ALTHOUGH THEY might disagree, people who belong to the Libertarian movement are successors to the Anarchists of the last century. Libertarians believe all govern- ment to be essentially bad gov- ernment and devote themselves to trying to find ways to rid themselves of as much of it as possible. Every election a few of them run as Libertarian candidates, theoretically so they may win enough votes to form a govern- ment that can then emasculate itself. Only near relatives and a few political adventurers vote for them, and they invariably lose their deposits. One of their problems is like that of the old Anarchist move- ment. Since true anarchists op- posed all forms of organization, they violated their own code when they formed an international anarchist association, and, apart from a few bombings and the assassination of one American president whom you would be hard put to remember, the move- ment faded away in endless argu- ments about disorganizing the or- ganized. This will introduce the guest columnist for today, a British Columbia Litertarian named Jack Boulogne. These are excerpts from acolumn he wrote for Wes¢ Coast Libertarian in the March issue. He is writing zhout the situation in Russia where freedom arid democracy are now said to reign. “Tt is rather frustrating these days to hear the words ‘freedom Paul St. Pierre _} PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES and democracy’ said in the same breath. One cringes if one is a Libertarian and understands how often democracy is the deadly enemy of liberty. “Then there is this nonsense about heavy sacrifices having to be made by the downtrodden masses before the benefits of the free market will become evident. “‘When Lenin put in the New Economic Policy the economy perked up immediately, not after months and years of scarcity, unemployment, intolerably high prices, starvation and uncured ill- ness. “‘How the hell is an economy to be kick started by all these depri- vations? “The truth is ... those in power are engaged in a desperate struggle to rescue as much of the old Soviet regime as possible. They are not looking for a new economy but for a new system of taxation. “*Then there is this nonsense about high prices in Moscow. A loaf of bread is sold at the equivalent of 35 cents. This is hardly a high price. “They are going about the free market revolution completely the wrong way. How can you have an ‘orderly transition’ to a free mar- ket system without having a tran- sition to a free market bureaucra- cy? “Boris Yeltsin should use the words of Martin Luther King. ‘Let freedom reign.’ “Go home, bureaucrats. Get an unlicensed shovel from the local black market hardware and start digging in the garden so you can grow uninspected tomaioes to seil. “If you can’t do that, sell your brains to some schocl or manufacturing enterprise or seli your bodies on the street corners. **Workers of the world, get to work!”” Mr. Boulogne points out that at the end of the Second World War, Japan and Germany were not only bankrupt, they were also devas- tated. Then why do they now move and shake the whole world? Because, contends Mr. Boulogne, having become bankrupt they no longer had na- tional debts. They also did not have marketing boards or consul- WV sends friendship letter to Quebec THE PRESENT West Vancouver mayor and five former mayors of the municipality have sent a “‘message of warm friendship’’ to the mayor and council of its twin city, Verdun, Quebec. The letter was signed by Mayor Mark Sager and former mayors Don Lanskail, Derrick Hum- phreys, Peter Jones, Alex Forst and Tom Brown. . “The need for better under- ‘Collingwood School Country Fair Saturday, April 25th, 1992 standing and active channels of communication has never been greater than at the present mo- ment of crisis for Canada,‘’ the letter stated. ‘‘Too often the lines of communication between regions of our country become clogged with negativism.’’ The present and former mayors wrote that the ‘‘deep and widespread feelings of affection for Quebec which exist in this part 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. of Canada often go unexpressed.” The group added that the friendship message was an initia- tive to voice support for constitu- tional change that will result in 2 united Canada within which Quebec ‘‘will have the means to both defend and enhance the lan- guage and culture which is not on- ly vital to Quebec but also an im- portant asset to the nation as a whole.’’ 2 ne =a Country Kitchen * Baking *« Raindrop Cafe % Food Fair - International * Burgers ‘n Dogs * Treasure Chest * Bottle Stall * Country Crafts * Games & Entertainment * Tea Room * Silent Auction * New Book Sale * Raffle * New To You * Garden Shop & Bedding Plants * Candy Store * Midway for Children * Olde English Pub * Fun Galore & Much Much Morel SEE MAP ON RIGHT FOR COLLINGWOOD SCHOOL a FO MORVEN DRIVE WEST VANCOUVER 925-3331 Friday, April 24, 1992 - North Shore News - 9 Is democracy liberty’s deadly tants specializing in making tran- sitions to free markets. “‘The concept that has to be destroyed once and for all is that governments run economies. They mostly run them into the ground. “It is people who run economies. Just as church and State are separated, we should in- sist that the state stay out of the economy. **If the state needs money, then it had better provide something that the people are willing to pay money for. **All the U.S.S.R.'s currency problems could be solved by MasterCard in a few weeks. It is true that pensioners would be in trouble, but they are in trouble anyway if they get their pensions in Monopoly money. “‘The state is the problem, not the solution. Government is not harmless folly but a dangerous fraud.”’ enemy? This is the sort of thing that makes the West Coast Libertarian a refreshing change from the met- ropolitan press and television news whose editors, day in and day out, week in and week out, somehow always end up with the same stories for major display, such stories being usually politically correct ones. In an older, happier era, such as the turn of the century when the little town of Vancouver nourished half a dozen vigorously competing newspapers, the West Coast Libertarian, published from 1180 Falcon Dr., Coquitlam, would have been one of those contending. It would have reached a far greater proportion of the popula- tion than it does today, and it would have made far more friends and far more enemies, as a good, opinionated newspaper should. ECR. 2 North Vancouver City Library 121 W. 14th Street, N. Vancouver