The Coming Struggle

Dear Supporters,

Ten years ago, on October 10, 2006, the Center for a Stateless Society opened its virtual doors and began its sincere and quixotic quest to change the world by changing minds – about freedom, about markets and about anarchism.

To quote C4SS cofounder Roderick Long’s founding statement, “For too long libertarians, and I mean anarchist libertarians, have treated market anarchism almost as an esoteric doctrine. It’s time to put market anarchism front and center in our educational efforts, time to start making it a familiar and recognizable position. The Center for a Stateless Society aims to bring a market anarchist perspective to the popular press, rather than leaving it confined to scholarly studies and movement periodicals.”

This has been our guiding principle. For the past decade we have aimed to make anarchism – indeed, primarily market anarchism, but anarchisms of all types in recent years – a household name. I am pleased to say that as of today, we are accomplishing that goal. Still, many fights still lie ahead.

When the Center for a Stateless Society started, the United States was embroiled in the midst of one of its longest-running wars – the war in Iraq. This shows in our coverage at the time. Our first articles, penned by Roderick Long and Oklahoma State University’s Records-Johnston Professor of Free Enterprise Per Bylund, discussed different aspects of the US’s global war on terrorism. Long’s article proposed a stateless solution to Iraq’s invasion-caused civil war. Bylund examined how nationalism was creating a conflict with North Korea – for all the wrong reasons.

Since then, C4SS has published nearly 5500 articles, from commentaries on certain double-crossing double agents of the state to features on the radical potential of love, and just about everything else you can think of in between.

The State, meanwhile, has provided us with a litany of reasons to keep going, to keep doing the kind of work we’re known for. Consider right now, American voters are being asked to choose whether they want a literal sexual predator or someone who once called black people “superpredators” to sit in the White House with access to the nation’s nuclear codes.

Consider right now, we’re still embroiled in the “war on terrorism” 10 years later – the focus has just shifted from Al Qaeda and Iraq to ISIS and Syria. Consider right now, white supremacist, misogynist, neo-Nazi and fascist movements are enjoying a period of growth among racial fear, ethnic tension and nationalist jingoism. Consider right now, we have a global refugee crisis encompassing millions of men, women and children and “sensible” political leaders want to discuss how many thousands we should let in, while still keeping the borders completely closed to the wide majority of refugees and other immigrants.

Now, more than ever, anarchism – and C4SS – must present an open, defiant challenge to this repugnant state of affairs.

Join us in the coming struggle.