The Elephant in the Room [open letter to my fellow LP activists]

The WAR

Or, perhaps I should say, the WARS; wars and occupations of the US government (not 'us', the American people, but the US government).

This is the elephant in the room that we in the Libertarian Party are ignoring. Why is our leadership so silent about US Government Imperialism?

The Libertarian Party is developing a dangerous reputation as a pro-war party because of our (the LP's) perceived weak stands against US military interventionism, empire-building, 'nation-building' (which is nothing more than code for people-destroying), and shameless mercantilism.

A short list of hotspots:

Iraq
Afghanistan
Iran
Korea

The LP's stand on interventionism is classically, radically libertarian: DON'T. But through weak leadership in this area, we are allowing ourselves to be painted as weak on the wars or even pro-war (this is especially the case with Afghanistan). This weakens the Libertarian Party by driving off libertarians, but even more importantly it weakens the entire antiwar movement, the movement of resistance to US government aggression at home and abroad (we all know that war is the health of the state). It also deprives libertarians of the chance to work actively, shoulder-to-shoulder, with antiwar activists on the left, which is our best chance to demonstrate what freedom really means to those who may still be in the dark.

War and US government imperialism is perhaps the defining issue - and certainly a defining issue - of this decade, and perhaps of this generation. We have allowed ourselves to linger at the antiwar station while a large coalition of socialists boards the train without us. Why? Are we pro-war? I cannot beleive it. I know the mass of Libertarians are, indeed, libertarian - opposed to foreign adventurism and interventionism of all sorts - economic and military, although of course the latter almost always follows the former in the course of things.

What can rank-and-file Party members and activists do about this elephant in our room?

We need to pressure our leadership - our elected officers, our elected LNC representatives, and our local and state parties, to take bold and decisive action to get the LP aboard the antiwar train. Specifically, we need to:

• Get our local LPs to pass antiwar resolutions.
• Get our state LPs to pass antiwar resolutions.
• Get the Libertarian National Committee to pass strong antiwar resolutions - not simply on Iraq, but on Iran and Afghanistan.
• Encourage - no, demand - LP leadership formulate policy positions at the LNC level - NOT through the issue of staff-written press releases or LP website blog entries.
• Demand of the LNC that the LP join antiwar coalitions and take a leadership role .
• Demand that the LP have an official presence at antiwar rallies.

Libertarian Party activists should take action immediately (actually, several years ago) to preserve the LP as a radical anti-empire political party and - more importantly - start the LP down the path of assuming a true leadership role in the antiwar movement. This pressure needs to come from within the Party. The unfortunate stand on Afghanistan and lack of strong stands against the Iraq war have driven off many antiwar libertarians. I hope they come back, and join us in turning the Party around! But we cannot afford to lose more antiwar activists because that will weaken the Party, perhaps irreversibly.

Let us - the anti-interventionists - be the nucleus of change within the LP, as we work toward making the LP the nucleus of change in our country.
  ¶ 10:53 AM