I was not planning to blog about this, but I must take the pen to support Ilya Somin and Jason Brennan against their critics, in particular fellow blogger Roderick Long (whose work I admire.) Unlike Rod and those he cites, I do not romanticize worker’s movements. Throughout history, worker’s movements have been the origin of, and breeding ground for, all kinds of populist demagogues, tyrants, and other enemies of liberty. Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Juan Domingo Perón, Hugo Chávez, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, and even Pol Pot were the products of worker’s movements. In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of any worker’s movement (or any mass movement, for that matter) that supported libertarian principles. If we move from history to theory, we can ask: what would be a worker’s movement libertarians can endorse? The answer is obvious: a worker’s movement in support of free markets and political freedom. For example, a worker’s movement against oppressive employers in cahoots with the government would be a movement libertarians should support. But these are not the worker’s movements I know.  Those I know support government’s nationalization of private enterprise, increased regulation of markets, erection of trade barriers, persecution of political enemies, mob justice, and a variety of nationalist and populist causes, including sometimes aggressive war, that, to put it mildly, are inconsistent with principles libertarians hold dear. Moreover, those movements indulge in a form of communication that Guido Pincione and I have called discourse failure. They use slogans that rely on short and simple causal connections that the populace can understand. Those movements (or rather, their leaders,) in  their pursuit of political change, tend to overlook the complex and counterintuitive economic arguments in support of markets that libertarians endorse. And with good reason: there is little chance these leaders will motivate the political changes they seek by invoking Hayek or Friedman. Perhaps my own experience colors my skepticism: the worker’s movement in my native Argentina ranks second only to the fascist Junta of the 70’s in the systematic destruction of the Argentine social fabric and, especially, of the once highly competitive Argentine private sector. I do not deny that a worker’s movement on behalf of liberty is possible; however, history does not warrant much optimism. I’m not big on symbolisms, but for my  money, using May Day to honor the millions of victims of communism (obsolete and outmoded as that may sound to our younger readers) is a better use of our symbolic energies.