Friedrich von Hayek famously voiced his concern that without the necessary intervention, Britain could tumble down the unfortunate path to a more centrally controlled economy and society. He would be reassured to know that his advice on how to avoid this trap was not in vain; today, the liberal movement (with its European definition) is rapidly picking up speed.

Liberalism has found its way into the hearts of young activists. Thanks to the Liberty League, the UK’s network for freedom loving students and young people, university societies are being founded, or re-established, to collect free market, socially liberal students together. Five years ago there were three university societies committed to freedom – presently, over 30 universities can boast pro-freedom societies or groups around campus.

The Economist rightly highlighted two key institutions that have helped bring about this resurgence. To help bring student activists together, Liberty League holds the annual Liberty League Freedom Forum – a weekend of seminars and talks by individuals dedicated to preserving liberty. Attendance in April this year was at 230, up from just under 100 in 2011, the year it began. With speakers on natural rights, social justice, transport policy, the NHS, and training workshops on fields like public speaking, public relations, student activism and journalism, the weekend caters to all kinds of classical liberal areas of interest. Inclusive and engaging, it is a place for the mutual exchange of ideas, facilitated by distinguished speakers.

Similarly, Freedom Week is a summer course in Cambridge designed to provide further education for 40 students of classical liberal persuasions; when it was first introduced five years ago, there were two applicants for every place. This has since sky-rocketed to five applications per place.

The Economist also showcased the extraordinary momentum behind British classical liberalism. The British population is becoming more and more disillusioned with the welfare state: young people disproportionately so. Just 20 percent of people born after 1979 polled by Ipsos MORI believe we should increase welfare for the poor even if it results in higher taxes – the lowest of all age groups. YouGov polling shows that 18 to 24 year olds are the only age group showing a net positive attitude towards prioritising deficit reduction over growth. The trend shows that young British people today are more economically and socially liberal than previous generations were at this age.

Young people are not just interested in classical liberal schools of thought, as shown by polling, but more willing to engage with active efforts to promote a liberal agenda and liberal policy. This will in no small part be due to the failure of all three major parties to represent this viewpoint, leading to a generation of young people who feel unrepresented and politically disillusioned. However, classical liberal think-tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute offer internships and educational opportunities to students who want to understand liberalism better. These organisations provide the relevance to students that political parties lack, encouraging the pursuit of knowledge, and crucial space for debating ideas freely and openly.

As a movement, liberalism is more organised in Britain than it has been in decades. Groups dedicated to pushing forward with a pro-freedom agenda encourage others who suspect they might be sympathisers, to discover more about the what, why, how of classical liberalism. This trend is in concert with an ever-increasing number of liberty-minded think tanks, promoting a better understanding of what we stand for and helping address common misconceptions about what it means to be liberal.

As a few passionate, activist liberals take responsibility for advancing the cause, many more liberals across Britain are becoming more willing to speak out about their views. This is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. The upward trajectory that liberalism has enjoyed in the preceding years is only set to become more pronounced and more rapid as young freedom lovers realise there is an ideology and a broad movement they can call home.

Statement from Students For Liberty on President Obama’s visit of Berlin on June 19th – Marking the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s speech “Ich bin ein Berliner”

Berlin/Washington, June 2013 -  Call to Trans-Atlantic Leaders for a Renaissance of Personal and Economic Liberties

President Obama’s visit to Berlin truly symbolizes how closely the US and Europe are tied to each other. In the past, most notably in the second half of the 20th century, the EU and the US stood together for peace, protection from totalitarianism, prosperity, and the superiority of markets and individual decisions over central planning and authoritarian collectivism.

Youth on both continents fear that the common denominators of Europe and US have changed in the last decade.

Alexander McCobin (US), Co-Founder and Executive Director of Students For Liberty International, elaborates: 

“Both players are not perceived as guarantors of peace and stability but as interventionists around the globe. The so-called wars on terror and drugs are just two examples of many foreign interventions. Government intrusion in individuals’ life and their privacy is a worrying and growing trend on both sides of the pond. Growing numbers of police brutality cases or the just uncovered PRISM program manifest this trend.”

Frederik Roeder (Germany), Co-Founder of European Students For Liberty, adds:

“A quarter of Europe’s youth is without a job – Almost one out of five young Americans has no job. Growing government spending, an increasing public debt, and more regulations cripple the global competitiveness of Europe and the US. The debt of today is the tax burden of tomorrow, which our generation will have to pay. Young people have to face an uncertain future with unsustainable welfare systems, high public debt, and inflexible labor markets, which have high entry burdens and thus make it nearly impossible for unemployed youth to enter.”

The North American and European Chairmen of Students For Liberty, Matt Needham (US) and Aleksandar Kokotovic (Serbia) conclude:

“As young leaders from Europe and the US we would like to be able to say “Ich bin ein Berliner” and “I am a Washingtonian”, but those phrases should be associated with peace, prosperity, and a promising future for the youth on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus we endorse a renaissance of personal liberties and economic freedom in Europe and the US and ask European and American leaders to stay out of people’s lives and foster growth by deregulation and austerity.”

Students For Liberty (SFL) is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to provide a unified, student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty. Students For Liberty is the world’s largest pro-liberty student organization with over 800 affiliated groups worldwide. SFL is on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. 

European Students For Liberty (ESFL) is a project of SFL begun in 2011. Today, ESFL has expanded to more than 30 countries and 165 universities across Europe within the last 24 months.

SFL International seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of liberty and civil society with programs that focus on freedom of speech, individual and economic liberties, student rights, lectures, free books, and an alumni network.

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CONTACT

Washington, DC: Megan Roberts, Communications Manager, Students For Liberty, mroberts@studentsforliberty.org

Berlin, Germany: Frederik Roeder, Co-Founder European Students For Liberty, froeder@studentsforliberty.org, +49-173-5389716

The summit is free to attend and will include breakfast, lunch and drinks at our social afterwards. For more information and to fill out the brief application to attend, visit the main event page. Make sure to apply today so you don’t miss out on this great opportunity for professional development and networking with other women in the movement!

If you have any questions regarding the summit please contact SFL’s Director of Events, Kelly Jemison at kemison@studentsforliberty.org.

A slow but steady trickle of eighteen young men and women made its way to the foot of the Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia, whose golden cupulas reached up into the cloudy morning sky. I couldn’t help but feel a certain spark of excitement in the air as hands clasped and smiles flashed. These weren’t your average young people in Bulgaria. No – not when the names and thoughts of great thinkers of the past were heard eagerly escaping their lips. Bastiat, Mises. Non-aggression. Praxeology. Where were these self-made intellectuals going? To the first Bulgarian Libertarian Society Libertarian Leaders Seminar, where they would make history by helping to lay the foundations of a free society in Bulgaria.

The seminar was held over the course of June 1^st and 2^nd at a hotel in quaint Bankia, near the capital city. The participants ranged from high schoolers to young professionals just out of college, and each gave a presentation on the topic of his or her choice on Saturday. Representatives from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the audience were served insights into the education system, free market competition, the welfare state, the theory of monopoly, the economics Eastern countries, and drug legalization.

When I went to my first ever libertarian conference in the US, I was fascinated and pleased to notice the academic discussions spilling over from the lectures into the coffee breaks. This seminar in Bulgaria continued the tradition with numerous engaging discussions on classical liberalism during lunch and all around the first floor after the end of presentations. Saturday ended with a social event, where all participants bonded and shared their experiences in forming and leading libertarian groups around Bulgaria.

After a good night’s rest and a lively breakfast, we reconvened on Sunday for a presentation on the philosophy of classical liberalism by Asparuh Panev, of the Naumann Foundation. Afterwards, we split up into teams (formed through spontaneous order, of course) to brainstorm possible project ideas to help grow the movement and bring libertarian ideas to a wider audience. These included creating a comprehensive libertarian reading list in Bulgarian, producing new videos teaching economics and philosophy, translating important articles from English, creating an online libertarian discussion forum, and devising a way to improve the rhetorical skills of presenters to better convey the message. All the groups joined up again and we presented our ideas to everyone, with BLS chairman Stoyan Panchev moderating the discussion. After the conference drew to a close, we left the hotel feeling satisfied, energized, and armed with ideas ready to create a better Bulgaria.

Was the seminar a success? Beyond all my expectations! Bulgaria is still mired in a stagnant transition period between socialism and capitalism, and it lacks a distinct intellectual climate in regard to political theory. Parties tend to come and go with the empty promises they make and with money they manage to steal. In a country so indoctrinated in the failed ideology of socialism, it’s inspiring to see these bright, young libertarians who are so dedicated to the cause and who can express themselves so eloquently.

Considering that the Bulgarian Libertarian Society was only formed last year in April, this seminar was indeed a great success. We’re gaining a foothold, however small, in high schools, colleges, and the media. As long as our group can receive the support it needs to fight the massive war chest of the ever-present crony capitalists and socialists, we can win the war of ideas.

Anyone who uses the internet should consider using strong encryption to safeguard personal information and private communications.

 Why ? Consider the recent news highlighting the extent of NSA surveillance. Almost all telecommunications (e.g. email, social networks, voice calls) operate through central service providers that store records of all user activity. As a result, the Feds can easily access that data without a warrant by requesting it through a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) request or National Security Letter (NSL).

But what if someone  has nothing to hide from the government? The NSA’s strategy of massive data mining and indefinite storage in centralized data centers still leaves many areas for concern. A concentration of sensitive information is a treasure-trove for malicious hackers. Even if the government thwarts all external attacks, consider how much data was available to leakers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. As Snowden admitted in his interview with Glenn Greenwald, it would have been quite lucrative for him to sell data to foreign intelligence agencies. It’s not hard to imagine far less honorable government employees abusing their power for criminal gain. If the government cannot protect its own secrets why trust it to protect yours?

How does encryption work? First, an encryption algorithm takes two inputs, the data to be encrypted and usually an encryption key. The algorithm then applies its complex series of mathematical operations, potentially altered by the key, to the data. The output will be unreadable text. Encrypted data is similarly decrypted using a decryption algorithm and a decryption key.

 To offer an example, we’ll examine Bitmessage, a peer-to-peer communications protocol. Bitmessage allows users to send and receive encrypted messages. Think of it as a substitute for email. Instead of email addresses and passwords, users can generate 36 character addresses along with public keys (encryption keys) and private keys (decryption keys). Bitmessage, similar to Bitcoin, runs on a decentralized distributed network, meaning that messages do not run through a central server.  Instead, each user’s client/software forms incoming and outgoing connections with a limited number of random clients. New messages are forwarded throughout the network, thus distributing all messages to all users running the software. Users do not know the intended recipient of messages. Instead, each user’s client will attempt to decrypt each message using previously generated private keys; if it is successful then the message was meant for that user. As a result, Bitmessage hides the identity of original sender and recipient. This feature can be especially useful considering that the National Security Agency is collecting vast amounts of metadata from Verizon. Analysis of metadata, or non-content data, can reveal much more than the content itself.

Tools such as Bitmessage could become much more popular in the near future. In the past, technical expertise has posed barriers for wide adoption of encryption technology. However, the growing threat of government surveillance and recent advances in hardware and software could make wide adoption more likely. Like Bitcoin, websites could be developed to integrate Bitmessage and provide interesting statistics about the network while mobile applications and QR codes could reduce the effort required in dealing with 36 character long addresses. A detailed guide to installing and using Bitmessage can be found here.

 Of course Bitmessage is not the only encryption application you can use. Timothy Lee offers a list of other useful tools and tips for anonymous internet browsing, sending encrypted chat, securing phone calls, and thwarting cell phone tracking. In the future, encryption could become mainstream but in the meantime, the government is racing to catch up with the world’s fastest supercomputer.