By Thomas R. Eddlem
The Libertarian National Convention in Reno credentialed LAMA’s delegates on May 27. This was inevitable, as the rump faction that sent six delegates to Reno was unable to even put together a resolution to seat themselves to the convention. Note that this failure was despite three months advance notice that there would be a contested delegation at the convention.
That level of incompetency was similar to the Ashley Shade state committee’s illegitimate (and unsuccessfully, as a result of a combination of mendacity and incompetence) attempt to ignore the legitimate petition for a special state convention last year.
The new post-Shade board of the rump organization was completely unprepared for Reno, while our LAMA was prepared. More importantly, their failure to present a coherent resolution to seat their delegates revealed the division in their board, which was in contrast to the unity in our board.
Moving forward, the LAMA board chaired by Andrew Cordio will be the affiliate of the national Libertarian Party. In response, the fake LAMA board has unfortunately posted on their blog asking libertarians to leave the national Libertarian Party, stating that:
“If you are a national LP member or are considering joining, we ask that you reconsider your support.”
It’s ironic that the former board members who tried to purge the #47Mass from the Libertarian Party are now urging people to self-purge from the national Libertarian Party (as former board members Ashley Shade and Jeremy Thompson/Francisco Chandler – who led the purge effort – already have from the state and national parties).
The Libertarian Party is about fighting State power, and if you support that goal, you are welcome in the party. That includes members of the fake LAMA organization, who are already paid-up dues-paying members of the real LAMA (if their dues were paid to the Shade committee on or before Feb. 26) under LAMA’s constitution.
Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts
In the interest of not continuing time-consuming battles with other small-L libertarians, the LAMA state committee voted May 11th to begin the process of walking away from the LAMA name, and to do business under the name Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts. The new name fits because there is a unity between the board and the general membership. (As communications director, I’m going to take some liberties with our new public name using the acronym “MAUL” on social media – reversing it by putting Massachusetts first – as in “MAUL the state,” etc.)
The name change changes nothing in one respect: We continue to assert that we are the proper successors to the organization first founded under the name Libertarian Association of Massachusetts in 1972. Our board wants to focus upon fighting the State within the Libertarian Party umbrella. Nobody wants a time-consuming and expensive legal battle to recover a Twitter account that was telling people to mask up less than a month before even the Commonwealth of Massachusetts pulled the plug on school mask mandates, or a blog that calls for going Dr. Strangelove with Russia over Ukraine.
While we will officially remain the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts (LAMA) until the member convention officially votes on a name change, our logos, and social media presence will reflect the new DBA name over the next few months.
LAMA members should know that the state committee is open to fighting for the LAMA name, if members submit a petition for a special state convention and members choose to fight for the LAMA name. My read of the LAMA membership I’ve talked to, however, is that members are anxious to start fighting the state, rather than continuing a feud with purgers and quitters. I haven’t run into a single member who thinks it’s worth the effort for the legal battle .
Going forward, we’ll work with libertarians and non-libertarians on issues of mutual interest in fighting the State, as we already are with Bay Staters for Natural Medicine and Defend the Guard initiatives in Massachusetts. And we’ll work with the group I expect will become LAMA (after our national convention ratifies a name change) as we do with other non-party organizations whenever there is an issue of mutual interest.
We intend to run libertarian candidates for office, but also to pursue a full-spectrum non-violent opposition to government power, utilizing tools such as ballot initiatives, nullification, interposition, civil disobedience, petitioning, and all other non-violent means at our disposal.
If you want to fight the State, we’re the right party for you.
But for those who choose to walk away from the Libertarian Party because they’re not the ones in charge of the state committee any more, I can only leave you with a song:
Thomas R. Eddlem is the communications director and a state committee member of the real LAMA, which as of today is doing business as the Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts (MAUL). He is also an economist and freelance writer for the Libertarian Institute and other libertarian publications.