LiPSA: How you can help Excited by the possibilities of human freedom, but not sure how you can help? The liberty movement is growing in South Africa. But it is still very small. Many people have never heard of libertarianism, have never considered what South Africa would be like if we were able to operate at our full potential. Our task is to reach these people. LiPSA is the political wing of the libertarian movement in South Africa. LiPSA is for those people who think having a voice in parliament, even a single seat, is a useful platform: for advocating reform, for spreading the message, for introducing bold new ideas into the political discourse of South Africa. Ultimately, the purpose of LiPSA is to serve the liberty movement, not the other way around. Everything you do to help the liberty movement will also help LiPSA anyway – the better we spread the message of liberty, the more people will support what LiPSA is trying to achieve. The long term goal of LiPSA is the liberty movement – to see it flourish and grow and implement the reform we want for our society. However, in the near-term, LiPSA has some very clear strategic goals which you can help achieve. Near term goals of LiPSA This list is subject to change, for a more up to date list, you could join the Google Group “libpartysa” (libpartysa@googlegroups) to join in the discussion. Right now, the primary medium term goal is to get a libertarian into parliament. To achieve this goal, we need a minimum of 37 000 votes in the national election, and these goals will help us to achieve that. Build a community o The goal: Most libertarians are not aware that they are libertarian until they meet and talk to like-minded people. Setting up a regular meeting for freedom-lovers would help us find our supporter base. The goal is to have regular monthly meetings in 30 towns across South Africa. o What you can do: Some people have set up monthly “LibDins”, libertarian dinners, in their local community. Find out if there is one in your area and, if there isn’t, start one! Make more libertarians o The goal: There are people out there who have libertarian leanings, but they need a small nudge to get them to walk the path of believing in the power of human freedom. The goal here is to convince 20,000 new people to join LiPSA as members. o What you can do: If you aren’t yet an official LiPSA member yet, you can join here. If you are, set a goal for yourself, maybe try talk to one new person per week. Make the message accessible o The goal: Everyone is different, and we need many different ways to reach people. The goal is to fill up the LiPSA blog with the voices of ordinary South Africans, explaining and demonstrating the principles of libertarianism. The aim is to publish at least one new blog article per day. o How you can help: Write a blog post! Maybe you can explain why you are libertarian in a way that speaks to someone, or explain how freedom in a specific area would improve the lives of the people involved. Send your writing to admin@libpartysa Bumper stickers o The goal: Bumper stickers are a very visible way of communicating a short message to a large number of people. The goal is to design, produce, and sell 1000 bumper stickers. o How you can help: We need short punchy slogans, creative and clear graphical layout, and we need a printing company to produce the results. Can you help with any part of that? Build the presence on Facebook o The goal: We want to expose as many people to libertarianism, and to LiPSA, as possible. The goal is to get 5000 people to Like the LiPSA Facebook page o How you can help: Make sure you have Liked the Facebook page yourself here, and then build engagement: Share LiPSA posts on your Timeline, and add posts of your own to the LiPSA Timeline. Build the presence on Google+ o The goal: We want to expose as many people to libertarianism, and to LiPSA, as possible. The goal is to get 1000 people to +1 the LiPSA Google+ page o How you can help: Make sure you have visited and +1’d the Google+ page yourself here, and then build engagement: Share LiPSA posts, and add posts of your own to the LiPSA page. Build the presence on Twitter o The goal: We want as many people as possible finding out about libertarianism. The goal is to get 100 mentions of the #libertysa tag per day on Twitter. o How you can help: Tweet! Let people know that there is a solution, and it needs their help. The Culture of LiPSA LiPSA is not a normal political party, it is the public face of a movement. As such, the structure and culture of LiPSA is a bit unusual. It’s less like a corporation, more like a swarm, with a minimal structure. It’s open and transparent and inclusive. There is a central Executive Committee (ExCo)– their role is to set the vision for the party. They are not there to tell you what to do or what not to do, that is up to you. If you have any doubts about whether you are aligned with the vision, you can ask for help at exco@libpartysa. Most likely, they will put you in touch with someone who you can collaborate with to achieve your project. But, at the end of the day, the message you put out there is up to you. Please bear in mind that, officially, any statements you make to the press are your views, and you cannot claim to be speaking on behalf of LiPSA without the ExCo’s permission, but you are more than welcome to speak about LiPSA to anyone and everyone you meet - spread the word! The ExCo also sets goals, but you are free to choose the goals that you think are most important, or where you can add the most value. This structure is very powerful, because individuals who identify opportunities can act on them almost immediately. LiPSA operates on the “1-2-3-go-for-it” principle: If there are 3 LiPSA members who support an idea, they can go ahead and do it. Find two other people who agree with your plan and just go for it: take the accountability, exercise the authority, and accomplish your idea. Remember to have fun doing it! LiPSA needs you! The goals of LiPSA, and of the liberty movement in general, are very ambitious, but they are achievable. We need to work as libertarians: collaborating with each other as far as possible, but also retaining our individuality. If the short term goals outlined above aren’t the ones you would choose, let LiPSA know what you think the goals should be, and your idea to achieve some of them – if you get two other LiPSA members to agree with you, you can go for them. We all want the same thing in the long run, but there’s no reason we can’t each try our own way to help South Africa get there.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 08:01:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015