Riots in Greece
Those who follow the news are no doubt aware of ongoing riots in Greece over Greek police allegedly assassinating a 15 year old anarchist youth of the Exarchia anarchist enclave.
Libertarian theory is quite clear that justice is best found through mutually agreeable independent arbitration of disputes and that the meta-framework for such arbitration should be the notions that people have rights and those who violate the rights of a victim owe that victim compensation. With regard to victims who die, compensation is owed to the next of kin or modern equivalent in the case of synthetic families.
What we see in Greece is an example of the social warfare that naturally results when the next of kin in a synthetic family (the anarchists of the Exarchia enclave) are stiffed by the hubris of the State. The State won’t reliably submit to independent arbitration of disputes with it. If it did, it wouldn’t exactly be a State any more. Therein lies much potential for exploration of the implications of libertarian theory. In a revolutionary milieu, would there be opportunities for states to surrender, submit to arbitration and thereby transform into some sort of post-state successor organization along the lines of serving as a bankruptcy clearinghouse for debts of said state?
In any event, it occurs to me that possibly the best approach for those of us outside of Greece would be to publicly urge the Greek government to submit to binding arbitration, and that we use that urging as a teaching opportunity in the public discourse. I’ll be working on a draft open letter, but I would urge others to give it a shot as well.
Also, consider joining the anarchist solidarity with Greece support group on Facebook: Make Total Destroy
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