What is “left-libertarianism”? Is it really libertarian? Is it really leftist?

Starting next Monday, November 5th, you’ll find out – because that’s when the BHL / C4SS Symposium on Left-Libertarianism begins!

Drawing inspiration from the likes of Benjamin Tucker, Thomas Hodgskin, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, left-liberarianism purports to combine a (libertarian) support for free(d) markets with a trenchant (leftist) critique of contemporary corporate capitalism. The current wave of left-libertarian scholarship is led by the likes of Kevin Carson, Charles Johnson, Sheldon Richman, and our own Roderick Long and Gary Chartier. You can find their writings on the web at the Alliance of the Libertarian Left and at the Center for a Stateless Society. And now, thanks to the hard work of Charles and Gary, you can find a great sampling of classic and contemporary left-libertarian writings in their anthology, Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty, available as a free PDF or in paperback.

Starting next Monday and continuing through Friday, November 16th, BHL and C4SS will run a series of six lead essays on various aspects of left-libertarian thought. Those lead essays will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with shorter response essays and discussion in the comments thread taking place in between. As always, we welcome participation from our readers, both in the comments thread here and at your own blogs.

Here’s the lineup:

Week 1 – The Left Libertarians

Monday, November 5 – Gary Chartier, BHL-blogger and Professor of Law and Business Ethics at La Sierra University

Wednesday, November 7 – Roderick Long, BHL-blogger, senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University, and president of both the Molinari Institute and Molinari Society

Friday, November 9 – Charles Johnson, blogger at Radgeek and occasional guest-blogger at BHL

Week 2 – Their Critics

Monday, November 12 – John Holbo, blogger at Crooked Timber and Associate Professor of Philosophy at National University of Singapore

Wednesday, November 14 – David Gordon, senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Friday, November 16 – Steve Horwitz, BHL-blogger, Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY and an Affiliated Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center

Spread the word, and we’ll see you next Monday!