While the current manifesto has served its purpose for over 17 years, we feel that it is now necessary to adapt it in order to account for global developments that have happened since then as well for the growth that IFLRY has seen.
With many more member organizations having joined since 1992, the scale and scope of the organization has widened considerably. It is necessary that the manifesto needs to be a document that is capable of uniting all youth organizations committed to freedom and democracy under one umbrella. We feel that the current manifesto is too specific to accomplish thatand believe that a manifesto should not be a policy book but a general but a strong declaration of our common values.
This is why in December at the IFLRY Executive Committee in Kiev a motion was passed to start the process of drafting a newmanifesto within a year’s time.
A lot has happened since then. The Bureau gathered ten committed representatives of Member Organizations to establish a committee in charge of drafting the new Manifesto, which is being done using all the tools new technology has available for us and in consultation with our members. Bart Woord and Lukas Schweiger are currently the committee secretaries, responsible for steering the whole process.
An online platform has been created to make it possible to exchange ideas and get the work done and so far, we can proudly announce that we reached agreement on the structure of the manifesto. The exact scope of the chapters is yet to be determined in consultation with the Member Organizations, but the following sections and working titles of the chapter should give everyone a good idea of where we are going:
1 Introduction
The new manifesto should be introduced together with the work of IFLRY (the latter is at the moment only at the end of themanifesto).
2 Liberalism and Radicalism
This chapter serves as the philosophical basis for the manifesto and the work of IFLRY in general. The idea of freedom and all related values that define us liberals will be introduced, same as the concept that freedom comes with responsibilities. The question of how to deal withradicalism has to be solved as well but it is to be expected that it will be referenced in this chapter but that radicals won’t be referenced through the entire manifesto anymore.
3 The Implications of Liberty
We’ll use this chapter to talk about personal and economic liberties that are seen as inseparable by liberals as freedom itself is not separable. We will talk about what liberty means for several areas, laying out a vision for the world without focusing too much on concrete policies because that is not the purpose of a manifesto.
4 Assuming Responsibility for our Environment
Environmental challenges are amongst the biggest of our time and as liberals we should find our own answer that sets us apart from ignorant conservatives and delusionary greens. Also, environmental challenges often differ significantly in economic terms from other market issues (Tragedy of the Commons, anyone?).
5 Education as precondition for a Liberal Society
The title is rather self-explanatory. We felt that education deserves special consideration, especially as IFLRY is, after all, a youth organization.
6 On the Importance of Democracy
IFLRY is not only committed to liberal but also to democratic principles. It can be argued by some that liberalism does not necessarily imply democracy. Also, as a global organization also active in a number of countries where democratic principles are unfortunately less recognized than in others, we feel that a special chapter for this issue is in order.
7 On the International Order
Here, we will talk about state sovereignty, relationships between countries, international law, the question of(non-)interventionism, global responsibility etc.
We from the Manifesto committee are looking forward to continue working on this project; the next step will be determining the scope of the chapters in consultation with the Member Organizations.
Lukas Schweiger
(International Committee, LUF Sweden)