# Libertarian Bulletin: Summer Libertarian Activity **URL:** **By** Lee Scott **Published:** October 1, 1971 --- “The libertarian movement is alive and well in the summer of '71.” The libertarian movement is alive and well in the summer of ’71, showing that many libertarians are beginning to move away from the campus-orientation which has too often confined libertarian activity to the months that colleges are in session. ## Libertarian Conference in New Orleans On May 5th and 6th, the New Orleans Libertarian Alliance (NOLA) sponsored a conference on education which featured speakers from the New Schools Exchange and NOLA. The conference was well-attended and was primarily concerned with developing an alternative to State-run and authoritarian educational systems. Perhaps in the future NOLA can create the basis for libertarian educational institutions throughout the New Orleans area. John Clark of NOLA has been teaching courses on Anarchism at the experimental college of Tuland University, as well as regular courses in political and social philosophy at Loyola University. The New Orleans Libertarian Alliance can be reached c/o John Clark, 933 Arabella, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115. ## Student Libertarian Action Movement Splits In July, the Student Libertarian Action Movement (SLAM), centered in Tucson, Arizona, split into two groups. A Tucson group, led by Conrad Goehringer, has been joined by members of SLAM locals around the country to form the North American Libertarian Alliance (NALA). NALA publishes a monthly tabloid newspaper, _Sunburst_, which is very interesting and well edited. The two issues I have seen included articles on cybernetics, the detente between America and China, grand juries, third parties, and the Padilla affair in Cuba. Subscriptions are $3 a year, and bulk copies are available for 4¢ a copy to cover printing costs. Write to: NALA, PO Box 3684, Tucson AZ 85720. Fred Woodworth and others who remained with SLAM continue to publish _the Match!_ on a monthly basis. _The Match!_ is available by subscription for $3 a year, or in bulk for 4¢ a copy. SLAM also operates a literature service which sells books and pamphlets by mail order. And SLAM sells four brochures entitled _Selective Servitude, Taxation is Theft, Don’t Vote_, and _The State_, all of which are available at 250 for $1. SLAM and NALA both continue to operate in Tucson, as well as in other communities around America, and both continue to militantly struggle against the State. The two groups are united by the fact that members of both groups face trials for their activities during the time of the Brown Rice Riot in Tucson earlier this year; the arrests took place before the split, and the new situation caused by the escalation of political repression and differences of opinion concerning what to do about it are part of the cause of the split. The libertarian attitude toward splits in libertarian groups should recognize that splits are healthy developments that make the creation of new affinity-groups possible when the old affinity-groups are no longer meaningful or viable. Both _Sunburst_ and _the Match!_ are good libertarian-anarchist journals, and both SLAM and NALA are an important part of the growing libertarian action movement in America. ## Libertarian Conference in Houston The week of August 1 to August 6 saw a small group of libertarians meet in Houston to discuss critical problems for the libertarian movement. Conferees were primarily from the South, with a few people from New Jersey RLA and Philadelphia SIL. Issues discussed included the feasibility of local action by libertarians rather than a reliance on plans for “national actions” by libertarians which assume that thousands of other libertarians have nothing better to do than jump on your bandwagon; the split in SLAM, and the reasons for it; and the importance of reaching out to the broad masses of American people who retain a commitment to liberalism but are beginning to see it as leading to an American police state. The conclusions of the conference seem to be two distinct proposals: First, that there should be greater emphasis on community action. An example was the report of libertarians from Tyler, Texas, who are working with liberal and Black groups to fight political repression. The second conclusion is that libertarians should begin to work with the liberal-controlled Dump Nixon movement, and use it as a platform for influencing life-liberals in a libertarian direction. It was also suggested that a liberal President would give libertarians breathing space in foreign policy and domestic repression. I think it is obvious that before libertarianism has any effect on American society, libertarians must turn toward community action. For social decentralization offers the opportunity in the foreseeable future for libertarian social reforms and social experimentation. And it might also be agreed that a liberal President _might_ actually, rather than rhetorically, get us out of Indochina, decrease the military budget, end the draft, and protect some civil liberties. But it should also be remembered that it was three liberal Presidents, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, who put American forces in Vietnam; it was these same liberal Presidents, plus Harry Truman who maintained the peacetime draft, and it was the Cold-War liberals who invented McCarthyism before McCarthy came on the scene. So it might be preferable to have a left-liberal President like McCarthy or McGovern on the chance that a few things might improve in the short run. But the place for libertarians is not in the voting booth, or the local political club, because the overwhelming majority of the American people have had it with politics, and would be open to an anti-political approach, if we gave them one. An anti-political approach might include some voting, such as voting down bond issues, and putting initiatives on the ballot to repeal various laws _by the people themselves_ or even electing mayors and city councilmen who run on platforms calling for secession from the State and Federal governments. But an anti-political program would have much more room for activities like a tax rebellion, draft resistance, moratoria, resistance to wage and price controls, and resistance to various other government activities. All of these programs of resistance are already taking place, and many more people would join the resistance if they knew that it is happening. Reform – Resistance – or Liberation. You pays your money, you takes your choice. ## Revisionist Economics Association Called For Mike Holmes of the Houston Center for Libertarian Studies has called for the formation of a Revisionist Economics Association which would promote the study of the economics of freedom. Such an association would be concerned not only with theories of human action, but with the application of libertarian theories to specific issues, such as urban renewal, agoric economics, community services without government, consumers’ and producers’ cooperatives, ecology, population, and the green revolution. The association would also be open to any economist who affirms some type of voluntarist economics as well as accepting certain other libertarian philosophical and political positions, such as opposition to war, imperialism, and the draft. An association open to all forms of voluntarist economics could include radical capitalists, free-market Anarchists, market socialists, syndicalists, community socialists, and cooperative Anarchists. The purpose of the association would be to study voluntarist economics and to analyze current social, economic and political issues from the viewpoint of voluntary economics. Another purpose would be to disseminate information about the counter-economy and encourage the development of alternative economic institutions. Anyone interested in aiding the formation of a revisionist economics association should write to Mike Holmes, c/o the Center for Libertarian Studies, Box 66321, Houston, Texas 77005. ## New Schools Exchange Anyone who wants to take part in the free-school movement and the creation of alternatives to the State-run education should get in touch with the New Schools Exchange (NSE). NSE publishes a newsletter three times a month which carries the latest news of the free-school movement. Subscribers to the newsletter can also place free ads in the newsletter if they are teachers or students looking for a free school to become part of, or if they operate free schools and are looking for teachers or students. Subscribers to the NSE newsletter also receive a continuously updated directory of New Schools. The NSE has the largest and most complete directory of non-public educational institutions in North America, and the directory is well worth the entire price of the subscription. Subscriptions to the newsletter are $10 a year, which includes the directory and periodic position papers. Trial subscriptions to the newsletter are $5 for 5 months, and do not include anything else. The New Schools Exchange is located at 301 E. Canon Perdido Road, Santa Barbara, California 93103. _Lee Scott is a member of RLA and a former member of the California Libertarian Alliance._