December, 2017
Dear Friends of LI,
Thanks to the support by many of you, during 2017 Liberty International continued to spread the ideas of individual liberty and help the growth of a world liberty movement that is working for peace, freedom and prosperity.

  • We held an excellent World Conference in Puerto Rico.
  • We held a special Health Care conference in Austin, Texas.
  • Liberty Camps were held in several countries.
  • The 8th annual China Austrian Economics Summer School was held in Shenyang.
  • Yet more book translations were completed.
  • The revival of the LI educational outreach papers, and loading of a new YouTube video channel are underway.

We plan to do even more this coming year – starring our Krakow 2018 World Conference!
 

Building Networks – Puerto Rico World Conference

Liberty International held its 33rd World Conference August 8-12 at the Fajardo Inn, about 30 miles east of San Juan.  Nearly 80 participants came from 4 continents, including from as far away as Kazakhstan and Mongolia!
Kudos to LI director Lobo Tiggre, who helped find the nice Fajardo Inn venue at a bargain price.  The staff was friendly and helpful, as we found among Puerto Ricans in general.  Our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico, who are only slowly recovering from the two devastating hurricanes just weeks after our conference.
LI president Ken Schoolland assembled a large and talented international lineup of 34 speakers, who presented on a wide range of topics. Countries represented were Venezuela, Sweden, Peru, Poland, Guatemala, Netherlands, Brazil, Mongolia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Romania, Japan, Kazakhstan, and the USA – including 8 Puerto Rican speakers.  Nancy & Geoffrey Nealehelped with hotel liaison and post-conference excursions.
We also want to give special thanks to Tere Nolla, director of the CentroCRECE think-tank in San Juan.  In addition to helping recruit local attendees, she arranged interviews on Puerto Rico’s top talk radio shows for Venezuelan dissident Leonardo Brito and Maria Werlau (USA) – expert on Cuban human-rights violations.  CRECE was founded by free-market-oriented former Puerto Rico governor Luis Fortuno, who spoke at the conference and drew TV news cameras.  A full list of speaker bios and topics and conference videos are on-line at https://liberty-intl.orgpuertorico/
We also had some scholarship students at this event, who helped with conference management and who benefitted from the interaction with the international speakers and participants.  The Charles Koch Foundationprovided funds for conference packages and partial travel allowance for six US student leaders.  Their video testimonies are on the LI YouTube channel (link through at bottom of LI home page). 
Individual LI members also contributed to the Conference Scholarship Fund
One recipient of their support was Isabela Christo of Brazil (who is helping with our website and social media).  She had excellent insights into LI’s important role in building the worldwide liberty movement:

I’ve been part of Students for Liberty in Brazil and it is an amazing organization, but the fast growth is making it impossible to educate all the participants at the same time, it is difficult to find good speakers who can transmit their knowledge in such simple but not superficial way as I saw at the LI World Conference

 Like Nick Sarwark said during one of the dinners: “some libertarians can only argue that “taxation is theft” and I’ve seen a lot of this in my “libertarian generation”. Many students are extremely excited about ideas of liberty, but they don’t know enough and don’t have access to it in their environment. I believe LI could be exactly what we need to better educate young people in the libertarian ideas. I believe that years ago, the problem was that no one knew what libertarianism was, but nowadays I believe the aim is to educate the new libertarians more deeply on the ideas of libertarianism.
I’m still trying to think of ways that LI could do it directly. I believe LI could work as a great “mentor organization” … together with other pro-liberty organizations.  Maybe directly mentoring, maybe with online programs/ classes, maybe with more Liberty Camps, maybe creating a training program for new speakers online…”
We would like to give special thanks for scholarship contributions by Beat & Marijanne Vogel, Jeff Crawford, Dave Hutzelman, and Tom Burlingame.  We also give thanks for generous contributions to LI made at the conference by Ken Robbins, Lobo Tiggre, Kyle Varner, Will & Rita Olschewski, and Bud Bates, and for matching contributions after the conference by Bert Donaldson, Jon Utley, and Charles Test.  And kudos to LI chair Mary Ruwart for organizing the conference fundraising and follow-up matching donations.
We also thank the other generous special supporters of LI operations and various  projects in the past year: Randy Kendrick, Lou Carabini, Scott Banister, Chris Rufer, John Laing/Social Relations of Knowledge Foundation, Kenneth Howlett, Terry & Susan Easton, and Dave Hoesly.

Austin Conference Advances Health-Care Solutions

 LI chair Dr. Mary Ruwart, with substantial  assistance from Nancy Neale, organized a special Health Care conference on March 11th in Austin, Texas.  Along with free-market policy proposals, the program included personal health tips and advice on cost-saving medical tourism.  Speakers included Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey on nutrition and holistic health, Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute on free-market, affordable alternatives to ObamaCare, Starlee Coleman from the Goldwater Institute on the “Right to Try” movement to allow seriously-ill patients to try new drugs that have not yet been approved by the FDA, Dr. Kyle Varner and Dr. David Vequist spoke on medical tourism, and Mary spoke on cutting-edge medical techniques, and the delays in getting life-saving drugs to market courtesy of  the FDA.  Videos of the talks are on-line through the YouTube link on the LI home page https://liberty-intl.org.
Liberty Camps Creating More New Libertarian Leaders

LI continues to assist Glenn Cripe, Jacek Spendel, Andy Eyschen and the Language of Liberty Institute team in their work to spread Liberty Camps to many new countries.  In 2017, LLI held a first-time Liberty Camp in Morocco, plus shorter seminars in Montenegro, and repeat camps in Georgia and twice in Poland.   LLI has now organized Liberty Camps in 28 countries, reaching 3,000 students with the message of individual liberty, ethics, and principles of entrepreneurship.  Add nearly 20 camps in Lithuania and 8 summer camps in Georgia, and the number of students adds up to about 5,000!
The Liberty Camps have transformed the thinking of many of the participants, and created many young liberty movement leaders who have started their own Liberty Camps, outreach organizations and publications, and businesses.
One example is Vlad Tiulchenko of Ukraine:
“ From the first moment of participation in the 2014 Malta liberty camp, I understand that I would like to share this valuable experience with the people from my country. So I became motivated on developing the movement in Ukraine, by being an ambassador of Language of Liberty Institute and organizing three successful camps during the last few years.
Another thing I’ve achieved was a creation and coordination of Students for Liberty movement in Ukraine. By the way, I’ve even got a chance to represent my country in Washington D.C. during the ISFLC2016. And again a connection with SFL members started during the Malta Liberty camp in 2014.
Attending Liberty camps gave me a huge impact on my life. I’ve become more goal-oriented like camp or conference organizing skills, which I’ve never thought I will be able to do. With the networking, I got a lot of friends all around the world and with those people, we have made a lot of partner projects.
At the moment, I’m building my career as an entrepreneur and will be glad to share my professional experience as a speaker for the next Liberty camps. “
We have many such stories of the impact of LI conferences and Liberty Camps on the development of young leaders of the liberty movement around the world.

Expanding Liberty Outreach Across Asia

The 8th annual China Austrian Economics Summer School was held in July at Northeastern University in Shenyang.  About 130 top students from across China attended this academic intensive.  Kudos to Li Zhao Schoolland for her organizing work on these events and other efforts to spread the liberty word in China.  Li and LI president Ken Schoolland also presented at the Unirule Institute in Beijing and at the Silk Road Foundation in Mongolia.
Back in January, they both presented at the Asia Liberty Forum in Mumbai.  Also at that conference, the Malaysian edition of Ken’s book The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey was launched.  It had been organized by Amin Ahmad and translated by the Institute for Leadership and Development (LEAD).  Ken has also conducted on-line Virtual Reading Groups on the JG book in India.  To top off their 2017 Asian activities, Ken and LI have just spoken at the Internationazl Federation of Liberal Youth conference in Beirut!
Also in 2017, libertarian stalwart Tomislav Krsmanovic in Serbia published JG in Ruthenian.  He had previously organized translations in Serbian, Croatian, Bosniak, and Roma (Gypsy).  Lots more details about Ken and Li’s great work for liberty are at his redesigned website www.jonathangullible.com.

The Return of LI Outreach Publishing

We have posted the first six updated LI Educational Pamphlets, with many more coming.  These concise single-sheet tri-fold pamphlets have always been exceptional in their ability to persuasively present libertarian principles and solutions.  In pre-Internet days, the original Society for Individual Liberty and then we as ISIL printed and distributed nearly 5 million pamphlets through local libertarian groups across the US and Canada.
Now, we are making them available to the world via free download from https://liberty-intl.org/publications/  Feel free to spread them around by print or electronic means!

Ambitious Plans for 2018!

Your past support has enabled Liberty International to make great strides in growing the  world liberty movement.  We plan to do much more in 2018!
Krakow World Conference:
We are holding our 2018 World Conference in beautiful Krakow, Poland during August 12 – 16, plus post-conference excursions to the many fascinating nearby sites.  The local organizers are Jacek Spendel and Marcin Chmielowski of the Freedom and Entrepreneurship Foundation (FEF) www.fundacjawip.org,  and Jan Kuban, the new president of the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE) www.pafere.org.  Both are dynamic, active organizations.  More details are on the LI website, or contact LI.  Lots of updates will be coming, especially through LI News e-bulletins.
Conference Student Scholarships:
The Krakow location gives us a golden opportunity to bring in lots of students and young libertarian leaders from the ex-Soviet bloc.  There will also be a nearby Liberty Camp just before the conference, from which some students will attend.  Students will be responsible for their own travel and a nominal conference fee, but they will need help with rest of their expenses.  What new libertarian leaders will emerge from this conference?  We are seeking $500 x at least 40 students, or a budget of $20,000.  A great investment in the future of liberty!
Liberty Camps: Glenn and LLI have many organizers in new countries who are eager to do Liberty Camps, but they need seed capital to launch them.  A typical Liberty Camp needs about $10,000 for facilities, food and travel for key organizers/teachers.
Pending funding, organizers are ready go in Belarus, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kurdistan, Tunisia, and Montenegro – all new countries, plus additional new-country possibilities in Pakistan, Singapore, and Burundi. 
Repeat Liberty Camps look assured in Morocco, Georgia and Poland, but $8,000 in funding is needed immediately to run a repeat Camp in Uganda in February, and up to $100,000 to complete the full slate of LLI Liberty Camps.  Another great way to find and inspire the next generation of libertarian leaders who may change the course of nations!
LI Website Resource Expansion:  We will be adding numerous new Educational Pamphlets and articles on the website, but our main goal is to produce lots of scripted outreach videos based on the LI Educational Pamphlets and on Mary Ruwart’s book Short Answers to the Tough Questions.  We estimate the video budget to be $20,000.

Help Make These Growth Projects Happen in 2018!

If you have received renewal solicitations and not yet donated, please do it now!  Advance renewals are always welcomed.  For Americans, any LI contributions made now will save on your 2017 taxes if made by December 31st!
If you are a past member of LI,  please rejoin and help our further progress!  If you are a LIFE member who has not donated in a while, please consider chipping in some current support!  Feel free to call us with any questions about your status or about LI.
Especially consider joining our Recurring Monthly Donation program.  A modest amount each month may help your budgeting, and even allow you to give a little extra total support for the year.  For example, if you are a $50 annual member, could you handle $10 per month?  Your LI membership will be automatically extended while your pledge is active, which will save us bothering you with renewal solicitations.
For lump-sum project donations, the Uganda LLI Camp is the most urgent, followed by  the Krakow Conference Scholarships over the coming months.  If you are either renewing or joining LI, you may designate your contribution to projects and we will also credit you with a membership extension.  And remember, your LI contributions are tax-deductible in the USA.
Many employers offer matching funds for contributions to 501(c)3 organizations like LI.
And while we hope it’s a long time before the Grim Reaper pays a visit, please consider leaving a Legacy for Liberty by making a bequest to LI when you update your will.
Let’s keeping building Liberty International so we can take advantage of the opportunity to help our courageous members do more in 2018 to build a freer, better world.
Sincerely,
Jim Elwood
Executive Director, LI
PS:  You can receive news articles from the Liberty International world network as often as weekly by e-mail.  Please be sure to give us your e-mail address, and to inform us of any changes!
PPS:  Another way you can help LI become bigger and better.  We need more libertarians to join LI and fuel the further expansion of our work!  Please send us referrals of your libertarian friends who are likely to support our work.  We especially could use your help in reaching foundation directors and major individual donors who are proven supporter of libertarian organizations.  You can e-mail them direct to [email protected].  We will gladly send them LI information.  Thank you!