Samuel E. Konkin, 3rd
Carrots And Sticks
Reading over past columns for SLR, Your Friendly Neighborhood Anarcho-columnist notices that they have been uniformly negative. Now YFNA is not at all that sort of person who is gnawed upon by a general hatred. So let the brickbats flit out of this dark corner, carrying the corpses of the deviationists they struck, and let a few kudos be distributed.
Since SLR is East-Coast-oriented, let me start by bringing to your attention some Western libertarians who have been all-too-neglected. Robert M. LeFevre, for example, shines in the anarchofirmament with Murray Rothbard, but not, alas, with the same magnitude in this longitude. LeFevre has an excellent journal (LEFEVRE’S JOURNAL, of course) which is free of both deviationism and big words like “deviationism.”
It could be passed on to your reactionary parents and read with enjoyment by them, but gives a thrill to this wild-eyed bombthrower as well. The only thing I disagree with the estimable grand old man of Western libertarianism on is his pacifism, which, when compared to the Partyphilia of some other mentors of our Movement, is like comparing a cold to cancer. And if your libertarianism is objectivist-based, watch it. He will mess with your mind without you even noticing before it’s too late and you may be too far gone! (LJ, Box 2353, Orange, Calif. 92669, contribution of $10 suggested)
Even-handed Lloyd Licher could be credited with single-handedly keeping the Calif. libertarians in alliance since the Browning out of the great Dana Rohrabacher. Lloyd runs the Libertarian Supper Club of Los Angeles; and every month, the Movement gathers at the Taix Restaurant to recharge their intellectual batteries with another speaker (and fill their anarchobellies while they are at it). If you want to meet a lot of libertarians in L.A. quick when you visit or move there, write ahead of time to Lloyd and send a couple of bucks so he can mail you his newsletter and let you know when next they gather well in advance. (Libtn. Sup. Club of L.A. Newse letter, Lloyd Licher, 12536 Woodbine St., L.A., Calif. 90066, $1.50/year until the postal rates go up again)
Dare I forget John Yench? John 15 a reporter for the ANAHEIM BULLETIN, a mild-mannered to boot. Ah, but when he slips into a telephone booth, out comes...another Free Enterprise Forum (libertarian conference, to which he kindly invited me last year, to speak, etc.) and maybe another issue of CHRISTIAN LAISSEZ FAIRE! What? “Christian”? Yes, and hard-core anarchoagorist, too. Did he ever check his premises, you ask? Yes, and he found a big cross over them every Sunday. I find John indispensible as a contact with a whole body of people outside the decadent, unbelieving East and a healthy antidote to the Conservative Christian quasilibertarian Foundation for Economic Education. (CHRISTIAN LAISSEZ FAIRE, Box 772, Anaheim, Calif. 92805. About $2 per year, last I heard)
Seymour (Sy) Leon is a hard-core activist who is also a real live entrepreneur. Sy has taken LeFevre’s old Rampart College and turned it into a profit-making Operation. He has been advance man for Harry Browne, spreading the message to those on whom it will do the most good. He is the instigator and chief honcho of the League of Non-Voters and has received publicity for the Libertarian Movement with next-to-no-investment and no vote-chasing that the Partyarchs would eat their hearts out for. He has so integrated theory and practice (or should I say preaching and profit) to make me eat my heart out. (Seymour Leon, Box 11407, Santa Ana, Calif. 92711)
Christopher Bates is somebody I just had to like. He got YFNA to autograph every copy of NEW LIBERTARIAN NOTES he had in his collection. Chris is also from the Commonwealth (Britain in his case), and a fan. Of perhaps more import to the reader, Chris was in the thick of the San Diego Ten (or eleven, I lost count) Tax Rebellion Case. And he won. And he could be deported at any time (like me, for example) without trial or any other of those statist’s lulls of security. Chris is like a lot of other “immigrants” I know, who had this dream of finding a land full of heroes and Good Guys and, when they found them scarce, became them to fulfill their dreams.
Although gone the way of all-too-many anarchomarriages, that of Sy and Riqui Leon has been the biggest boon to the Calif. Movement for several years. Riqui was the Dolly Madison of the Movement, throwing parties every so often at their Orange County house. Recently she has been prominent in defending Women’s Lib from a libertarian perspective against Arch-Chauvinists such as Murray Rothbard. Riqui has also played den mother to many a libertarian growing up a bit slow.
Before I leave Southern Calif., let me not slight anyone, but simply affirm that there are many libertarians I know well enough to exalt but who have not the general fame for their less persistent endeavors (generally due to working for a living, an affliction found rarely on the E. Coast). And there are others of fame that do not enjoy my personal knowledge, such as Joe Galambos, Natallee Hall and Skye D’Aureous, El Rayo and Naomi Gatherer, and Lou Rollins, whose good and worthy efforts will someday earn them a more adept chronicler.
Let us move up the Coast to the neglected Northwest and stop briefly in Oregon. In Portland you will be utterly unable to find, since he is a confirmed recluse, someone of libertarian bent who cares little enough for “The Movement” *bow, scrape*. In fact, he is the fellow who taught me to write in asterisks like this *praise, praise* and set a revolution in style and literature throughout Science Fiction fandom with his SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW. Richard E. Geis is passing through his middle age, but remains young of heart and Spry of brain, and will probably unfailingly put out some sort of fanzine that will make me drop all my activities and labours when perusing my mailbox and finding him. And have me seek some nice corner complete with couch to curl up and read. So his reviews are infallible in telling you who to read and who not to, though granted, only for form and style. But if Dick is cavalier towards content, his unflinching eye will observe for you who’s saying it well for us and them, and who is botching it. And as his famous “Alter Ego” revealed in WORLDS OF IF, he is a lover of “Romantic” fiction, that which is written for you and not for the literary critic and his set. (SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW, P.0. Box 11408, Portland, Ore. 97211. $4/year)
Still further north, in the Washington area, we find lurking one Joseph Michael Sharp, Mike to his anarcho-friends. Besides trying to get Libertarian Alliances going on Washington campuses, and keeping campus papers hopping with columns, Mike tried lighting torches for Ludwig von Mises, even putting out an issue or two or WERTFREI, a journal of praxeology. When last heard from, Mike was Browning, but I assume not for long. He is being persuaded to grace the pages of NLN with reports from that Dark Area of our communications, and perhaps he will be seen in SLR.
Before we leave the West Coast, let us not forget to cast an aloha over the waves. Although the PACIFIC LIBERTARIAN is gone, Jerrold D. Dickson and his FREE has the Movement in Hawaii relatively pure and lively. Jerry is also a fan, and is building a libertarian alliance of some sort, not scorning our New Libertarians. Hawaii has always been a hotbed of activism, with a libertarian radio station being driven off the air and libertarians being busted in a Census Resistance case, the only such bust from the great Census Resistence organized by SIL in 1970. I’m sure it’s a great comfort to Jerry that I expect him to follow in their footsteps, but perhaps he will tread with greater care. (FREE, Box 2776, Honolulu, Haw. 96803. $5/yr.)
So, says the faithful reader, the West Coast and the East Coast are filled with the great and the good. What a pity that the Middle of the Continent has such a dearth of wise and true! Hah, replies YFNA. Just wait until the next issue.
Samuel Edward Konkin, III, is the editor of NEW LIBERTARIAN NOTES, a lively anarcho-capitalist magazine, and heads the New Libertarian Alliance.
Southern Libertarian Review
Volume 1 Number 9 / March 18, 1975
Pages 2, 9