Libertarian Socialism is a term essentially synonymous with the word "Anarchism". Anarchy, strictly meaning "without rulers", leads one to wonder what sort of system would exist in place of one without state or capitalist masters... the answer being a radically democratic society while preserving the maximal amount of individual liberty and freedom possible.
Libertarian Socialism recognizes that the concept of "property" (specifically, the means of production, factories, land used for profit, rented space) is theft and that in a truly libertarian society, the individual would be free of exploitation caused by the concentration of all means of wealth-making into the hands of an elite minority of capitalists.
There was also a movement called "Propaganda by deed", around the late 1800's to early 1900's, in which some anarchists (Such as the Italian Anarchist Luigi Galleani (1861-1931)), believed that violence was the best strategy for opposing the state. This proved a disaster, alienating anarchists from the general population and exposing them to negative characterizations by the press... the "bomb-toting anarchist" is for the most part a creation of the corporate media- before this stigma anarchism was recognized as an anti-authoritarian socialist movement. (It should be noted that some anarchists dispute that the "Propaganda of the Deed" movement was overtly negative, but the details of this argument are beyond the scope of this essay.)
Many anarchist groups and publications used the word "libertarian" instead of "anarchist" to avoid state repression and the negative association of the former term. Libertarian Socialism differentiates itself from "Anarchy" as a movement only in that it specifically focuses on working class organization and education in order to achieve human emancepation from the fetters of capitalism.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) a coalition group called the United Libertarian Organisations (ULO) was created with the intent of spreading truthful information about the revolutionary anarchist activities in Spain. The organisation consisted of groups publishing Cultura Proletaria (Spanish), Il Martello (Italian), Delo Truda (Russian anarchist), Il Proletario (Italian IWW), Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Jewish Anarchist Federation), the American anarchist publication, Vangaurd, as well as the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union and General Recruiting Union of the IWW, and the Spanish Labor Press Bureau (administered by the CNT-FAI representative in the United States and Canada, the Chicago anarchist Maximilian Olay). The official organ of the ULO was called Spanish Revolution (now available in facsimile from Greenwood Publishing Corporation). Examples of articles are: Rural Collectives in Graus and Imposta; Peasants Build a New Economy; Statistics on Industrial Socialization in Catalonia; Organising the Textile Industry; Industrial Democracy; Running a Department Store; Telephone System Run by Workers; Peasant Communes in Aragon; etc. Anyone interested in constructive economic and social achievements of the CNT-FAI in revolutionary Spain should consult the pages of Spanish Revolution.
In Spain in 1932 Issac Puente wrote the pamphlet "Libertarian Communism", and the CNT adopted libertarian communism as its goal at the 1936 Saragossa conference on the eve of the Spanish Revolution. In France in 1926 the Dielo Trouda group of anarchists who had fled Russia wrote the hotly debated "Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists".
"Sebastien Faure, who founded Le Libertaire in 1895, is often credited with having invented the word 'libertarian' as a convenient synonym for 'anarchist.' However, Joseph Dejacque's use of the word as early as 1858 suggests that it may have had a long currency before Faure adopted it."According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known usage of "libertarian" was in 1789 as part of "Belsham's Essays", in which he appears to use the term in opposition to "necessitarian". It's hard to say whether there was a direct connection with other uses of the term.
[George Woodcock, Anarchism, p. 281 (footnote)]
The basic socialistic libertarian movement has it's roots at least as far back as the French Revolution of 1789 in the poor serfs who saw through the authoritarianism of the Jacobins (and the bourgeoisie in general) who had used these serfs to overthrow the first and second estate. [Further information is available from Peter Kropotkin's History of the French Revolution]
While a number of pro-capitalist "Classical Liberal" or "Libertarian" organizations and publications tend to have recently appeared in the United States and a few other countries, these entities serve the interests of small business owners, landlords, investors and some upwardly-mobile professionals. Essentially secular neo-conservative organisations, with strong inspiration from the writings of the ultra-capitalist Ayn Rand, economist Murrays, and science-fiction writer Robert Heinlein. Typical of these advocates of the sacredcy of private property is a distortion of the theories of the moral individualist philosophers of the 19th century (Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Josiah Warren, Henry David Thoreau, etc.) who respected the rights of the individual but were highly critical of the concentrations of wealth and power which led to capitalism and economic oppression since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Due to the elite privilege for the few over the many inherent in a 'pure' capitalist system, "libertarian" capitalism is un-democratic and anti-libertarian. For more information see the essay "Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy", by Peter Sabatini, and a TV interview with Noam Chomsky.
The Libertarian or sometimes-called "Anarcho-" capitalist movement was a reaction from the political right-wing against US president FDR's sweeping social democratic laws passed as a response to a powerful labor movement in the 1930's. The libertarian left had little interest in nationalizations or state-social-programs, arguing that they placed power into the hands of elite managers and not the workers themselves. The destruction of the original libertarian movement in the United States, (by mass deportations and imprisonment), as well as in Europe (The Fascist victories in Spain, Italy and Germany) left a vacuum in which was possible for one Dean Russell of the capitalist "Foundation for Economic Education" to write an article in the FEE publication, "Ideas on Liberty" of May, 1955 entitled "Who is a Libertarian?" which advocated that the right should "trademark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word 'libertarian.'" In other cases, conservative Science Fiction writers such as Robert Heinlein and Poul Anderson used the term in their writing to depict fictionally virtuous forms of capitalism. (It should be noted that these writers and others like them supported the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War).
What these people did not know or chose to
ignore was that at least two US libertarian socialist organizations already
existed, one formed in July 1954 called the Libertarian League,
started by Russell Blackwell, and the other formed in 1949 and
called the Libertarian
Book Club, an idea initiated by Gregory P. Maximoff, and formerly
established by a number of anarchists, including: Bill & Sarah Taback,
Joseph & Hannah Spivack, Joseph Aaronstam, Ida Pilot (a professional
translator) and her companion Valerio Isca, and Esther and Sam
Dolgoff. The Libertarian Book
Club is based in New York City,
and is still active today.
(This information is from the book "Fragments: A Memoir", by Sam Dolgoff,
Pub. 1986 Refract Publications, Cambridge, England)
In Webster's New International Dictionary, the definition of 'Libertarian' is stated to be: "One who holds to the principle of free will; also, one who upholds the principles of liberty, esp. individual liberty of thought and action." Clearly, in comparison to the authoritarian Soviet Union and Red China of the 1940's and 50's, liberal capitalism could be made to appear more "libertarian" than socialism if one were to accept that China and the USSR were the definitive examples of "socialism". But, if one were to have listened to the original socialistic libertarians (the anarchists) all along, it would have been clear that both the "socialism" of so-called "Communist" countries, and the idea of a "libertarian (or anarcho-) capitalism" were a farce.
Unlike right-wing Libertarians, Liberals and Social Democrats, libertarian socialists reject participation in the mainstream representative voting process. Libertarian socialism is, in effect, a revolutionary theory and approach to political life. Libertarian Socialism's anti-state stance might even give it the label "Laissez-fair socialism"- if a politician (or capitalist) were to approach some anarchist workers in France and ask them what it was he could do for them, they would reply, "Laissez-nous faire."- essentially, "leave us alone". Libertarian socialists understand that it is the workers who create and maintain everything in the world, and they do not need leaders to direct them in the affairs of their lives. What is the least a government could do for workers? Keep the Government and capitalists off their back-- but it is far better to avoid the need for "politricksters" and capitalist rulers in the first place.
Libertarian Socialists see humankind divided in a struggle between different social classes: the property-owning class, and the working class. Libertarian socialists are against all forms of coercion, state and capitalist, and do not seek to regulate human behaviors by way of the state, including such issues as possession of firearms, drugs, sexual conduct between consenting individuals, and related issues.
Libertarian Socialists see such things as gun control, "speech codes", drug, alcohol, pornography and prostitution prohibition as a waste of time, and an unnecessary violation of individual choice. Most of humanities woes arise from the inherently coercive, undemocratic and un-libertine capitalist and state systems which human society is currently forced to follow. The answer is not regulation or limitation, but organization and education with a working-class emphasis. Libertarian Socialists reject the "social democratic" solution of keeping the state & military apparatus around but raising taxes to support social programs. These are merely "band-aids" for problems which under capitalism will never go away, and always threaten to get worse. World problems will not be solved by "professionals", free-market entrepreneurs, the ruling capitalist class, politicians or stateist bureaucrats. Only the people, organized and educated, can solve their own problems.
Last update: May 7, 1997
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