The Task Ahead

is the title of the Murray Rothbard’s lead article in the February 15, 1970 issue of The Libertarian Forum and it contains some passages relevant to the ongoing debate over whether libertarians should ally with the Right, the Left, or none of the above:

“It seems to me that the prime consideration is to develop the libertarian movement–the “cadre”– as such. Many libertarians spend too much of their time and energy worrying about alliances: should they ally themselves with Right or Left or whatever? A far more important task is to build our own movement, especially now that we are strong enough to do so. Only by building our own movement, after all, can we spread and develop our own notably important and striking body of ideas. Strategic and tactical alliances with other groups are all very well, but they should flow form our own strength, with the idea always uppermost that we are “using” our allies as leverage to make our own ideas more effective.”

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9:14 pm on August 30, 2005