Left-libertarianism
Left-libertarianism, also known as left-wing libertarianism, is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality. Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct approaches to political and social theory. Its classical usage refers to anti-authoritarian varieties of left-wing politics such as anarchism, especially social anarchism.
While right-libertarianism is widely seen as synonymous with libertarianism in the United States, left-libertarianism is the predominant form of libertarianism in Europe. In the United States, left-libertarianism is the term used for the left wing of the American libertarian movement, including the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner, Philippe Van Parijs, and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources. Although libertarianism in the United States has become associated with classical liberalism and minarchism, with right-libertarianism being more known than left-libertarianism, political usage of the term libertarianism until then was associated exclusively with anti-capitalism, libertarian socialism, and social anarchism; in most parts of the world, such an association still predominates.
While all libertarians begin with a conception of personal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state, left-libertarianism encompasses those libertarian beliefs that claim the Earth's natural resources belong to everyone in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. Like other forms of libertarianism, left-libertarian views on the state usually range from minarchism, which argues for a decentralised and limited government, to anarchism, which advocates for the state to be abolished entirely.
Terminology
is a philosophy that advocates for freedom, whether political, economical or metaphysical. Although older political movements have been identified as libertarian, the political definition of the term "libertarian" was coined by the French anarchist communist Joseph Déjacque in 1857, whereafter libertarianism became synonymous with anarchism. The term was widely used by anarchists until the 1970s, when libertarianism first started to be associated with a radical free market philosophy, particularly in the United States.The oldest, traditional, definition of "left-libertarianism" used it synonymously with social anarchism. Seeking to distinguish themselves from the new generation of free-market libertarians, social anarchists began referring to themselves as "left-libertarians", while the new adoptees of the term became known as "right-libertarians". This usage is also applied to libertarian socialists such as William Morris or Fenner Brockway and libertarian Marxists such as Cornelius Castoriadis.
At the same time as social anarchists began using the term to distinguish themselves from free-market libertarians, some of the advocates of free market economics that were associated with the New Left, including Roy Childs and Samuel Konkin, also began referring to themselves as "left-libertarians" in order to highlight themselves as the left-wing of the new free-market libertarian movement. As anti-capitalist advocates of free-market economics, they used the term "left-libertarian" in order to distinguish themselves from the right-wing advocates of libertarian capitalism.
Left libertarianism is defined a little differently by many European political scientists, in a usage introduced by Herbert Kitschelt in 1989. Left libertarian parties emphasise notions of internal party democracy and bottom-up participation. Green parties and radical left parties are often grouped together as "left-libertarian" parties by political scientists.
For political scientists Jan Jämte and Adrienne Sörbom,
The term radical left-libertarianism is used as an umbrella concept, gathering different strands of anti-authoritarian forms of socialism, stressing both anti-capitalist and anti-statist views, as well as the need to build a society based on voluntary forms of cooperation. Presently, such movements also often articulate strong criticism of what are seen as other forms of oppression, such as sexism, racism and homophobia, thus making the movements potential allies to a wider section of movement cultures. The anarchist ideology and movement are firmly rooted within this broad ideational category, together with other branches of left-libertarianism such as council communism, anarcho-syndicalism or autonomism.The term "radical left-libertarian movements" is used by many political scientists to refer to anarchists, autonomists and others in the alternative cultures and movements that arose out of the new social movements from the 1960s onwards, such as those involved in squatting and militant anti-fascism.
For example, in a comparative study of left libertarianism in Sweden and Poland, Piotrowski and Wennerhag state that
activists from anarchist, autonomist, and anarcho-syndicalist groups, whose political orientations include both libertarian Marxist and anarchist perspectives,… are the principal actors within the radical left-libertarian movement in the countries of our study. All of these groups are based on ideologies that express anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian/anti-state, anti-racist/antifascist and pro-direct/participatory democracy stances from a radical left-libertarian standpoint. Historically, such movement activism can be connected to those ideologies and strategies that emerged within two broader "movement families" : namely, the labor movement and the "new left" or "new social movements" of the 1960s and onwards. Within these movement families, the groups we analyze here have often been thought to constitute the "radical flank".
According to sociologist Jennifer Carlson, left-libertarianism is one of the three main branches of libertarian political philosophy, alongside right-libertarianism, a capitalist philosophy that defends strong private property rights; and socialist libertarianism, an anti-capitalist philosophy that opposes the concentration of wealth. By the turn of the 21st century, some analytic philosophers had also adopted the label of "left-libertarianism". This contemporary model of left-libertarianism, associated mainly with Peter Vallentyne and Hillel Steiner, distinguishes itself from right-libertarianism in its advocacy of the social ownership and equitable distribution of natural resources, while also upholding the libertarian principle of self-ownership.
Schools of thought
Social anarchism
In its oldest form, "left-libertarianism" was used synonymously with social anarchism. Although social anarchism and other forms of left-libertarianism share similar roots and concerns, social anarchism has distinguished itself as a distinct ideological tradition, due to its fundamental rejection of the state. In contrast to individualist tendencies, social anarchism rejects private property and market relations, which they believe will be eliminated with the abolition of the state.Social anarchism, originally associated with the libertarianism of Joseph Déjacque, has historically encompassed collectivist anarchism, anarchist communism and anarcho-syndicalism; each of which became influential tendencies in the Russian and Spanish Revolutions.
The contemporary left-libertarian Murray Bookchin advocated for the replacement of the state with a libertarian communist society, which he saw as a decentralized confederation of municipalities, in which decisions would be made by direct democracy. Bookchin was also harshly critical of individualist anarchism, which he held responsible for the failure of left-libertarianism to take a prominent place in public discourse.
New social movements
In 1960s Germany, the libertarian left was a dominant current in the extra-parliamentary opposition, "Außerparlamentarische Opposition".The punk scene provoked an expansion of the libertarian left: "a broader 'libertarian left' influence can be discerned in punk and post-punk's engagement with gender relations, sexuality, consumerism, imperialism and so forth".
Northern Europe saw an upsurge in radical left-libertarian activism, squatting and urban unrest at the turn of the 1980s. From this point until the late 2010s, "the main tendency in radical left activism shifted from party-based Marxism-Leninism to network-based, direct-action activism based on libertarian socialist ideals… shifting from direct-action networks that engaged in a variety of political issue—anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, feminism, animal rights, etc.—to more 'conventional' networks of organizations and initiatives through which activists intervened in local politics and neighborhood and workplace conflicts. The same period also saw the become less disruptive and violent, in favor of tactical pragmatism and conventional forms of protest".