In a resolution (full text here) adopted unanimously at the 6th Convention of the Libertarian Party of Spain (Partido Libertario) on December 3rd, 2022, Partido Libertario, as part of an extended resolution, voted that it:
EXPRESSES its rejection of the infiltration and takeover strategies launched by the international extreme right regarding the libertarian movement in general and libertarian political parties specifically.
EXPRESSES to the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties (IALP) its extreme concern about the unusual and harmful drift of the United States Libertarian Party, and awaits any related demarches by the IALP, while it reiterates its commitment to this international platform.
DECIDES to freeze relations with the Libertarian Party of the United States for the time being and authorises the Federal Executive Committee to resume them by an absolute majority vote in the event that the said political party returns to acceptable positions.
EXPRESSES its support for the Libertarian Party of Russia in its frontal opposition to the Russian regime and to its criminal invasion of Ukraine, and expresses its solidarity with members and leaders suffering imprisonment, criminal prosecution, forced recruitment, hiding and exile. In Madrid, on this third day of December of 2022.
Jim: The criticism of LPUS does not reference the platform. The drift in tweets and forwards from the national party and some state parties, notably LPNH, and what could be interpreted as support for the Russian fascist invasion of Ukraine, are more to the point.
Freezing ties with US LP is best decision they ever made
The resolution doesn’t say the US LP platform has become extreme right. It mixes discussing the US LP and some Latin American Libertarian parties. To the US LP, it only says that it has displayed “unusual and harmful drift.” It calls out specific ideologies like PaleoLibertarianism as the problem. And, while the US LP platform has shifted in a PaleoLibertarian direction (removing opposition to abortion restrictions) and other attempts were made (removing language condemning bigotry), its main concern appears to be sympathy with Russian aggression.
The US LP just tweeted on 12/19/22 that the US shouldn’t choose a side in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Apparently, that doesn’t just apply to US government involvement, but also to the tweets of moral support from a non-ruling party.
Meanwhile, back in March of 2017, the US LP issued a resolution condemning the government of Cuba for the unjust arrest of Cuban libertarians, saying “Libertarian activism worldwide must not be deterred by the attempts of authoritarian leaders, totalitarian governments, and dictatorial regimes to silence the voice of freedom. We condemn any acts of official oppression, and uphold the promotion of limited government and free markets in any country.”
That would be “unusual and harmful drift”, from condemning oppression and supporting freedom loving people worldwide to refusing to say even the slightest negative thing about a dictator’s enslavement of hundreds of thousands of his own citizens and the murder of hundreds of thousands of others in a neighboring country.
While I can appreciate PL’s concerns over the Hoppean inspiration, far-right olive branches, and populist right unity approach of the leadership of our LP’s controlling caucus, I don’t know which “acceptable positions” they feel the U.S. party must “return to” because they provide no specifics. The platform in its current form is hardly a document of the “extreme right.”
If this is the first of many it could be significant.
Everyone can see it except the Mises Caucus rank and file.