The Libertarian Alliance has decided to create a web archive containing issues of its magazine FREE LIFE which made its appearance in the late 1970s. Over the years, FREE LIFE contained a large number of articles on Libertarianism which were both entertaining and instructive.  

Chronological index of each issue 

Here is a subject index of the archive.

Subject Index for FREE LIFE Archive  

Libertarianism – For and Against

Why anarcho-capitalism is a non-starter  Geoffrey Sampson

Reply to Sampson David Ramsay Steele

A Soviet solar system?  Andrew Nimmo

Impossibility of anarcho-capitalism Tony Hollick

Reply to Hollick David Ramsay Steele

My anarchism  S E Parker

Authority and power under anarchy David Mcdonagh

Escape from the leviathan Christie Davies

What good is the State? A Conservative View Gerry Frost

The bankruptcy of conservatism - A reply to Frost Chris R. Tame

Anarcho-capitalism and its enemies Graham Smith

Is the State Based on Mere Dogma? David McDonagh

Just One Cheer for Democracy Editorial

The Utility of Liberty "Not a Libertarian"

Is Utopia Inevitable? Martin Tyrrell

Socialism is Dead - Statism is Sick Editorial

The Market for free speech Editorial

The Right to say "Sod off"   J. C. Lester

Politics as Cold War David McDonagh

Myth of the Freemarket ConservativeMatthew O'Keeffe

A Non-Libertarian Individualists's Critique John Lyth

An Individual Libertarian's Reply David Ramsay Steele

The Real End of History  Editorial

Liberty; its History and its Opponents

The libertarian tradition No 1: Auberon Herbert: Chris R Tame

Ireland: a great chance lost-- (From Auberon Herbert's libertarian paper, THE FREELIFE, May 24th 1890)

Rousseau  R. J. Layson

Hiccups in the Progress of the Liberal idea David McDonagh

Libertarian Strategy and Libertarian Splits

Purpose and strategy of the Libertarian Alliance - Executive

The Libertarian Groupies International Executive Committee

Computer Fraud + Seven Sins of the US LP Editorial & John Karr

Aftermath of the Split Hillel Steiner

Attempted Theft of an Organisation David Ramsay Steele  

British Politics

National Front: Right or Left? Judy Englander

Killing freedom by stealth Judy Englander

The destruction of the railways John Driver

Editorial - Lessons of the Riots David Ramsay Steele

Labour's Pains James Alexander

Apocalypse? No David Ramsay Steele

A German over Britain Dominic Freely

On her Majesty's Private Secret Service Stephen Berry

Smash The Lems Professor Anthony Flew

Diary of a Political Nobody Stephen Berry

Ulster

The Ulster Nation: Troops out Market In  J C Lester & David McDonagh

Ulster - a different view David Ramsay Steele

Ulster - Cut the apron Strings J. C. Lester

Lester on Ulster David Ramsay Steele

South Africa

Sanctions Shore up Apartheid Martin Tyrell

Will the Solution Solve the Problem Miles Kelly

Liberty in the USA

The Reagan Phenomenon Murray N. Rothbard

The Queen Of Spleen David Ramsay Steele

The Constitution as Counter-Revolution Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

David through the Looking Glass Nicholas Dykes

Deregulation

Law shops Graham Smith

Let the landlords let John Blundell

"Public" provision, contractors and the market James Alexander

Plumbing the Depths for Fairness James Alexander

Tape Levy?  John Carr

The Housing Crisis Editorial

Ecology, Economics and the Greens

Review: Resources and Growth N S Beeching

Libertarian Pollution Control Max T. O'Connor

Multiply and be Fruitful - The more people there are the easier it is to feed them. Dr. Ray Percival

No Parking- Editorial

No Alternative Anne Marie Jansen

Towns & Cities - One Man's Plans for Planning Nick Elliot

They keep the Rat Flag Flying Peter Jansen

Down with the Middle-Class Loo Peter Jansen

Death by Compassion Anne M. Jansen

Foreign Affairs

Book reviews Reviews of "Knowledge and Decisions" by Thomas Sowell and "The Causes of War" by Geoffrey Blainey  also contains the article MANUFACTURING CRIME (From Auberon Herbert's libertarian paper, THE FREE LIFE, June 20th, 1890)

Libertarianism and the Falklands' war Stephen Berry, David McDonagh

The Falklands' Dispute: A Reply David Barker - Stephen Berry

The Russian Bogey Stephen Berry

Trade Wars Editorial

Carry on Up the Gulf – Editorial

Humorous

News from somewhere Lauri Rantala

News from somewhere Lauri Rantala

News from somewhere Lauri Rantala

Agonistic self-abuse: can Britain survive? The Free Life Investigative Team

News from Somewhere Miles Kelly

News from Somewhere Miles Kelly

News from Somewhere Stuart Blade

Glib GLossary J. C. Lester

News from somewhere Stuart Blade

The Market for Hitler Stephen Berry

Law, Philosophy and Society

Reviews  Arthur Marwick on Class and P.S. Atiyah on Freedom of Contract

Gun control? No thanks David Ramsay Steele

Freedom for children Brian Micklethwait

Freedom for children, a reply Sean Gabb

Rights and consequences Brian Micklethwait

Murder; Child & Animal Abuse J. C. Lester

Libertarianism Without MoralsDavid Ramsay Steele

Interview with George Rosie on Terrorisml Free Life

Some reflections on "Liberty Reclaimed" Patrick M O'Neil

The Market for Justice J. C. Lester

Viewpoint   Letters

Reply to Le Cocq J. C. Lester

More Crime and Discipline Jon LeCocq

The Inadequacy of Wolff's Authority-Autonomy Antinomy Patrick M. O'Neil

Reply - Another Argument for Anarchy David McDonagh

The failure of Fusionism Patrick M. O'Neil

Retroactivity and Justice in Law Patrick M. O'Neil

Marxism, Communism and National Socialism

A marxist re-think - James Alexander

Stromas interview on Poland THE FL Team

No Tears for the Fuehrer Stephen Berry

Is the State a tool of Capitalists? Jane Thornton

In search of feasable Socialism David Ramsay Steele

Review: The Market is Here to Stay David Ramsay Steele

Capitalist Revolution Editorial

Misreadings of Marx David Ramsay Steele

Why the Market is not Inevitable Adam Buick

The Logic Chopper Replies (the final word)  David Ramsay Steele 

Monetarism

Money out of control Richard Henderson

On monetarism and libertarianism John Burton

The birth and rebirth of monetarismDavid Ramsay Steele

News from somewhere  Lauri Rantala

Monetarism is still not enough John Burton

Nuclear Power

The case for nuclear energy David Ramsay Steele

After the meltdown Richard Vaughan

Liberal objections to nuclear power Geoffrey Sampson

Anti-progress Nick Beeching

Nuclear safety and human fallibility Richard Vaughan

Against nuclear energy Peter Bolwell

The Facts - a reply to Bolwell's Against Nuclear Energy Julian Osborn

Race Relations

A Scientific Approach to Race Relations Dan Aronoff

The Right to Discriminate David McDonagh

Third World and First World

No computer science without striptease David Ramsay Steele

Brandt's report: no candour David Ramsay Steele

Hylozoism Rules China - OK?  Brian Van Der Linde

Reply to Vand der Linde David Ramsay Steele

File Away Bandung Stephen Berry

Thou Shalt not Enjoy Yourself (That’s Official)

Deregulating the oldest profession Su Cunnington

Making a hash of pot Brian Micklethwait

Contraceptives and drug regulation James Alexander

Sex and the Law Anthony Grey

Porn, rape and justice David Ramsay Steele

The Pure Joy of Heroin J C Lester

Not "Everyone's Problem"  J. C. Lester

Free Trade in Body Parts J. C. Lester

Trade Unions

A new look at trade union immunities Graham Smith

Laissez-faire and the closed shop Graham Smith

Tebbit and the Unions James Alexander

Secret Ballots Editorial

Scargill's Insurrection or MacGregor's Butchery? Editorial

How to dethrone King Cole Editorial

Welfare State

Unemployment and the dole James Alexander

"Welfare Rights" versus Real Welfare Editorial

Can Politics Improve Wages? David McDonagh

Arts and Letters

In praise of prejudice Bernard Adamczewski

A Libertarian between the lines? Graham Smith

The secret of God or the need for rules  Bernard Adamczewski

Economics and ethics of music - M L Rantala

Accidental Refutation of the Moral David Ramsay Steele

Book Reviews Viennese Heritage by Stephen Berry and a Past Master of Economics by David McDonagh

Astrofraud Bjorn Wiklund

Photo Finish Editorial

© Libertarian Alliance  2005

web la-articles

Further reading:

"A powerful restatement of classical liberalism/libertarianism from someone who was important for its rebirth in the 1970s." You can also buy this book secondhand from around £5 upwards
www.abebooks.co.uk

"The state is justified, says Nozick, only when it is severely limited to the narrow function of protection against force, theft, and fraud, and to the enforcement of contracts. Any more extensive activities by the state, as Nozick brilliantly demonstrates, will inevitably violate individual’ rights."

Read this book to find out why so many socialists and other liberal-minded men in the countries of Western Europe, and indeed elsewhere, lent their support to communist activities all over the world.

A highly enjoyable account of the problems facing governments which promise too much.

“The welfare state has caused tens of thousands to live deprived and even depraved lives, and has undermined decency and kindness which first inspired it.”

Puts the case that the Ulster Protestants are a nation distinct from the Catholic South.

A study of the economic origins and consequences of racial segregation in South Africa.

Rand sets forth the moral principles of objectivism.

“ Reason and Morality are the only weapons that determine the course of history. The collectivists dropped them because they had no right to carry them. Pick them up: You have” Ayn Rand

“This book must be regarded as one of the most original written by an Australian historian” Professor L.C.F. Turner, Royal Military College.

“Made me laugh more than any other book”. Sunday Telegraph.

Holidays in Hell is package tour of traveller’s tales from places as appealing as the inner circles of Dante’s inferno.

Escape from Leviathan Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled Author: Lester, J.C. Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Binding: Hardback Published: 21 June 2000 ISBN: 0333777565 www.whsmith.co.uk £50 + P&P £2.99 = £52.99

The Friedmans explore the relationship between economics and freedom.

This book looks at the dangers to the public associated with every method of power production. Fremlin, formerly Professor of Applied Radioactivity at the University of Birmingham, puts forwards the case that to drop nuclear power would be a sad mistake for the UK.

A fresh analysis on the ‘war’ that never ends.

A critical look at Trade Union strikes.

“The welfare state has caused tens of thousands to live deprived and even depraved lives, and has undermined decency and kindness which first inspired it.”
How has business been represented in English Literature? In this volume, five authors have produced original surveys of how business has been portrayed by novelists, staring in the 18th century and continuing to the end of the 20th.

Articles will not reflect a 'party line'. We hope that diverse interpretations of the Libertarian philosophy will fill these pages, and that there will be a lively debate between contributors.
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It is by the goodness of God that we have in our country three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practise either. 
Mark Twain

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in the manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only land himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere he so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it." 
Adam Smith 
The Wealth of Nations.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.  
Oscar Wilde 
The Soul of Man under Socialism

List of contributors (as they were then)

BERNARD ADAMCZEWSKI Is a freelance researcher and writer, and is currently working on a new application of micro-chip technology.
SU CUNNINGTON is Lecturer In Social Policy and Administration at Guildford College of Technology and is on the Home Office Criminal Law Revision Committee. Her forthcoming book is Prostitution in London in the 1970s.
DAVID RAMSAY STEELE is author of a forthcoming book, The Impossibility of Communism.
JUDY ENGLANDER is a political researcher and writer.
GRAHAM SMITH is head of the Research Department of The Freedom Association.

Just Fancy That! 

A major war aside, I cannot conceive that the monetary authorities will  permit the quantity of money to rise at a rate that would produce inflation of more than, say, 10 per cent a year. . . 
Milton Friedman 1966, Dollars and Deficits, 1968, p. 120

Surely it is clear that the Russian empire is in its final throes and will not live to see the turn of the century. (For it to survive the eighties would require Political genius of the phenomenal stature of Stalin, and present methods of Politbureau recruitment hardly favour the emergence of such a man.) Soviet Russia is finished. Socialism is finished. Let us not live in the past.
David Ramsay Steele - writing in 1980

Freedom necessarily means that many things will be done which we do not like. Our faith in freedom does not rest on the foreseeable results in particular circumstances but in the belief that it will, on balance, release more forces for the good than the bad." 
F. A. Hayek Constitution of Liberty.

The fruits of nationalisation.

By 1947 the Southern Railway possessed 140 Bulleid Pacifics, the most modern, powerful and efficient express steam locomotives ever to run on British metals. So revolutionary were they in many ways, (though not as good as their builder said he could make them) that when one was placed on BR's expensive static test bed at Rugby, it overdrove the instruments, and the operators never succeeded in forcing the boiler to reach its maximum steaming rate, so that this could not be measured. Of the total of 140 Bulleids, BR "rebuilt" 90 of these to conventional design, at great cost and with some loss of performance. Even then, they were still superb machines. In the furious and ill-considered panic to abolish steam in the sixties, all these bar a preserved few went to the cutting torch, with twenty five years of their lives still to run. 
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John Driver

Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression and by aggression
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Herbert Spencer 1850

Vol 3. No. 2. Libertarianism and the Falklands' War"

'To say that the unprovoked German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was wrong and that the Russians had a right to defend themselves is not to implicitly become a propagandist for the taxation and conscription of Russians. It does recognise that Russians would defend themselves with the institutions which were available to them in 1941.'
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Vol 3. No. 3. "Attempted Theft of an Organisation"

"Numerous other attacks were made on the LA by Hollick and Tame. They got possession of manuscripts of FREE LIFE and withheld them from us, in order to stop FREE LIFE coming out. They bombarded us with threats of court action, to try and suppress discussion of what they had done. When I stated that the more we were threatened with litigation in an attempt to stop discussion of Tame's misdeeds, the more publicity would be given to these misdeeds, Tame had me reported to the Director of Public Prosecutions for blackmail. (The DPP, obviously, decided there was no case.)"