Blog - Page 255 of 286 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

on Beginnings

May 30, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

On March 19, 2007, the Alliance of the Libertarian Left (ALL) made its public debut, in a flurry of activity fueled by schism and in-fighting among partisans and allies of the agorist Movement of the Libertarian Left (MLL). From the main website: The Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a multi-tendency coalition of mutualists, agorists, voluntaryists, geolibertarians, left-Rothbardians, green libertarians, dialectical anarchists, radical minarchists, and others on the libertarian left, united by an opposition to statism, militarism, and the prevailing corporatist capitalism falsely called a free market, as well as by an emphasis on education, direct action, and building alternative […]

What We Mean

May 28, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

“What We Mean,” Liberty, 1, 19 (April 15, 1882), 2. What We Mean. Our purpose is the abolition, not only of all existing States, but of the State itself. Is not this a straightforward and well-defined purpose? There can be no mistaking it, and it admits of no equivocation. The least that our enemies can say of us is that we stand in the market-place of thought and action with a square protest and a square assertion. And what is the State? It is not a thing that can be especially defined by Russia, Germany, Great Britain, or Massachusetts. The […]

Warren in New York, 1830

May 25, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

During the week of July 17, 1830, the “equal exchange of labor for labor” dominated the pages of both the Free Enquirer and the New York Sentinel and Working Man’s Advocate. Josiah Warren had two pieces published in the Free Enquirer—“To the Friends of the Equal Exchange of Labor in the West” and “Improvement in the Machinery of Law“—alongside another piece, “Equal Exchange of Labor,” reprinted from the “Workie” paper. The Sentinel contained another piece on “Female Labor,” which made reference, though not by name, to Warren. Warren had just come to New York, at the invitation of Robert Dale […]

William Bailie, “Josiah Warren” (New Harmony Movement)

May 24, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

William Bailie, “Josiah Warren,” in George B. Lockwood, The New Harmony Movement, New York: Appleton, 1905. CHAPTER XXI JOSIAH WARREN[1] “A remarkable American, Josiah Warren.” —JOHN STUART MILL. AMONG the most remarkable characters attracted to New Harmony in community days was Josiah Warren, equally notable as an inventive genius, a social philosopher, and a peaceful revolutionist. He was born in Boston in 1798, of historically famous Puritan stock. Of his parents and early life but little is known. At an early age he displayed musical talents, and, with his brother George, played professionally in local bands. At the age of […]

Resource on British labor periodicals

May 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Dr. Detlev Mares has posted a number of pdfs of “Source material on British popular radicalism (1864-1886).” There are some partial periodical indexes, plus a number of other resources. I ran across it looking for references to A. C. Cuddon, the British advocate of equitable commerce.

Equitable Commerce bibliography and miscellany

May 16, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

For your education, edification, and amusement: Josiah Warren and Equitable Commerce: A Bibliography A Work-in-Progress: I currently have most of my notes from 1821 to about 1853 incorporated into this sprawling bibliography+, which includes the full text of many short articles. If you’re one of the folks looking forward to Crispin Sartwell’s anthology, check my progress once in awhile, and take a look at Crispin’s Josiah Warren Project, which just got a major update.

stupid search engine tricks

May 14, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Specific searches get specific results. Right? It depends, actually. Here are a couple of examples: I was searching for a particular edition of one of Josiah Warren’s works, the full title of which is, believe it or not, The former title of this work was “Equitable Commerce”, but it is now ranked as the first part of True Civilization: a subject of vital and serious interest to all people; but most immediately to the men and women of labor and sorrow. This is not to be confused with the first book to be published as True Civilization an immediate necessity, […]

Josiah Warren’s stereotype-plate patents

May 12, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Josiah Warren’s 1830 “Reduction in the Cost of Printing Apparatus” described one of his attempts to make the power of the press widely available. An 1846 patent (#4479) issued for “Improvement in Compositions for Stereotype-Plates” marked on advance in this project. Matrices of a composite material, largely made up of clay, took the place of the lead matrices proposed in 1830 (themselves an improvement of copper matrices, in terms of the ease with which they could be used. (There is a reissue on file for either 1853 or 1883.) It took me quite awhile to actually find this patent, although […]

How NOT to Read Josiah Warren

May 12, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[The following note comes from David Ames, Robinson Crusoe’s Money (1876, pages 59-60). I include in here for the specimen notes, both of which were new to me, and for the hints about E. D. Linton’s scheme, but it can also stand as a textbook failure to read Josiah Warren’s actual proposals. Those who have just read William Pare’s “Equitable Villages in America“ will get a chuckle at the differences between the two accounts.] * If to any it may seem puerile and unnecessary to enter into such explanations, it may be well to remind them that one of the […]

William Pare on equitable commerce

May 11, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] William Pare’s “Equitable Villages in America,” a lecture from 1854, is a particularly good short treatment of the system of “equitable commerce” proposed and practiced by Josiah Warren. Pare never forgot that the first principle of Warren’s philosophy was individualization, and this helped him to understand that the “cost principle” is not simply a matter of exchanging labor time, but a system which incorporates into the notion of “cost” a whole range of subjective valuations, which cannot be subordinated to any social or institutional standard of equity without betraying the system completely. I recommend the […]