[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-03: Cuban Arrests - the Importance of Movement Solidarity

Fri Feb 17 17:57:20 EST 2017

	I think some remarks I recently posted to IPR (IndependentPoliticalReport.com), in response to someone encouraging libertarians to stop wasting their time with the LP and join the Republicans instead, are relevant to this discussion:

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During the struggle for American Independence, would it have been useful to have some colonists who supported the values of the freedom movement “work within the system” by staying loyal to the British monarchy, if they’d been able to get themselves elected to Parliament or into influential positions close to King George III? Undoubtedly, yes. But what was really required, and what the real revolutionaries provided, was a radical paradigm shift, a clean break from the past, a new movement that wasn’t tied to the old political establishment. Having enough people willing to stand up and make that break, even though it looked like a long shot, was what made the revolution ultimately successful in a way that getting a bunch of colonist sympathizers elected to Parliament never could have.

The libertarian movement today is fighting an equally historic struggle for independence, but this time it’s worldwide – freedom and independence for each individual. In the United States, that movement has a political party, and it is not the Republican Party. The Republican Party, as its “Grand Old Party” moniker illustrates, is part of the old order.

Abandoning the 2-party cartel isn’t mainly about educating people or producing short-term electoral gains. The main reason to join the Libertarian Party isn’t because doing so makes it easier to educate people about libertarianism, or because while it’s harder to win elections there’s a greater likelihood that the people you do elect to public office won’t sell out – although I happen to believe both of those things are true.

When individuals with libertarian values succeed in getting some power within an establishment vehicle like the Republican Party, there will always be limits on the extent to which they can fully embrace the libertarian movement, because they have to work with the people who make up the party they’re in, and that party is not part of the movement. During his campaigns for Congress and the presidency, Ron Paul spent much of his time running and identifying as a “conservative”, even when he was saying libertarian things; it may have been the necessary political price to be paid for working within the GOP as successfully as he did, but it undercut the message. Unreservedly condemning an group while simultaneously continuing to work within it strains both one’s credibility with outside observers and one’s ability to remain viable within the group, and thus libertarians working within organizations that are mostly statist naturally tend to hold back some of the fire they might otherwise unleash. There is a certain ability to inspire and radicalize others that can only come with openly making a full, clean break and publicly declaring one’s allegiance to the new paradigm over the old.

The importance of declaring openly and strongly for the party that most has truth on its side can often be lost in the heat and confusion of battle. When waging an uphill struggle, there will always be a score of tempting arguments for choosing the safer, more popular, or more conventionally acceptable path toward change. Some of these arguments will even be sincere, and not merely consciously or unconsciously self-serving efforts to reap conventional rewards of money, power, status, and career opportunities, or at least minimize the loss of these things that siding with the underdogs often entails. But history renders a clearer verdict. Who today remembers and is inspired by the “good Tories” who sought to advance the values of American freedom while still remaining loyal subjects of King George?

Using democratic elections to remove those who believe in State power from office has numerous advantages over the alternate methods for removing them, and sharing the freedom message through education in order to wake people up is absolutely key, but for them (us) to be an effective force for radical change we must be more than just individual  libertarians acting atomistically. That is why a libertarian movement is needed, and why one arose. Advancing that movement matters more in the long run than any successes that can be had within the current paradigm.

But for a movement to realize its full potential, there needs to be a consciousness among its participants that they (we) are a movement, and indispensable to creating that consciousness is practicing solidarity within the movement. Rallying around your symbols and standing proudly with your comrades.

And that brings us to what I believe is the most important reason to support the Libertarian Party: Right now the Libertarian Party is the clear political standard-bearer for the libertarian movement in the United States, and thus by choosing the LP you are practicing movement solidarity. In contrast, urging libertarians to abandon the Libertarian Party in favor of some other vehicle that is not clearly associated with the libertarian movement is undermining movement solidarity, and thus undermining the movement.

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	In the case of the libertarian activists arrested in Cuba, is there some tiny chance that the information coming from the Mises Institute is wrong, and these individuals did commit some actual crime in libertarian terms, as the Castro regime alleges? Of course there's always that chance, unlikely as it seems. Is there a chance that asking the U.S. State Department to apply diplomatic pressure in human rights cases could somehow lead to government interventions that are undesirable in libertarian terms? Again of course there is always that chance. There is also the chance that if the State Department isn't focused on this, but on something else instead, that "something else" (whatever it might be) could be even more likely to lead to aggressive U.S. government action! We just don't know.

	Like supporting the LP in general, this matter is one that I believe calls for movement solidarity. Not just with the libertarian activists themselves who courageously put themselves at risk by promoting freedom in a dictatorship, but also with the Mises Institute and several of our state affiliates (the New Hampshire and Oklahoma LP have reportedly joined the Nevada LP in condemning the arrests and issuing calls for the activists to be released). 

	We must not be so afraid of low-probability consequences, or of being wrong and having to issue a correction or retraction <sarcasm>(oh horrors, the embarrassment !)</sarcasm>, that we fail to take a stand in a matter that is so clear-cut on the face of it. Far better that we be over-eager in rushing to defend members of our movement, and stand with fellow movement organizations, than that we be over-cautious and let the moment to defend them and act in solidarity slip by while we remain silent.

	I vote yes on this motion.

Love & Liberty,
                                   ((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
                                (415) 625-FREE
                                  @StarchildSF

On Feb 14, 2017, at 8:28 AM, Joshua Katz wrote:

> As I alluded to before this email ballot came out, I am having difficulty with this.  According to this motion, they were targeted for their activism, and are unjustly detained.  I suspect this is true, but I need to see evidence of this before I can endorse this party making such accusations against a foreign nation.  While nations often unjust detain people, it is also true that libertarians can, sometimes, commit crimes.  As of this moment, I do not even know what charges, if any, have been presented, so it is hard for me to say that these charges are false or trumped up.  
> 
> I previously asked for more information, and Mr. O'Toole (thank you) forwarded a blog post from Mises.  I have nothing against Mises, and I have respect for the Institute, I spent many summers there, and the Institute supported me through some difficult times.  (Full disclosure:  I do strongly disagree with the political tact that many associated with Mises have chosen.)  But a blog post from them simply isn't the kind of information I am seeking.  Do we know of any sources that can verify that they are being held for their activism?
> 
> Joshua A. Katz
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 3:49 AM, Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> wrote:
> We have an electronic mail ballot.
> 
> Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by February 24, 2017 at 11:59:59pm Pacific time.
>  
> Co-Sponsors:  Starchild, Harlos, Demarest, Vohra
> 
> Motion:  The Libertarian National Committee condemns the unjust detention of libertarian activists Ubaldo Herrera Hernandez and Manuel Velasquez by agents of the Castro regime in Cuba on February 2, and demands the immediate safe release of these political prisoners who were targeted for their peaceful activism promoting limited government and free markets. We further ask the U.S. government's State Department to place diplomatic pressure on the Castro regime for their release, and encourage Libertarian Party members and supporters to contact their elected officials toward that end. 
> 
> -Alicia
> 
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