Rewriting the IFLRY Manifesto '09

Final version online now

Bart — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:10:00 GMT

Dear all,

The manifesto committee has finished its task in submitting a proposal for revision of the IFLRY Manifesto at the upcoming General Assembly in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Find the proposal here.

The proposal can be amended through secondary amendments at the Standing Committee on Manifesto and Resolutions that shall convene at the General Assembly.

If you want to engage in discussion with your colleagues on the manifesto, you can do so via the Manifesto blogs that we have used before and where you will find the latest versions of all the chapters.

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - On Liberalism and Radicalism
Chapter 3 - The Implications of Liberty
Chapter 4 - Assuming Responsibility for our Environment
Chapter 5 - Education as Precondition for a Liberal Society
Chapter 6 - On the Importance of Democracy
Chapter 7 - On the International Order

Second Draft IFLRY Manifesto online!

Bart — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:04:00 GMT

As promised in the previous post, we have been processing your comments and suggestions on the first draft of the manifesto and have now published the second draft. The changes have been made on the basis of input we received on the specific blog pages as well as by e-mail.

We are sure you still have many ideas and suggestions on how to improve this draft so please keep your comments coming! A final version will be drafted by the Manifesto Committee on the 30th of September and shall then be put forward to the General Assembly in November (where it shall be open for formal amendments).

First Draft Manifesto Online!

Bart — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The Manifesto Committee has been working hard the last couple of weeks to make sure that the new Manifesto can be adopted at the upcoming IFLRY GA in the Netherlands in November. Before the EC in Lebanon in July we went through an extensive consultation process with IFLRY's Member Organizations trying to get an idea of the values that need to be emphasized and the issues we need to consider. As a result, a first draft was produced.

The Manifesto is intended to be a broad document, an umbrella, under which every IFLRY Member Organization should feel comfortable. To ensure that, we will use the Month of September for a broad review process.

All of you are invited to take a look at what is becoming the new Manifesto and to comment on the texts of each Chapter. The Manifesto Committee and the Bureau want to encourage you to feel free to use the comment function on the sites on which we published the texts to make suggestions, bring in new ideas, and of course also criticize!

Please find the preliminary texts here:

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - On Liberalism and Radicalism
Chapter 3 - The Implications of Liberty
Chapter 4 - Assuming Responsibility for our Environment
Chapter 5 - Education as Precondition for a Liberal Society
Chapter 6 - On the Importance of Democracy
Chapter 7 - On the International Order

Please provide your feedback and comments throughout September. You are encouraged to do so via a comment on the blog and engage in discussion or send your feedback to manifesto.cc@iflry.org . In any case, please refer to the organization you are a member of.

On the 20th, the Manifesto Committee will update the drafts based on the input we will have gotten until then.

Thank you and we are looking forward to your input!

The structure of the new IFLRY Manifesto - meeting the challenges of the new millennium.

Lukas_LUF — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:29:00 GMT

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)

Draft structure new manifesto adopted

Bart — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:33:00 GMT

The core committee recently agreed upon the structure (or framework) of the new manifesto. Here it goes:

- 1: The 2009 Manifesto

- 2: On Liberalism and Radicalism

- 3: The Implications of Freedom

- 4: Assuming Responsibility for the Environment

- 5: Education as Precondition for a Free Society

- 6: On the Importance of Democracy

- 7: On the International Order

Comments or questions? Write them down here!