The Future of Freedom Conference
The Future of Freedom Conference is regarded as the first explicitly libertarian conference series ever held in the United States. Debuting in 1969, the conference's keynote speaker was Austrian economist Prof. Ludwig von Mises.
The Ludwig von Mises Conference (1969)
More than 200 students attended the Ludwig von Mises Conference that was held at Long Beach State University in May 1969, in response to Young Americans for Freedom's purges of libertarian leaders just before the infamous national YAF St. Louis convention in August 1969.In early March 1969, Dana Rohrabacher and Shawn Steel, co-chairs of California YAF, were removed by National YAF. Many purged leaders and county chairs would eventually organize a new student organization called the California Libertarian Alliance. One of their first endeavors was to hold a gathering of libertarian leaders, writers and economists.
The idea to have some type of gathering evolved into a full-fledged conference at a college. The conference was initially planned and organized under the leadership of Dana Rohrabacher, who was the main founder and chairman of the Libertarian Caucus of YAF from 1966 to 1969. Dana Rohrabacher, known as the "Johnny Grass-seed" of radical YAFers, later became a journalist, a speechwriter for President Reagan, and a U.S. Congressman in Southern California.
Other purged YAF members involved in the 1969 conference included the following:
Gene Berkman, draft resister, later to become owner of Renaissance Books in Riverside, California; Bill "Shawn" Steel, USC student and statewide chairman of Youth for Reagan, later to become an attorney, a founder of the California Libertarian Party, and chairman of the California Republican Party; Ron Kimberling, later Dr. Ron Kimberling, radio show commentator who became executive director of the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Assistant Secretary for Higher Education in the last years of the Reagan administration; Dennis Turner, writer for Reason and computer programmer; John Schurman, psychology major and staff worker for Rampart College.
In 1981 Shawn Steel commented about the reasons for the first conference, writing that "Freedom-oriented people found themselves abandoned, either purged from the right or the left. Because of this political turmoil, we invited decentralists, individualists and voluntaryists in one forum to organize, discuss and study the philosophy we now call 'libertarianism.'"
Other speakers at 1969's Ludwig von Mises Conference included the following:
R. C. Hoiles, longtime publisher of The Register in Santa Ana, California; Robert LeFevre, Rampart College founder and author; Skye D'Aureous, MIT graduate with a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology; John Hospers, philosophy professor at the University of Southern California.
Gary North, a conservative writer for the Christian newsletter Chalcedon Report, was horrified by what he saw at the conference. He accused the participants of "secular libertarianism" which he believed to be suicidal, especially the sinfulness of those who take illegal drugs. Instead of finding a conference hall full of "studious conservatives affirming faith in God and country," North instead discovered "eccentrics waving the black dollar sign flag" of anarchy.
The Ludwig von Mises Conference was sponsored by Long Beach State University YAF, California State University San Fernando Valley YAF, and the Action Coalition for Freedom.
Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberation (1970)
On February 28 and March 1, 1970, the California Libertarian Alliance hosted the Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberation at the University of Southern California, backed by Riqui and Seymour Leon of Robert LeFevre's relocated Rampart Institute in Santa Ana, California. This conference attempted to patch differences between left and right anti-statist and anti-authoritarian thinkers, but failed to generate "any potential Left-Right coalition in the gestation stage."Rebecca E. Hlatch in A Generation Divided, reported "five hundred delegates met to discuss possibilities for a right-to-left cooperation." According to Dana Rohrabacher, he had high hopes of "forming a coalition between libertarians on the right and the pro-freedom elements on the left."
The keynote speaker was former president of Students for a Democratic Society and author of Containment and Change, Carl Oglesby. "Designed to lay the groundwork for a libertarian/New Left anti-war coalition, Oglesby made the case that 'the Old Right and the New Left' were 'morally and politically' united in their opposition to war, and should work together."
Other featured speakers included:
William Allen, University of California Los Angeles economist;
F. A. Harper, founder of the Institute for Humane Studies;
Rod Manis, Stanford University research economist and writer for Rampart College;
John Hospers, USC philosophy professor;
Tibor Machan, an owner of Reason magazine and doctoral candidate at University of California Santa Barbara ;
Karl Hess, former speech writer for Senator Barry Goldwater, Newsweek editor and author of Community Technology;
Dana Rohrabacher, purged California chairman of Young Americans for Freedom;
Samuel Edward Konkin III, chemistry graduate student and editor of New Libertarian Notes at New York University;
Phillip Abbott Luce, a defector from the pro-red Chinese Progressive Labor Movement in 1964, author of Road to Revolution, and recently resigned college director of YAF.
Other notable speakers – at general sessions or in workshops – included:
Harvey Hukari, former chair of Stanford University YAF, and a founder of the Free Campus Movement;
Harry Pollard, president of the Henry George School in Los Angeles;
Don Jackson and Marcus Overseth, gay-rights activists;
Robert Sagehorn, author, editor of the Western World Review and an associate of Western World Press;
Terry Catchpole, editor and writer for National Lampoon;
Skye D'Aureous, MIT graduate with a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology and co-publisher of The Libertarian Connection;
Natalee Hall, co-publisher of The Libertarian Connection;
Willis E. Stone, founder and chairman of the Liberty Amendment Committee;
William Harold Hutt, author and Austro-classical English economist noted for his early work in opposition to South African apartheid;
Harold Demsetz, University of Chicago economist;
Leon Kaspersky, co-founder of the underground libertarian newspaper Protos;
Filthy Pierre, author, "filk" musician, and science fiction convention organizer;
John Haag, co-founder of the California Peace and Freedom Party;
Richard Grant, author of The Incredible Bread Machine;
Stan Kohl, war resister advocate;
Randy Ericson;
Bill Colson;
Don Meinshausen, former YAF activist and a founder of the New Jersey Libertarian Alliance.
According to an article in the USC's Daily Trojan, "the California Libertarian Alliance, also cosponsor of the conference, states, 'The purpose of the conference is to unite libertarians and anarchists who have been active in the right wing and the new left, to find a means by which they can work together, without misunderstanding or antagonism.'"
The main organizers for the Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberation were Dana Rohrabacher, Bill "Shawn" Steel, and Gene Berkman. Steel also emceed. Action Coalition for Freedom and the California Libertarian Alliance sponsored the event.
The Festival of Liberation (1970)
The Annual Festival of Liberation, as it was now being called, attracted over 700 attendees to the University of Southern California from November 14 to 15, 1970, "to promote alternatives to authoritarianism and statism." City editor of the USC Daily Trojan, Linda Bieber, stated that the festival would "focus on the idea of knocking out oppressive and authoritarian cultures by libertarian social revolution and the idea that violent revolution will not eliminate the authoritarians, but instead will trade them in for newer models."The conference featured the following speakers:
Paul Goodman, social critic, pacifist, left anarchist and author of Growing Up Absurd; Murray Rothbard, anarcho-capitalist and professor of economics at Brooklyn Polytechnic; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry from the State University of New York at Syracuse; Phillip Abbott Luce, a defector from the pro-red Chinese Progressive Labor Movement in 1964, author of Road to Revolution; Joel Fort, University of California Berkeley professor, physician and author; Robert LeFevre, radio personality, author and founder of Rampart College; Skye D'Aureous, MIT graduate with a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology and cybernetics specialist; Leiflumen, education expert; Dana Rohrabacher, the student field representative for Rampart College; Robert Love, president of the Love Box company.
Moderator Lowell Ponte was a freelance writer and contributing editor to USC's Daily Trojan, and freelance writer and KPFK-FM radio talk show host. Commenting about the conference, Ponte wrote in the Daily Trojan "...Important as a basis for agreement was a mutual fear of the expanding power of government and the threat to individual liberty it represents. In some cases this fear envisions government, with its manipulative technologies now under development, as an incipient Brave New World."
Workshop sessions were conducted by the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence, founded by singer Joan Baez; the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions; and the Portola Institute.
Movie night included James Stewart's "Shenandoah."
Rampart College, California Libertarian Alliance, and Action Coalition for Freedom sponsored 1970's Festival of Liberation.