Political Systems
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libcom.org's old basic introduction to our understanding of the world as it is, what we think can be done to make it better, and how a libertarian communist society could function.
Libertarian communism and capitalism - an introduction | libcom.org
Anarcho-syndicalism - an introduction | libcom.org
A short explanation of anarcho-syndicalism and notes on its history. Anarcho-syndicalism is one of the major forms of social anarchism. The idea behind anarcho-syndicalism is to combine the economic methods of syndicalism with the revolutionary politics of anarchism .
Capitalism - an introduction | libcom.org
libcom.org's brief introduction to capitalism and how it works.The Capitalism Site | Laissez-faire capitalism is the political economic system based on individual rights
“The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve ‘the common good.’ It is true that capitalism does—if that catch-phrase has any meaning—but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification of capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man’s rational nature, that it protects man’s survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice .” — AYN RAND What is Capitalism?
Things are what they are, independent of our or anyone else's feelings, ideas, wishes, desires, and emotions.
Reality is absolute; It is the standard of the true, the false, and the arbitary.
Capitalism and communism - Gilles Dauvé | libcom.org
Excellent text from 1972 outlining the development of capitalism, and communism as the real movement in everyday life which tends towards the abolition of wage labour. Communism is not a programme one puts into practice or makes others put into practice, but a social movement. Those who develop and defend theoretical communism do not have any advantages over others except a clearer understanding and a more rigorous expression; like all others who are not especially concerned by theory, they feel the practical need for communism.
Capitalism: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty
“ C apitalism,” a term of disparagement coined by socialists in the mid-nineteenth century, is a misnomer for “economic individualism,” which Adam Smith earlier called “the obvious and simple system of natural liberty” ( Wealth of Nations ). Economic individualism’s basic premise is that the pursuit of self-interest and the right to own private property are morally defensible and legally legitimate. Its major corollary is that the state exists to protect individual rights. Subject to certain restrictions, individuals (alone or with others) are free to decide where to invest, what to produce or sell, and what prices to charge. There is no natural limit to the range of their efforts in terms of assets, sales, and profits ; or the number of customers, employees, and investors; or whether they operate in local, regional, national, or international markets.
The three settlement patterns that emerged in the American colonies in the century or so before independence—New England’s attempt to copy its namesake across the Atlantic, the Tidewater economy of plantations feeding cash crops to Old World markets, and the fusion of immigrant traditions that was giving birth to American frontier society—were anything but fixed. By the time they had finished taking shape, they were already blurring into one another at the edges, and responding in various ways to the new influences brought by further waves of immigration. Still, the patterns are worth watching, because they played a significant role in shaping the modes of expansion that would define its age of empire in a later century. The New England pattern, as already mentioned, had two sides with profoundly different possibilities for expansion.
The Archdruid Report
Mikhail Bakunin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin ( Russian : Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Баку́нин ; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil ˌbaˈkunʲin] ; 30 May [ O.S. 18 May] 1814 – 1 July 1876) was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism . He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. [ 1 ] Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists, leading to enthusiasm for the philosophy of Fichte . From Fichte, Bakunin went on to immerse himself in the works of Hegel , the most influential thinker among German intellectuals at the time.