- Middlebury Institute
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The Middlebury Institute for the study of separatism, secession, and self-determination is a political think tank and activist organization founded in 2005. The current director is author Kirkpatrick Sale.
Contents
Purpose
The goal of the institute is to foster a national movement to place secession on the national political agenda and encourage secessionist and separatist movements here and abroad.
Beliefs
The Middlebury Institute was founded in 2005 by signees of the Middlebury Declaration of 2004.[1] The document states that there is a growing militarily based "American Empire"; suggests the possible implosion of that empire "in the near future"; defines separatism as decentralization, dissolution, disunion, division, devolution, or secession, expressing a preference for "states that operate with participatory democracy and justice, which is only attainable as a small scale"; calls the separatist and self-determination movements "the most important and most widespread political force in the world today" and commits to advancing secessionist networking and scholarship. It maintains a list of current North American separatist groups on its website.
History
In November 2006 the Institute sponsored the North American Secessionist Convention which attracted 40 participants from sixteen secessionist organizations and described itself as the first gathering of secessionists since the Civil War.[2] Delegates included a broad spectrum from libertarians to socialists to greens to Christian conservatives to indigenous peoples activists. Groups represented included the Alaskan Independence Party, the Cascadia Independence Project, the Hawaiʻi Nation, The Second Maine Militia], The Free State Project, the Republic of New Hampshire, the League of the South, Christian Exodus, the Second Vermont Republic and the United Republic of Texas. Delegates created a statement of principles of secession which they presented as the Burlington Declaration.[3]
Middlebury's Second North American Secessionist Convention in October 2007,[4] which was co-sponsored with the League of the South and held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received local and national media attention.[5][6][7] It also received negative attention for its association with the League of the South.[8][9]
In 2008 the Institute sponsored a Zogby International poll which revealed that 22% of Americans believe that "any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic." Additionally, 18% would support their own state seceding.[10][11] That year it also sponsored a third secession convention in Manchester, New Hampshire.[12]
See also
- Secession in the United States
- List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
- List of U.S. state secession proposals
- List of U.S. county secession proposals
- Belgian Revolution
- Declaration of Independence
- Free State Project
- Autonomy
- Bioregionalism
- City state
- Economic secession
- Human scale
- Nullification
- Urban secession
References
- ^ Middlebury Declaration at Middlebury Institute web site.
- ^ [http://middleburyinstitute.org/secessionconvention2006.html First North American Secessionist Convention at Middlebury Institute web site.
- ^ The New York Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer covered the convention.
- ^ [http://middleburyinstitute.org/secessionconvention2006.html First North American Secessionist Convention at Middlebury Institute web site.
- ^ Leonard Doyle, Anger over Iraq and Bush prompts calls for secession from the US, Independent, UK, October 4, 2007.
- ^ WDEF News 12 Video report on Secessionist Convention, October 3, 2007.
- ^ Peter Applebombe, A Vision of a Nation No Longer in the U.S., New York Times, October 18, 2007.
- ^ Bill Poovey, Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee, Associated Press, October 3, 2007.
- ^ Mark Potok, New York Times Feature on Sale Left Out a Fact or Two, October 23, 2007.
- ^ Middlebury Institute/Zogby Poll: One in Five Americans Believe States Have the Right to Secede, Zogby International, July 23, 2008.
- ^ Alex Mayer, Secession: still a popular idea? , St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2008.
- ^ Sally Pollak, Bread & Puppet Livens Gathering of Pro-Secession Advocates at Statehouse, Vermont Free Press, November 16, 2008.
External links
Categories:- Political and economic think tanks in the United States
- Secession in the United States
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