SFL Around the World: July 2017

Here’s what SFL-ers around the world accomplished this July:

LibertyCon International Continues to Attract Big Speakers!

The LibertyCon International line-up continues to grow! Additions this month include Canadian member of parliament Maxime “Mad Max” Bernier and President & CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Johnny C. Taylor.

LibertyCon is many things, but most importantly, it’s a place for liberty-lovers of all ages to meet, plan, learn, and have fun. 

Take it from Natalie Le, a Campus Coordinator at Harvard University and an SFL veteran:

“LibertyCon is the best conference for liberty-minded individuals world-wide. I learned from top-notch speakers and networked with passionate students and professionals, who deeply care about creating value in society. The content and life-long friendships I’ve made helped me to become the student leader that I am now.”

See more here and register soon!

Charter Teams

Liberty is back! Our leaders spend the last few months meticulously preparing a series of events that took place in July. First off was our newly-launched group in Singapore, led by Bryan Cheang and Donovan Choy. Their presentation on “LGBT Rights and Market Capitalism: Friend or Foe?” attracted over 50 students and might well be the most successful launch event an SFL group has ever had.

The second big July event certainly was a conference hosted by SFL Philippines on July 21-22, which brought in more than 60 people. Speakers included Business Week columnist Nonoy Oplas, former German MP Markus Löning as well as the president of Liberal International, the Andorran diplomat and former foreign minister Juli Minoves.

Finally, SFL Korea also had a conference of their own, which took place on July 29 in Seoul. Given their strategy to focus on students who were already interested in libertarianism, more than 30 attendees certainly make this conference a success. Speakers included Lee Yu Mi and Professor Kim Jeong Ho. Visit their page to stay updated! See more here!

Africa

The Great Lakes Intra-University Competitions continue, giving rise to many new SFL clubs across the region. This month, the new additions came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with SFL Istem, SFL Bukavu (Catholic University of Bukavu) SFL ULUGL (Free University of Uvira and the Great Lakes) and SFL ISDR GOMA joining the ranks!

On the 15th of July at the Uganda Christian university, the 2017 ASFL – Uganda  Leadership Forum brought together local coordinators, chapter leaders, and free market advocates in the country. The forum broadened the knowledge base of SFL leaders about liberty and free market with speakers from Burundi, Kenya, and Tanzania who took the participants through several topics.

SFL leaders also attended the 2017 Great Lakes Trade Summit hosted by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists Europe (ACRE) at the Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda. African Programs Manager Linda Kavuka made a presentation at the Think Tank Central Session about the role Students for Liberty is playing in promoting free trade, by identifying, training and developing the next generation of leaders of liberty around the world.

And the ASFL Kenya team attended governorship debates in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa. A highlight of the debates was at the Nairobi debate, aired live on NTV, a popular TV station in Kenya with millions of viewers, where Linda Kavuka was given an opportunity to ask the aspirants a question. This can be accessed here between 40:00 and 42:00. See more here!

North America

Sunday, July 9th Students For Liberty held our first SFL Day of Service! Our #SFLGivesBack project gave our student leaders across the United States and Canada the chance to come together and show the value of civil society! The event took place in six major U.S. cities – Anchorage, Columbus, Salt Lake City, Madison, Lubbock, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Our student leaders had the opportunity to feed hundreds in need, as well as pass out cold water and toiletries.

On July 19-22, Students For Liberty attended the “world’s largest gathering of free minds,” FreedomFest X at the Paris Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many of our student leaders, we able to arrive a day early to attend the Atlas Society annual Atlas Summit and had a wonderful time! We passed out our stickers, literature, pens, and other swag, but our “Less Marx More Mises” t-shirts definitely got the most attention! Congressman Thomas Massie and Congressman Justin Amash both showed their support for the #LessMarxMoreMises movement!

SFL’s North American Communications Chair, Savannah Lindquist was interviewed by CNN’s Chris Moody about being a young libertarian activist.

Finally, we launched the North American Regional Conference season! With twelve events across the US and Canada, there’s something for everyone — it’s a great chance to see SFL first hand learn what we’re all about. This year, each Regional Conference will focus on a specific area of the liberty movement, from entrepreneurship to free expression, to bringing people together. Exciting speakers – like Jeffrey Tucker, Yeonmi Park, Jordan Peterson, Magatte Wade, and Matt Kibbe –have already been confirmed. See more here!

Europe

The future of liberty in Eastern Europe is bright. On the 16-19th of July, Ukrainian Students for Liberty hosted the very first European Students for Liberty Eastern European Retreat (EER), which gathered 30 brightest advocates of liberty from 4 countries and 8 biggest Ukrainian regions. 

“Voluntary relationships are not a matter of the state” – In order to support the LGBT community in Israel, Students For Liberty Israel has joined a Pride Parade in Jerusalem. Israeli Students For Liberty has also recently announced Jeffrey Tucker as a keynote for the Tel Aviv Regional Conference which will take place on October 26 in Tel Aviv! Check a video from an interview they made with Jeffrey here.

Learn more about Students For Liberty Israel.

Our blogging team at Speak Freely decided not to take part in the Net Neutrality Day. The “Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality” was an event on July 12, 2017, in which various organizations and individuals advocated for net neutrality in the United States. See more here!

Brazil

Brazil’s progress during July was based on our Facebook page. Given that all schools are on vacations, we focused on getting as much organic reach online as possible. This post this, 200,000 people and this, 163,000. Moreover, one of our biggest chapters, Clube Ajuricaba, has chosen its new executive board, that will work throughout the year in Manaus.

Furthermore, a Local Coordinator, Daniel Martinelli, launched a project with two friends in which he attends the sessions in the City Hall of his city and produces videos summarizing for the whole population what his councilors have been doing. An interview with him can be found here. See more here!

South Asia

After a rigorous academic training which laster for five weeks, South Asia selected her new batch of Local Coordinators, consisting of 85 applicants from across the South Asian diaspora. These applicants come from a variety of countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and India. A majority of the cities in these countries, have not had any representation from SFL previously and we are glad that we have been able to expand the movement to these areas.

Currently, the preparation for the Local Coordinator Retreat, is on in full swing. The LC Retreat will be held in New Delhi on the 19th and 20th August, along with a separate retreat for the 15 applicants from Pakistan to be held in Islamabad in September.  In the meantime, the LC’s are undergoing a one-week Activism Training to familiarise them with SFL’s history, mission, vision and previous experiences in different regions of the world.

In another news, SASFL’s work received a small mention in St. Francis College, Hyderabad’s yearbook. This adds another feather to the hats of the Hyderabad 2016-17 team, which won the International Student Group of the Year Award. See more here!