You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Students for Liberty' tag.
In my latest ‘Liberty from London‘ column for blog of the American pro-freedom group Students for Liberty, I tackle what, if the media hype and general overraction was to be believed, constitutes the single greatest threat to our freedom. It isn’t anything that 12 years of New Labour assaults on our civil liberties have wrought. It isn’t the neutering of Parliament. It isn’t even the EU. It’s Google StreetView.
Students for Liberty note that they’ve just received their first piece of international criticism, from one Stuart MacLennan. It seems that our recent international developments and forays advocating liberty for all has gotten the Left a little hot under the collar. I take that fact we’re provoking the Left into spittle-flecked tirades as a sign of a job well done!
In the piece MacLennan displays either a wilful, or at best sincerely ignorant, inability to tell the difference between libertarians, conservatives and fascists. The overtones of Hilary Clinton-esque ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ paranoia are stark. (Mrs Clinton memorably invoked the phrase whilst defending her husband, President Bill Clinton, during the Lewinsky scandal. Only problem is, he really did have sexual relations with that woman. We don’t need a conspiracy when we’ve got Democrats!)
So who is MacLennan? Well, two seconds of Googling show that a certain Stuart MacLennan is Labour’s PPC for Moray. What a shocker. Could they be one and the same…?
Nothing new there then. The left have never been comfortable with their own mutant off-spring, fascism, and hence brand it far-right, when in truth it has much more in common with their beloved socialism than any other ideology.
SfL’s Alexander McCobin is perhaps a bit more generous than I am, suggesting MacLennan may be confused between SfL and CPAC. It’s true that whilst in the US we attended both conferences, and SfL had a stand at CPAC, but MacLennan appears oblivious to the fact that the likes of Young Americans for Liberty, Campaign for Liberty – both noted Libertarian grassroots groups – also did; not to mention that high-priest of Libertarianism Ron Paul gave possibly the most popular speech of the conference. He certainly has the popular support of the youth.
MacLennan seems to consider the line “…who advocate the almost total disbanding of the American government” to be the ultimate reproach. You can almost hear the frothing at the mouth. ‘How very dare they?! How dare people want to dictate the course of their own lives when we’ve created an expensive, inefficient, illiberal, pernicious and overbearing State do to it for them?!’
If MacLennan’s piece is nothing new, the comments so far are inspired. Consider “Terry Boar” who, commenting on the idea that perhaps letting individuals choose how to live their lives rather than the State doing it for them, says:
“In Europe that would be considered a very radical and right wing view indeed! We prefer the idea of protecting society thank you very much.”
Terry, we know there’s such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the State. I’m not sure how you think you’re protecting our society by curtailing protests around Parliament, banning elected politicians the right to free speech, spying on citizens and handing our sovereignty to Europe. Michael Gove MP put it most eloquent when he said: “When the State grows human freedom diminishes and wealth disappears.”
I finish where I began – (Stuart, this one’s for you), as Ann Coulter put it “You know you’re doing something right when you’ve reduced hordes of liberals to blind, sputtering rage.“
I’m pleased and proud to announce that I’ll now be writing for the blog of Students for Liberty, the American student pro-freedom organisation whose conference we extensively documented last month on TYC.
In what we hope to run as a weekly column I’ll be offering their international audience a British perspective on the fight for freedom. Kicking things off is the inaugural post, in which I call for a global First Amendment, highlighting the past month’s pan-Atlantic assaults on free speech:
“There must be one rule for all, and that rule should be unqualified, unfettered free speech“
The campus newspaper provides a great mechanism for getting your organization’s message to the student population. But don’t forget that there are other media outlets serving your campus and community, notably local newspapers and television news networks. Invite these news outlets to your events, and try to build relationships with their staff to help get your message out.
The first step is to craft a press release for your event. This should include the event, speakers, sponsors (the more you have, the more likely you will be to get the press interested!), location, and time, as well as contact information for your organization. Send this out to local media at least a week ahead of time; fax numbers and email addresses will be available on the appropriate websites.
Next, craft a media packet with information on the issue being discussed at your event. Don’t get polemical — include hard facts and statistics, and make sure to cite sources. Make sure to reiterate the information in your press release, as well, including biographies of speakers, the mission statement of your organization, and your contact information. This will make it easier for a reporter to cover your event, and thus increase the likelihood of getting space on the page or in the evening news.
Remember that colleges serve as a source of pride and identity for a community: local inhabitants want to know what students are doing! So don’t be shy; contact your media, build relationships with reporters, and spread your message!
Be sure to check the Students for Liberty blog often for tips, new and views in the cause of Liberty.
Day Two: Achieving the change for liberty (II)
One of the best features of this conference, which I was looking forward to and would love to see imported back to Britain, is the workshop series. These are smaller seminars which focus on specific issues confronting activists. This morning the first workshop series had three possible strands. Students could choose either Leadership, Starting a Student Organisation, or Marketing on Campus. All three would have been fascinating, but as a branch chairman I opted for Leadership.
The seminar addressed several specific topics which student leaders, and would-be student leaders, wanted help on – making an impact on campus, and ensuring your organisation flourishes after you step down.
To the first point, past events which attendees had hosted that had made a big impact on their campus were shared. Particularly delightful was the Gun Give-away. Here the student liberty organisation had approached a local gun dealer and asked if he would be interested in donating a weapon for them to effectively raffle off, as an event supporting the Second Amendment. The dealer was very enthusiastic, and also included were NRA literature and safe-handling training for the winner. Naturally, the university administration was less than thrilled and threatened to kick the students involved off campus, but they stood their ground, held the event, and it was a colossal success.
Now, in Britain, with our neutered liberty, we won’t he having a Gun Give-away any time soon, but the idea behind it is definitely importable. Take advantage of opportunities. Any British campus organisation could choose a liberty-issue to champion, and then follow the Give-away model – perhaps alcohol or smoking. Contact a brewery or tobacco company, and ask if they would be prepared to donate something to be raffled at an event galvanising students in support of drinker’s/smokers rights/opposition to taxes. Into the bargain this model is an excellent way to fund-raise for your organisation.
Several subsidiary points arose from this:
- When you hold any event, know the reasons you are doing it, and make sure you team does, so that if/when the media pick up on it you can make intelligent comments and not sabotage your own efforts through sounding amateurish and ill-informed.
- Bring in the community, show them that students are standing up for things.
The second issue, transitions between organisational teams, drew many great suggestions.
- Create an Executive Board Handbook, so that your successors can learn from your experiences. This guide will include many of the other bullet points in this article.
- Alumni: you need show support and keep some degree of contact with your old organisation. Make yourself available to your successors.
- Most alumni, one speaker noted, stay within 50 miles of his university so staying in touch isn’t hard. Whilst this isn’t always the case, in metropolitan areas, especially London, there is a tendency to stay within the region for employment opportunities. Even for those that don’t, Britain isn’t a huge country and the internet makes it even smaller. Something Conservative Future still needs to address is keeping former members involved, not letting it’s ‘alumni’ vanish. Indeed, CF is perverse because the entire point of it is to engage young people in conservative politics, yet in practice it is frequently the case it entrenches ‘administrations’ or intakes/generations, which do their time and then seem to disappear, replaced by another.
- Pass on your contacts. If you leave your successors to have to establish contacts with friendly organisations, people who can/have in the past helped your organisation, from cold, then you’re setting them back by months, if not years.
- University groups should do transitions mid year, not at the end, so that your successor isn’t installed at the end of the year, with the old team immediately disappearing. Follow the calendar year, not the academic year. Mid-term transitions allow the new team to have easy access to their predecessors.
- Create Honorary Presidents as a way of keeping past team members involved, but allowing them to step down from the active side of the team.
- Familiarity with campus administration, rules and procedures. Walk people through the processes so they see how the institution operates.
Finally, various other tips were shared for building a successful organisation.
- Be professional and well presented. It reflects well on you and your organisation, and helps communicate your message. It engenders respect.
- Try to have branded token gifts to give to people who aid your organisation as a thank you. Even if you can’t manage that, be sure to promptly thank those who helped your organisation – speakers, campus officials etc.
- Be an effective communicator. Train people in writing, public speaking and debating. “Not by volume, not by violence” one attendee put it. Poorly written communications, unsophisticated public speaking and a lack of debating skills will all sell your cause short. The best way to ensure the future success of your organisation is to train the leadership, and expand the leadership. The more people you are able to train in political technology, the stronger not only your cause, but liberty’s cause, will be.
Day Two: Achieving the change for liberty (I)
The second, main, day of the Conference shifts gear from ideology – we can all agree we want freedom – and picks up on McCobin’s comments last night that we need to return to our campuses and affect the change we wish to see. The question then is how, and that’s what today will seek to address.
The day opened with a panel discussion on social change. Particularly interesting were comments from two of the speakers. The first was Scott Bullock, a lawyer of some fame for his work in opposition to eminent domain in the case Kelo v City of New London.
He made the point that whilst as often seems to happen, individuals interested in advancing ideas tend to end up, or seek to end up, working within think tanks and such bodies, he is now seeing ideologically driven individuals branching out – in his case he sees them going into law. He sees this as an important step in advancing liberty, and it recalls to my mind the Young Britons’ Foundation’s mission statement that “YBF identifies, trains, mentors and places philosophically sound activists in politics, academia and the media“. We need our people in think tanks and campaign groups, of course we do, but we also need people in industry and media, influencing the debate and opening up avenues to the movement which we wouldn’t otherwise have.
The second was Kurt Weber of the State Policy Network. He spoke on how in his native state they organised a grassroots campaign to prevent the local government buying their electricity company from the private sector. Campaigning, he said, could be done on a shoestring, and highlighted the low-cost high-impact steps his campaign had used. We’ve all seen how good the left is at this, coining phrases, flyering posters, and generally rabble rousing. Sadly, we could learn a thing or two from them.
Day One: The fight for liberty as critical as ever.
Yesterday TheYoungConservative flew out to Washington, D.C. for the start of the Second Annual International Students for Liberty Conference. For those of us who attended the Young America’s Foundation conference here last summer, it’s both good, and slightly odd, to be back in the Marvin Center on George Washington University’s campus six months on. A cold wind is blowing through Washington these days; it’s also winter.
Following registration and a meet and greet session the conference proper began, or was supposed to. The opening night’s key note speech was billed as Yon Goicoechea, 2008 winner of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Yon, a 23-year old Venezuelan law student, rose to prominence in 2007 following Hugo Chavez’ closing down of the oldest private broadcaster in Venezuela, RCTV. Out of the outcry that resulted, Yon found himself at the spearhead of a student insurrection, and successfully blocked Chavez’ attempts in 2007 to amend the constitution to concentrate even more power in his government’s hands. As one would expect from Chavez, Yon was rewarded by intimidation and death threats; but he didn’t surrender.
So it was that we were very much looking forward to hearing from Yon. However, following recent events in Venezuela (Chavez’s amending the constitution to allow him to run again for president), the situation in the country has shifted. Details are sketchy (SfL’s organisers haven’t heard from Yon in 48 hours), but Yon is unable to leave the country and travel to Washington, D.C. That surely, more than any speech, shows how important, and how ongoing, the fight for liberty is around the world. It was against this backdrop that the Conference got underway.
In lieu of the man himself we had a video about Yon’s fight for freedom in Venezuela, which you can watch over at Cato.
Alexander McCobin, Executive Director of SfL, and whose daily tips you’ll have read on this blog, also gave opening remarks. Salient amongst them was this message: attending conferences, such as this, is only half of what we need to do. It’s great that everyone is here, and we’ll learn a lot, but unless we return to our campus’ and implement what we’ve learnt, we’ll never achieve the change for liberty we want to see.
The first day concluded with a social in the Melrose Hotel, generously sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies, where the drinks were flowing liberally for many hours…
You can also follow the conference on Twitter.
The Second Annual International Students For Liberty Conference will be taking place at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., USA from February 20-22, 2009. Its bold mission statement is “For students dedicated to liberty from around the world to meet one another and discussion and learn how to change the world for liberty.” TheYoungConservative will be in attendance, and blogging daily highlights from the conference.
Last year, the inaugural Students for Liberty Conference drew 100 students from 42 schools in 2 countries together to learn about issues affecting liberty and discuss how to promote liberty on campus. From this inaugural conference, Students For Liberty was formed to provide year-round resources for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty. This second annual conference will be the pinnacle American event of the year for students dedicated to liberty.
Keynote Speakers include Yon Goicoechea, recipient of the Cato Institute’s 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Cato provides this summary of Yon: “A 23-year-old law student, Mr. Goicoechea plays a pivotal role in organizing and voicing opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in his country. In his commitment to a modern Venezuela, Goicoechea emphasizes tolerance and the human right to seek prosperity.
Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com, will be another Keynote Speaker at the conference. Prior to his current role, Gillespie served as editor in chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008, during which time Reason won the 2005 Western Publications Association “Maggie” Award for Best Political Magazine.
Robert A. Levy will be the Closing Keynote Speaker for the Second Annual International Students For Liberty Conference. Chairman of the Cato Institute’s board of directors, he joined Cato as senior fellow in constitutional studies in 1997 after 25 years in business. Mr. Levy’s is well known for his recent work in putting together the lawsuit that resulted in the famous U.S. Supreme Court case, D.C. v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.
SfL have also released this video taster:
The latest Students for Liberty tip is on branding. They stress the importance of developing a distinctive logo for your organisation.
For Conservative Future branches this is especially easy, as you can adopt the official Party branding. The NME blog has graphic resources; and the main Party site has a full archive of Party branding, backdrops, letterheads and Welsh/Scottish variants, plus the official style guide which includes the rules, regulations and technical details of the Conservative Party brand. No doubt other parties have similar caches.
For non-party political groups, you’ll want to pay particular attention to this tip, as it demonstrates how some campus organisations have set about developing a brand for their group. Domestically, Students for Freedom have already successfully done this, using the international emblem of freedom the Statue of Liberty in their logo.
“Penn Libertarian Association: Atlas holding up the Penn Shield is a reference to Ayn Rand, one of the organization’s intellectual heroes.
Drexel Student Liberty Front: A porcupine represents libertarianism as an animal that does not fight others, but is able to protect itself when attacked.
Temple Libertarians: The statue of liberty as an owl combines the common image of the statue of liberty, which stands for libertarianism, and the school’s mascot, the owl.
Once you have a logo, you need to use it. All too often, groups come up with logos and let them fall by the wayside, just being a drain on time and energy. Logos have the potential to be incredibly valuable, though, as they brand your organization and make your message more well known. Put the logo on all letterhead for the organization. Add the logo to emails. Include the logo on surveymonkey’s you create. Get people to love the logo.”
Students for Liberty’s latest Tip of the Day explains how you can learn from friends – and foes – to better your organisation.
“Running a student organization is difficult. Starting one is even more difficult. No one expects you to come up with everything on your own. It’s okay to take ideas from other organizations, and in fact encouraged. By copying what other organizations do well, you are able to make your own organization do better. Effective management, like the economy, is not a zero-sum game. By doing what other groups have done successfully, you’re making yourself better at no one else’s expense.
The important question is: how do you learn the best practices of other organizations? Here are a few suggestions:
- Attend other groups’ meetings. The Penn Libertarians would actually go to the International Socialist Organization’s meetings to see what they were doing and evaluate what they were doing good and bad. If it’s a public meeting, you should not be ashamed to attend their meeting. Be open that you’re with another organization, but interested in learning from them. This may even lead to future collaborative projects.
- Join other groups’ list-serves. The other groups’ should be happy that their list-serve has increased in size, and you get to see what they’re doing.
- Attend events of other organizations.
- Ask leaders of other organizations to have coffee and talk about how they run their organization. Some will say no for various reasons, but you may strike gold and find one other leader who is open to talking with you.
- Get involved with SFL. If it’s difficult to learn from other groups on your campus, then learn what other pro-liberty groups are doing through SFL.
The important thing to remember when studying other organizations’ practices is to not take them all at face value as good ideas. Many groups are run poorly and have bad practices. You should constantly be evaluating whether a certain practice would work for your group or not, and select which ones to implement.”
