Left-libertarianism - Libertarian Socialism

Libertarian Socialism

The original school of left-libertarianism is libertarian socialism.

Libertarian socialism is the anti-state tradition of socialism. In a broad sense, people who may share with "traditional socialism a distrust of the market, of private investment, and of the achievement ethic, and a commitment to expansion of the welfare state" might sometimes be described as “left-libertarians.” More narrowly, some social anarchists and libertarian socialists, including Murray Bookchin, are sometimes characterized as “left-libertarian.” Noam Chomsky, who identifies as a “libertarian socialist,” applies the “left-libertarian” label to himself.

Most left-libertarians in this sense are anarchists, and frequently question the definition of self-ownership, at least when it is understood to underwrite capitalism, along with private ownership of the means of production and absentee ownership of private property, in favor of alternative rights of possession and stewardship which are understood as protecting personal autonomy while rejecting putative rights which they see as permitting the economic elite to control the lives of others. They support rights to personal property and the rights of occupancy over one’s dwelling, but reject commercial propertarianism and some do not consider the re-appropriation of such wealth to be an act of theft but rather an act of liberation (see individual reclamation). Many reject arrangements that allow for hierarchy, kyriarchy, or begrudgingly consensual subordination. Similarly, some reject the non-aggression principle to the extent that it is used by right-libertarians to treat assaults on private property as assaults on individual liberty.

Some schools of Marxism (see libertarian Marxism) are also frequently referred to as left libertarian.