[894] in libertarians
Pledge DIES in MA!! Join NOW!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vernon Imrich)
Tue Apr 18 19:35:39 1995
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Cc: libertarians-announce@MIT.EDU
Reply-To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 19:34:19 EDT
From: Vernon Imrich <vimrich@MIT.EDU>
MA LP Convention News
Well, one by one the state parties, the parties that actually have
to go out and deal with people are starting to see the light.
As a result of the 1995 Massachusetts LP convention, the Pledge
as requirement of offical party membership is dead.
Everyone who's ever used the membership fee, or the "pesky pldege,"
you have no more excuses! JOIN NOW!!
Here's how it happened:
1) The state law -- now that we are an official third party in MA,
we have two options. Fight political party legal constraints, or
adopt them. One of those constraints is that anyone who registers
under the party monaker is de facto a party member. No fee, duty,
signature, or other requirement can be made. There is some other
stuff in the law, about how members can appoint delegates, vote
and so forth, but nothing controversial (most of it, a very wise
way of organizing by all accounts).
2) The "split" -- rather than spend countless waisted dollars in
legal fees, money which can otherwise go to candidates, outreach
and real political activism, it was decided to "split" the current
organization into two entities.
(A) The Libertarian Party of MA -- is the official party
of the commonwealth of MA. No fee, no requirement. Any
one registering L is a voting party member, able to go
to convention, nominate candidates, and so forth.
(B) The Libertarian Association (a temporary name) -- is
a new organization with the same requirements for membership
and participation that the old party had. It will act in
concert with the party, much like the DNC, DLC, or RNC, GOPAC,
and RLC work with the Democrats and Republicans respectively.
It's control will lie in it's ability to fund candidates
(it's the only entity with a fund base) and influence
delegations.
3) What it all means -- like the current major "public" parties,
the Libertarian Party of MA is now public. We'll have open
primaries for nominations and all of that. Within that structure,
and paralleling the way the D's and R's operate, we'll have a
large fundraising "PAC style" organization that directs the
operations by virtue of it's organizational, monetary, and
intellectual strength.
Like the first Revolutionaries at Bunker Hill, we've come out
from behind the trees and guerilla skirmishes and are going to
have to prove we've got what it takes to fight them for real,
out in the open. Wish us well!
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| Vernon Imrich | market failure, n. The inabilty of the |
| MIT, Dept. OE | market to recover from a blow by |
| Cambridge, MA 02139 | intervention. (The Exchange) |
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| MIT LP: http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/libertarians/home.html |
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