The 2013 European Students For Liberty Conference Report

The 2013 European Students For Liberty Conference Report
Leuven, Belgium
March 8 -10, 2013
www.studentsforliberty.org/europe
The largest gathering of pro-liberty students and supporters in Europe successfully concluded at
the 2013 European Students For Liberty Conference in Leuven, Belgium on March 10, 2013.
With over 365 attendees from 40 countries across the world, the ESFLC lit up the spirit for
liberty all weekend long with exciting lectures, breakouts, activism sessions, a student debate, a
liberty fair and plenty of socials. Ending the conference with the famous "We'll meet again"
ESFLC Anthem with the entire conference singing along, we are extremely proud to have
concluded the most international SFL conference in the world.
Students took back hundreds of free books and swag, networked with dozens of pro-liberty
organizations all over Europe, and made lasting friendships under a new-found forum of
support for young people with pro-liberty ideas.
Attendance
The most highly represented countries were
Belgium, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands,
France and Poland, with very impressive growth in
attendance numbers from Iceland, Lithuania,
Estonia and Slovakia (In this picture, the most
represented to least represented European countries
are shaded from red to orange to yellow and green,
respectively). But students gave their time and
money to travel from as far as El Salvador, Israel,
Armenia, Georgia, South Africa, and Australia.
Speakers and Topics
The Electronic Conference Booklet is Available Here
Among many speakers, The Schedule included:
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Kurt Leube on “The Essence of Hayek”
Daniel Model on “Personal Secession”
John Chisholm on “Unleash Your Inner Company”
Mike Tanner on “The Welfare State as a Pyramid Scheme”
James Turk on “The Link Between Liberty and Sound Money”
Carrie Lukas on “Why Women Benefit from Limited Government”
Tom Palmer on “Why we Fight for Liberty, Peace and Justice”
Emily Skarbek on “Economic Planning and Public Choice: Fallout from the Calculation
Debate”
David Skarbek on “Prison Gangs and Governance: The Hidden Order of the Criminal
Underworld”
Steve Davies on “Crisis and Opportunity – the History and Future of Liberty in Europe”
“I know that when there is injustice, tyranny and war, Students For Liberty will be there…”
Tom G. Palmer
Opportunities at the Conference
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Student Debate: Fellow students debated the role of government in a free society during
a general session on Saturday.
Activism Training: SFL Leaders presented two lectures on student activism:
“Communicating for Liberty” and “How to Organize a Successful Event.”
Regional Networking: Students were able to meet others from their countries and
network with regional directors at ESFL to learn how to get more involved and start their
own campus organizations.
Liberty Fair and After the Welfare State Book Signing: Liberty Fair participants
included the LVSV Leuven, The Austrian Economics Center Vienna, The Atlas Network,
ESFL, After the Welfare State, DCI Group, Adam Smith Institute London, Institute of
Economic Affairs London, IES London, IES Europe, The Fund for American Studies, the
Lithuanian Free Market Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and the
Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Free Merchandise: Students took back stickers, pins, t-shirts, books, and bottle openers.
Resources Distributed
Literature
- 3000 copies of After the Welfare State by SFL and Tom Palmer
- 2000 copies of Inclined to Liberty by Louis E. Carabini
- 30 copies of Matt Kibbe’s Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's
Stranglehold on America
- 100 books from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)
- Other book contributions from Liberty Fair organizations and the Atlas Network
Merchandise
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500 ESFL Pins
500 ESFL T-shirts
500 Document Bags
500 ESFL Stickers
350 SFL Bottle Openers
Press Coverage
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Die Presse (Austria)
Summary: At the European Students for Liberty
Conference last weekend, Michael Tanner argued that
nobel prize winner Paul Krugman got it wrong and
that we need less government spending, not more.
Despite a lot of talk about austerity, most of Europe
has done very little to slash the size of government,
and recent data shows that this year, the OECD
countries will borrow another $11 trillion. However,
there have been several positive examples in Europe
that show that it is possible to employ real austerity
measures successfully, such as Sweden, which
deregulated its labour market and allowed for
competition in its health care sector, or the Baltic
states, which decided against fiscal stimulus during the
crisis. Nonetheless, the mainstream media as well as
politicians choose to ignore these examples, thereby
distorting the picture the public has of Europe's
economy and its prospects.
El Rey Esta Desnudo: “There is Still
Hope For Europe”
http://elreyestadesnudo.tumblr.com/post/45114457
736/there-is-still-hope-for-europe
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“The European Students for Liberty Conference
has become by its own merits in the most important
of all the students’ events that happen along the
year in the old continent. And I am not talking
about size (yet), but about its meaning and
implications:
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when you are able to make that people crosses
Europe by car from Lithuania to Belgium
driving more than 20 hours;
when you are able to attract more than 350
students from all over Europe (and other
parts of the world) who travel by their own
means sacrificing their time and money;
when you are able to organize such an event
without any subsidy or support of public
funds or Administration (considering that in
Europe almost nothing is organized without
subsidies) and just use private donors;
when you are able to bring people from every
country in Europe (*) to a single event
(including Belarus, the last dictatorship in the
continent)
and everything in the name of liberty… then you
know that you are big.”
The Libertarian: “The Skarbek Break-Out Session at
ESFLC13” (UK)
http://the-libertarian.co.uk/the-scarbek-break-out-session-atesflc13/
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Contrepoints: “les étudiants se mobilisent pour la
liberté” (France)
http://www.contrepoints.org/2013/03/18/118568-esflc-2013les-etudiants-se-mobilisent-pour-la-liberte
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Federalna.Ba: “mjestu ekonomskih sloboda svijeta”
(Bosnia) http://www.federalna.ba/bhs/vijest/58694/cavalicna-evropskoj-koferenciji-studenti-za-slobodu
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The Stateless Man: “European Students For Liberty
Promise New Generation of Freedom”
http://thestatelessman.com/2013/03/12/esfl/
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Report and On-Site TV coverage from Russia
Today
Memorable Quotes from Social Media
@khhardy: Entrepreneurship is an ethical, if not THE most
ethical career choice--John Chisholm #ESFLC13” ... Prof
Kirzner taught me as much
“ZOMG a lecture on Hayek and sensory perception...this
alone was worth the trip to Belgium!” - James Padillioni,
Jr. (United States)
Great event, great people, powerful message of freedom!
- Jacek Spendel (Poland)
Matt Kibbe: "I've never been more optimistic about the
future of this world because Freedom is Trending"
#ESFLC13 @mkibbe @FreedomWorks
“Can't believe it's only less than two weeks left until the
2nd European Students For Liberty Conference. I can
remember that a little more than one year ago I barely knew
anyone in the conference, we had a lot of people coming to
the conference all by themselves, not really being
acquainted to anyone, now it's going to be a totally
different experience with many more new people
participating, too!” - Egle Markeviciute (Lithuania)
Freedom doesn't need sleep! RT @elreystadesnudo: Good
morning freedom! #esflc13
“It shouldn't be the case that you support
a free market economy and therefore
(maybe) support other aspects of a free
society… the argument that economics
is the master science and everything else
is secondary. I reject that. But as well as
being untrue it's a dangerous idea.”
Steve Davies
Stephen Davies gets a standing ovation
after his awesome lecture. I'm so glad I'm
here to learn from all these ideas!
#ESFLC13 - Ricardo Avelar (El
Salvador)
Jonas Veys @veysJ Palmer is always
succesful with getting me emotional
#closingwords #ESFLC13
“Awesome, intense and inspiring weekend! Thanks to everyone
who made it happen! Comrades in Freedom, the struggle
continues!” - Carl E. Hygrell (Sweden)
“A great event full of inspiring out-of-the-box thinking! Congratz
to the organisers for running everything smoothly!” - Rok Novak
(Slovenia)
Très bon- la liberté est populaire! RT @SFL_Paris: 350 étudiants
de 37 pays pour la conférence @ESFLiberty #ESFLC2013
“Congratulations from Estudiantes por la Libertad, Venezuela!” Alberto Rada Molinares (Venezuela)
Bob van der Vleuten @bobvdv "Why did, Roosevelt, Stalin and
Hitler confiscate all private gold? To enlarge the power of the
state" - James Turk #esflc13
Aida_Aida @Aida_Aida 1+1=3 great example of synergy... This
lecture is truly awesome. Thank you John Chisholm #esflc13
Special Thanks
Platinum Sponsor
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Gold Sponsor
Liberal Institute Zurich/Geneva
DCI Group Brussels
Unternehmensgruppe Theo Mueller
Silver Sponsor
The Austrian Economics Center
The Adam Smith Institute
And All Liberty Fair Participants
Creating Value for a Freer Society
The demand for the ideas of liberty is soaring not only in Europe but around the world. Though
European Students For Liberty was created just two years ago, we have already made a big impact in
the 2012-2013 year:
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We added over 130 university groups from 27 countries to our network;
We organized five regional conferences in Sweden, Lithuania, Italy, Germany, and Serbia with over 570
people attending;
We distributed over 20,000 books for free;
We trained 21 Local Coordinators from 15 countries;
We ran webinar programs, printed 5,000 copies of the Morality of Capitalism, won the prestigious
Templeton Freedom award and much more.
The value of this growth was reflected at the ESFLC. We have seen campus groups developed after
conferences, papers co-authored, friendships formed, business projects planned, and much more. Over
the four week period from mid-February to mid-March, eight new ESFL-affiliated clubs have been
started in eight countries: Switzerland, Denmark the UK, Georgia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Italy and
Greece.
The sky is the limit. Our work continues to grow
our programs, find new leaders, and fight for a
free academy and free society. Visit us online to
find out how to support ESFL and the student
movement for liberty.