The National Liberal Party believes the nation-state offers the best defence for democratic rights, as it provides the most stable form of citizenship and encourages communal sacrifice. Unfortunately, there are many captive nations around the world trapped within larger states, struggling to be free. Thus, as believers in the nation-state and self-determination we sponsored the pressure group Nations without States to help coordinate the various nationalist groups. Below is one of their latest reports.

ISSUE 1 of Freedom – the Street Paper of the Nations without States Facebook group – will be out soon!

It will act as our ‘Red Top’ paper and has been written to appeal to readers of the Star, Mirror and Sun. It’ll feature screaming – and sometimes provocative – headlines, graphics, photographs and straightforward reporting. The idea behind Freedom is to provide a simple introduction to the concept of self-determination.

Nations without States – NwS – feels that Freedom is essential in order to promote self-determination to its target audience. Let’s be honest, not everyone is as interested in the rights of small nations as we are. Indeed, it’s a sure fire bet that many of our people will never even have heard of the plight of the Matebele, Tamils, Tibetans, Sikhs and others. Indeed, not many will be aware that the English are discriminated against by Westminster as well!

It’s our intention that Freedom – with its no nonsense and straight-to-the-point style – will initially grab the attention of its target audience. It then has to wean its target audience away from the X Factor, Hello! and various soaps. Then the long process of education must begin.

NwS spoke to one of those involved in the production of Freedom. He noted:

“To some extent the first few issues may well be produced on a ‘trial and error’ basis in both design and content. For instance, in design we’re going to try out different mastheads, colour schemes and typefaces.

Content wise, we’ve previously only really written to a Daily Mail or Daily Express level. So this type of outreach material is very new to us. Try explaining the need for self-determination for several different groups in just a couple of hundred words and you’ll see what we mean!

On saying that, we already have a rough idea of the specific themes for the next few issues. What we’re trying to do is get over the idea that various small nations and peoples want, desire and deserve self-determination.”

He also confirmed that NwS intends to produce publications aimed at readers of the Daily Mail and Daily Express and ‘broadsheets’ like The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph.

“Freedom is essentially a populist agitprop street paper, which’ll be used as a regular leaflet. However, there’s at least two other target groups we need to reach. These people want more than just screaming banner headlines, dramatic artwork and photos. So we’re going to have to cater for them as well. As well as more in-depth papers, this’ll have to include booklets and books and so on. ”

We also spoke the Committee of Nations without States – Jagdeesh Singh, Graham Williamson and Sockalingam Yogalingam. They are under no illusion at the enormity of the task in front of them:

“We’re up against powerful centralised governments who have got a vested interest in denying people self-determination. Some of these governments are openly dictatorial – indeed, they’re not adverse to a spot of genocide. Even some of the ‘democratic’ governments just pay lip service to true democracy and human rights.

They also have lots of money to spend on PR. In many cases they can call upon a compliant media to either smear those fighting for self-determination or simply not bother reporting views which represent an ‘inconvenient truth’. A case in point is the US and UK media blackout of Paul Siwela’s trial – he’s facing High Treason for handing out a few leaflets – in Zimbabwe. As we noted in a recent article (see here: from-the-liberty-wall-nations-without-states-2) this should be big news. But there’s not been a peep out of the press. Why not?”

The NwS Committee continued:

“Given the above situation, unfortunately we have to compare the fight for self-determination to a war. Sadly, we just don’t have the resources, manpower or money to fight these governments head on. Therefore, we have to conduct what may be termed a political guerilla war.

To do this we’ve developed a strategy which includes building different forms of counter-power. Basically we’re going to have to create a parallel system that belongs to the people and not those governments who oppose self-determination.

The first form of counter-power we must build is the infrastructure of an alternative mass media of news and entertainment. This is why we hope to bring Freedom out in the not too distant future.

We’ll be discussing NwS strategy again soon – but in the meantime prepare to get issue 1 of Freedom onto the streets!”

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One of our cherished freedoms (and our party’s core principal) is the defence of free speech. There are many threats to this. One of the latest is the threat of and actual prosecution of individuals for ‘offending’ someone. Section 5 of the Public Order Act allows the Police to arrest someone whose comments might be regarded as ‘insulting’ if they had heard or read it. Free speech of course is meaningless if everyone has to agree with the content and those who claim offence use it to gag ‘free speech’. A campaign backed by the National Secular Society – Reform Section 5 – supported by the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry is calling for this Section to be appealed. We agree. Find out more at http://reformsection5.org.uk/

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Dear RS5 supporter, Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry back Reform Section 5 It’s been quite a busy couple of weeks here at the Reform Section 5 campaign. Last week Stephen Fry ‘Fryed’ the RS5 website when he tweeted his support and thousands of people came to see what the fuss was about. Don’t worry. We had the site back up and running in minutes so lots of new people were able to join our mailing list (“Welcome!”) and use the site to urge their MPs to back reform. On the same day, comedian Rowan Atkinson gave a brilliant speech to MPs and Peers at a Reform Section 5 Parliamentary reception. Within days our YouTube video of his stirring defence of free speech had been viewed over 160,000 times. You can watch it here. Click on the image below to see our video report on the RS5 Parliamentary Reception. Thanks for your support. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @reformsection5 and on Facebook. Yours, Simon Calvert, Campaign Director, Reform Section 5

83 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0HW

Many people know that something is wrong with the system and with those who prop it up e.g. the banks and the politicians. Whether it be corruption, greed, centralisation of power, denial of rights, mushrooming legislation, or the excessive power of financial and commercial interests, the common (ordinary) people are the victims. Indeed, the vast majority of people would also say that something needs to be done to put right these wrongs.

Unfortunately, the many are divided and unorganised and disagree how we can make a change. There are however moves afoot to overcome those obstacles.

Initiating a series of debates organised by a number of organisations and individuals, ranging from the The School of Commoning, Runnymede Project, New Wilberforce Alliance, Occupy London and others, they wish to build a movement of individuals and organisations seeking to end the modern-day slavery caused by the culture of greed and the damage it does to others, ourselves and our planet. They seek to generate mutual awareness of, and respect, for the many starting points that can ultimately lead to a bottom up, influential public clamour for change.

Members of the editorial board of the 4WR (and of the NLP) were invited to attended one such meeting in Portcullis House, Westminster. Speakers included James Quilligan, Paul Moore, Charles Secrett and Frank Taylor and chaired by Peter Challon. Regular readers of the 4WR will recognise Peter as the Chair of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice who gave us an interview in Issue no 153 of our magazine.

Peter Challon explained why an Alliance was necessary to unite the many against the few. No one was offering a panacea to all society’s ills but that a start to change the nature of the system must begin somewhere. Charles Secrett, an ex-leader of the Friends of the Earth, spoke of the threat to the planet’s bio-sphere and the impact to our civilisation. He believed that the means to change already existed in the hundreds of thousands of members of NGO’s up and down the country. The key was mobilising them in a unified campaign.

James Quilligan of the School of Commoning called for a debt-free money issued by a public/central bank (see the NLP’s call for such a bank at http://nationalliberal.org/a-state-bank). Paul Moore, the ex-HSBO whistleblower, also focused on the problem of monetary control quoting Thomas Jefferson’s view that allowing ones currency to be in private hands was even riskier than having standing armies against you. Frank Taylor of the Runnymede Project (and someone who has been interviewed in an earlier 4WR) believed the main question facing the public was, quoting King William III in 1688, who asked “How do you wish to be governed?” He believed there was no single issue but many but all were connected and were ultimately the result of a grotesque concentration of political and economic power.

All in all a thought-provoking conference and a noble attempt to bring together organisations and individuals to challenge everything that is wrong with our society. In the same way that the NLP believes in a cooperative ‘political alliance of the good’ to challenge the political establishment, the organisers believe there needs to be an ‘social alliance of the good’ to challenge the social and economic system imposed upon us all, by a small yet powerful and ruthless oligarchy. We wish them well and will endeavour to play our part and shall keep our readers in the next issue (no.156) posted on developments.

If anyone is interested in receiving details of the speeches please contact us via natliberal@aol.com and if you wish to keep yourselves in the loop please view the School of Comming website at http://www.schoolofcommoning.com.

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To download issue 154 (spring 2012) click HERE

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JOHN PAPWORTH is the founder, former editor and now Editorial Board Member of Fourth World Review – 4WR. He’s also the editor of a local publication called Purton Today, – an “independent journal seeking to relate village affairs to the global crisis and the crisis to the village.”

Purton Today is distributed free-of-charge in the village of Purton, Wiltshire. Its aim is to promote “community empowerment in response to the many mass society crisis factors now overshadowing human life.”

The need to build such a local educational free press is also promoted in this issue of Purton Today:

“We aim to see every small community have its own regular Purton Today style newssheet. Helping to create a sane, neighbourly and democratic basis that can exert genuine influence over the giant forces now destroying the whole works. If we try to control the giants directly experience shows we only become like them. Small is not only beautiful, it is a condition of survival. So let us help change the world while we are part of it. When the curtain comes down it will be too late.”

To get hold of your FREE pdf copy of Purton Today, simply e-mail papworthjohn@yahoo.co.uk

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