Free Cities Now

Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— Declaration of Independence, 1776

You may have the story of the Declaration of Independence from history books, historical fiction, or even a Broadway play. But you probably don’t have the context of the American revolution at its inception in 1773.  Indeed, you may be blissfully unaware of such matters as the Hanseatic League and the long tradition of decentralisation to contest the hegemony of European aristocrats.  Nor are you likely to learn very much about such things from the new age communist indoctrination centres that bear the laughable name “public schools.” If the woke communists were able to have their way, you would not be able to find any trace of these matters on the internet nor in any libraries. That’s because the American revolution was a height of a long struggle against dark hierarchies of power.

Indeed, the American revolution was such a pinnacle of success that it was conspired against by plantation owners who derived their success from European aristocratic institutions. There were many reasons for the blood oath of secrecy covering the participants in the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787, not least of which was the basic fact of treason against the existing government. The constitutional overthrew the declaration and buried it, to borrow a metaphor from Bill Buppert of ZeroGov fame.

Africa

My time in Africa arose as an outcome of one of the projects to build a new country on the ocean. After my experiences in 1990-91 setting up a sweepstakes to give away a trip into space, I became painfully aware that I was not living in a free country. Later, I was to learn that there were none.

In 1993, I got involved with a group in South Henderson, Nevada. It was called The Atlantis Project. One of the investors in that project was Courtney Smith. He learned about me because of my first book, The Atlantis Papers. So we began corresponding in 1994. He invited me to speak at the founding conference of the New Country Foundation in 1995. That’s where I met Mike Oliver, who had built the new country of Minerva on some subsea mounts which were a hazard to navigation in the Pacific ocean. As a result of building them up with dredging operations and putting a beacon and emergency supplies on the new island, Minerva was recognised by the country of New Zealand. Mike’s project was destroyed by chicanery sponsored by the CIA. Courtney also introduced me to Wes McCain and a little later to Michael van Notten.

Michael van Notten was a Dutch diplomat (in that the passport he carried was diplomatic not personal) and lawyer with extensive knowledge of history. He emphasised to me the importance of creating a new Hanseatic League to network free private cities. He worked closely with Spencer MacCallum, one of the legends of the libertarian community-building movement since his 1970 book The Art of Community. Spencer MacCallum, who passed away last year, was the grandson of Spencer Heath, whose epic Citadel Market and Altar changed many lives.

We did try, diligently, Michael and I, to build a free port and toll road in Africa. Our market would have been the people of Ethiopia who became land locked after the USA government supported the Eritrean separatists in exchange for a naval base on the Red Sea.  Ethiopia in 2000 and today is primarily served by the port of Djibouti which has the only rail line from the coast to Ethiopia’s capital at Addis Ababa.

To give you a sense of how much that situation is used to exploit the people of Ethiopia, at the time we were building our business plans for the port we planned to set up down the coast from Djibouti, it was typical to charge $50 for offloading a container at the port of Dubai in its Jebel Ali free zone.  At that time, late 2000, the cost for moving a single container from ship to shore at Djibouti was $1,500.

For various reasons, including world events, we were stymied in our efforts. Building a new port city in Somali territory became difficult to finance when NATO general Tommy Franks announced late in 2001 that official policy for NATO was to bomb all port facilities in Somalia. About a year later, Michael passed away from complications due to socialised medicine.

If you’d like to understand more of that story, and why Michael chose Somalia, you should consider his book The Law of the Somalis which was edited and published posthumously by Spencer MacCallum.

North America

It was well after my last visit to Africa that I became actively involved in the Free State Project. That was a project started by Yale university student Jason Sorens with a letter to the editor of L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise. Among other tasks I volunteered for, I was one of those who put together the mailing of ballots to find out what state was preferred by the people who had pledged to move to the chosen state. I cannot speak, at all, to the process for collecting and gathering the votes. But I did find the choice of New Hampshire largely unworkable for many of the people I knew at the time.

In 2004, I was at the second Grand Western Conference in Three Forks, Montana. We wrote up the Declaration of Independence of the Free Mountain West. You might find it online here and there in the nooks and crannies of the interwebz. If not, just read the 1776 Declaration. Philosophy is same same.

From 2004 to 2006, I worked with the Free State Wyoming group and continued visiting Wyoming frequently for the next few years. I also worked with a company that located in Winchester, New Hampshire in 2006.  Our chief financial officer’s car was attacked and all four of its tyres were slashed while he was away from the office on business. I would not say that I’ve found New Hampshire a very welcoming environment.  But, I did attend the Porcupine Freedom Festival in 2011, and expect to do so for only the second time this year.

In my opinion, based upon my travels in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America, and my discussions with people in many parts of the world, the place where freedom is most valued and seems to be best understood is here in North America. Also, I have felt spiritually led to work here, especially in the mountainous regions such as the Ozarks, Appalachians, and Cordilleran ranges (known as the Rocky Mountains, which is silly because mountains are all rocky).  Over the course of my life, I have visited all fifty states, about half the provinces in Canada, and some of the provinces in Mexico. I’ve also had the opportunity to visit or to be a part of freedom communities in many of the same places.

Chris Boehr

One of my friends, Howard Hinman, introduced me to a group of people working on an interactive television project. One of those people was Chris Boehr. He and I began corresponding and participating in a weekly teleconference in late 2017.  As a result of our work together, he sent me a copy of his book, and I read it in early 2018. I immediately recommended that he publish it. I’ve also talked it up in previous essays on the topic of building free communities and combatting evil.

Today Chris is working diligently to publish his book, which I have strongly urged him to title Free Cities Now. My argument is that marketing people know there are five words that always interest people: you, win, free, save, now. So having two of those words in the title should be good for stimulating interest in the book.

In addition to Spencer MacCallum’s Heather Foundation there are apparently a number of other foundations and groups pursuing free communities.  Titus Gebel is working on one such place in Honduras. He has started a Free Private Cities Foundation, as well. Mark Edge has discussed these ideas from time to time. So, it is railroad time, folks.  The time to start building free cities is when other people are doing so, and that time is now.

Therefore, Chris and I have begun work on a business plan to develop, network, and support free cities now. We have been focusing on mutual aid response teams to provide emergency services, mutual defence agreements, and private judicial or dispute resolution services. There are several places we expect to build free cities now, so if the land development work is more your area of interest, please get in touch.

There is a lot of work to do. You are welcome to join us. God is with us to save us.

Jim Davidson is an author, entrepreneur, actor, dancer, and teacher.  He is working on several projects to maintain knowledge in the ongoing endarkenment.  Find some of his essays at FreedomLandDAO.comamong other places.    You can also connect with him on Gettr, Twitter, and Flote.app looking for user planetaryjim but Failbook logged him out so he’s not there any longer. Currently the best ways to support Jim’s work are through Zelle using his phone number or CashApp to $houstonspacesociety