Document:LNC Resolution 30 August 1981 on Libertarian Draft Resistance

Resolved at the August 30, 1981 LNC Meeting:

WHEREAS: the draft is the ultimate form of government control; it enslaves young people in the name of defending freedom; and

WHEREAS: the draft, by guaranteeing the manpower to fight unpopular wars abroad, encourages dangerous foreign adventurism of the sort now being practiced by the Reagan administration; and

WHEREAS: by the government's own admission, more than half a million eligible men have refused to comply with the government's draft registration program; and

WHEREAS: the Reagan administration is threatening to prosecute a small number of such resisters; and

WHEREAS: at least one draft-age Libertarian, a delegate to the 1981 Libertarian Party Convention and an activist in the anti-draft movement, has been singled out for prosecution by the Selective Service System, that Libertarian being Paul Jacob; and

WHEREAS: his situation represents the fears of hundreds of thousands of other young people under 22 years of age who must decide whether or not to register for the draft;

BE IT RESOLVED:

1. That the Libertarian Party National Committee unconditionally supports his right to resist, and will continue to support his struggle against the state in whatever form it takes consistent with libertarian values; and

2. That the Libertarian Party National Committee supports the right of all draft eligible youth to resist registration and the draft.