotiation at all. It was a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) said while the city was willing to compensate those who were truly injured in the confrontation, it was not willing to settle frivolous lawsuits.

We can't let people take us to the cleaners, De La Fuente said.

Chanin said he was especially disappointed the city made no effort to settle the claim brought by Willow Rosenthal, who was hit in the back of her right calf with a wooden projectile.

The founder of City Slicker Farms, Rosenthal has racked up $80,000 in medical bills and undergone several surgeries to repair the damage. She no longer has health insurance.

Its very disappointing, especially because there is pretty clear liability on the part of the city, because Rosenthal was following police orders to leave when struck, Chanin said.

Recovery difficult

The citys reluctance to settle the case is making her recovery more difficult, Rosenthal said.

To be honest, I was really upset, Rosenthal said. The thought of having to dredge up everything that happened (at a trial) is not a happy idea. Im trying to go on with my life.

However, Rosenthal said she was prepared to go to trial to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.

Haddad called the citys offer to his six clients ridiculous.

Early on, the city talked a good game about compensating people who were injured, but when it comes down to it, they are not willing to pay a reasonable amount, Haddad said.

John Burris, who represents nine longshore workers who were caught up in the melee on their way to work, said the offers made to his clients were inadequate.

City officials said the order to use wooden projectiles, beanbag rounds and stinger grenades to disperse the crowd was given after protesters began hurling rocks and bottles at officers. However, a video of the confrontation released by the city does not show demonstrators attacking police.

Revamping policy

The California Anti-Terrorism Information Center warned Oakland police to be prepared for violent anarchists at the protest, leading many to believe that the officers arrived primed for confrontation.

In November, the Police Department agreed to revamp its crowd control policy to settle part of the lawsuits. Police officers are no longer allowed to fire stinger grenades or wooden dowels to force crowds to disperse as they did at the port.

Officers can only use less-than-lethal weapons, such as beanbag rounds and gas, as a last resort. Even then, the munitions must be targeted at individuals who pose a significant threat, and only if other members of the crowd and bystanders are not endangered.

Published on Thursday, February 3, 2005 by the Tri-Valley Herald / California
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_2550521
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0203-08.htm

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 3 replies

article on indymedia advocates nazi economic policy

2005-02-03T23:08:20Z

as an alternative to capitalism and communism. It's a couple years old but I only just found it.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/11/45313.html

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 4 replies

Anarcho-syndicalism

2005-01-31T23:55:54Z

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7017/what_is_as.html

Since Dan continues to call for something that is opposed to anarcho-capitalism in this tribe. I thought it would be interesting to let anarcho-syndicalism have it's own thread. Maybe some people will find it more interesting than anarcho-capitalism.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 52 replies

Arbeit Macht Frei

2005-01-31T06:23:44Z

One more reason to abolish the State.
'Work As A Prostitute or Risk Losing Benefits'
By Clare Chapman
The Telegraph - UK
1-29-5

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners ñ who must pay tax and employee health insurance ñ were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.

She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile" and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job ñ including in the sex industry ñ or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.

"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

Miss Garweg said that women who had worked in call centres had been offered jobs on telephone sex lines. At one job centre in the city of Gotha, a 23-year-old woman was told that she had to attend an interview as a "nude model", and should report back on the meeting. Employers in the sex industry can also advertise in job centres, a move that came into force this month. A job centre that refuses to accept the advertisement can be sued.

Tatiana Ulyanova, who owns a brothel in central Berlin, has been searching the online database of her local job centre for recruits.

"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job centre when I pay my taxes just like anybody else?" said Miss Ulyanova.

Ulrich Kueperkoch wanted to open a brothel in Goerlitz, in former East Germany, but his local job centre withdrew his advertisement for 12 prostitutes, saying it would be impossible to find them.

Mr Kueperkoch said that he was confident of demand for a brothel in the area and planned to take a claim for compensation to the highest court. Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.

Miss Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services.

"They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution," she said.

"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

Do you believe in paying taxes ?

2005-01-24T06:03:39Z

Why? What alternatives would work?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 26 replies

Intellectual Property

2005-01-22T21:06:25Z

Does anyone in this tribe defend Intellectual Property?
I've just completed an article where I denounce it as a Government-granted monopoly that wouldn't stand a chance in a free society: "Government and Microsoft: a Libertarian View on Monopolies" http://fare.tunes.org/liberty/microsoft_monopoly.html

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 5 replies

Commanding Heights, Manufacturing, & Obsolescence...

2005-01-22T03:41:55Z

So, I've been reading the Anarcho Syndicalist thread with interest.

What interests me most with regards to both Anarcho Syndicalist and Anarcho Capitalist philosophies is their dependence upon things remainging "as they are." That is to say, both take on the assumption that in the future, most manufacturing will be done by humans, and that the commanding heights of the world economy will be managed by people.

Personally, I think the anarchist revolution will not be so much of a revolution as a natural evolution to a new form of self governing. I think our human society is not so far away from developing the means to remove manufacturing and the management of the commanding heights from human invovlement. I think very soon artificially intelligent robotics will replace most of the humans currently doing dirty, dangerous and undesireable work. And I think economies as they presently exist will collapse and be completely reformed as a result of the intersection of several technologies: robotics, AI, systems nanotechnology, molecular nanotechnology, biotechnology and genetic engineering.

At that point, maybe as soon as 10 years, and maybe as far away as 100 years, the whole argument about "who cleans the toilets" will become irrellevant. So will the argument about "who owns the resources." Neither will require human involvement any longer, and neither will have monetary "value" as we think of it now.

Once economies have been reformed, and nearly everything (certainly at least all basic human needs) becomes free of charge and ubiquitous due to high technology...they what possible reasoning will there be to continue having large governmental organizations? With no homeless to house, no starving to feed, no poor to support...why bother with government at all. Sure, local organization will still happen...but who needs kings, presidents, prime minsters, congressmen, etc.... Anarchism would seem to be the natural state for such a high tech society...at least as far as I can see....

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 9 replies

Natural Resources?

2004-12-28T19:23:21Z

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffsimon_pr.html

""Our species is better off in just about every measurable material way," he says. "Just about every important long-run measure of human material welfare shows improvement over the decades and centuries, in the United States and the rest of the world. Raw materials - all of them - have become less scarce rather than more. The air in the US and in other rich countries is irrefutably safer to breathe. Water cleanliness has improved. The environment is increasingly healthy, with every prospect that this trend will continue."

--Julian Simon

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Invisible Tribe Network

2004-11-15T21:50:01Z

I would like to announce the formation of the Invisble Goddess Tribe, a network of anarchist Pagans: invisblegoddess.tribe.net

If you are a Pagan, and believe the best State is no State, this tribe is for you.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Quicksilver

2004-10-14T19:15:57Z

Anybody read Neal Stephenson's new book?

I spent some time at Borders reading it this weekend, but can't afford to buy it until I get a friggin' job. What I read was pretty good, though.

Abe

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 11 replies

also called facism

2004-09-03T15:01:20Z

Read this and be merry!!

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0719-15.htm

****
The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here"
by Thom Hartmann
***

The Republican National Committee has recently removed from the top-level pages of their website an advertisement interspersing Hitler's face with those of John Kerry and other prominent Democrats. This little-heralded step has freed former Enron lobbyist and current RNC chairman Ed Gillespie to resume his attacks on Americans who believe some provisions of Bush's PATRIOT Act, his detention of American citizens without charges, his willingness to let corporations write legislation, and the so-called "Free Speech Zones" around his public appearances are all steps on the road to American fascism.

The RNC's feeble attempt to equate Hitler and Democrats was short-lived, but it brings to mind the first American Vice President to point out the "American fascists" among us.

Although most Americans remember that Harry Truman was Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice President when Roosevelt died in 1945 (making Truman President), Roosevelt had two previous Vice Presidents - John N. Garner (1933-1941) and Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945). In early 1944, the New York Times asked Vice President Henry Wallace to, as Wallace noted, "write a piece answering the following questions: What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous are they?"

Vice President Wallace's answer to those questions was published in The New York Times on April 9, 1944, at the height of the war against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan.

"The really dangerous American fascists," Wallace wrote, "are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

In this, Wallace was using the classic definition of the word "fascist" - the definition Mussolini had in mind when he claimed to have invented the word. (It was actually Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile who wrote the entry in the Encyclopedia Italiana that said: "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini, however, affixed his name to the entry, and claimed credit for it.)

As the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Mussolini was quite straightforward about all this. In a 1923 pamphlet titled "The Doctrine of Fascism" he wrote, "If classical liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government." But not a government of, by, and for We The People - instead, it would be a government of, by, and for the most powerful corporate interests in the nation.

In 1938, Mussolini brought his vision of fascism into full reality when he dissolved Parliament and replaced it with the "Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni" - the Chamber of the Fascist Corporations. Corporations were still privately owned, but now instead of having to sneak their money to folks like Tom DeLay and covertly write legislation, they were openly in charge of the government.

Vice President Wallace bluntly laid out in his 1944 Times article his concern about the same happening here in America:

" If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead."
Nonetheless, at that time there were few corporate heads who had run for political office, and, in Wallace's view, most politicians still felt it was their obligation to represent We The People instead of corporate cartels. "American fascism will not be really dangerous," he added in the next paragraph, "until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information..."

Noting that, "Fascism is a worldwide disease," Wallace further suggest that fascism's "greatest threat to the United States will come after the war" and will manifest "within the United States itself."

In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here," a conservative southern politician is helped to the presidency by a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The politician - Buzz Windrip - runs his campaign on family values, the flag, and patriotism. Windrip and the talk show host portray advocates of traditional American democracy as anti-American. When Windrip becomes President, he opens a Guantanamo-style detention center, and the viewpoint character of the book, Vermont newspaper editor Doremus Jessup, flees to Canada to avoid prosecution under new "patriotic" laws that make it illegal to criticize the President.

As Lewis noted in his novel, "the President, with something of his former good-humor [said]: 'There are two [political] parties, the Corporate and those who don't belong to any party at all, and so, to use a common phrase, are just out of luck!' The idea of the Corporate or Corporative State, Secretary [of State] Sarason had more or less taken from Italy." And, President "Windrip's partisans called themselves the Corporatists, or, familiarly, the 'Corpos,' which nickname was generally used."

Lewis, the first American writer to win a Nobel Prize, was world famous by 1944, as was his book "It Can't Happen Here." And several well-known and powerful Americans, including Prescott Bush, had lost businesses in the early 1940s because of charges by Roosevelt that they were doing business with Hitler. These events all, no doubt, colored Vice President Wallace's thinking when he wrote:

" Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after 'the present unpleasantness' ceases."
Fascists have an agenda that is primarily economic. As the Free Dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com) notes, fascism/corporatism is "an attempt to create a 'modern' version of feudalism by merging the 'corporate' interests with those of the state."

Feudalism, of course, is one of the most stable of the three historic tyrannies (kingdoms, theocracies, feudalism) that ruled nations prior to the rise of American republican democracy, and can be roughly defined as "rule by the rich."

Thus, the neo-feudal/fascistic rich get richer (and more powerful) on the backs of the poor and the middle class, an irony not lost on author Thomas Frank, who notes in his new book "What's The Matter With Kansas" that, "You can see the paradox first-hand on nearly any Main Street in middle America - 'going out of business' signs side by side with placards supporting George W. Bush."

The businesses "going out of business" are, in fascist administrations, usually those of locally owned small and medium-sized companies. As Wallace wrote, some in big business "are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage." He added, "Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise [companies]. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself."

But American fascists who would want former CEOs as President, Vice President, House Majority Whip, and Senate Majority Leader, and write legislation with corporate interests in mind, don't generally talk to We The People about their real agenda, or the harm it does to small businesses and working people. Instead, as Hitler did with the trade union leaders and the Jews, they point to a "them" to pin with blame and distract people from the harms of their economic policies.

In a comment prescient of George W. Bush's recent suggestion that civilization itself is at risk because of gays, Wallace continued:

" The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination..."
But even at this, Wallace noted, American fascists would have to lie to the people in order to gain power. And, because they were in bed with the nation's largest corporations - who could gain control of newspapers and broadcast media - they could promote their lies with ease.

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact," Wallace wrote. "Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy."

In his strongest indictment of the tide of fascism the Vice President of the United States saw rising in America, he added, "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Finally, Wallace said, "The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. ... Democracy, to crush fascism internally, must...develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels."

This liberal vision of an egalitarian America in which very large businesses and media monopolies are broken up under the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act (which Reagan stopped enforcing, leading to the mergers & acquisitions frenzy that continues to this day) was the driving vision of the New Deal (and of "Trust Buster" Teddy Roosevelt a generation earlier).

As Wallace's President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said when he accepted his party's renomination in 1936 in Philadelphia, "...out of this modern civilization, economic royalists [have] carved new dynasties.... It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction.... And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man...."

Speaking indirectly of the fascists that Wallace would directly name almost a decade later, Roosevelt brought the issue to its core: "These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power."

But, he thundered in that speech, "Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power!"

In 2004, we again stand at the same crossroad Roosevelt and Wallace confronted during the Great Depression and World War II. Fascism is again rising in America, this time calling itself "compassionate conservatism." The RNC's behavior today eerily parallels the day in 1936 when Roosevelt said, "In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for."

It's particularly ironic that the CEOs and lobbyists who run the Republican National Committee would have chosen to put Hitler's fascist face into one of their campaign commercials, just before they launched a national campaign against gays and while they continue to arrest people who wear anti-Bush T-shirts in public places.

President Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace's warnings have come full circle. Which is why it's so critical that this November we join together at the ballot box to stop this most recent incarnation of feudal fascism from seizing complete control of our nation.

--
Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk radio show. His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," and "We The People: A Call To Take Back America." His new book, "What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy," based on four years of research in Jefferson's personal letters, begins shipping this week from Random House/Harmony.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 59 replies

facism, capitalism, socialism, communism and anarchism

2004-08-17T13:25:46Z

in order to have a proper debate we must define out terms

if you want to know what catholicsm is you ask a catholic
if you want to know what a muslum is ask one
and so on and so on... so in order to find commmon terms on what is and isn't socialism, facism or what not let no only let the facist or socialist, anarchist or capitalist define, but lets also look at what facism was and so on...

i know we are going to have a long debate on just definitions but in order to discuss ideas we must have common terms

socialism- socialized control over production as well as social production... a planned economy is neccessary for socialism because it is the ultimate expression of socialized poduction but it alone doesn't define something as socialism... you need societies control over production, that means those that do the work decide how the work is done.

facism- in both germany and italy, facism was a movement of the middle classes. in both examples capitalists (owners of big bussiness) funded the facist parties. In both examples the fears of the middle class of being thrown from their position into poverty was used by the facist to direct their anger upon working organizations such as unions and leftist groups. In both cases self sacrifice and obdience were used in connection with either racism or other moralistic vague statements. In both cases workers were forced to give up any chances at fighting for better wages, benifits or working conditions and were forced to make huge concessions, while bussiness owners were limited in what decisions they could make the individual owners still made profit from their companies.

capitalism-where a group of people own the means of production (all service companies and industries) while they hire workers and managers to run and produce everything while they get profit off the work while not being required to do anything but own.

anarchism- a social system where their is no government, no state in existence, all states in the history of human existance were used by one group in power who owned and did little or no work, against those who did not own and did more or all the work. So thus anarchism implies a classless society.

communism- when workers establish socialism after a workers state, by a workers revolution, the state begains to fade away as money becomes useless and everyone is working and deciding things equally... when class disappear totaly the state ceases to be and communism is stablished, basicly the same as anarchism except communists think that a workers state then socialism must be set up before a totaly classless society can come to pass. There are other differences as well but this is the main one.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 62 replies

Hello?

2004-06-30T05:30:37Z

Is there anybody out there?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 3 replies

question

2004-06-12T22:22:08Z

when you say anarcho capitilism are you basicly saying Laissez Faire Capitilism?

what is the difference between the two if there is a difference and doesn't capitilism mean there is a capitilist class meaning there is a class society which means a state must exist to mediate or deflect conflicts over differences in class intereasts and wouldn't that be the opposite of anarchism?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 55 replies

Opinions on LaRouche

2004-05-21T23:31:58Z

I'd like to get some people to give me there opinions on LaRouche, try to be as factual as possible. There seems to be alot of slander against him and I can't find any factual evidence of it.

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 6 replies

Why not?

2004-01-12T02:30:40Z

Create 'A Nation of SIN?'

Join me in the ultimate Free Enterprise Venture. When we create the Anarchists' Nation of Secret Illegal Networks, it may well become the monopolizing power over the Black Market. The tribe is the first to have the opertunity to join this criminal oganization and capitalize on its philosophy of 'profit "by any means necessary."'

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 1 reply

question

2003-12-01T04:59:23Z

is this forum just for discussion by anarcho capitilists or does it welcome questions comments and criticisms by people who are not anarcho capitilists?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 2 replies

Voting

2003-11-27T02:33:05Z

This is one of those perpetual topics that tends to get done to death....so hey, let's do it here!Do you vote? Why or why not?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 10 replies

Freeway Blogger Rules

2003-11-23T10:56:59Z

http://www.freewayblogger.com/index.htm

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Speaking of Nock...

2003-11-02T18:33:18Z

I'm pretty sure that Nock was an individualist anarchist in the tradition of Benjamin Tucker and his contemporaries, all of whom would today be called "Leftist Anarchists" because of their distaste for interest and rent.

This is implicit in the following quotes from Nock's essay "Anarchist's Progress":

"The State originated in conquest and confiscation, as a device for the stratification of society permanently into two classes--an owning and exploiting class, relatively small, and a propertyless dependent class."

and

"The State, considered functionally, may be described as the organization of the political means, enabling a comparatively small class of beneficiaries to satisfy their needs and desires through various delegations of the taxing power...such as private land ownership, tariffs, franchises, and the like."

So, the individualist anarchists were sort of a middle ground between the anarcho-capitalists and the anarcho-communists, though I have yet to find any detailed description of how rental property is to be dealt with, other than by squatting.

Abe

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 0 replies

Good intro book?

2003-11-02T18:18:28Z

If you were going to give a single book to a left-leaning entrepreneur in an attempt to educate and persuade them about the viability and preferability of anarcho-capitalism, what book would that be?

The reason I ask is because my father once asked me for a recommendation for John Sperling, the founder of the University of Phoenix. I suggested _The Machinery of Freedom_, by David Friedman. Sperling read it and was utterly unconvinced. I think the word he used was "absurd". Keep in mind, also, that Sperling has some academic background in economics.

Is there a better single book? Are we stuck with _Atlas Shrugged_ as the de facto starting point?

Abe

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 9 replies

Aren't we violating the TOS?

2003-10-28T19:02:34Z

Tribe.net demands that we have respect for the intellectual property of others. Not just that we don't put it on here, that we actually RESPECT it.

Also, somewhere along the line the stuff we say is going to be offensive to someone, isn't it?

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 9 replies

Female libertarians

2003-10-20T13:34:44Z

Undoubtedly the small sample size is playing a part, but it's nice to see a healthy proportion of those who've joined the tribe thus far do not fit into the stereotypical mold of white male technogeeks!

posted in Anarcho-Capitalism - 2 replies