This past June, the Schiller Institute, in collaboration with numerous national and international organizations, revealed plans to conduct an antiwar rally in New York City. The event, named Humanity for Peace, is scheduled to occur in late August, with the location set outside the United Nations building in Midtown Manhattan. However, since its introduction, the coalition has added additional speakers and sponsors, some of which have prompted recent criticism by other emerging party supporters on social media.
Event organizers initially announced that two electorally-active political parties, the People’s Party and the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA), sponsored the upcoming event. Additionally, the non-electorally active political group, the Black Hammer Party, also extended its support to the event. Subsequently, it was revealed that Angela McArdle, the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, participated in several meetings organized by the Schiller Institute, during which coordination discussions for the rally were held.
Since the initial announcement, the Humanity for Peace rally has garnered additional public support, with numerous new organizations and speakers expressing their endorsement. Notably, another emerging political party has thrown its support behind the rally, alongside a presidential hopeful vying for the Republican Party nomination, who has also pledged their involvement as a guest speaker.
Aaron Day, a Republican Party presidential hopeful, was announced as a speaker earlier this month. Day, an author and former Free State Project chair living in New Hampshire, kicked off his campaign in early February. In addition to his antiwar position, Day has expressed concerns about what he perceives as a public health depopulation agenda and has criticized the use of vaccines, expressing caution about their potential misuse as “bioweapons.” He has also voiced his thoughts on the American Deep State and raised concerns about what he views as the indoctrination of children in government schools.
Day has also run for office in the past. Before his involvement with the Republican Party, he was a member of the Libertarian Party and contested the 2018 Libertarian Party gubernatorial primary in New Hampshire. During that primary, he ran against Jilletta Jarvis, the now-former Libertarian Party of New Hampshire Chair. He would lose to Jarvis, who would go on to face Republican Chris Sununu and Democrat Molly Kelly in the general election.
Apart from Aaron Day’s involvement, the National People’s Vanguard, a recently formed self-identified nationalist organization, has come out as the latest emerging party to sponsor the Humanity for Peace rally. The Wayback Machine, a nonprofit specializing in internet archive collection, reveals the earliest records of this organization dating back to the beginning of this month.
Primarily centered in Tennessee based on photos put out by the organization, the National People’s Vanguard describes itself as neither “on the political right like republicans,” nor “on the political left like the Marxists.” The organization aligns with what it terms “The Six Points,” encompassing national syndicalism, American nationalism, advocating for ethnic autonomy and safeguarding diversity from what it perceives as “globalist multiculturalism,” promoting respect for nature, opposing societal decadence, and protecting the concept of family.
Following news of the National People’s Vanguard’s sponsorship of the Humanity for Peace rally going public, some members of the Libertarian community on social media were swift to draw attention to this development. A few individuals raised concerns about the potential connection between the National People’s Vanguard and the People’s Vanguard, a national worker’s group linked to the controversial 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, upon initial examination, the two organizations are not directly associated, as they maintain distinct and separate online identities.
https://twitter.com/rebeccaxlau/status/1684010123243425792
https://twitter.com/LibertySentries/status/1684024067421089795
In addition to including new event sponsors, Humanity for Peace has updated the official event website, introducing a petition urging world leaders to halt all forms of war, explicitly emphasizing nuclear warfare. The petition advocates for an immediate cessation of funding for weapons to Ukraine, prompt initiation of peace negotiations, dissolution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the establishment of a new international security framework aimed at eradicating the “specter of geopolitical tensions.”
[EDITORIAL NOTE: Following the publication of this article, the National People’s Vanguard has deleted its party website and all social media accounts.]
Hi, Beth! Thanks for being a reader.
While small in comparison to other party organizations, the People’s Party associated with Nick Brana does have ballot access in Florida as of 2023. It initially qualified in 2021, making it the first location where it had done so. For a time, it was also the preferred electoral vehicle of Dr. Cornel West until he announced that he would instead seek the Green Party nomination in mid-April. It also announced plans to field candidates in 2022, although I cannot speak to what happened to those efforts. For these reasons, I consider them electorally active as far as classifying organizations is concerned.
The “People’s Party,” is not a party at all. They are not a political committee, have zero ballott access, and operate only as an LLC. They are not electorally active, unless you believe that Nick Brana’s 90k salary, boosted by the presence of the LP on a joint fundraiser LLC, counts as election activity.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Following the publication of this article on 7/26/2023, the National People’s Vanguard has deleted its party website and all social media accounts.
The Schiller Institute was established in 1984 by Helga Zepp-Larouche, the spouse of Lyndon LaRouche.
Lyndon LaRouche was active in The Socialist Workers Party for many years, then formed the US Labor Party in 1969, originally as the National Caucus of Labor Committees.
Lyndon LaRouche advocated an alliance of Marxists and Hamiltons behind a program of massive expansion of government. LaRouche also promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the media often referred to the Libertarian Party or any other third party as being aligned with LaRouche. It was a constant struggle to correct reporters on this issue.
Angele McArdle is not doing the Libertarian National Committee any favors by associating with the LaRoucheite Schiller Institute.
In his book Liberalism, Ludwig von Mises refers to Schiller as a forerunner of German liberalism. So, like the Mises Caucus, the Schiller Institute is libelling an important classical liberal.