Libertarian communism
libcom.org
Libertarian communism
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Re: Libertarian communism
#2Well, I never thought I'd see the day libcom was posted up on here. I spend a bit of time on their forums about 10 years ago - used to be a bit of a bearpit, don't know what it's like now.
The archive is interesting, though. A lot of material from outside what you'd strictly call libertarian communism, but just niche even within the already niche worlds of anarchist/Marxist/etc theory.
(Thought I'd better post something before it gets flagged to the bottom of the ocean.)
Re: Libertarian communism
#3For a great and concise introduction to Libertarian Socialism here is a classic Noam Chomsky lecture from 1979 called The Government of the Future, in which he gives a justification for Libertarian Socialism, or Anarchism, as the natural and correct form of government for advanced industrial society from the classical liberal ideals of the enlightenment. He also compares the competing economic and social ideologies, laissez-faires capitalism, state capitalism and state socialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDQGdKyh7s&index=1&list=PLE...
Edit: here is the text of the lecture if you'd rather read it. https://libcom.org/library/government-future-noam-chomsky
Re: Libertarian communism
#4> "Those of us with nothing to sell but our labour power"
This is the weirdest thing about the dichotomy of Communism's popular resurgence in tech circles. In literal terms, our 'labour power' is fingers on a keyboard. Doesn't the real value in our work come from our ideas? Technology is a lever for ideas, and that lever can be exploited by creativity in a way that few other areas of human endeavor can match.
So, if the value (benefit? effectiveness?) of our work is measured by our ability to be creative, how does one reconcile that with pure labour valuation, which is evocative of the standard-dollars-for-hours exchange?
I'd be interested to hear from any self-professed communists about this.
Re: Libertarian communism
#5Not entirely sure why libcom's the top of HN. They've been posting the same misrepresentations and misunderstandings of markets for years.
Re: Libertarian communism
#6The communist ideology resulted in the torture/execution/starvation of, what, 100 million working-class people?
People don't go about saying "I'm a fascist, let's give it another go, maybe it will work this time, sorry about the millions of dead children".
So why do people think it's OK to say they're a communist?
Re: Libertarian communism
#7> "Those of us with nothing to sell but our labour power" This is the weirdest thing about the dichotomy of Communism's popular resurgence in tech circles. In literal terms, our 'labour power' is fingers on a keyboard. Doesn't the real value in our work come from our ideas ? Technology is a lever for ideas, and that lever can be exploited by creativity in a way that few other areas of human endeavor can match. So, if…
Not a communist, but having ideas isn’t labor, execution of ideas is.
In the context of creativity, labor is the long process of rejecting all of the bad ideas before you get to the good one.
Also, part of the thesis of the labor movement was that workers should be compensated for producing value, not for working “hard”. Briefly, this means that wages don't have to decline as advances in technology make life easier.
The modern tech industry is weird because the laborers build the machines that they use (where “machine” means things like algorithms, not laptops).
Re: Libertarian communism
#8Libertarianism is hugely flawed. Garbage in, garbage out. I don't think anything incorporating hugely flawed philosophies is ever going to be a good idea.
Re: Libertarian communism
#9> "Those of us with nothing to sell but our labour power" This is the weirdest thing about the dichotomy of Communism's popular resurgence in tech circles. In literal terms, our 'labour power' is fingers on a keyboard. Doesn't the real value in our work come from our ideas ? Technology is a lever for ideas, and that lever can be exploited by creativity in a way that few other areas of human endeavor can match. So, if…
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Re: Libertarian communism
#10The communist ideology resulted in the torture/execution/starvation of, what, 100 million working-class people? People don't go about saying "I'm a fascist, let's give it another go, maybe it will work this time, sorry about the millions of dead children". So why do people think it's OK to say they're a communist?
I think that you should differentiate between state communism or statism in general and Anarcho-Marxism or Marxism in general