"Free Vermont!?"

Peter Lamborn Wilson

Should Vermont secede from the USA and declare itself independent again (as it was from 1777 to 1791) under the name Second Vermont Republic? This question was posed to attendees at a conference and a town meeting, both held in Middlebury, VT on the weekend after the national election, Nov. 5–7; and in both cases the answer was a nearly unanimous YES.

The conference — Rad.Con 2 — was organized jointly by the Second Vermont Republic (SVR) and the UK-based Fourth World Organization (publishers of Fourth World Review), which sponsored the first "Radical Consultation" in Britain in September, 2001. American historian Kirkpatrick Sale contributes regularly to Fourth World and made the keynote speech at Rad.Con 2 in Middlebury.Fourth World proclaims itself (on the cover of each issue): "For Small Nations — Small Countries — Small Farms — Small Industries — Small Banks — Small Fisheries — & the Inalienable Sovereignty of the Human Spirit."

This "platform" is largely based on the writings of the twentieth century philosophers, Leopold Kohr and E.F. Schumacher, summed up in the phrase "Small is beautiful". Radical decentralists, greens, bioregionalists, "buddhist economists", socialists, libertarian marxists, anti-globalists, Libertarians, separatists, "Third" and "Fourth World" nationalist movements, tribal rights militants, neo-luddites, true federalists, true conservatives (i.e. conservationists and isolationist anarchists — and even a few disgusted Democrats — can all find something to admire in this philosophy.

The name Proudhon came up several times at Rad.Con 2, and I made sure to mention Lysander Spooner and the American Philosophical Anarchist view of secession: namely that small states are less bad than big ones; that every state has a perfect right to secede, as does every town, neighborhood family, group or individual; that every independent and autonomous individual and group has the right to confederate freely with others. Administration and economic organization should be undertaken by revokable delegates to regional congresses; public defense by a people's militia, etc.

This encapsulates the politics of what Benjamin Tucker called "the unterrified Jeffersonians": anti-authoritarian, agrarian and devoted to "direct democracy".

The question posed to Rad. Con. 2 delegates — "After the Fall of the American Empire, Then What?" — takes on extra urgency after the Nov. 2nd election. And it was meant to. SVR founder Thomas Naylor felt certain that the Republicans would "win" and that the conference would therefore be riding a wave of anger and confusion. The next four years should see the US Empire mired in Mid-Eastern war, vast debt, inflation, depression (both economic and psychic). More and more socialist-leaning governments will win elections in Europe and South America. Even now many Americans feel disgusted with Democratic Party waffling and hypocrisy and ready for something much more radical. If you don't like the word "secession" call it ''independence''. Either way it's American as apple pie.

The most forceful and interesting talk I heard (because I missed the first day) was made by Don Livingston, a professor from Emory University, whom Naylor called one of the philosophical gurus of the Second Vermont Republic. I heard that Kirkpatrick Sale's keynote address was also rousing. I was also very impressed by Prof. Naylor and his reborn Green Mountain Boys (and Girls), the core SVR membership. Particularly memorable were Jim Hogue and Gus Jaccaci, who acted the roles of Ethan Allen and Tom Jefferson at the Town meeting on Saturday evening — as nice a piece of political theater as I've ever seen. The town meeting voted to make Jan. 15 a State holiday commemorating Vermont's independence and first Republic, launched on that day in 1777 and the British Empire when the region seceded from New York State in one rash and dashing gesture of defiance. Oddly enough it succeeded.

Delegates to Rad. Con. 2 came from England and other faraway places. The neighboring state of New Hampshire sent a delegate from their own Free State Project, a Libertarian inspired political scheme aimed at greater local autonomy and perhaps secession. We heard about similar movements in other states including Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, So. Carolina and Puerto Rico. Some of these separatist movements seem rather right-wing, others more left-wing; all appear small, but all rather lively. We New Yorkers at the conference wished we could have said as much for our own home state. But at least we had the satisfaction of learning (from Prof. Livingston) that New York, along with Virginia and Rhode Island, actually reserved the right to secede when signing the US Constitution. Our revolutionary governor George Clinton was himself a radical democrat and Anti-Federalist who (under the pen-name Cato) attacked the Constitution as sheer counter-revolutionary reaction — which it was. (Sadly Clinton opposed Vermont's right to secede from New York, and he hated Ethan Allen. During the Town Meeting Kirk Sale acted the role of a disgruntled Yorker and got big laughs from the audience — who all seemed to remember the ancient rivalry with great vividness.)

On the last day (Sunday morning) the meeting room at the old Middlebury Inn was packed and humming. Most of the core delegates signed a resolution supporting world wide separatist/secessionist movements. (see enclosed documents, drafted by Sale and others at dinner the previous night.) All the delegates, attendees and guests in the room gave unanimous supoort to two resolutions, one supporting the formation of a think-tank type network to study independence movements everywhere. The second resolution supported the aims and goals of the Second Vermont Republic, and it passed unanimously with applause. The atmosphere in the room was excited and positive.

Peter Lamborn Wilson

Nov. 8, '04

Note:

Elsewhere on the Autonomedia slash pages you'll find copies of some key documents from the SVR and Rad.Con. 2 and some local press coverage and more here.

Appended here is a list of relevant addresses and websites frm the conference. Many secessionists seem to be luddites & distrustful of Cyberia, but others are at home on the Net.
A video is being made of Rad.Con 2, and the "think tank" will undoubtedly soon appear in the media somewhere.

The secessionists believe that what they're doing is legal, so they're acting quite openly and seeking publicity.