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Liberty International

Formerly International Society for Individual Liberty, "advances world liberty for everyone through international education and networking"
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  • FreedomPedia
    • Liberty International

    Liberty International (formerly International Society for Individual Liberty or ISIL) is a non-profit, libertarian educational organization based in San Francisco. It encourages activism in libertarian and individual rights areas by the "freely chosen strategies" of its members. Its history dates back to 1969 as the Society for Individual Liberty, founded by Don Ernsberger and Dave Walter. The previous name (ISIL) was adopted in 1989 after a merger with Libertarian International was coordinated by Vincent Miller, who became president of the new organization. Jim Elwood is the current executive director, with board members including Mary Ruwart and Ken Schoolland. The organization has members in over 80 countries.

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    Individual Liberty
    Casey Youth Conference on Liberty and Entrepreneurship

    Home Page

    Liberty International
    Includes information about Liberty International World Conferences, Liberty Camps, publications and a blog

    Address

    San Francisco, California

    History

    A Brief History of ISIL | ISIL
    Short description of the organizations and key individuals that founded and led to what is now known as Liberty International
    "ISIL began in 1980 as Libertarian International, founded by Canadian libertarian activist and publisher Vince Miller. LI started the international libertarian conferences in Zurich, Switzerland in 1982. The current ISIL was formed in 1989 through the merger of LI with the Society for Individual Liberty, the first explicitly libertarian grassroots organization which had been founded by Jarret Wollstein, Dave Walter and Don Ernsberger in 1969. The original SIL emerged out of an historic split between conservatives and libertarians at a Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) conference in St. Louis, Missouri in 1969."

    Mission

    Who we are | Liberty International
    "Our mission is to enhance the success of the international freedom movement by facilitating collaboration between the individuals and initiatives that are promoting liberty around the world."

    Conferences and Conventions

    15 Jul - 20 Jul 2005, ISIL 24th Annual World Conference, in Cologne, Germany
    21 Jul - 26 Jul 2004, ISIL 2004 World Conference, in Rotorua, New Zealand

    Staff and Associates

    Jim LarkSecretary (Board of Directors)
    Vince MillerPresident, 1989-2008
    Mary RuwartChair of the Board of Directors
    Ken SchoollandDirector, VP for International Relations
    Dave WalterTreasurer (Board of Directors)
    Jarret WollsteinCo-founder, Society for Individual Liberty; Director, ISIL

    Web Sites

    ISIL Freedom Network
    This, in part, inspired the creation of FreedomCircle.com
    "Browse the links below to find libertarian and pro-freedom websites, organizations, e-texts, books, action opportunities, and much more. ... This resource directory was established in 1995 as part of Free-Market.Net: The Freedom Network. It is now published by ISIL."

    Web Pages

    ISIL media - YouTube
    YouTube channel of the International Society for Individual Liberty
    The Advocates for Self-Government Dr. Mary Ruwart
    Includes photo, biographical profile, quotes from Ruwart and from reviews of Healing Our World
    "Healing Our World has been published in Russian, Serbian, Lithuanian, Rumanian and Croatian, in addition to English. The International Society for Individual Liberty has established a fund that accepts contributions for further printings in Eastern European nations. 'The Martie Ruwart Memorial Fund' is named after Ruwart's sister, who died in 1992 and was a staunch supporter of the book. ... Dr. Ruwart is an in-demand speaker on libertarian ideas ... She has spoken on libertarian communication, and other topics ... at International Society for Individual Liberty gatherings ..."
    Related Topic: Mary Ruwart

    Articles

    David F. Nolan - The Advocates for Self-Government
    Includes photo, biography and the essay "Nolan: Innovator for Liberty" by James W. Harris
    "In late 1968, the Liberty Amendment Youth Council was dissolved. [Nolan] turned over a copy of the organization’s membership list to another young libertarian he'd met, Jarret Wollstein, who used it to launch the Society for Rational Individualism (SRI), one of the first modern libertarian organizations in America. SRI quickly evolved into the Society for Individual Liberty (SIL), for years one of the most important organizations in the liberty movement. In 1989, SIL merged with Libertarian International and Groundswell-USA to become the International Society for Individual Liberty that we know today."
    Jeff Riggenbach on Samuel Edward Konkin III, by Jeff Riggenbach, Freedom Network News, 2004
    Lengthy biographical and memorial essay
    "Also, Sam writes as though SIL, the Society for Individual Liberty, already existed at the time of the St. Louis YAF convention. Its predecessor organization, the Objectivist-oriented Society for Rational Individualism (founded by Jarret Wollstein), had existed for about a year at that time. Still, this is somewhat misleading. SIL was founded in St. Louis in 1969, while the YAF convention was underway across town."
    The Case For a Libertarian Political Party, by David Nolan, The Individualist, Aug 1971
    A few months before founding the Libertarian Party, Nolan presents his rationale for establishing a new political party, after discussing four other libertarian activist strategies and admitting that "political approaches are inherently coercive"
    "Four years ago, at the YAF convention in Pittsburgh, there was born a unique coalition - the coalition that is known today as 'the libertarian movement'. ... Where, in 1967, we had no organizational home save the semi-hostile Young Americans for Freedom, today we have the Society for Individual Liberty."
    The Story of Roy A. Childs Jr. (1949–1992), by Jeff Riggenbach, 21 Jan 2011
    Biographical essay; transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcast of 12 Jan 2011
    "The fall of 1969 was, of course, a busy season for the nascent libertarian movement. At the same time SRI [Society for Rational Individualism] had jumped the Randian ship and turned Rothbardian, the student activists who had made up the Libertarian Caucus of the conservative youth organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) had decided to walk out of YAF en masse and seek institutional support for their activities elsewhere. That fall, SRI merged with the former Libertarian Caucus of YAF to create the Society for Individual Liberty (SIL)."
    Vince Miller and the International Libertarian Movement, by Jeff Riggenbach, 1 Jul 2010
    Biographical essay; including background information on the libertarian movement of the 20th century; transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcast of 23 June 2010
    "By the end of this meeting, the Society for Rational Individualism had taken on several of the old YAF Libertarian Caucus leaders as directors and transformed itself into the Society for Individual Liberty (SIL), the first libertarian institution established by the first generation of libertarians for whom the libertarian movement was already a fact of life by the time they got old enough to be interested in ideas ... In 1989, the Libertarian International merged with the Society for Individual Liberty and became the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL)."

    Publications

    Freedom Network News: The Journal of the International Society for Individual Liberty
    Bi-annually, issues from June 2001 to December 2007

    The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Liberty International (organization)" as of 20 Jul 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

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