######################################################################## FREEDOM NETWORK NEWS - INTERIM BULLETIN - MARCH APRIL Editors: Vincent H. Miller James R. Elwood Tim Starr ######################################################################## IN THIS ISSUE ============= ** News on secession movement in Cape provinces of South Africa ** Libertarian book published in Serbia by ISIL ** News on U.S. Sagebrush Rebellion and secession in Western states. ** Latest news on ISIL's 1994 world conference in Merida, Mexico ** Federal Party debuts in South Africa ************************************************************************ HEALING OUR WORLD BEING PUBLISHED IN SERBIA ************************************************************************ A very exciting development for libertarians is ISIL's latest venture: the translation and publishing of Mary Ruwart's "Healing Our World" book in Serbia. The funds for this venture have been provided by the Martie Ruwart Memorial Fund. This fund has been made available to ISIL for use on special educational projects in the world's trouble spots. ISIL member Mr. Tomislav Krsmanovic of Belgrade is coordinating this project in Serbia. He is president of the Yugoslavian Movement for Human Rights, heads a growing ISIL chapter in Serbia and is attempting to reach others in the Balkan states to find solutions to the conflict in this area. ISIL Board member Ken Schoolland's prize-winning book "The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible" is also being translated and prepared for publication in this country. We hope to get Mr. Krsmanovic to the ISIL world conference in Merida, Mexico this October so that he may report to you personally on conditions in his country -- and the prospects for libertarian solutions. *********************************************************************** A NEW INDEPENDENT COUNTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA? *********************************************************************** ISIL headquarters received a fax a few weeks ago from a Mr. Tim Miller of a group in Capetown that has plans to secede from South Africa -- this as a result of what seems an imminent takeover by an ANC/communist government in Pretoria. Even more interesting is the fact that a recent poll in a major Capetown paper revealed that 98% of those polled favored secession. Apparently there is little support for the ANC in the Cape provinces (13% of blacks and only 2% of whites support them) -- this in spite of massive foreign-funded propaganda campaigns promoting the ANC. Miller's group is studying libertarian-styled constitutions and is currently using the model produced by ISIL stalwart and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Leon Louw of Johannesburg, Gavin Weiman of Pretoria and Gary Moore. Further to requests for more input on a new constitution, we have put Mr. Miller in touch with ISIL Advisory Board member and constitutional lawyer Michael van Notten in Addis Ababa and ISIL Advisory Board member Prof. John Hospers in California. If there is to be a "new country" the Cape Republic looks like a potential winner. It is the second richest area in Africa, has magnificently gorgeous scenery and beautiful cities & a rich ethnic mix (they are often referred to as the Rainbow People). They have had much practice living together, having started in 1652. No one doubts the country would be politically stable. *********************************************************************** MARY RUWART ELECTED TO ISIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS *********************************************************************** We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Mary Ruwart has been elected to the ISIL Board of Directors. Dr. Ruwart is a research scientist with a major U.S. pharmaceutical company and a former professor of surgery. She has been listed in "Who's Who" and "Outstanding American Men and Woman of Science". She is also author of the international best-seller "Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle" -- a book that has been translated and published in Russia and Lithuania, as well as in the USA -- and which has been described by the editors of VISION magazine as the most important book of the decade. *********************************************************************** ISIL REACHES NEW MARKETS WITH HELP OF TOP MARKETING PROFESSIONALS *********************************************************************** ISIL has employed the services of the nation’s top direct mail marketing professionals to reach out with the message of liberty to individuals in the U.S. -- particularly those who currently find themselves under siege by overzealous minions of the state. For openers we are just now marketing a special (blistering) special report/book entitled "Lethal Compassion: Why National Health Care is a Cure That Kills" on the Clinton Health Plan (written by Dr. Mary Ruwart and Jarret Wollstein). We anticipate strong response to this and feel strongly that this strategy will prove to be a vital tool in building a broad-based constituency for liberty in America. The additional funding provided by the preceding will also enable us to increase support for activities and projects in other parts of the world. ######################################################################## Plan Now To Attend ISIL's World Conference MERIDA, MEXICO! October 2 -7, 94)! ######################################################################## This year's ISIL world conference combines an inexpensive but colorful vacation in Mexico with an opportunity to meet and interact with people who are on the forefront of the liberty movement around the world. The conference site is Merida, the capital of the Yucatan. Merida is a charming and picturesque historical city boasting a main boulevard modeled after the Champs Elysee in Paris. Merida has the additional attraction of being located very near the famous Mayan ruins at Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Major themes of this year's event will be Devolution of Power, Decentralization, and Native Sovereignty. We are bringing the world's foremost architects of devolution and decentralization together to discuss and develop strategies on this very timely subject. ======================= CONFERENCE FEES: =========================== Before March 31, full registration is only $475 ($550 after March 31). Non-members is $599. Registration fee includes the following: -- Five nights (double occupancy) at the Hotel Aluxes, a luxury hotel which includes a swimming pool, two bars, and entertainment. (Note: single occupancy available at $50. per night extra). -- All breakfasts -- Access to all conference sessions, speakers, panels and workshops. -- A tour of the Mayan ruins at Uxmal -- A tour of Mérida -- Opening Reception on October 2 to celebrate the Silver anniversary of the founding of SIL (Society for Individual Liberty) in 1969 -- exactly 25 years ago this date). Cash bar. Canapes will be served. -- A gala closing banquet. -- A post-conference (additional cost) tour of the famous ruins at Chichen Itza is also being organized. Details of cost and time will be announced later. ========================= CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: =========================== * Leon Louw and Frances Kendall (South Africa) Nobel Peace Prize nominees and leading proponents of devolution of power in Africa. * Valentina Buxar (ISIL Rep. Romania) * Alphonse Crespo, MD (ISIL Rep. Switzerland). Crespo is an advocate of home schoolling, and author of a recently published book (France) on private health care. * Dr. Enrique Ghersi (ISIL Rep. Peru). Ghersi is the co-author of the renowned book on underground economies El Otro Sendero (translated as "The Other Path". He was formerly a Peruvian congressman before political opposition was outlawed. * Dr. Martin Krause (ISIL Rep. Argentina) Think-tank president, and libertarian advisor to governments throughout South America, he will address the conference on the Argentinean "miracle". * Michael van Notten (formerly Belgium, now Somalia) ISIL Advisory Board member, constitutional lawyer and ISIL correspondent from Somalia will speak on U.N. evil-doing in Somalia and the virtues of native Somalian "Kritarchies" (his Somalian spouse will accompany him) * A representative (Canada) from the spectacularly successful Canadian Reform Party * John McClaughry. Former state Senator (Republican-Vermont). McClaughry is the author of "The Vermont Papers" (a book that influenced Frances Kendall when she wrote The Heart of the Nation). * Chuck Olson (California) will delight & entertain with his "Who is the Lorax" presentation on free-market environmentalism; * Mary Ruwart (ISIL Director). Ruwart is the author of "Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle", the international bestseller called by some the most important book of the decade. * Jarret Wollstein, (ISIL Director and the modern movement's "Tom Paine") * Plus many, many more, not yet confirmed. ======================== TIPS ON TRAVEL: =========================== Flights from U.S. and major Mexican cities direct to Merida are available. The best deal in international flights, however, are likely to be direct to Cancun. There is bus service on a new highway from Cancun to Merida for only $6.00 U.S. (a 2-hour trip). More tips on travel and health measures will appear in later issues of the Freedom Network News. [ ] YES! I would like to attend ISIL's World Conference in Merida, Mexico. I understand that if I pay before March 31, I qualify for the Early Bird rate of $475 (a saving of $75 over regular fee of $550). Non-member fee is $599.00. I enclose ______________ (For Single Room supplement add $50 per night extra) Name __________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ To register via credit card, call (415) 864-0952 Please make checks out to "ISIL CONFERENCES" and mail to: 484 Church St. Ste 1507, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 2C7. Tel/Fax. (416) 964-0142 ################################################################## SECESSIONIST BATTLE-LINES FORMING IN USA ################################################################## As reported in recent issues of the FNN, the Federal government in Washington, DC has clearly declared open season on the people of the U.S.: the seiges at Waco and Ruby Ridge; the billions in assets being seized for no good reason under civil asset forfeiture; the properties being seized by the Bureau of Land Management under the flimsiest of environmental pretexts. Then there's the scores of Federal mandates which force the states to fund any demented scheme that the Congress may cook up. All of this has brought the country to the verge of revolution at the State level. Indeed it looks as though political civil war is about to erupt between municipal, state and federal bureaucracies across the land. A good example of the craziness of the federal mandates is the decree inflicted upon Florida recently in which the State government (and taxpayers) have been forced, under the federal Endangered Species Act, to protect the Florida panther -- at a cost of $53 million per panther (total cost $2 billion) -- and that's just one of dozens of mandates. In the next issue of the Freedom Network News we will be reporting on: ====================================================================== ** The Sagebrush Rebellion in which the governors of western states are calling for a showdown with Washington -- contesting ownership of public lands, 88% of which are now owned by the Federal government. ** The Committee of 50 States, headed by former governor of Utah J. Bracken Lee, which has drafted an Ultimatum Resolution that calls for automatic secession when the federal debt passes $6 trillion -- or if there is a significant shift in sovereignty to subversive "New World Order" bureaucracies. Legislators in at least three states -- New Hampshire, Utah and Hawaii, will consider passing the Ultimatum Resolution in the 1994 legislative sessions. ** Economics professor and nationally-syndicated columnist Dr. Walter Williams (a speaker at several of ISIL's world conferences) recently called for secession of all the states from Washington, DC in one of his columns. He reports that this article produced the most reader response he has ever received (almost all supportive). More on Dr. Williams in future FNNs. There are many other groups whose activities we will report on in our devolution issue, including the Center for Voting and Democracy which proposes proportional representation in the US in order to break the monopoly stranglehold the two main parties have on the political process (ISIL Director Jim Elwood is on this organization’s Advisory Board). It is clear that virtually all large, politically-centralized nations are in a state of advanced collapse -- and the U.S. is no exception. The situation in the U.S., however, is particularly interesting because there are many legal and constitutional mechanisms for radically restructuring the balance of power between the States and the Federal government -- to the point of secession in some cases. This is a development that our members in places like Russia, Yugoslavia, Canada and South Africa will no doubt be watching very carefully. GUNS BECOMING A MAJOR ISSUE: At a more grassroots individual level, in the face of massive waves of gun control (we call it "victim disarmament") and gun seizure bills in Congress, ordinary citizens are buying up arms in unprecedented numbers -- subconsciously hunkering down for a long siege. As a result of passage of the recent Brady Bill and the truly ominous and Orwellian "Crime Bill" (which closely resembles Hitler's "Enabling Acts" of 1933), secessionist groups have been popping up like mushrooms in many Western states. At this point the spontaneous buildup of arms by the citizenry is more symbolic than anything else -- but with an estimated 780-million guns in the hands of American citizens (high-end estimate reported in the current issue of Handguns magazine), the potential for violent confrontation or a guerrilla war erupting between the government and the citizenry is most definitely there -- one which has the potential to make the conflict in Bosnia positively pale in comparison. Happily the most likely scenario to evolve is a constitutional showdown between the States and Washington, DC with power being devolved back down to State levels (under threat of secession) -- a replay of Magna Carta. It also highly likely that some of the larger more bureaucratically- strangled states will break up into smaller, more politically and economically viable units -- a process which is already underway with current initiatives for the partitioning of California into two or possibly three states -- and the call for partitioning in many of the central- and south-western states. It is the only civilized option -- a shootout with the federal government would be bloody beyond anyone's imagining. We are indeed living in interesting times. ######################################################################## ##################### LAST MINUTE UPDATES ########################### ######################################################################## The following messages were just received on the Libernet Digest computer network. ************************************************************************* GIVE US LIBERTY -- OR ELSE! Wild West's Leaders Warning to Washington: ************************************************************************* At a special meeting in Denver, Colorado on March 13, Utah politicians evoked American Revolutionary War analogies in urging fellow Western state leaders to declare their independence from Uncle Sam. The meeting was to protest the "systematic destruction" of the culture of the rural west by federal bureaucrats. "We have to send another shot heard around the world," said Rob Bishop (Republican member of the Utah House of Representatives) -- referring, of course to the shots that were fired at Lexington and Concord -- the shots that sparked the American Revolution in 1776. A sea of angry westerners in cowboy hats including 200 ranchers, county commissioners, miners, state legislators, and recreationists from across the western US gave standing ovations to every speaker as they damned the federales into the ground. "We've become territories managed by a ruler as remote as the king of England" said Bill Howell, director of the Southerastern Utah Association of Local Governments (alluding to the arrogance of King George toward the 18th-century American colonists) . There were calls to break the bonds of federal tyranny and invoke the 20th Amendment "States Rights" provisions to seize power back from Washington, DC. Republican Rep. Met Johnson, leader of the Utah Legislature's so-called "cowboy caucus," said proposals for putting Uncle Sam back into his rightful constitutional place range from diplomacy to near-insurrection. *********************************************************************** ARIZONA SHERIFF DECLARES WAR ON WASHINGTON, DC *********************************************************************** Richard Mack, the Sheriff of Graham County, Arizona says he refuses to enforce the obnoxious and unconstitutional "Brady" gun control bill. He stated emphatically that he is prepared to die defending the right to keep and bear arms portion of the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. He says the government in Washington has no right to force him to enforce its Draconian edicts. Other County Sheriffs in Arizona are also reported to be considering rejecting the unconstitutional law. In fact, it is estimated that there may be as many as 100 other county Sheriffs joining this rebellion. Another Sheriff from Montana, Sheriff Prince, has gone public with the same statement. Sheriff Mack has appeared on many talk shows in Texas and on Tom Valentine's "Radio Free America" blasting the corrupt politicians in Washington and refusing to be a part of their evil plots. Happily, support is pouring in from across the nation for Mack -- from the National Rifle Association and other 2nd Amendment organizations who have pledged the funds for a lawyer to defend Mack -- right up to the Supreme Court if necessary. Mack is calling for prosecutions of those responsible for drafing such blatantly unconstitutional and repressive laws -- charges of "criminal conspiracy against the rights of citizens" and more. As our good friend L. Neil Smith says, "There is no statute of limitations on crimes against the Bill of Rights -- I say send them all to prison, at hard labor -- making little ones out of big ones . . . and if they die before we get a conviction, we'll dig them up and bury them in a prison graveyard." (I'll drink to that - Ed.) ********************************************************************** In Memoriam PROF. LEOPOLD KOHR ********************************************************************** John McClaughry of Vermont reports that Professor Leopold Kohr died on February 27, 1994 in London. He was 84. He was the author of "Breakdown of Nations", "The Overdeveloped Society", "The Duke of Consejo" and many other libertarian decentralist classics. McClaughry reports that Kohr was also "a warm, witty, twinkly and loveable human being." It is anticipated that interment will eventually be in his native Salzburg or Obendorf. A memorial will be held prior to the E.F. Schumacher Lectures at Yale in October. For more information contact . . E.F. Schumacher Society, RD 3, Box 76, Great Barrington, MA 01230. NEWS FLASH! =========== ********************************************************************** ISIL MEMBER FRANCES KENDALL FOUNDS NEW POLITICAL PARTY IN SOUTH AFRICA ********************************************************************** The Federal Party has just thrown its hat in the ring and already several other parties are merging with it. Frances wrote in a recent fax: "We have got off to a big bang, attracting support from all over. Please put word out the word – we need recognition and support." More in future issues of FNN. ############################################# GET YOUR VERY OWN CULPEPER REVOLUTIONARY FLAG ############################################# Special ISIL member price of only $20.00 + $2.50 shipping & handling. 55" x 36" Black on White background We also have the Gadsden flag (yellow background -- but no "Liberty or Death"). $20.00