It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”
America's Riots
Are Just the Latest Version of Marxist "Syndicalism"
08/29/2020Mark Thornton
READ ORIGINAL version of this essay
GET SMART You don't have an excuse to be stupid if you can read.
Read HUMAN ACTION A Treatise on Economics By Ludwig Von Mises (The complete thousand-page version is available here as a free pdf download from Mises.org.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The year 2020 is one of the most disrupted times in at least the last half-century, maybe longer. Global protests and riots, the COVID-19 virus, lockdowns, and police killings of unarmed citizens. Add to that widespread rioting, looting, arson, homelessness, and destruction of property, including the tearing down of statues. This chaos in the streets is being facilitated by mayors, governors, and police chiefs who are unwilling to enforce the law.
Ludwig von Mises included a discussion of “syndicalism” in chapter 33 of his Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Most people have never heard or read of this concept, but it is highly relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today. Mises’s analysis is even more important for understanding and fixing some of the most critical problems we face today. In general, I define syndicalism as being able to do whatever you want at the expense of others.
In part, it represents the ideas of French philosopher, Georges Sorel, who thought relentless violence should be used against the institutions of capitalism. This would include the “general strike” so familiar in Europe to this day. This is in direct contrast to mutually beneficial exchange and the social cooperation of the division of labour. His ideas were influential with Marxists, fascists, Nazis, and advocates of unionism.
A Key Chapter in Mises's Human Action
When I first tried to read Human Action, I found it extremely difficult. I ended up skipping entire chapters and reading through others without understanding the material. Chapter 33 is a good example of that. Today, reading the book is much easier, because we now have things like Jeff Deist’s Human Action Podcast, which now contains a series of interviews on the book, and Robert Murphy’s Study Guide to Human Action: A Treatise on Economics.
In the 1990s, I taught a course in Austrian economics at Auburn University, an advanced undergraduate course. It was listed in the catalogue next to the econometric and mathematical economics classes. I spent studies reviewing chapters, but the most challenging aspect was trying to relate Mises’s words and concepts to current events. Due to time constraints, I never covered chapter 33.
Fast-forward to more recent times. The Rothbard Graduate Seminar reviews Human Action every few years along with Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State and other selections during other years. I have always been assigned to teach a section of chapters at the end of the book which includes chapter 33; Once again, due to time constraints and my perceived view of its relevancy, I have decided to skip the chapter. That is, until this year.
What Is Syndicalism?
So, what is syndicalism? Political syndicalism is direct violent revolutionary action against the institutions of capitalism, such as security forces, property, particularly business property, and the rule of law. This approach is often adopted by Marxists, socialists, and fascists as a means of gaining power. At the root of the chaos and upheaval on our streets is an attempt at disrupting society and taking more control of it by Marxists, socialists, and “anarchists.”
The fundamental error that syndicalism makes is to think that entrepreneurs and capitalists are “irresponsible autocrats” free to pursue their personal agenda. The reality is that business leaders must follow the interests of consumers to further their self-interest in making profits. They have to find correct prices, production levels, and accurate means of production. These things are determined by entrepreneurs with various types of feedback from the marketplace.
The riots, looting, and violence against people and their property are mostly motivated to achieve Marxist ideals via syndicalist activity (i.e., violence). Those employing these means include Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and especially the “anarchist provocateurs” who adeptly turn peaceful protests into violent riots. Of course, there is also some violence on the right, some of which I witness on the campus of Auburn University. But in either case, with mayors, governors, and police chiefs restraining and even defunding the police, the violence often goes unchecked.
The Other Type of Syndicalism
This use of the word "syndicalism" should not be confused with the better-known syndicalism as a social system, which is an alternative to socialist central planning. This system, in theory, would give workers control over the industries in which they work. They would make the decisions on things entrepreneurs decide in the market, such as wage rates, benefits, hours, production, etc. The workers can do anything they want at the expense of others. But if everyone is raising their prices and reducing output, how can anyone gain from the arrangement? Both forms of syndicalism ultimately rest on the Marxist notions that entrepreneurs and capitalists exploit labour and have no real purpose worth rewarding. Obviously, each industry would want higher wages, higher prices, shorter working hours, and this would result in lower output. Raw material prices increase and get passed on to consumer goods industries, which must pass those increases on to the consumer along with their own gains. This happens across the entire economy. As a result, production plummets and prices become unhinged from market prices. The “economy” would collapse if syndicalism were attempted on an economy-wide basis.
Democracy Fails to Provide a Solution
With democracy and voting and the military not likely or viable options, an individualist option must be developed to solve the problem. People are arming themselves in various ways; They are using various security devices like cameras and more robust locks. Businesses are hiring security firms and protecting storefront windows. Others are merely moving from cities to the suburbs and beyond. Don’t expect the government to solve the problem, although more secessionism and decentralisation would surely help.
Author:
Contact Mark Thornton
Mark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and the book review editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He has authored seven books and is a frequent guest on national radio shows.
The USA is not the same country it was in 1860 or 1960. Neither is Russia. Some factions in the UK and the US require an enemy; It keeps them in business. They want us to live in a dangerous world. They don’t necessarily want war. They want to play war and make money.
They have restarted the Cold War. Americans tore up the treaties that Americans negotiated with the Soviets. Putin has ignored the slander and provocations and taken the strategy the Soviets took in “Dr Strangelove” as the West moves closer and closer with nuclear weapons and overthrows Russia’s allies and friends with Russia's enemies.
That doesn't sound very friendly, does it? The Rand Corporation had better find out what the “Dead Hand” is and what it means.
What if Russia were setting up bases in Canada — or Cuba? Oh, sure! We know all about that, don’t we?
If Russia is attacked, World War III won’t be fought on Russian soil soaked with Russian blood as it was when Napoleon and Hitler invaded. Americans won’t sit safely protected by two enormous oceans as they did in WW I & II. Europe and the UK will cease to exist.
The peace of the grave is what Western leaders are playing with.
The Western leaders understand force. Putin is speaking their language now, calmly and sanely; it is their language. Western leaders had better wake up and listen to Putin’s words and stop playing with fire.
SMARTEN UP!
After the Great War, WWI, everyone decided, “We don’t want that to happen again.” So they created the League of Nations. The world hegemon, at the time, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, disarmed. The USA failed to join. After WWII, the United States, the new world hegemon, sponsored the United Nations.
The trend in history is for human societies to create larger and larger organizations. Families join related families to form tribes; Tribes join each other to form commonwealths. Power accumulates into the hands of a few. Borders become clearly defined. Some Americans today believe they already run the world. They think their laws are extraterritorial.
The United Nations was used immediately in the new peaceful age to wage the Korean War. We were told that North Korea had misbehaved and a “police action” was required. The new sheriff, the USA, had to step in to straighten things out. It was a script written for a TV Western; Gary Cooper would save the world. We could trust him. Unfortunately, the script didn’t accurately tell the story.
When one looks past American propaganda, one discovers that the others had some valid opinions. Many have thought the American principles applied to them. Ho Chi Minh read the American Declaration of Independence at a big celebration after the French had been defeated in 1954. Ho took great pains to have it translated word-for-word into Vietnamese. Ho expected something different than what he got.
What everyone wants is to be treated decently. Everyone knows what that is. Everyone would treat everyone else the way they want to be treated themselves. Everyone knows this a priori. It's simple.
Will we ever have a world government?
Americans wrote the Constitution to constrain human actions. Americans have subverted their Constitution over and over since it was written. Some Americans think there is nothing left of the Constitution. James Madison is spinning in his grave.
Can a world government ever be created? Who knows? Don’t give it to the Rockefellers and their friends or you’ll be sorry. Do not vote for Biden in 2020. They own him.
Jeremy R. Hammond
Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the New York Times, regarded as America’s “newspaper of record”, has been the standard-bearer for propagandistic reporting serving to manufacture consent for extreme and harmful “lockdown” policies by contributing to the sense of fear and mass panic among the public. To that end, the Times has consistently reported about viral transmission in an alarmist manner, delivering fearmongering messages that grossly misrepresent the science.
In part one of this series, we saw how the Times on March 17 characterized the science as if it had proven that the virus is airborne transmissible. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) maintained that this mode of transmission remained theoretical, the Times characterized it as having stubbornly refused to acknowledge the science. Yet, by examining the Times’ own cited sources, we could see that the WHO was right.[1]
In part two, we saw how the Times on March 31 similarly characterized the science as having firmly established that a fifth or more of community spread is driven by people who have no symptoms. Yet, not only did the Times fail to produce any studies to support that claim, but it went so far as to deceptively cite a study as proof even though its authors explicitly stated that there remained no clear evidence of asymptomatic transmission.[2]
In part three, we saw how the Times on June 5 falsely characterized the WHO as having belatedly and reluctantly endorsed government policies recommending—or, as is the case in numerous states, mandating—the universal use of masks in the community setting. In fact, the WHO had rightly observed that such policies are not evidence-based and instead reasonably advised that masks be worn by members of the public in circumstances in which there is community spread and prolonged close contact with others is unavoidable.[3]
In sum, the narrative pushed by the Times is that community spread is largely driven by asymptomatic individuals including through virus-laden aerosols, as distinguished from larger respiratory droplets that scientists believe to be the primary mode of transmission. This narrative instils fear in people that they could become infected, for example, by momentarily passing an unmasked person in a supermarket aisle, by entering an airspace someone else had occupied several minutes earlier, or even by just being in the same building with despite maintaining a considerable distance from an infected person.
While the March 17 article included the caveat that, even if airborne, a person would still need to be within a few feet of an infected person for there to be a significant risk of transmission, this acknowledgement came only later in the article, with the headline and first half of the piece serving to instil fear.[4] In the March 31 article, the Times further acknowledged that a passing close encounter would not be enough and that the close contact would need to occur for a prolonged duration for the risk of infection to be high.[5] Hence, the WHO’s mask guidance made sense even if the airborne transmission is assumed to play a significant role in community spread.[6]
Yet, because the information from the WHO contradicted the story that the Times preferred to convey to the public, the author of all three of those articles, Apoorva Mandavilli, set out to sustain the fearmongering narrative by further mischaracterizing both the WHO’s position and the science
August 19, 2020
In 1990, I completed a study for the Reason Foundation. The study compared the cost of providing municipal services by municipal workers with contract workers doing the same work. My research took me all over Los Angeles City and County. I entered LA on the 3rd of January and left on 25 November. Hundreds of City and County employees combined with private contractors to dig up the data I needed. They had mountains of data going back for decades. Pete Schabarum was one of the Supervisors. Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States. They liked privatization. Everyone cooperated. Americans know their stuff. I learned more about Los Angeles than most people know who live there.
The first thing I learned is that Los Angeles is the largest urban county in the United States. There is nothing else like it.
Los Angeles County, California, officially the County of Los Angeles, is the most populous county in the nation, with more than ten million inhabitants as of 2018. It is the largest non-state-level government entity in the United States. Its population is greater than that of 41 individual U.S. states.
There are 88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles county such as the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Glendale, and Beverly Hills, alongside unincorporated cities, towns, and big open spaces. The City of Los Angeles contains a mountain range! Top that, New York! I double-dog dare you!
The City of Los Angeles has a mayor, a city council, a police department and a fire department. The County of Los Angeles has the Board of Supervisors. These five (5) people run the County. The Sheriff and his Deputies are the law in the County of Los Angeles. The County of LA has a fire department.
California's courthouses and jails are the jurisdictions of the counties. This is true in other states. Prisons are the jurisdiction of the State and the Federal Government. U.S. Marshals are responsible for courtroom security and for prisoners. There are many police forces operating in Los Angeles County including the LAPD; the Sheriff; the Highway Patrol; the U.S. Marshal Service; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Tobacco, Alchohol, and Firearms; and the Department of Immigration and Naturalization. The bus department has its own police force. Pinkertons and Wackenhut are big private detective companies. LA is an interesting place. Philip Marlow is there somewhere.
There have been standoffs between the LAPD and the Sheriff's Deputies.
Compton is located in South-Central Los Angeles County. Compton has a reputation for being the most dangerous city in the United States. Compton is an old city that has been taken over by black renegades. It is the home of the Crips and the Bloods.
I went there one morning in an LAPD squad car. (The Sheriff provides policing today in Compton.) The officer who drove the car was armed to the teeth. A pump shotgun was mounted vertically on the dash. The tires were bullet-proof. The military suspension gave a solid ride. We were ready for war and connected to HQ by computer, TV, and radio in case we needed reinforcements. Camp Pendleton in North San Diego County is nearby.
As we drove through Compton that morning, I observed that everything looked peaceful. "You don't want to come here at night," he replied. The officer told me this story.
"After the courthouse had been completed, someone started shooting at it. The west wall is riddled with bullet holes. This went on for years. It was never solved. One afternoon a judge was working at his desk. A bullet whizzed past his nose and lodged in the wall. Outraged, the judge picked up his phone and read the riot act to one of the Supervisors."
"You'd better fix this Goddamn problem NOW or else," he screamed!
"The Supervisor had all the windows on the west side of the courthouse replaced with bullet-proof glass."
No problemo. That's how people do things in the City of Angeles.
We drove into the parkade in a special lane reserved for police. More to come.
Many people believe, and have believed, a "special relationship" exists between The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. Churchill believed it and Churchill's followers believe it to this day. Going back, not too far, we see that Cecil Rhodes believed it. British Prime Ministers believe it, especially Conservatives. Mitt Romney believes it too.
The Atlantic, which publishes articles with which I usually disagree, published an excellent article correcting this idea. Here's a link. They write:
Sorry, Romney: Neither America nor the United Kingdom is an 'Anglo-Saxon' country. The term is a long-abused misnomer for England, and fewer than 9 per cent of Americans identify English ancestry anyway.
As a matter of fact, the Normans displaced the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings on the Southern coast of England. The Normans came from Normandy but they weren't French — they were Vikings! The French king had invited some Vikings to settle in Normandy to stop the Viking raiders. After they were settled, they took over half of France. After the Normans took over England, they were constantly at war with the French who wanted their country back.
Haven't you seen "Robin Hood" starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland? Tsk, tsk.
For almost a thousand years France was at war with England. That's why. The British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, traces her throne directly to William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy. So there. England hasn't been an Anglo-Saxon country for a thousand years.
The Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America were started by the English. Today, the descendants of English people in the United States (9%) are a smaller minority than black people (15%). Thomas Sowell thinks that is amusing. So do I.
I've noticed that people usually don't know what they are talking about! English Americans are outnumbered by German Americans, Latin Americans, and Irish Americans too.
