Libertarian International Organization

Libertarian-Liberal youth as these working for ballot access in Latin America need your help to attend informative conferences that will prevent the wars of the future.

Our friends at www.ISIL.org and www.jonathangullible.com  invite you to attend another path-breaking and enh joyable conference--this time in Mainland China, with more being discussed for other regions such as Latin America--and/or consider sponsoring a young person or student to attend for a low cost. They report:

You have a unique opportunity this summer to meet members of the growing free-market movement in China as well as other fascinating libertarians from around the world, and also enjoy the opportunity to explore this ancient and exotic country with our post-conference tour options. ISIL is co-sponsoring the Austrian Economics Summit/ISIL Asia Regional Conference, and you are invited to participate in this exciting, historic event!

Along with the fall of the Soviet Union, the world’s most momentous story of the last 30 years has been the rise of China from communist basketcase to a largely free-market economic powerhouse, yet still under the rule of the Communist Party. The situation is highly complex.

Li Zhao Schoolland, a native of mainland China, informs us that there is a considerable free-market intellectual network in China. Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty has been a best-seller. Many other translated works on liberty are widely available.

The past two years, Li has organized highly-successful student Austrian Economics Summer Seminars at Northeastern University in Shenyang, and will do a third one in July, 2012. ISIL has provided financial support to these student seminars.

Li is also organizing this Austrian Economics Summit/ISIL Regional Conference in Shanghai at the Huaquio/Kunshan Hilton/Double Tree Hotel, running from evening July 20th through the 22nd, with checkout on the 23rd , plus post-conference tour options.

ISIL is co-sponsoring the conference as an Asian regional event, and is encouraging international libertarians to attend, and to explore this fascinating country.

The goal of the 2012 Shanghai conference is to expound on free-market ideas to a Chinese audience and to learn what free-market economists are doing in China. There will be three groups in attendance:

1) international attendees who are interested in both free markets and China;

2) Chinese academic and research economists who are interested in free-market ideas; and

3) University students who want to learn about free-market principles that are not taught in China.

This symposium is not affiliated with any government institutions in China. ... Li just returned from a two-week planning trip to Shanghai where she met with many of the libertarian activists and academics. The Chinese label this summer symposium "a private intellectual dialogue, aiming to help China to grow."

Help Students to Benefit from the ISIL Conference

ISIL has sponsored hundreds of students, mainly from the ex-communist countries, to the recent conferences. The students, who could otherwise not hope to afford the conference, have benefited greatly from the speakers and by meeting international libertarians. Many have gone home full of ideas and inspiration and have formed organizations and publishing projects, or become teachers and organizers of the Liberty English Camps for youth education that have also been supported by ISIL.

Our goal for Shanghai is 50 students. More if we can afford more. We expect to bring them this year primarily from other Asian countries. The students are responsible for their own travel, and must pay at least a token registration. No such thing as a free lunch!

Each scholarship will cost $800. We seek to raise $40,000 to bring in all these young people.

This is a great investment in the future growth of the global liberty movement. Please go to the ISIL Donation page to contribute to the ISIL Conference Scholarship Fund. Any amount appreciated! (These contributions to ISIL are tax-deductible in the USA).

Growing Brazilian (   http://www.pliber.org.br ) and Argentine Liberal-Libertarians (  http://www.liberallibertario.org/home/ ) meet at conference to discuss among other topics  how government regulation begins when they coercively regulate new parties and  suppress rights movements, vowing to soon have the 'last election without a liberal-libertarian candidate' in what by 2012 is a spectacular public information and petition campaign in the region.

While academics claim that government coercive policing and regulation is needed to suppress wild free enterprise, even police are turning to private groups to compare and better methods and crush internal abuses.

LIO Libertarians and fans say they’re having concrete successes spreading the Gilson libertarian model of ‘open accountable voluntary certification, not backroom coercive regulation’ also extended by Libertarian thinkers such as Dr. Mary Ruwart, USLP education director and author of the enlightening ‘Healing Our World’ free at Libertarian Book Club at www.LibertarianBookClub.org  . LIO curator and past co-ordinator Michael Gilson (“MG” was a regulatory and management systems consultant for many years, travelling to many countries to spread his ideas and libertarian tools of voluntary dialogue and action in general with senior officials, union, and business leaders; and promoting the now common concept of ‘best practices’ and continual improvement.

This has been summarized by MG as the Libertarian 3 C’s helping dialogue on voluntary options:

1. Clarity of Label: Many statutes actually prohibit useful info that follow from common law user inspection

2. Co-op Certification: Not one monopoly coercive agency but many transparent on-task groups

3. Comprehensive Re-insurance: Insurers themselves insured performing autonomous third part inspection

Even as this model has been spreading, many Libertarians are focused first on the prime regulator of the political process—coercive rules on independent political parties—as e.g. a grinding long-term battle in the US, and in Argentina a massive campaign for “the last election without liberals and libertarians.”

Since 1971 LIO has sponsored informationals culminating in a massive meetings in the mid-80’s of management consultants to spread private certification such as by the www.ISO.org  which brings many groups together to develop open and self-correcting basic and best practice standards that now the agencies themselves have begun to use, or e.g. www.CALEA.org  (a private group that sets standards for police), www.UL.com  working on independent product safety testing (that also helps people target regulations that mandate unsafe practices to accommodate inattentive or corrupt regulators and criminal corporations out to preference by statute their shoddy products) ; participative approaches open to the consumer; legalization and spread of both mass and specialty consumer organizations or services to rate services such as Angie’s list at www.AngiesList.com  or the growth of consumer comment sections such as at www.amazon.org  to rate vendors, increasing popularity of factory, service restaurants, and other facility consumer tours so users can see what is going on.

Essential has been the push for increased citizen regulation and user participation in public programs. When we began most countries hid their laws, punished people for making suggestions, and favored state monopolies. Even in the US statutes are passed that prohibit evaluation by success outcomes, and many academics still deride the Libertarian push to challenge services and get basic consumer information. Included have been the Libertarian push for e.g citizen academies ( e.g. http://www.scgov.net/planninganddevelopment/neighborhoodservices/NeighborhoodUniversity.asp   to better citizen understanding and bring clear definitions of process; initiatives to oblige local governments to clarify operations and involve citizens; legalize private options from roads to cell phones to home schools, use the internet to post standards, statutes, success data, and suggestion links; or meet with regulators on ways to promote accountability; and worldwide efforts to promote transparency, sunshine and sunset laws, whistleblower protection, and simple tax information transparency such as the worldwide taxpayer union efforts ( http://www.worldtaxpayers.org  ;).

Many people do not realize that regulation, originally conceived as a convenience to determine current standards and minimal safe practice for courts, have in many instances blossomed into agencies that promote and imposed fascist model of enterprise management, typically reduce common-law safety to accommodate political donors, and boast of good deeds that are actually the result of industrial progress. Many companies have adopted two systems of regulation—one to satisfy behind-the times regulators, and one to advance actual best practice. In addition, unlike the libertarian certification model, regulations despite growth of public comment opportunities are typically uninsured, unaccountable and often hide regimes of bribery and corruption. In some cases, as in the US until Libertarians led a campaign, consumers could be arrested for comparative pricing in stores: many industries such as medicine keep costs hidden from users with predictable mismanagement and waste by statute or policy while regulators and academics prattle about the ills of lack of market data they help create. LIO Libertarians have helped you champion work to:

1. Re-open home standards and use, and regulatory transparency/user friendliness

2. Remove legal blocks to open, re-insured certifications and open or private voluntary options

3. Re-structure for more informative voluntary labels with interlocking inspection and certification by unions-consumer, industry, insurers, etc. vs. when used clear ‘buyer beware’ situations not concealed by statutes.

Libertarian approaches are seeping into the culture. Many communities have gotten rid of complex licenses and permits-- that enriched officials or merely extended bureaucracies-- for private certification, spot or periodic checks by maintenance companies reported to agencies at no taxpayer cost, or nothing at all where certification was evident.

1. Government agencies themselves are adopting private certification and open review by users

2. Companies are adopting SPC, ‘six sigma’ and beyond processes and meeting on best practice sharing

3. The spreading culture of transparency is routing corruption while legalizing co-ops, consumer groups, etc.

Much remains to be done. LIO urges teams forming to use such tools to help:

• Identify areas of betterment and potential best practices elsewhere,
• Meet with officials and coalition groups, and
• Help inform the public to promote dialogue.

RESOURCES:

o Check the links above

o Websearch ‘best practice’ and seek open information as to price, quality, etc.

o Research how other groups, governments or industry members solve the problem

Re-privatization, first popularized by LIO Fellow Philosopher, Legalist, and ManagementConsultant Peter Drucker is in all nations including N.Korea, but some confusion exists on the term.

Some 4 decades after introduction by LIO thinkers, the use of re-privatization of public services is now confirmed by LIO in every country in some form, with new actions announced daily, e.g. a recent push by Uzbeklistan to privatize some 500 agencies.

First popularized in Peter Drucker's Age of Discontinuity in 1969,  LIO curator Michael Gilson outlined a complete program after consultation with him for all areas tied to UN Rights about that time that influenced Libertarian-direction platforms, and soon many groups were working to spread the concept. (As a consultant Gilson was also involved in many pioneering re-privatizations from Zoos to school systems). There is some confusion as the concept spreads, and LIO uses 3 stages to migrate from complete coercive control by government entities, usually in the form of state monopolies or favored oligopolies:

1. Private provider use. Caution must be exercised lest this devolve into fascism or crony capiatalism. Home and small group self-provider options are key.
2. Legalization of optional providers with right of refusal.
3. Public entities that are non-taxa/non-monopoly based called community entities.

In no sense is the necessary sell-off of public assets to private entities part of the approach, though it may be indicated. In general transfer to autonomous and user-friendly trusts of public government entities is preferred; improper government and public assets should not be conflateded. Libertarian privatizatiuons must be conducive to rights: to use a popular example among Libertarians, purported slavery privatizatuiion would be of doubtful value. In addition, Libertarians encourage an array of voluntary entities with preference to volunteer providers and co-ops.

According to the LIO curator, "The model is to move from censorship with one public library towards  free speech with many private bookstores and a true public library maintained e.g. by an endowment, not coerced taxes.Keep that in mind and you won't get confused by programs touted as privatization that are really shifting control to political cronies." For this reason, many Libertarians use 're-privatization' to indicate focus on legalizing private and private-public options with right of refusal, not necessarily selling programs to corporations. The term 'personalization' to indicate more consumer and personal options was introduced by consultants working with LIO in 1985.

Consultants involved say that typically Libertarian-direction privatizations initially lower costs, increase quality/choice, and better other desirables as safety by a factor of 10. In many cases, such as the interenet and PC's, government takeovers were discontinued or prevented after laws that blocked development were removed or modified--such as prohibitions on having computers connect to phone lines.

RESOURCES:

Regular reports on privatization progress are maintained at www.reason.org and experts say that there is no public program that has not, somewhere, been re-reprivatized on a voluntary or more choice-friendly basis. Unusual or instructive examples are also tracked at the co-editor blog at www.TheLibertarian.Info See: http://libertariansmile.wordpress.com/category/all/topics/privatization/  (We suggest you read from the bottom).

Dr. Palmer challenges  the often self-serving misidentification of moral capitalism with cronyism by officials in this excerpt from a talk at the Locke Foundation.

LIO Fellow Dr. Tom Palmer is travelling the world to share views on Libertarianism, encourage young scholars, and promote study societies and think tanks. His book Morality of Capitalism (Free e-book, please share)  is an entertaining, paradigm-busting set of essays  being translated into many languages.

The Liberatarian advocate and educative  philosopher travels to many countries with his book as a core text shared in translation with local workshops. The book introduces key information and helps the reader who challenges common false choices and myths--such as identification of free capitalism with cronyism--needed for those in countries where information is often hard to obtain or effectively censored. Usrs say the  book is suitable for preparation towards more advanced awareness of Libertarian themes, while stimulating interest in historical mythologies, economics and policy in general.

Topics handled include the concept of capitalism as a moral tool for empowering individuals and voluntary and effective co-operation; common misconceptions; themes of application beyond usual business ones; and extensive recommendations for additional research bibliography and refrences for young scholars and informed citizens.Many feel the work is an an excellent companion to LIO Fellow Ayn Rand's Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal or Economics in One Lesson (Free e-book) but is also being provided as a book free to students.

Dr. Palmer earned his B.A. in liberal arts from St. John's College, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, and his doctorate in political science from Oxford University, where he was an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College. During the late 1980s and the very early 1990s he worked with the Institute for Humane Studies and other organizations to spread classical-liberal/libertarian ideas in Eastern Europe. He traveled throughout the region to hold seminars and smuggled books, cash, photocopiers, and fax machines from an office in Vienna, Austria.

Palmer is currently attempting to duplicate in the Middle East some of the work he did in Eastern Europe. He has commissioned translation into Middle Eastern languages (Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, and Azeri) and publication of works by Frederic Bastiat, F. A. Hayek, James Madison, and other libertarian influences, and has published essays in Middle Eastern languages on such topics as "Challenges of Democratization" and "Religion and the Law."

In April 2005 Palmer addressed members of the Iraqi parliament in the parliamentary assembly hall on constitutionalism and has written on Iraq.] He has also promoted the creation of a libertarian web site, lampofliberty.org, where it is available in Arabic, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and Persian; and started an Arabic publishing venture. He continues to lecture in the Middle East and works closely with Arabic and Persian bloggers. He has been actively involved in campaigning for free speech rights in the Middle East, notably with the campaign to free Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, through articles in the Washington Post, the Daily Star of Lebanon, and other activities.

Palmer's political activities include being founding member and national secretary of the Committee Against Registration and the Draft (1979–81), president of the Oxford Civil Liberties Society (1993–94), and manager or communications director for several political campaigns. He was a plaintiff in Parker v. District of Columbia, a successful lawsuit in Washington, D.C. to secure the right to own a handgun in one's home, based on the text of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

RESOURCES

• To contribute to his project  and watch free videos, http://atlasnetwork.org/blog/2011/02/the-morality-of-free-enterprise/
• Learn of his latest work, please see: http://tomgpalmer.com/

 Czech leader Vaclav Havel's father was an LIO (then the League) Advisor who sought to create model proto-Libertarian voluntarist neighborhoods  for the poor and middle class that were then expropriated, and whose ancestors  in turn were involved in the salon of  then co-ordinator Henriette De Lemos y Herz that was the center of much of our predecessor League's activity in the early 1800's. Vaclav was denied a liberal education by the coercive Communist regime for suspected 'Libertarian anarchist and middle class market-poetic and democratic tendencies.' Indeed.

In a period where cultural Libertarians and Liberals have seen many distinguished LIO Fellows and Friends pass on--David Nolan, Dr. Hospers, Christopher Hitchens, Geraldine Ferraro--Public Safety Group member Vaclav Havel must now be recalled.

Havel hand in glove with activists to overthrow Communist dictatorship through firmly peaceful and hence successful means that deserve imitation and are LIO policy. He later led the country to peaceful development, and remained interested in efforts to bring about more voluntary markets, voluntary public services, and voluntary socialist and research communities.

As health allowed he was active in working for change in the Mid-East by behind the scenes encouragement, and also recoimmeneded these projects in which he was deeply in support and for especial interest by LIO supportive activists:

1. European Tolerance Council: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Council_on_Tolerance_and_Reconciliation
2. Human Rights Foundation: http://www.thehrf.org/
3. Victims of Communism memorial http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/ 

Havel continued his main cultural work with plays, publicizing efforts to inspire youth and other educative or arts activities, and encouraging interest in the marriage of new technologies and the arts.

His advice to LIO  Friends: "Think in generations, act in the now, and smile."

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LIO Fellow Nobelist Milton Friedman praised suggestions at an LIO workshop that along with standard 'C' Corporations, there be simplified  'A' (for autonomous untaxed family business and trust), 'B' (for Barter or business for-profits with a non-profit section) and 'D, E & F' (for democratic consumer, employee owned co-op, and freeshare and pay-it-forward) entities. 'Why not the whole alphabet?' he quipped, saying many obscure tax policies had completely distorted or blocked legal options.

LIO-supportive Libertarians and progressives are in coalitions centered in the US to make business non-profits legal. While many have criticized free economc choice as blindly profit-driven, a review by Libertarians revealed a thicket of laws that make for-profit ventures for non-profit purposes illegal or difficult to set up.Libertarian thinking has always viewed all action as for-profit, non-profit simply meaning the benefit is not directly for the principals, and contests the view that non-profit must equal anti-personal.The LIO encourages a vision of free markets that not only welcomes traditional forms but is driven primarily by user and worker co-ops such as credit unions, non-profit endowments, and home based forms and trusts--but policies still make this difficult.

The problem may be a surprise to some, but has long been understood by Libertarian thinkers. For example, many jurisdictions and tax authorities  harass  for-profit co-ops providing free barter services and basic supplies; unions seeking to provide healthcare; corporations and family trusts attempting to combine donations with profit activities--or actually make it illegal for corporations to engage in non-monetary activities 'for public benefit.' In the US, many private health care providers such as hospitals and doctor's co-operatives have shut down 'internal long-term trusts to provide health care for al'l due to the tax complexities. This vacuum where co-op based free-markets and alternate forms are hampered or actually prohibited is then blamed on the 'free' market, say analysts, and promoted by incurious academics who claim it to be an obvious problem of choice-based systems. As a result, people are blamed for not solving problems they're forbidden to solve.

To combat the situation Libertarians have been working with different groups to advance:

1. 'B' Corporations that legalize a specific or general non-profit goal along with profit sections, with a 3rd party review provision to cut through tax complexities. Groups such as http://www.bcorporation.net/ advance one model. Care must of course be taken that the door is not opened to expand crony  corruption. Libertarians at a recent conference on long-term funding for space colonization, the 100-Year Starship Project, called for use of B-type corporations to these ends.
2. In Florida  coalitions are successfully working to regularize co-op status in everything from community gardens to religious co-ops providing health care.They hope the example will drive world change. The matter effects even private persons. Recently policies were agreed there on that let people have a homeless person as a guest in their homes without triggering tourist tax and other restrictive laws; mothers are fighting for the right to have baby-sitting and home-learning co-ops without triggering expensive license requirements as day care entities.
3. Options such as 'free-free-markets'  based on gifting, barter networks, and food share buying programs are being acknowledged and functioning on the internet.Around the world, people are consulting the LIO in their figfhts to legalize small micro-lending, voluntary eco-zones, voluntary safety standards superior to the official ones, and protect community trusts from seizure.
4. US States have begun removing laws prohibiting simplified eternal family trusts to protect the wealth of small households and create family guarantteed housing, incomes, and other amenities.  Thus say providers 'Alaska's laws are among the most progressive in the U.S., providing a number of unique estate planning and tax savings benefits not available in most other states. Alaska was the first state to pass legislation authorizing self-settled domestic asset protection trusts (commonly called "Alaska Trusts") and continues to be in the forefront in updating and improving its statutes to provide favorable protections for individuals, families and family-owned entities. Alaska has become one of the top states of choice for the location of trusts and family limited liability companies (LLC). '

Emblematic of the problem than people raising money to feed the homeless on the streets being arrested by the police and then questioned by tax authorities. Several links are reported at the LIO 'SMILE' Twitter, which shares good news on Libertarian living tools. Interested activists are invited to share their stories and projects at the LIO Friends network on Facebook. RESOURCES:

>GOOGLE Family co-ops

>GOOGLE Family trusts Alaska

LIO Fellow Mike Barr, who served on a local public office on Soil & Water Board, is leading a local movement where people are working on ecological issues, volunteering, and property rights protection. LIO Friends have been working to remove coercive laws against urgan gardens, farms, and community garden co-ops.

LIO Friends, in the LIO network for SMILE activists, are communicating worldwide on spreading personal autonomy tools in urban mutual help and self-support while driving or helping coalitions against an array of problematic policies. Targeted are rules against:

• Urban gardens and farms; communities such as the Venus Project
• Community gardens and home or co-op food production
• Rules forbidding helping the Homeless without government sanction

The problem is worldwide, either from sudden enforcement of once dormant laws to misguided efforts to regulate traditional home food production from raw milk to pies for friends and neighbors, to police arresting people for buying food for the Homeless. At the same time over 30,000 activists worldwide have directly or indirectly received links to helpful tools. In addition, work is increasing to better communication on rules favoring polluters by undermining property rights. Many Libertarians and others in the US are getting involved in local boards to address these issues such as Barr, who was the subject of articles such as : See: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2007-12-28/news/barr28_1_mike-barr-soil-and-water-environmentalist  and has served to inspire many people. Says the Sentinel:

" Barr's efforts as chairman of the county soil and water board earned him more than a grudging respect from the county's elected leaders, all Republicans....In a scant four years Barr went from being persona non grata -- the Libertarian-dominated conservation district board was kicked out of the county services building -- to being publicly honored by the commission....During his tenure from 2002 to 2006, Barr helped turn a do-nothing board into one of the most innovative and successful soil and water conservation districts in Florida. In November, the County Commission honored him with a proclamation." Also : http://www.libertarianinternational.org/apps/blog/show/787326-us-libs-green-u-s-soil-and-water-boards   

RESOURCES::

• http://squarefootgardening.com/?gclid=CNvvh6OUwKsCFQ1b7Aod6jN8qw Square Foot Gardens
• http://www.urbanfarm.org/
• http://www.urbangardensweb.com/
• http://www.verticalfarm.com/
• http://www.thevenusproject.com/

LIO Adviser Nobelist Milton Friedman revolutionized perceptions with his popular TV series 'Free to Choose' with key excerpts and his paradigm-busting interviews now free online. In this video he explains how no central planner coercively regulates a pencil into existence, but it occurs through the personal and voluntary networks of many across national and cultural boundaries.

Working with other LIO Fellows, in a masterstroke Nobelist Milton Friedman organized a TV series that went direct to the public to overcome tired views on economics and circumvent coercive state educational monopolistic bureaucracies in the US and Canada, launching renewed interest in voluntary choice and recognition that the lack of choice was the real block to actual solutions to poverty, war, and other matters...and playing a key role in reversing the trend against science and for increasing totalitarian measures. Dr. Friedman focused on Libertarian-oriented and directional concepts, and his own scientific work.

So say admirers. Now the series is available online along with other free interviews of the paradigm busting social scientist who travelled the world meeting with young thinkers and established opinion leaders to promote consideration of freer markets, intentional community, and dialogue for the end of oppressive measures mandating the draft and recreational drug and personal lifestyle punishments--and legalization of communal voluntary communities and networks.

Judge for yourself, and link or share the link with friends if you like his approach.

Brazil's 'Super-Green' Mayor Antanas Mockus helped citizens work wonders with 'market-friendly' Green policies and community problem solving groups. He now leads a consulting venture, has spoken at Harvard, and has run for President, sparking further reform: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/03.11/01-mockus.html

Extreme Conservative and pseudo-Libertarian critics of Libertarianism love to claim Libertarians should get practical, stop talking about philosophy, avoid 'extreme' ideas, recognize democracy and freedom conflict,  and join the conservatives to attack everyone else in expensive campaigns. They apparently have not met Columbia's Antanas Mockus.

Philosopher, past University President  and mathematical theorist Mayor Antanas Mockus who, as a Green, emphasizes his trans-partisan and collaborative posture, has revitalized transpartisan use of Libertarian tools doing things by 'unleashing people power' many Libertarian advocates elsewhere might otherwise fear pre-mature. As mayor of the capital, Bogota, in two non-consecutive terms, he evidenced Libertarian tools that:

•  De-localized governance to thousands of local 1000 voter or less problem solving groups who quickly found methods to do more with less taxes
• Abolished the police force for volunteer watches and the 7000 local groups, with the result of plummeting crime and incidents ( the municipal force was retained), including 70% drop in murders
• Leadership by example and incident focus activities--derided as stunts by an uncomprehending media--that cut water waste, domestic violence and traffic incidents dramatically
• Market /choice based policies that kept unemployment rates stable despite worsening conditions elsewhere and helped cut taxes and rules
• Voluntary taxes increased revenues 10% covering projects proposed by the groups, massively increasing sewer and water services, for example.

Mockus is one of the growing number of  non-partisan "non-Libertarian Libertarians in public office" who use Libertarian-oriented devolution, best practice, and choice tools as a starting point of study by citizen groups that, when empowered to look at all the data, put them to work. Continuing his work with the new mayor, the result was  to "...in less than 10 years turned one of the world's most dangerous, violent and corrupt capitals into a peaceful model city populated by caring citizens" according to the promotion of a movie on him. Mockus felt this worked well with Green Values of localism and more.

His consulting group at http://www.corpovisionarios.com/ continues the work internationally. Page down at our site for similar stories of mayors and public officials using LIO and Libertarian tools.

Presently having been in more public offices as a Libertarian than any Libertarian, the Libertarian International Organization Co-ordinator, Platform Visionary, Philosopher, Movement co-founder, Fortune 500 consultant  and retired Union Member Dr. Michael Gilson-De Lemos encourages Libertarians not just to support  debate on 'Unions for All'--but to go on the offensive and suggest 4 of them.

Editorial

Since the inception of the modern Libertarian project, I've encouraged all Libertarian and Liberal leaders in our network to advise dialogue on bettering union representation for all. I wish to extend that encouragement to the 600,000 who have taken the Libertarian pledge, and the growing number of LIO fans and supporters as citizen activists.

People have an absolute right to a union if one accepts they have an absolute right to attorney representation or agency, and fair mediation by the agents involved. This right is a natural one, which neither can be bartered nor contracted away. Additional support from the right to association is commonly asserted.

UNIONS ARE POWERFUL TOOLS

Unfortunate problems with unions have, according to many scholars, arisen from coercive attempts of official interference, not any problem with unions per se. Examples are given of mis-action on the extreme left where unions become little more than mouthpieces, and the extreme right proting infiltration by organized crime or capture by corporate entities. Confusion may have also arisen from the common-law practice of disallowing unions in small businesses where no agent is required and there is a more intimate relationship such as entities that do not make a public offer such as certain religious ones; and legal doctrines claiming professionals, government workers, free-lancers and others cannot unionize with legal benefit or form co-operatives without official permission; of forced union participation and the like. At the same time, the rights of employers to form unions under color of professional and lobbying groups, whether public or not, is often and rightly treated as beyond discussion. That in various countries unions must seek alliance with one political party or another to be heard is itself to many quite strange when all parties should vie for the honor and work to suppress class hatreds. In my opinion the wonder is that professional attorneys do not rush to champion the issue, suggesting how confused conceptions are, and the failure to realize the issue is not just unions, but choice of representatives.

Since the time of the Enlightenment Libertarians through this network have encouraged unions of every description, associated co-operatives and mutuals, and the choice thereof. From the work to bring dignity to the enslaved and ballot-disenfranchised, to the Pittsburgh statement in the 1800's to the IWW and more, participants have sought to assert the simple position that people can choose representatives both public and private, that these representatives both prevent and mediate many minor problems that can become major through common-law mechanisms of collective bargaining, the strike, third party mediators, and more; and an informative union of well-paid professionals and choice of unions is the best friend of the honest business or public agency in the same way as is an informed, well-paid and engaged customer or investor. Unions have led the way to implementing Libertarian co-operative ideas that enhance community while empowering the individual such as mutual banks and savings insurances, credit unions, access to the stock market once reserved to those favored by unjust laws, and pensions for their workers. Where every ally betrayed unions, Libertarians did not, because they view them as a right, a powerful tool of social betterment and mediation.

UNIONS AS CHAMPIONS OF FREE CHOICE

Unions, not rich fatcats looking for illegal but officalized  favors, ended coercive Communism. In the work against coercive Communism and current work to mediate improvements in the Middle East and Africa, Libertarian International Organization friends have found budding unions from local co-operatives to physicians for rights key avenues of dialogue, communication, and action. Let us remember that it was Unions in contact with LIO and others that led the transition from coercive Communism and spread education on free enterprise and other Libertarian-interest concepts, often on pain of death. They have been reliable partners to business and managers in participatory management, self-driven quality improvement and health regulation, and low-cost employee education. Consumer unions and co-operatives provide better product informatiuon, and even unwittingly pioneer free-market alternatives such as free-goods stores and other ventures that confound the homilies of ideology bound economists.

In the US today, for example, Unions of government employees are, after preconceptions are addressed and clarified, among the most interested and intelligently critical supporters of Libertarian proposals for more choice and voluntary options in programs, and effective mentors  and allies in exposing local rackets. One may make an argument that many of the crises of today are the result of legal interference with co-operatives and unions: Unions were in many countries well advanced in providing low cost and universal health care, education, small business assistance, negotiating nationally for higher wage levels than obtainable by politicized minimum wages or wage regulations forced by officials, and national defense when officials stepped in so 'common workers' could not tell their betters what to do through hiring them. That is to say, for example, why debate the wonders or evils of government health care for all as an only choice ...when union-driven health care for all is possible?

ONE WORKER, 4 UNIONS

Unions and the attendant co-operatives can do wonders. While many countries struggle to normalize one union, reformers in countries such as Germany have created systems where workers regularly belong to 3 unions at once: One for the business, one locally, and one professional, each handling different areas such as workplace disgreements, wages, and betterment of the profession and mediating economic surprises as a whole. True, there is much to be improved, but the modern Libertarian movement and LIO champion not issues but the process and the voluntary tool, recognizing that the answer to misuse is more choice and transparency, not deadening laws by secret groups.

There is no reason except legal barriers why people should not automatically belong to 3 such unions in all countries; to a 4th consumer and bartering co-operative union as well; that these unions should be free of charge and offer many services that eventually takeover many or all "public services" if desired, or at least offer them in parallel; and unions should not represent managers; that people should be able to join any union they wish or several at once; and membership be portable across any border. 

CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS

Therefore I'm honored to praise those seeking to develop new union alternatives and their study and improvement as essential to both designed community choices and logical and beneficial use and operation of free and Libertarian markets by the average person, and so deserve every interest from Libertarian supporters and those using Libertarian-oriented ideas and tools, who in turn have already created pilot barter groups, co-ops and exchanges in many areas; and consumer unions in many countries to mediate tax issues and the like. I and those with me are committed to those who say: Choices in free markets, public programs, unions and more in an economy without taxation but a voluntary social contribution will, against every sceptic, prove a sure engine for retirement at 45, doubling of public and other worker salaries, and increased free or lower cost services in all nations for all if we, citizens, will let people experiment and try. Has that not been the trend for 200 years? Let us converse with those who say we must accept tiny pensions at 72, low wages, shoddy services, their government by surprise.

 RESOURCES:

• http://www.freelancersunion.org/ Free union model
• http://www.worldtaxpayers.org/members.htm Taxpayer unions
• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1007&bih=515&q=barter+co-operatives&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq= Barter & Co-op news
• http://www.freestoreportland.org/ Free store pilot
• http://www.consumersunion.org/
• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1007&bih=515&q=consumidores+libres&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq= Free Consumer movement in Latin America
• http://www.ituc-csi.org/

The advice of the co-ordinator is respectfully offered for general guidance to induce contrarian debate, and study of alternatives of a voluntary nature protective of rights.

LIO Advisor Dr. Milton Friedman travelled the world to advance the LIO poverty reduction approach.

LIO Libertarians have led the way in efforts focused on actually abolishing systemic poverty by increasingly sane and voluntary measures, not just creating another coercive program that becomes a political soccer ball.

A negative income tax capturing government efficiencies, spread of freer markets to combat oppression and raise prosperity partu cularly at the local level such as farmer's markets, and a pilot trust fund to provide a permanent income are the 3-pronged approach LIO advisors used to reduce poverty and coercion...but much remains to be done following the greatest poverty reduction program in history. The prongs were Libertarian-oriented or direction initiatives meant to lay the foundations of a better voluntaryt approach;

1. Prior to board appointment, Nobelist Milton Friedman proposed a "negative income tax" that would cut bureaucratic inefficiencies and, capturing improvements be used to provide a stable basic income. In time the program would be peeled away into  separate local public trusts and true social insurance  voluntarily funded to end poverty forever. The concept has created in the US the Earned Income Credit and similar programs in many countries, ending humiliating poverty tests and make work programs as are again being proposed in the UK by the extremne right.
2. A pilot permanent fund trust was proposed by LIO co-ordinator the then young Michael Gilson-De Lemos, and after championship by Friedman was adopted upon motion of Libertarian legislators in Alaska. The Fund provides a regular income top each Alaskan funded from public property, and is independent of the government despite several takeover attempts. Similar voluntary sovereign funds are in place in other countries. In addition, moves to restore personal pensions and trust funds--such as in the US simplified trust law, removal of perpetuity blocks, and promotion of arrangemnents such as Keough and IRA plans--have resulted in great wealth for many people even despite the recent downturn, including pilot social security personalized arrangements in countries such as Chile.
3. Friedman criss-crossed the world meeting with officials to champion freer markets starting at the local level with simple farmer markets, combined with lower tax rates and red tape. He also advised LIO honorary board members in the set up of the educational Atlas think tanks to train young advocates. China, India, the former Soviet Union, many former Latin and African dictatorships,  and many formerly poverty stricken countries have advanced with rises of national income in multiples, and a pressure for more rights and better services by the growing middle class and educated professionals.

Much of course remains to be done: including promotion of completely voluntary and hence de-politicized permanent funds to end taxation not dependent on any one resource and to promote stable services run by the users, and also guarantee a meaningful basic income no matter what. Increasingly, people can take matters in their own hands with IRA type and other arrangements invested in not just stocks but a range of assets, in turn of improving performance as inane regulations are targeted.

Shortly before his death, Dr. Friedman said to us: "Libertarians, especially LIO supporters and advisors, led the non-partisan effort to crush poverty with the tools we had and provided many new ones. Coercive government programs create a vicious circle, we a way out. Communism, the welfare state, be-responsible conservatives and all the rest perpetuated and deepened the problem, we're ending it. The reverse is often unjustly charged, but I did my part, I know what happened, and I'm proud of it. So there."

RESOURCES:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_Income_Tax_Credit
• Why Pay Taxes?  at http://www.bestsyndication.com/2005/A-H/gilson-mike/092705-user-fees-taxes.htm and Alaska Fund History: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22alaska+permanent+fund%22+%2B+%22dick+randolph%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
• Atlas Foundations: http://atlasnetwork.org
• LIO longstanding committment noted: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5t6Nhw38EdEJ:www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Libertarian-International-Organization+%22alaska+permanent+fund%22+%2B+libertarian&cd=52&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
• CATO Social Security project: http://www.cato.org/research/ss_prjct.html

 LIO Advisor Attorney Laura Mascaro, here at the Juan de Mariana Institute,  is a public intellectual in Spain who champions Unschooling, public participation and other issues. She is working on a world project to promote schooling empowerment in each country.

Balearic Islands, Spain: As public interest grows, LIO Advisor Laura Mascaro  has published a timely new book on Home Schooling, "Education & Liberty." Home Schooling, once viewed as an inherent right then attacked by the bureaucracy, is now being re-legitimized there and the EU as a whole, and she is also promoting a world conference: http://jipli.free.fr/ . LIO activists work so people have maximum lifestyle options in obtaining education that is high-quality and low cost, and by proper investment and technological economy and promotion of choice, truly free and non-coercive for all.

Over the last 40 years, Libertarians have worked to remove legislation blocking education options, pioneer free to low-cost comprehensive schooling (as opposed to expensive and exclusionary coerced public schemes where costs are hidden ), and today aim to bring the tools to every country. Here are some empowering key resources Libertarians helped create or are publicizing that you can use, discuss and share:

Resources:

> http://www.lewrockwell.com/delemos/delemos16.html" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20011214194719/http://www.lewrockwell.com/delemos/delemos16.html

( Home Schooled and Free: Thinkpiece on self-directed learners)

> http://www.iahp.org ( Relaxed Homeschooling tools used in infancy equips young to be self-directed learners while improving relations with parents 

> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/back-to-school/more-families-are-deciding-that-schools-out-forever/article1703185/ (Overview of Unschooling)

> http://www.libertarianinternational.org/apps/blog/show/787323-us-car-wash-libs-lead-home-school-boards- (Libertarians in action in Florida, USA, includes HomeSchool resource site)

> http://www.freeworldu.org/static/diplomas.aspx  (Free worldwide HomeSchool with 20,000 learners) and http://www.hippocampus.org/;jsessionid=26BD72EE6D1DDB1041DFBE5642629D1D (Free learning tools )

> http://www.khanacademy.org (World free net school)

>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school (Sudbury student run schools)

> http://www.pcsb.org/CI/SAC/ (By school Parent-Student Advisory councils in Florida)

> http://www.flvs.net/Pages/default.aspx (Virtual schools now support both public school and Homeschool students )

> http://www.lewrockwell.com/gatto/gatto-uhae-11.html  (Distinguished public teacher on regulatory history)

> http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/65369.html   (Distinguished Libertarian economist gives quick overview of low-cost alternatives in college now available thanks in large part to Libertarian initiatives)

> http://www.charteroak.edu  (US College with ability to test out at low cost, self-design curriculum, credit for life experience or projects, etc. )

> http://www.detc.org   (The growing network of accredited low-cost US distance learning institutions, including low-cost MBA's, certification programs, and Great Books Doctorates)

> http://www.amazon.com/Bears-Earning-Degrees-Distance-Learning/dp/1580082025 (Vademecum for independent learners)

> Life Long Learning  (GOOGLE Search)

Mascaro is also developing a world initiative to help inform and empower people on schooling options in every country.

Please link to this article at your site.

Native American LIO Advisor Meaghan Walker also champions Homeschooling and educational options in Canada and says many feel it has great value for Native and Original Peoples in preserving their heritage.

St. Petersburg, Florida, Ongoing, first published October 2007--The paradigm is Libertarians don't lead change by not getting into the community...or if they do, 'car wash' Libertarian activists are Libertarian lightweights who blindly attack government structures. Change your paradigm. For while courts from California to Germany debate the advisability or legality of home schooling , they might join the 21st century and see how Libertarians have helped transform schooling in Florida. So says Julie Chorgo, who points out that in Florida home schooling is simple, widely supported by educators, andt Schoolers even have there own appointive school boards to mentor parents and advise on policy.Chorgo serves on one of the boards and helped lead activism for educational change.

"At one time Florida had some of the most retrograde education laws in the industrial world. But starting with brainstorming sessions begun by Libertarians in the 1980's the landscape has been transformed," said LIO senior advisors Marshall Fritz of the Separation of School and State Project  and Ralph Swanson, who advised the effort which forged several coalitions that resulted 'in massive changes' including:

• Consensus on an 'all mentor the learner,' not 'authoritarian educator' model
• A simplified but detailed set of recommended home school standards developed by the home schoolers themselves,  with parents mentoring 2% of learners
• Schooling choice such as magnet (themed, such as classical academies or techical crfts), charter (parent designed), or easy to create private schools
• A privately funded voucher program passed through the state
• Free college tuition funded by lotteries and efficiencies for all students passing tests
• Diagnostic tests and teacher incentives
• Accelerated certification of teachers if one has  university degree
• Work on legalization of the teaching of evolution and advanced biology (UPDATE: In 2008 it was agreed that evolution per se could be taught and teachers could not be fired for using the word).
• Florida public schools have even adopted the Libertarian suggestion of using the internet so public school students can learn at home or get credit for college courses 'effectively reducing class size to one-on-one tutoring while saving taxpayer funds'

Typically, says Chorgo, home schoolers have been religious families or those with very bright or special needs children,  but are increasingly people who see it as a powerful tool to encourage creativity, bring families closer and help students proceed at their own pace.

Chorgo emphasizes 'complete prparation by not only reading things from educational philosophy to current policy' but community outreach. She's become 'the Libertarian poster' for 'Car Wash Libertarianism' encouraging community activism and participation as part and parcel of the Libertarian Project. In 2005, she  co-founded DisasterHelp, a mentoring group which raises money for disaster victims  engaing disabled persons in community activity and which has attracted praise from local officials such as St. Petersburg mayor Baker..(See: http://www.disasterhelp.cjb.net/  )

What next? Chorgo has created resource websites for parents with hits from around the world, and suggests exploring community school boards of the parents and students with voluntary endowments to create 'truly free' education that will raise teacher salaries.

RESOURCE: http://pinellashomeschoolhelp.webs.com/index.htm

Seminole County, USA, July 2007--The paradigm is that social change can only be done by elected Libertarians...and environment hating Libs can't get elected to anything locally important. Change your paradigm.

Bookseller Mike Barr is one of the growing number of Libertarians being elected to county Soil & Water boards in the US, turning what critics deride as the once sleepy enclaves of 'old-boy' privilege or sinister corporate deals to get legal preferences into voluntarily funded centers for effective eco-activism.The Boards are autonomous entities on the level of county commissions.

Unsurprisingly, after he led a Libertarian majority on the board, one of the first in the USA, he found himself targeted by a vilification campaign including highly technical lawsuits that even the government assessors thought were extreme, for actually donating to the board on advice of counsel.

But that's just inside baseball and goes with the territory, say friends of Barr, whose efforts have inspired  Libertarians to seek out elected offices nationwide and whose board has been praised by other boards, conservative tax cutters,  local voters, and the Sierra Club.

BOARDS PLAY KEY ROLE

Libertarians see government officials as ideally having facilitative or advisory roles, which proved a good match for the boards. The boards advise, typically countywide,  on ecological policies and are well positioned to inspire local activism whle publicizing certain services. Barr and his allies, using a less-government model,  cut funding, then raised voluntary resources by calling for contributions resulting in an estimated  $5 million in volunteer co-ordination help. Questionable projects were targeted, and a series of community workshops introduced not only voluntary and contractual approaches to eco-friendly growth but often provided basic information the public was lacking ( http://www.universityuus.org/d/SS2006-06-11-DevelopmentVsEnvironmentInSeminoleCounty.mp3 ;). The board was soon praised as a hallmark by members of the state association for other boards.

TAXPAYERS GET UNEXPECTED CHECK

Barr's board in Seminole is not the only one changing the paradigm. In  counties such as Lee with less growth issues, board members led by Libertarian Jack Tanner, an accountant, examined costs and soon wondered why the board was providing an expensive testing service that could be obtained more cheaply from private businesses. They removed the service, and took the tax savings to provide a refund check to citizens, creating national headlines as newspapers wondered at 'Government sending people' their own money. ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jack+tanner+soil+and+water+board     as admirers generated a minor internet sensation."So this is what Libertarians mean by improved checks," said one poster. The Lee board also maintains an e-group to get user ideas and keep the public posted.

"The model is that services should be provided on a voluntary and non-monopoly basis and a lot of input from the users, and you soon see opportunities for improvement and participation that get the job done and help the ecology,  not with some forced government program but what users see as common sense discussion," said Brian Bustamante, a former government tax and finance auditor who monitors such projects for LIO. "That's clearly what we see here.Libertarians and others should imitate these efforts.This is exactly what we feel Libertarians should be doing in accord with local conditions."

On other occasions Libertarians have led campaign to abolish the boards, as was done in 1980 in Pinellas County Florida, where most water issues were being handled through public or private parks.

ACTIVISTS JOIN EFFORT FROM ACROSS POLITICAL LINES

Meanwhile, Barr advises those seeking election or appointment to boards dealing with the environment, and works to facilitate Greening discussion and action across political lines with road clean-ups,  information sessions and an activist group that at last count had over 150 members. RESOURCE: http://environment.meetup.com/236/members/