A Semi-Monthly Newsletter The Libertarian

------Joseph R. Peden, Publisher Washington Editor, Karl Hess Murray N. Rothbard, Editor

VOL. I, NO. I1 APRIL 15, 1969 35C Tax April 15, that dread Income Tax day, is around ment for a few years, or a few decades, and find out? again, and gives us a chance to ruminate on the But if taxation is robbery, then it follows as the nature of taxes and of the government itself. night the day that those people who engage in, and live The first great lesson to learn about taxation is off, robbery are a gang of thieves. Hence the govern- that taxation is simply robbery. No more andno less. ment is a group of thieves, and deserves, morally, For what is "robbery"? Robbery is the taking of a aesthetically, and philosophically, to be treated exactly man's property by the use of violence or the threat as a group of less socially respectable ruffians thereof, and therefore without the victim's consent. would be treated. And yet what else is taxation? This issue of The Libe~ta~ianis dedicated to that Those who claim that taxation is, in some mystical growing legion of Americans who are engaging in sense, really "voluntary" should then have no qualms various forms of that one weapon, that one act of the about getting rid of that vital feature of the law which public which our rulers fear the most: tax rebellion, says that failure to pay one's taxes is criminal and the cutting off the funds by which the host public is subject to appropriate penalty. Bur: does anyone sapped to maintain the parasitic ruling classes. Here seriously believe that if the payment of taxation were is a burning issue which could appeal to everyone, Teally made voluntary, say in the sense of contrib- young and old, poor and wealthy, "working class" uting to the American Cancer Society, that any appre- and middle class, regardless of race, color, or ciable revenue would find itself into the coffers of creed. Here is an issue which everyone understands, government? Then why don't we try it as an experi- only too well. Taxation.

TAX REVOLT IN WISCONSIN On Tuesday, April 1, the most significant American issue which Obey hammered at again and again--high election since last November occurred in northern and crushing taxation. Wisconsin's Republican Gover- Wisconsin. Me1 Laird had been elevated from his nor Warren Knowles had run for re-election on a long-time post as Congressman from this district to platform of pride on not raising taxes; true to political his present berth as mighty, hawkish Secretary of form, as soon as he was safely back in, his political Defense. A special election was held on April 1 to greed came to the fore, and the Republicans of Wis- fill the Congressional spot. consin swung behind a program of higher taxes. The The Republicans had won this post with great ease outraged public rallied around Obey's attacks on high for decades, usually amassing about two-thirds of the taxes, and taxes proved to be a hotter and more vote. This year, State Senator Walter Chilsen, Laird's important public issue than the Nixon Administration, hand-picked successor, was seemingly safe, and he the Party of Our Fathers, and even love for Me1 Laird. made his safety even more secure by wrapping him- An explosion over taxes is at hand, if leaders should self in the mantle of the Nixon-Laird Administration, arise to articulate the people's deepest wishes. and making the election a referendum of the supposedly popular new regime. "To force a man to pay for the violation of his own Yet, this April, young David Obey, the Democratic liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury. But choice, defeated Chilsen handily in a stunning upset; that is exactly what the State is doing." the vote was approximately 63,000 to 59,000. Everyone ---Benjamin R. Tucker, 1893 is agreed on the major reason for the upset: the great 2 The Libertarian, April 15, 1969

several in the nearby suburbs of Maryland and Vir- ginia. Freedom of the press, you might think, would I Letter From be enhanced by this fortuitous situation. The truth is drearily different. Washington also has an 'underground' newspaper, the Free Press. It is, as are so many of the type, a generally lighthearted mixture of psychedelic coming By Karl Hess and ahhing and radical politics. It has perhaps as great as, but surely no greater, a range of explicitly I I sexual or scatalogical slang as any current best-seller. The Free Press is regularly harassed by thepolice. TAX REVOLT It now must print hundreds of miles away. Persons For those who retain a residual, if not romantic selling it have been arrested for the possession of attachment to the notion of peaceful change there is pornography while, in full admission of the essentially at least one Springlike sign of encouragement along po7iticaZ nature of the paper, a judicial refugee from the Potomac. A substantial tax rebellion is underway. the Flintstones in nearby Maryland has arranged to Far and away the largest share of mail to Capitol have some of the editors charged with, believe it or Hill as well as to the White House concerns taxes-- not, sedition against the Free State. (Yea, Free.) not comments on them, but angry statements of refusals Meantime, h o w have the watchdogs of liberty to pay either some or all of the State's lootish tribute. responded? The 'open Administration' of Richard The same thing is happening at local levels in the 50 Nixon apparently couldn't care less if the paper were states where, as a matter of fact, taxation has been closed down. The journalism clubs, associations, and growing overall at a more rqid pace than even at the guilds are as silent as the grave. The Washington Post Federal level. Farmers in Pennsylvania, householders says the fuzz might as well leave the Freep alone in Brooklyn, housewives in the southwest, all have because it isn't influential anyway, thus reducingfree- mounted direct assaults against organized theft by the dom of the press to a solely utilitarian level and State. At the local level the success of tax rebellions adding a new sub-basement to the structure of The is astonishing. Any group that can gather a hundred or Post's morality. But the Freep, bless it, stillappears. so members seems assured of, at least, protection * * * against flagrant suppression and has, obviously, a Daily there is new evidence that probing anddefend- good chance of success. The picture is neither so ing the military-industrial complex is to become a clear nor so rosy at the Federal level. The number major matter in Congress this session--perhaps the of resistors is surely growing but, because there is hottest issue of all if the war can be cooled down or, no organized or united force in the field, the Federals as at present, virtually ignored. In the continuing have open to them such means of suppression as the drama of disputes without difference, opponents of selective persecution of 'leaders' to set Spockian the welfare state now will rise mightily to man the examples. Attorney General Mitchell's selection of battlements of the warfare state--and, of course, just that device to deal with campus disorders could vice versa. As as American President once remarked, be a hint of direction but should itfail to suppress the in another regard, one hopes neither side runs out of campuses--as hopefully seems to be the case--then it ammunition. may not be tried against tax resistors. Another approach could be in the broadest social pressure, with impassioned campaigns to vilify those who resist, as near or actual traitors, and to extol for "The schoolboy whips his taxed top, the beardless the "quiet majority" the patriotic, humble, and holy youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle, virtues of submitting to taxation without so much as a on a taxed road; and the dying Englishmen, pouring whimper and certainly not a groan. The Stakhanovites his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, flings of the Nixon Administration, we may anticipate, will himself back on his chintz bed, which has paid be quiet and eager taxpayers (let's hear it for Quiet twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an Quentin, he didn't even claim a deduction for him- apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred seZf!) and their children, equally docile on the campus. pounds for the privilege of putting him to death." The tax rebellion, also, has evolutionary stages. It ---Sydney Smith, 1830 will pass from rebellion into revolution at approxi- mately the moment it coalesces, either around a conscious organizing effort or spontaneously around a particular incident. LIBERTARIAN ASSOCIATES In either case there seems little that the State could The deepest thanks of The Libertarian go to the do about it--as a broadly based movement rather than newest group of those generous enough to become one in which individuals may, as at present, be picked Libertarian Associates by subscribing at $15 or more: off and/or terrorized without support or succor. At any rate it is the nightmare of the State today. Mr. R. Dale Grinder Columbia, Mo. * * * Mr. Milton M. Shapiro Claremont, Calif. Washington, a far cry from most cities, is provided Mr. James Evans, Jr. Los Angeles, Calif. with three competing daily newspapers, not to menti~n A. R. Pruitt, M. D. Halstead. Kan. The Liaertarian, Apn'l 15, 1969 3 TRANSFORMATION OF A NEWSPAPER Since the early nineteen-fifties, the.WationaZ Guardian was considered by many to be a firebrand radical "Of all debts, men are least willing to pay taxes. newspaper on the furthermost fringes of the left. What a satire is this on government I" It had been so branded for its heroic stand against ---Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841 the onslaught of McCarthyism. In many ways it is true that the National Guardian was the spokesman for "far-left" opinion. But it is equally true that beyond often relevant, and many of them are well-written. The its outspokenanti-McCarthyism, theh'ational Guardian Guardian seems on its way to becoming a first-rate surely was not a radical newspaper. newspaper. In a subheading under the fiationa2 Guardian's There appears to be a battle going on under the banner was the accompanying motto which expressed surface for ideological control of the Guardian between both the content and the purpose of its existence. It the New Left anarchists and ddcentralized socialists read: "An Independent Progressive Newsweekly." and some remaining remnants of Old Left Marxism, Reformism, not radicalism, was indeed its intent but it seems certain that it is a battle which the Old and its history, ever since its origins in the reformist Left is doomed to lose. Most of the young radicals Wallace campaign of 1948. see the old Marxists for what they really are-- A couple of years ago, after the New Left had begun conservative authoritarians. to stir, the management and direction of the National In many of the news stories and some of the editorials Gua~dianbegan to change. AS 1967 became 1968, the there is a disquieting, almost inexplicable, sentimental "coup" was all but complete. What remained was to disposition toward a working class movement. This alert the public to the newspaper's new intentions. tends to produce some news stories and editorials In February 1968, the statist-patriotic term National which are irrelevant to libertarian concerns; but, was dropped from the paper's masthead; and, more fortunately, this does not interfere with the fine importantly, the accompanying motto was changed to reporting done in other areas. read: "Independent Radical Newsweekly." Apart from Burchett's reports, now coming from Although it was from the beginning true to its Paris, there are many on-the-spot reports on Ameri- announced intentions of being a genuinely radical can Imperialist activities from such places as Latin newspaper, i. e., attacking the United States monopoly America, North Korea, and Africa. There is also capitalist-imperialist system rather than simply try- excellent coverage of the accelerating student move- ing to reform a depraved system that was beyond ment across the country. repair, the new Guardian did have its share of The coverage of the United States military- problems. It was indeed radical, but it could no longer industrial-university complex and its inner machina- truly be called a newspaper. tions has become increasingly pointed and revealing. The new management and staff were inexperienced. Especially fine in this area has been the research and The call to radicalism stepped on the ideological reporting done by the staff of the North American toes of many of the Nationaz Guardian's former Congress of Latin America. NACLA is a young readers. Subscriptions expired, unrenewed. Impas- research group which has expanded far beyond its sioned letters of disbelief and abhorrence stormed original intent to study the origins and effects of in with cries of anti-Semitism because of the new American Imperialism in Latin America. The NACLA leadership's stand on Black Power and the Arab- people are doing the laudatory and very necessary Israeli conflict in the Middle East. work of finding out just which corporations and which Confronted with the major task of rebuilding a large universities are receiving government contracts and part of its circulation and saddled with an inexperi- funds. They are reporting this information along with enced, underpaid (often unpaid), and sometimes incom- the discoverable facts on exactly which perverted petent staff, the Guardian hobbled along, leaving much project each of these corporations and universities is to be desired in the area of reportorial journalism. pursuing! Most of the pages of the Guardian were given to One other weekly attraction is well worth mention- editorializing. Series after series of eight and ten- ing. The " Wanted" feature picks out one of the members part "think pieces" filled its pages for six or seven of the state-industrial-university system and gives a months. The only really redeeming feature of the brief sketch of his personal criminal activity; thereby Guardian during this period was the weekly report giving us a more meaningful concrete and personal of Wilfred Burchett from Cambodia on the Vietnam understanding of the Power Elite. War. Burchett's articles were always poignant, per- The Guardian is, of course, not a libertarian news- ceptive and uncannily correct in their predictions of paper; but as it improves as a newspaper, it has unfolding events in southeast Asia. become increasingly a better source of pertinent During the last two months, and particularly in the information which can be quite helpful to libertarians. last several issues, a happy change has been taking In fact, it is the only place where one can find detailed place. The pages of the Guardian have beenfilled with and comprehensive reporting on all aspects of what is what a newspaper should contain--news. Gone are the generally known as The Movement. As such, it now, misplaced and often incompetent "think pieces". Edi- more than ever, deserves to be read by libertarians. torials are at a minimum. The news stories are most ---Walter E. Grinder 4 The Lihe~tarian,April 15, 1969 RECOMMENDED READING LEFT AND RIGHT. The latest, special 1968 issue of to savor. Professor Brozen shows how government this journal of libertarian thoight features a sub- is the source of monopoly in many ways, direct stantial, definitive article by the late historian and indirect. Major concentration of the article is Harry Elmer Barnes on "The Final Story of Pearl the ICC. Harbor". This was Dr. Barnes' last work, and synthesizes the "revisionist" insights over the past Gabriel KO&, The Politics of War: The WorZd and two decades on the reaZ story of Pearl. $1.25, United States Fo~eignPolicy, 1943 -1 945 (New available from Left and Right, Box 395, Cathedral York: Random House, 19681, 685 pp. $12.95. Station, New York, N. Y. 10025. Monumental and definitive. This is it; the first of a multi-volume study of the origins of the Cold Leviathan, Vol. 1, No. 1 (March, 1969). New monthly War. Kolko is far superior to such previous magazine, 56 pp. in tabloid form. New Left peri- leading Cold War revisionists as D. F. Fleming, odical, with high-level muckraking and insights because Fleming worshipped FDR and thought of into the current American scene. Particularly Roosevelt's foreign policy as noble, only to be recommended is the article by Jim Jacobs and sabotaged after his death. Kolko is revisionist on Larry Laskowski, "The New Rebels in Industrial U.S. imperialism during as well as after World America", a sympathetic insight into the Wallace- War 11, and shows that America launched the Cold ite trends among many industrial workers. Also War while World War I1 was still going on. Kolko Peter Wiley and Beverly Leman, "Crisis in the exposes the economic interests amidst U. S. impe- Cities: Part One", on government-corporate "part- rialism during these years, and also is the first nership" in the ghettoes, James O'Connor's over- leading historian to develop the Trotskyist insight view of the linkage of State and university, and that the "sellout" at Yalta and other World War I1 Steve Weissman's critique of the government- conferences came from Stalin selling out the corporate world at Stanford. Communist revolution throughout E u r o p e and Asia on behalf of his Great Power imperialagree- Economic Age, Vol. 1, No. 1 (November-December, ment with the U. S. Indispensablefor understanding 1968). A new semi-popular, semi-scholarly English the history of the Cold War and of U. S. foreign bi-monthly, published by the Economic Research policy in our time. Council, and specializing in free-marketish arti- cles. Recommended in the first issue is,G. Warren Marion Mainwaring, "Brittany: Revolution in a Ceme- Nutter, "Trends in Eastern Europe". In contrast tery", l'he Nation (February 24, 1969). Acharming to many free-market economists whose fanatical article from Brittany on a grievously neglected anti-Communism blinds them to the enormous and national liberation movement--this one from the heartening changes in Eastern Europe, Professor oppressed Breton people, a Celtic people with Nutter hails the accelerating shift from socialism their own language and culture, who have been to the free market in the Communist countries. He ruled for over 400 years by an illegal occupation even concludes that "In a profound sense, the by the French. Like other national liberation hope of the West lies today in the East." 2 pounds movements throughout the world, the Breton move- sterling per year; available from Economic Age, ment has been growing rapidly. Eventual goal is a 10 Upper Berkeley St., London W1, England. Celtic Federation including independent nations in: Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Yale Brozen, "Is Government The Source of Monop- Wales. Normans and Occitans (the southern French oly?", Intercollegiate Review (Winter, 1968-69). speaking the langue d'oc and akin to the Catalans A good article in this IS1 periodical is something oppressed by Spain) are also beginning to yearn for their freedom.

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