Frontlines

Lynn Kinsky | From the November 1974 issue

PEACE AND FREEDOM

There is now a libertarian party on the ballot in California: the Peace & Freedom Party (PFP). The PFP, formerly a mixed bag—including socialists, libertarians, and nonsocialist antiestablishment types—now has a consistently libertarian platform. The libertarian platform was voted in at the bi-annual state convention on August 17-18 in Sacramento, when the libertarians won a majority of the legal delegates. "Frontlines" correspondent Eric Garris reports: The convention marked a climax in the year-long faction fight among the libertarians, the socialists, and a smaller Unity coalition ("party loyalists"). Each faction fielded a candidate in the PFP primary for Governor (a fourth Independent also ran) last June, with Elizabeth Keathley, the libertarian candidate winning. Libertarian Corey Cassanova won the PFP nomination for State Controller, and several other libertarians won local PFP nominations. At the state convention, most of the Unity caucus members joined the majority libertarians in defeating the socialists, after a split in the convention. The socialist group attempted to gain recognition as the "true Peace and Freedom Party," but the Secretary of State is now recognizing the libertarian group as the legal PFP body for the State of California.

The new PFP platform includes planks calling for the following: abolition of all taxes, the Federal Reserve System, wage and price controls, and legal tender laws; U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, NATO, SEATO, and CENTO; repeal of laws regulating and prohibiting ownership of weapons; ending public financed education; withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from around the world; ending all censorship; abolition of the FCC and FTC; repeal of all crimes without victims; ending involuntary hospitalization; ending the Selective Service System; unconditional amnesty for draft resisters and deserters; secession of California from the U.S.; extension of rights to children; abolition of child labor laws; support for persons who engage in tax refusal and organization of massive tax rebellion.

Gubernatorial candidate Keathley is running a full-time libertarian campaign as one of the four candidates on the ballot (the others are Democrat Jerry Brown, Jr., Republican Houston Flournoy, and American Independent Ed Kaiser). She has been getting media coverage almost daily and has a good chance of getting over five percent of the vote.

The Libertarian Party of California, unfortunately, is not on the ballot, due to extremely difficult requirements, and may only run write-in candidates. The PFP is also supporting (not officially in some cases, due to election laws) the following LPC candidates: William C. White for U.S. Senate; William Susel for Lt. Governor; Lloyd Taylor for Treasurer; David Bergland for Attorney General; and Veronica Meidus for Secretary of State. The PFP plans to place the Libertarian Party candidate for President on the ballot in California in 1976, and to provide a vehicle to run libertarian candidates for other offices. (Note: The PFP is not affiliated with any national party at this time and may affiliate with any it wishes at any time).

The Keathley for Governor Campaign and the new libertarian Peace and Freedom Party need assistance in the form of money, supplies, resources, and volunteers. If you would like to help, join, or receive additional information, write to California Peace and Freedom Party, P.O. Box 1202, Free Venice, CA 90291 or call in Southern California [phone] or [phone]; in Northern California [phone].

MAKING IT REAL

Campus Studies Institute is a nonprofit, educational foundation promoting the free market via attractive graphics and brochures, sent to nearly 80,000 college students in the U.S. CSI neither claims nor disavows the name "libertarian," but its recent SimPoSoc game simulation seminar did much to spread awareness of libertarianism. Game simulation is an educational vehicle that defines basic ground rules for a group of participants and then leaves them alone to live as they will within the defined limits of the game. SimPoSoc participant Paul Beaird reports on his experiences for "Frontlines":

SimPoSoc consisted of three games played for two days each. The rules of each game implemented the definition of three kinds of politico-economic systems: collectivist, free, and mixed. Each "society" had the same 30 students participating, divided into four rooms (designated red, yellow, blue and green). Each person had to buy subsistence with Simbucks in order to survive. He could travel to another room only by buying travel tickets. The society contained several basic industries, and one could also invest in various franchises. No real physical force was permitted in the seminar, but one could buy a Simforce to steal a victim's personal assets in the game.

The mixed society game has a session for voting on a minimum wage, at which time it was discovered that the inhabitants of the Red room were totally poor and would "die" in the next session without help. In spite of efforts by the other rooms, the Reds did "die." Then a government-sponsored industry was offered for public bid. Two rooms attempted to collude on a low joint bid, but both betrayed the agreement—and one upset person forgot himself and engaged in a little real physical restraint. (That's only one measure of how personally engrossing the simulations were!) After the Blue room won the new industry—which was favored with government credit—the other rooms were eager to make deals to equalize the benefits, and this was about to make everyone economically dependent upon "Ma Basin," as it was called. Loss of one-quarter of the population, economic conspiracy and betrayal, war, and the evolution of monopolistic dictatorship came out of the voluntary actions of the participants in the mixed economy.

A four-person committee governed the collectivist economy, holding all industries, money, and economic decisions in their hands. The government was basically benevolent and was initially supported by the participants, who voted to squelch one member who agitated to foment revolution. But the boredom resulting from the fact that only the government could participate in goal-setting and other decisions caused many members to join the revolution. The government could not provide enough work to keep people busy; and, not seeing the economic return from their work, nor being able to measure the costs of rewards or further investment in production, the people simply demanded more rewards than they were producing. An election was held, and the revolution party campaigned on the slogan, "Subsistence Is Not Enough." But the voting was rigged and the party in power won. One room responded by rioting, kidnapping the collectivist leader, and stealing Simforce forms. Another room got Sim- force forms through a black market. As this game came to an end, it was outproducing the mixed economy, but another revolution was forming to oust the persons in power. In the free society, no one started out owning a business—one could be purchased by anyone. A lottery, a protection racket, and a massage team were started by those with fewer initial Simbucks. In addition, this society had an extra obstacle to overcome: it was hit by an earthquake which hindered trade. Plus someone actually used a Simforce arrest against one of the richer members.

In the free society there was a noticeable economic shift from too many people investing in businesses to some of them liquidating their holdings and becoming employees of the more successful businesses. The society overcame the "natural" obstacles and prospered enough for one-third of its members to "drop out" and go on vacation, while the remaining members made its production surpass that of the previous two societies.

The intense personal involvement generated in these games is hard to describe, but it comes from the fact that the simulations have ground-rules, but do not tell one what to do. When a person takes on all the risks of choosing a goal, methods for achieving it, and then acts in the face of the opposing actions of the other participants, he has really put himself on the line. He feels personally motivated, and what he learns, he learns deeply.

The 30 college-student participants included three avowed libertarians, two dedicated socialists, and the rest middle-of-the-road, nonpolitical persons. At the end, the general opinion seemed to be that if you were not a socialist, why, then you were a libertarian. The libertarians shared free market ideas with interested students in the evening and succeeded in making everyone aware of the libertarian philosophy. One socialist decided he was now a libertarian, and nearly all of the others asked for information on the Libertarian Party.

For further information on the SimPoSoc Seminar and Campus Studies Institute please write to CSI, 11722 Sorrento Valley Road, San Diego, CA or phone [phone].

NEWS AND NOTES

LP-California gubernatorial candidate John Hospers will be the guest of honor at a gala fund-raising party in Santa Barbara, CA on the evening of October 11 at 294 Via El Encantador. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Ruth Sutton at [phone].

The October meeting of the Libertarian Supper Club of Los Angeles will be held at the Taix Restaurant on Monday, October 14 and will feature a talk by Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D. on "The Biocentric Approach." Reservations will be required for dinner; contact Lloyd Licher, 12536 Woodbine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90066, [phone]. The speaker for the November 5th meeting will be Hank Hohenstein, who will speak on the Abaco—New Country Project.

Sanford Cohen, Free Libertarian Party (FLP) candidate for U.S. Congress, 25th District has qualified for a place on the November ballot by submitting several times the required number of petition signatures. On Wednesday, October 30 at 8 P.M. Sandy will debate his opponents, Fish and Angell, in a forum moderated by the League of Women Voters to be held at the Jewish Community Center in Poughkeepsie, NY.

A Libertarian Alternative group is being organized at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. For more information please contact Dan Phillips, [phone].

A libertarian argument opposing a one-cent sales tax increase in the four-county Southern California Rapid Transit District will appear on approximately 3,500,000 sample ballots being mailed out in advance of the November elections. The tax increase is being proposed for the purpose of building a multi-billion dollar, government-owned rapid transit system in the Los Angeles area. The ballot argument opposing the tax increase was written by Charles Barr, for Libertarian Alternative of Los Angeles.

The Bellingham Libertarian Dialectic is a text-centered discussion program, with each meeting lasting two to three hours and focused on interpretation and evaluation of the central concepts and arguments of the reading. Coming dates and readings: October 13 (Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal), November 3 (Rothbard, For A New Liberty), and November 24 (D. Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom). Meetings are held on Sunday afternoons at 2 o'clock at the home of Richard Kennedy, 505 North Garden Street, #4-C Bellingham, Washington 98225 and all persons interested in libertarian theory are welcome to attend.

The Biocentric Institute is sponsoring a 20 lecture course by Nathaniel Branden entitled "New Lectures on The Psychology of Self-Esteem" beginning Monday, October 21. The course will be given at 1125 21st Street, Santa Monica, CA—for further information please contact the Institute at 9255 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Lynn Kinsky