June 6th, 2007

Over at Counterpunch, John V. Walsh reflects on the recent Future of Freedom Foundation conference on "Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties". Listen to what one Green has to say about the anti-war stance of libertarians:

It was also quite open and tolerant. Yes, it was Libertarian through and through, weighted heavily with scholars like Robert Higgs and Joseph Stromberg, writers like Lew Rockwell and the irrepressible Justin Raimondo . And of course there was Ron Paul who had lots of old friends there and was greeted like a rock star. But there was also Daniel Ellsberg who gave the most moving and inspiring talk of the conference and The Nation's Robert Scheer who received a standing ovation. And then there was Joseph Margulies the attorney whose clients include Guantanamo detainees and Mamdouh Habib, the victim of CIA rendering from Pakistan to Egypt. And when I explained that I was a Green there were a few double takes but everyone was welcoming.

This contrasts mightily with the UFPJ demonstrations and assemblages in D.C. Ask for Ron Paul or Justin Raimondo as a speaker; and UFPJ Co-chairs Leslie Cagan and Judith LeBlanc, of the "C"PUSA, turn thumbs down. Dem political hacks are always welcome at the UFPJ confabs, but no Libertarians, no Left radicals like ANSWER, no Ralph Nader; Greens are encouraged by UFPJ to work on these things but not to speak up with the Green message.

Clearly we are in a time of shifting political alliances, where the old divisions no longer make sense. As more and more honest seekers of truth and justice start to look outside the established movements, we will see an explosion of unorthodox radicalism and new coalitions of thinkers and activists who start to change the way success is defined. Walsh recognized this trend at the conference:

There is also a generational shift in the Libertarian movement. The Cold War Right is disappearing, and Libertarians like Raimondo who came of age in the 1960s or later are coming to the fore. That too was evident at the conference where some of the older participants would on occasion lapse into loyalty to the Repbulican Party. But for the new generation, this kind of partisanship is not on the agenda. The battle for their own ideas is paramount, and they are not in a mood to compromise on them.

At the front of the hall throughout the proceedings, FFF had placed a portrait of Jefferson. And we were reminded more than once of the quote from Benjamin Franklin that "we must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately." It is time for the official antiwar movement to seek out allies like the Libertarians, who can reach many who cannot be reached with the antiwar message of a socialist or Green. If we do not, we may find ourselves, gradually, oh so gradually, put in the same fix that Franklin feared.

That begs the question, though - is the official anti-war movement ready to stop acting like a special interest lobbying group, trying to use the system to their short-term advantage, and instead start smashing parts of the system that get in our way? The Democrats' shameful capitulation on war funding demonstrates exactly where to begin. How the mainstream anti-war movement behaves now will determine exactly how much we have to dismantle to get anything resembling peace and justice in this world. Will they apologize for the Democrats, or will they turn on them? Left libertarians should be waiting with open arms for any of our anti-war brethren who seek principled, uncompromising opposition to the corporate welfare-warfare state.