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Co-founder of the Society for Individual Liberty
Dave Walter

Associations

Libertarian Party, Chair, Libertarian National Committee, 1988-1991
Liberty International, Treasurer (Board of Directors)

Web Pages

A Brief History of ISIL | Liberty International
Short description of the organizations and key individuals that founded and led to what is now known as Liberty International (formerly the International Society for Individual Liberty)
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.

Writings

Commentary on Slavery in the American South, Freedom Network News, 2001
Letter to the editor, arguing that the right of the Confederate States to secede is "morally neutral" but not if the right is invoked "to continue enslaving other human beings"
I read with interest your article on the Confederate flag being 'banned' in the South. While it was certainly true the North did not fight in order to end slavery, it is certainly true that the South seceded in order to protect and perpetuate slavery. ... I think we Libertarians should say 'a pox on both your sides' and give no moral cover to the South. ... it is certainly true that the ruling class in the South was principally slave owners. ... To draw an analogy, most Americans were against communism without, themselves, being stockholders in capitalist enterprises.
Related Topic: Slavery

Reviews

UpdCriminal Justice? The Legal System vs. Individual Responsibility, by Joseph Sobran, The Freeman, Sep 1995
Review of the title book, edited by Robert James Bidinotto and published in 1995 by the Foundation for Economic Education
There are many fine essays in the book besides Mr. Bidinotto’s four contributions. David Walter, taking a leaf from Bastiat, provocatively suggests that the welfare state is so morally ambiguous that it encourages private individuals to do what the state itself constantly does: namely, grab others' property. If nothing really belongs to anyone, what's so wrong about theft?