Students for a Libertarian Society: Difference between revisions

'''Students for a Libertarian Society''' is an activist organization for students in the United States who want to promote [[libertarian]] ideals on college campuses.   

The name and organizational structure were inspired by the success of [[Students for a Democratic Society]] in the 1960s.  SLS was founded in April 1978.<ref>[https://www.libertarianism.org/sites/libertarianism.org/files/magazine-pdf/vol_7_no_9.pdf Libertarian Review, October 1978, Volume 7, No. 9]</ref>  It was organizationally distinct from the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] which had its own, much smaller, official youth wing, the Young Libertarian Alliance.

At its height in 1979 and 1980, SLS had a central national office with a paid staff in San Francisco across the street from the Cato Institute, and dozens of chapters.  It also published a variety of pamphlets and issue papers and <i>Liberty</i> magazine in a newspaper format with a circulation of more than 10,000 copies per issue.   

The National Directors of Students for a Libertarian Society were [[Milton Mueller]] (1979-1981), [[Jeffrey Friedman]] (1981-1982), [[Kathleen Jacob Richman]] (1982), and [[Chris Gunderson]] (1982-83).  Others active in the organization were [[Williamson Evers]], [[Chris Sciabarra]], [[Mark Brady]], Mark Joffe, [[Eric Garris]], and [[David Beito]], who were members of the national board, and [[Paul Jacob]], a prominent illegal draft resister,  [[Tom G. Palmer]], and [[Dave Nalle]], the publications director of <i>Liberty</i> magazine.  Former chapter heads included [[Justin Raimondo]] and [[Alan R. Weiss]].  

The SLS was very active in organizing protests against draft registration during the presidential administration of [[Jimmy Carter]].  It later organized protests against governmental support for nuclear power.  Many members supported the Libertarian presidential campaign of [[Ed Clark]] in 1980 but, unlike the Young Libertarian Alliance and its successor Students for Clark, SLS did not officially take a stand.

Beginning in 1982, the SLS began began to fall apart as a national organization over disagreements between the Radical Caucus of [[Murray Rothbard]], [[Williamson Evers]] and [[Justin Raimondo]], and others associated with [[Ed Crane|Edward H Crane]] and the [[Cato Institute]].  In 1982, it had to make massive cutbacks when billionaire, [[Charles Koch]], withdrew his financial support.  After the last National Director, Chris Gunderson, failed to get replacement funding, SLS quickly collapsed.  It seems to have disappeared as a national organization in 1983 though a few chapters remained active for several years.

Justin Raimondo was involved in an attempt to reestablish a national organization under the aegis of [[antiwar.com]] and led by Mike Ewens of the Washington University chapter, but although some local chapters seem to have been founded not much else appears to have been done on a national basis and the website is offline.  The banner of organizing libertarian students has since been picked up by a new organization [[Students for Liberty]].