Ron Paul and anarchism

by Jim Kozynek

" ... The movement, actually referred to as “anarcho-syndicalism,” and advanced by such early de-facto leaders as Emma Goldman, did in fact have tenets that would reinstitute “merit-based” compensations and protections for workers exploited by the early robber barons.

That movement was later co-opted and applied to a new context by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s as a movement of “free associations” that would ensure local controls by returning ownership of companies to workers.

This, in principle, seeks to ensure that capital motives are not decoupled from real needs, such as living wages, environment, health and safety measures. And it would help to institute a meritocracy. And those who contribute the “manual and intellectual work” would see direct financial benefits from its institution.

Ron Paul is the closest candidate to connecting to this historical movement, often identified as anarchism because of its rejection of institutional channels that control the distribution of capital. But it is a movement that does not necessarily reject cooperation in institutional forms.

This is evidenced by his opposition to the institutional triangle of the manufacture of capital in the Federal Reserve, the movement of that capital to status holders in the form of corporate welfare, and the subsequent need for military commitments to defend those privileges. ... "

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