March 26th, 2007

Since moving to Richmond, I've encountered a number of like minded individuals with whom I've engaged in conversation and the exploration of ideas from a more or less "left libertarian" perspective. Now that there is newfound energy in the Alliance of the Libertarian Left and a call for left libertarian activism at the local level, I've decided that a more formal arrangement might be useful for Richmond libertarians who don't necessarily care for mainstream libertarian rhetoric and politics. Until we've had a chance to democratically define a consensus about what we want this group to be - and what we want to do, exactly - I'd like to offer these proposals as framing issues to help us reach common ground.

• Focus on discussion: we should always strive to be a place for people serious about ideas to talk, debate, collaborate, and disagree. In keeping with the tenets of A.L.L., we have no dogma and no orthodoxy. We are a voluntary, leader-less association of like minded people and we intend to stay that way. With the sheer volume of work being done on alternatives to the status quo, we should focus not so much on arriving at the "right" alternative as figuring out where the spaces are for local realization of left libertarian concepts and goals.
• Building community links: there's a lot of potential common ground between open-minded, non-dogmatic libertarians and non-dogmatic, open-minded leftists - especially within the context of local issues. Typically it is leftist organizations that take the most militant, activist positions on community issues. I'd like to see collaboration with libertarians where this is appropriate. I'd also like to see more dialogue between leftists and left libertarians, as well as between left libertarians and mainstream libertarians. If possible, this could evolve into shared activism and authentic solidarity. The political map needs to be redrawn if we're to respond to the new statist political terrain and find new weak spots.
• Working against the State: Although I see no need to declare our group explicitly anarchist, I do think we should focus on things we can do to undermine illegitimate authority in our communities. I would propose that this effort begin with educational measures, ideally in concert with ongoing efforts to make peace with the Left.

That's really all I can think of right now. Do you have any ideas about what you want this group to be about? Let me know in the comments. And I promise I'll have details about the meeting by the next blog posting here.