Archive | June 4, 2010

Defend Red & Black Cafe

My friend William Gillis writes to me:

For over a decade I’ve frequented The Red & Black Cafe in Portland – an IWW, explicitly anarchist, worker-owned coop – and over the years they’ve faced all the sort of police harassment and surveillance you’d expect for a venue catering to radical activists.

Police Not Welcome

Recently a uniformed police officer entered the cafe ostensibly to buy a cup of coffee – I can only imagine the horrified looks – and was politely asked to leave by one of the workers/managers. PDX police have recently committed more than a few outrageous murders and the worker explained with infinite patience that a cop made his clientele feel like they were in danger.

For some reason this seems to be setting off a shitstorm of national-level outrage with coverage on major news networks and blogs. I have good friends on staff and their phones are ringing off the hook with death threats. Mainstream conservative and liberal pundits have talked of showing up with weapons to start a confrontation. Frankly my brain clouds over with rage every time I read the fractally idiotic comments or threats.

My friends could really use some support; in this environment some kind words or awareness from those who aren’t fanatical devotees of the police state would go a long way. I’d really appreciate it if you could use the magical reach of your blog.

Here are some links that don’t directly send me into a rage-coma: 1, 2, 3

I have nothing to add except ditto. Please let’s do what we can to support the Red & Black Café against this crap.


Rothbard on Dukakis

In addition to what you can find at Liberty magazine’s official site, there’s a trove of back issues of Liberty on Mises.org. (CHT Jesse Walker, who has a good labortarian piece on pp. 53-57 here.)

Dukakis tank porn

It’s been pointed out that “G. Duncan Williams,” the pseudonymous author of a sort-of-pro-Dukakis piece about the Bush-Dukakis presidential race on pp. 12-14 of the November 1988 Liberty, was actually Murray N. Rothbard, not yet in full paleo mode. (In addition to Rothbard’s distinctive style, having the same number of letters per name could be a clue.)

Ah, memories. I also wrote a sort-of-pro-Dukakis piece that year; it was my declaration of independence from the Republican Party. (Rothbard’s farewell to the GOP had obviously come much earlier.)


Stateless U.

Center for a Stateless Society

There’s been a lot happening with the Center for a Stateless Society these days, and more is coming. For a preview of some of our academic plans, see here. (And, of course, please help if you can.)


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