Libertarian Socialist

Libertarian Socialist (huh?), Left Anarchist (left-AnarchIst)

Libertarian socialism is a political philosophy dedicated to opposing Coercive forms of authority and social hierarchy, most famously the institutions of government and Capitalism. It has gone by various names: libertarian communism, anarcho-communism, left-anarchism, and sometimes simply anarchism. Libertarian socialists believe in the abolition of privately held means of production and abolition of the state as unnecessary and harmful institutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism

Political philosophies commonly described as libertarian socialist include most varieties of Anarchism (especially Anarchist Communism, Anarchist Collectivism, Anarcho Syndicalism, some forms of Mutualism, some forms of individualist anarchism, social ecology, Autonomism and Council Communism). Some writers use libertarian socialism synonymously with anarchism.[11]

Some libertarian socialists say individual liberty and societal harmony are necessarily antagonistic, and anarchist philosophy must balance the two. Others feel that the two are symbiotic, and that the liberty of the individual guarantees the harmony of the society and vice-versa... All the critiques that anarchists develop are based on principles of decentralization of power and authority. (SmallWorld?)

Adherents of the Austrian School of economics argue that the distinction between "personal" and "productive" property is specious, and that consequently paradoxes in their division are doomed to arise regardless of the delineation chosen. Left anarchists generally disagree that the division is specious, but agree that it is difficult; thus the decision cannot be trusted to the state (as most socialists propose), but can be made by the people involved in individual cases.

criticism of Anarcho Capitalist thinking

Between Anarchism and Libertarianism: Defining a New Movement: by Jeff Draughn <http://www.geocities.com/Capitol Hill/5065/between.html>

aspects of Capitalism they generally abhor:

• rent

• interest

• profit

more broadly, they seem to feel that

• every Market transaction is Zero-Sum because no two people are truly equal

  • Capitalist-s tend to see most (voluntary) transactions as Positive Sum

• Property Rights are Coercion because they have to be enforced by force.

  • How is that not true of group property?