The Future of Freedom Conference is regarded as the first explicitly libertarian conference series ever held in the United States. Debuting in 1969, the conference's keynote speaker was Austrian economist Prof. Ludwig von Mises.
The Ludwig von Mises Conference (1969)
More than 200 students attended the Ludwig von Mises Conference that was held at Long Beach State University, now known as California State University, Long Beach, in May 1969, in response to Young Americans for Freedom's (YAF) purges of libertarian leaders just before the infamous national YAF St. Louis convention in August 1969.
In early March 1969, Dana Rohrabacher and Shawn Steel, co-chairs of California YAF, were removed by National YAF. Many purged leaders, and county chairs would eventually organize a new student organization called the California Libertarian Alliance (CLA). One of their first endeavors was to hold a gathering of libertarian leaders, writers and economists.
The idea to have some type of gathering evolved into a full-fledged conference at a college. The conference was initially planned and organized under the leadership of Dana Rohrabacher, who was the main founder and chairman of the Libertarian Caucus of YAF from 1966 to 69. Dana Rohrabacher, known as the "Johnny Grass-seed" of radical YAFers, later became a journalist, a speechwriter for President Reagan, and a U.S. Congressman in Southern California.
Other purged YAF members involved in the 1969 conference included the following:
Gene Berkman, draft resister, later to become owner of Renaissance Books in Riverside, CA; Bill "Shawn" Steel, USC student and statewide chairman of Youth for Reagan, later to become an attorney, a founder of the California Libertarian Party, and chairman of the California Republican Party; Ron Kimberling, later Dr. Ron Kimberling, radio show commentator who became executive director of the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Assistant Secretary for Higher Education in the last years of the Reagan administration; Dennis Turner, writer for Reason and computer programmer; John Schurman, psychology major and staff worker for Rampart College.
In 1981 Shawn Steel commented about the reasons for the first conference, writing that "Freedom oriented people found themselves abandoned, either purged from the right or the left. Because of this political turmoil, we invited decentralists, individualists and voluntaryists in one forum to organize, discuss and study the philosophy we now call 'libertarianism.'"
Other speakers at 1969's Ludwig von Mises Conference included the following:
R. C. Hoiles, longtime publisher of The Register (now known as the Orange County Register) in Santa Ana, CA; Robert LeFevre, Rampart College founder and author; Skye D'Aureous (Durk Pearson), MIT graduate with a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology; John Hospers, USC philosophy professor.
Gary North, a conservative writer for the Christian newsletter Chalcedon Report, was horrified by what he saw at the conference. He accused the participants of "secular libertarianism" which he believed to be suicidal, especially the sinfulness of those who take illegal drugs. Instead of finding a conference hall full of "studious conservatives affirming faith in God and country," North instead discovered "eccentrics waving the black dollar sign flag" of anarchy.
The Ludwig von Mises Conference was sponsored by Long Beach State University YAF, California State University San Fernando Valley YAF, and the Action Coalition for Freedom.
Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberation (1970) On February 28 and March 1, 1970, the California Libertarian Alliance hosted the Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberation at the University of Southern California (USC), backed by Riqui and Seymour Leon of Robert LeFevre's relocated Rampart Institute in Santa Ana, California. This conference attempted to patch differences between left and right anti-statist and anti-authoritarian thinkers, but failed to generate "any potential Left-Right coalition in the gestation stage."
Rebecca E. Hlatch in A Generation Divided, reported "five hundred delegates met to discuss possibilities for a right-to-left cooperation.” According to Dana Rohrabacher, he had high hopes of “forming a coalition between libertarians on the right and the pro-freedom elements on the left.”
The keynote speaker was former president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and author of Containment and Change, Carl Oglesby. "Designed to lay the groundwork for a libertarian/New Left anti-war coalition, Oglesby made the case that 'the Old Right and the New Left' were 'morally and politically' united in their opposition to war, and should work together."