On October 2, 1969, three ex-YAF leaders – Don Ernsberger, David Walter, and Jarret Wollstein, met near Philadelphia and formed the Society for Individual Liberty (SIL), the first explicitly libertarian organization, which later transformed into Liberty International (LI). LI is an association of individuals and organizations dedicated to building a free and peaceful world, respect for individual rights and liberties, and an open and competitive economic system based on voluntary exchange and free trade.

SIL published radical, philosophical pamphlets and The Individualist magazine, started Tax Protest Day and Census Resistance and held national conferences. Members of SIL’s network went on to form leading movement organizations such as the Libertarian Party, Laissez Faire Books, Cato Institute, Reason Foundation, and other organizations and publications.

The activities launched by SIL were subsumed by the Libertarian Party, and the organization faded during the 1980s. In fact, David Walter became Libertarian Party national chair, and Don organized the 1989 Libertarian Party national convention in Philadelphia.

LI currently has members and representatives in over 100 countries. Some of our now underway projects are Project Arizona, Libertarian Solutions online learning course, Liberty International World Conference, Socratic Reading Circles, Liberty Camps, Migration Index, Jonathan Gullible Cartoon, to name a few.

Since 1982, we have held 36 Liberty International World Conferences (LIWC), 33 of them outside the U.S., with many of them across Europe, plus North and Central America, South Africa, New Zealand, China, Mongolia, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, and recently in Madrid, Spain.