# The Movement (Apr. 1980) **URL:** **By** Jeffrey Sanchez **Published:** April 2, 1980 --- “On January 23, 1980, the libertarian movement found itself with a new set of problems.” On January 23, 1980, President Carter, in his State of the Union address, declared that he had “determined that the Selective Service System must now be revitalized,” and would “send legislation and budget proposals to the Congress next month so that we can begin registration and then meet future mobilization needs rapidly if they arise.” Happily, this talk of rein-stating the unpopular (and unconstitutional) practice of involuntary servitude, has been met with an outpour-ing of protest by young Americans across the country. Many college campuses are seeing several anti-draft rallies each week. Many groups are sponsoring these rallies, most notably libertarians and a wide range of socialist organizations. Their message is clear: Young men and women simply will not tolerate this attempt to enslave them. Students for a Libertarian Society has been working actively to educate young Americans on all the implications of reactivating the Selective Service System. Through rallies, seminars and workshops, SLS has exposed young people to both the libertarian ideology and the basics of a non-interven-tionist foreign policy. SLS chapters across the country report very favorable responses to these programs. Those who would like some background information on the draft should refer to _LR’s_ April 1979 issue, which contained several features and editorials on conscription. Roy A. Childs, Jr., Earl Ravenal, Murray Rothbard and other writers contributed their analyses of the draft and demolished the myths supporting conscription. Copies are available from _LR_ at $1.25 each. It is of the utmost importance that libertarians continue to work against registration and the draft, for this threat is one of the gravest to individual liberty. Aside from the obvious implications of involuntary servitude, we must also consider the dangers to world peace posed by a standing conscripted army. We urge all libertarians to stand against the draft and work to organize opposition to this evil. Those who would like assistance in organizing anti-draft programs should contact SLS at 1620 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94111 or call (415) 781-5817. President Carter’s “get tough” stance during the Afghanistan crisis has not gone unchallenged either. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark has been an outspoken critic of the Carter administration’s hawkish mood. Even before Carter’s State of the Union address, Clark was speaking out against military intervention in Afghanistan and the proposed reinstatement of the draft. In a Portland, Oregon speech on January 8, Clark challenged the conventional “wisdom” of using military means to secure needed resources. “We cannot,” he said, “secure the lives, property, and liberty of the American people with more of the same bankrupt foreign policy. We are told if only we had a few more bombs, a few more planes, ships or more military bases abroad, the world would be secure for American interests.” Clark also recommended that the United States disengage itself politically from the region and secure needed energy resources by deregulating domestic energy development. Clark offered the classic libertarian solution to our energy problems when he said, “A policy of free trade, with the elimination of the federal government as the middleman, would best insure our national security, our freedom, and our access to abundant supplies of energy.” Immediately after President Carter’s State of the Union address, Clark condemned the draft proposal as slavery and asked for restraint in foreign policy rather than saber rattling, which, he said, “will only insure a continued series of international crises and eventual involvement in war.” Clark minced no words in denouncing Carter’s appeals to the American people to sacrifice and be “tough.” “They are a smokescreen,” Clark said, “not only for President Carter’s disastrous foreign policy, but also for his complete inability to come to grips with other pressing problems on the domestic front.” Libertarian criticism continued on Sunday, February 10, when the Clark for President Committee placed a full-page advertisement in the _New York Times_ attacking the Carter administration’s handling of the crisis. The advertisement warned of the dangers of using military force in Afghanistan and stated: “Libertarians believe that the abhorrent Soviet invasion of Afghanistan must _not_ be used as a pretext for increased militarism on the part of the United States. With the lesson of the Viet Nam tragedy so fresh in our national memory, it is shocking even to consider taking military action that may include the use of nuclear weapons to ‘defend our interests in the Persian Gulf.’” The ad also proposed deregulation of the domestic economy and foreign noninterventionism as the way to solve our energy problems. “The time has come,” it said, “to dismantle the regulations which shackle our economy. If we need more energy, then what we need is an offensive against the Department of Energy, not another war in Asia.” To the general public, such ideas are new and radical. The Clark campaign is playing a vital role in spreading libertarianism. The Second Amendment Foundation has recently undertaken an analysis of S.1936, the “Handgun Crime Control Act of 1979,” a bill introduced last October by presidential hopeful Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). SAF Research Director William L. Garrison, Jr. prepared the analysis. Garrison concludes that “the Kennedy bill, more than any gun control law ever passed or seriously considered by Congress, places new and unwarranted burdens upon the law-abiding gun owner, instead of upon the criminal.” The bill, among other things, requires any handgun owner to obtain a federally approved handgun purchase permit before buying a pistol or revolver. It also allows individuals to buy no more than two handguns per year unless the government grants them permission to buy more. A most important point made by Garrison is that the bill “does not increase penalties against those who criminally misuse a handgun but it does severely punish honest gun owners who will innocently run afoul of the law.” This critique of the Kennedy bill is available from the Second Amendment Foundation for $2.00. For a copy, write to: SAF Publications Department, 1601-114th SE #157, Bellevue, WA 98004. The 1980 Census is just getting underway, but libertarians have been preparing to resist this coercive prying into individual affairs for several months now. Two organizations in particular, the Society for Individual Liberty and the Society for Libertarian Life, are leading the fight. A maximum fine of $100 may be levied for refusal to answer the Census, but this is not deterring libertarians one bit. Lawrence Samuels, Executive Director of SLL not only wants people to refuse to answer the questionnaires, but to openly destroy them. “We are urging all citizens,” he says, “to resist this blatant disregard for privacy and individual rights by mailing us your Census forms (or Xerox copies). We will then burn, shred or intentionally lose those forms in front of government Census offices and at press conferences across the nation.” Samuels is confident that this resistance will have an impact on the Census taking: “This year we expect at least one million persons will mail their census forms to us in protest.” Those who wish to join in this resistance, or want more information, should write to the following: Society for Libertarian Life, PO Box 4, Fullerton, CA 92632 or Society for Individual Liberty, PO Box 1147, Warminster, PA 18974. The demand for libertarian ideas is continuing to expand and a Los Angeles group is helping to fill that need. Dissent Center for Scholarship is a libertarian adult school which offers classes, seminars, conferences and workshops on such subjects as economics, foreign policy, and rights theory. Instructors have included David Friedman, Tom Hazlett, Tibor Machan, Samuel E. Konkin, III, Manny Klausner and other notables. The school’s director is long time libertarian activist Janice Allen. For more information, write to Dissent, 205 South Western Avenue, Suite 211, Los Angeles, CA 90004 or call (213) 466-3776. “The Movement” wants to hear from you. Keep us posted on what you (or your organization) are doing to promote the cause of liberty. We want to report the actions of anyone working for a free society. Please direct your information to Jeffrey Sanchez at Libertarian Review, 1620 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94111.