Austin, TX: Mutualism Study Group
If you live in the Austin area, or plan to be there on March 29, you should check out the Mutualism Study Group (click link for details) organized by Donald Jackson of MonkeyWrench Books. They're paying me the immense compliment of using my book, among other things, as study material. Here's part of the blurb from the site:
Why do I get the feeling that genuine free market ideas (as opposed to the kind of corporate apologetics that passes for the "free market" in mainstream politics and journalism) are more likely to get a friendly hearing in the "People's Republic of Austin" than anywhere else in that Red State?
Mutualism is a school of thought that calls for decentralizing economic and political power through building cooperatives and community financing systems. It is a radical theory that opposes corporate and state power, and instead promotes an economy of small farms, independent business, cooperatives, and self-employed workers.
Why do I get the feeling that genuine free market ideas (as opposed to the kind of corporate apologetics that passes for the "free market" in mainstream politics and journalism) are more likely to get a friendly hearing in the "People's Republic of Austin" than anywhere else in that Red State?
8 Comments:
Lately, I've been feeling more and more mutualist. It drives me crazy to see libertarians defending the dominant powers in the name of liberty!
And don't get me started on the liberventionists ( :
Very awesome. Congrats on the reference. Looks like something Shawn would be involved in.
Austin appears to have a somewhat cranky and enthusiastic libertarian/Old Right element, something I've seen no evidence of in, say, Berkeley.
Wow, I'd love to do something like this in Richmond. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get in touch with Donald - if he's put together a syllabus or any material that other groups could use, it would be very helpful.
I live in Austin and have purchased some great reading material from MonkeyWrench books. Its a good store. I should try to go to the event.
Is no surprise Austin would be interested in mutualism - lotta small businesses in the area, housing coops for the students of UT, and plenty of craft street and farmers markets. It's a strange mix of hippie and redneck, incorporating the better elements of each. A popular motto here seen on bumper stickers and elsewhere is "Keep Austin Weird". The inner city does a good job of it, although it is a stiff fight to keep corporate-types out.
I live in Austin and have purchased some great reading material from MonkeyWrench books. Its a good store. I should try to go to the event.
Is no surprise Austin would be interested in mutualism - lotta small businesses in the area, housing coops for the students of UT, and plenty of craft street and farmers markets. It's a strange mix of hippie and redneck, incorporating the better elements of each. A popular motto here seen on bumper stickers and elsewhere is "Keep Austin Weird". The inner city does a good job of it, although it is a stiff fight to keep corporate-types out.
Ah -- you're getting famous, Mr Carson! If we have a modern-day "Free Derry" I'll call you in as economic counsel -- like Silvio Gesell for the Bavarian Soviet Republic!
Cheers
Weld mutualism to syndicalism and you've got one hell of a practical, fightin' theory and practice.
Excellent! We have been having a very low-key study group here in NW Ohio, as well, working mainly from my notes for the "Anarchism of Approximations" manuscript. Once i get moved, and the Labyrinth relaunched this summer, I hope to incorporate some self-teaching material on Proudhon, Greene, Ingalls and Warren. Chapter-a-day kind of stuff, running on the front page. Perhaps we should think of doing something similar with "Studies."
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