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 The First "Walk for Capitalism"
A Worldwide Success
by Vincent H. Miller
I must admit that when I first heard about Prodos's "Walk for Capitalism" last summer I was very skeptical. I envisioned tiny turnouts making budding freedom movements look small and pathetic. But as more and more ISIL members and Objectivists around the world jumped on the bandwagon, we became increasingly more interested and when our good friend Hubert Jongen of the Libertarian International in Holland urged us to look into the walk, we eventually featured an interview in the November Freedom Network News with Prodos, an Australian free thinker, and the force behind this project.
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the most successful Walks occurred in the places that need free enterprise and competitive markets the most – socialist countries, and the former communist and developing countries.
Walks occurred all over the world – in 115 cities, actually – so we have no hope of covering all of them here – so will cover just a few highlights (and extend our apologies to any we may have overlooked).
ROMANIA . . .
ISIL Rep Valentina Nicolae (c) and friend Alina in colorful "Walk for Capitalism" in Bucharest, Romania.
In Romania, ISIL rep Valentina Nicolae reported that in spite of rain there were about one hundred participants. The newly-formed libertarian Horia Rusu Foundation, of which Valentina is a founding member, featured a booth with literature tables on the roadside. Judging from the pictures and the festive atmosphere (and smiles) the rain failed to dampen spirits.
In background, the libertarian Foundation Horia Rusu features a display booth along the Walk route in Bucharest. Photo by Steven Browne.
SWEDEN . . .
The "Walk" in Stockholm, Sweden, ended up at Norrmalmstorg square where Johan Norberg, Mattias Svensson, Gunnar Hömark and Karin Pilsäter addressed the crowd. Photo by Henrik Alexandersson.
Sweden, as far as we can tell, was the world Walk leader with a total of 600 persons participating in various cities throughout the country. ISIL Rep Henrik Bejke reported that the largest Walk was held in Stockholm, but others were also held in Gothenburg, Lund, and Växjö.
In Stockholm, where there were 360 participants in the Walk, it went very smoothly – mainly because the counter-demonstrators mistakenly thought the Walk started one hour later than it did. But in Växjö, counter-demonstrators tried to stop the Walk and in Lund the Walk actually had to be canceled because of violent leftist protesters.
Henrik remarked that this disrespect for basic rights shows the true face of the left. "We are raising Hell about it!" he stated.
Of course this is nothing new in Sweden. ISIL members who attended our world conference in Stockholm in 1986 will recall how our conference hotel was picketed by Marxist-Leninist demonstrators.
Swedish libertarians borrow American Revolutionary flag to express their sentiments during Stockholm's Walk for Capitalism. Photo by Henrik Alexandersson.
In Stockholm, the Walk ended at Norrmalmstorg Square where several speeches were given by Mattias Svensson, Johan Norberg, Gunnar Hökmark and Karin Pilsäter. Gunnar, a member of parliament for the Conservative Party, spoke on free markets and free trade.
Henrik commented, "It is not every day that hard-core libertarians like Norberg and Svensson join forces with people from the mainstream parties like Hökmark and Pilsäter."
SLOVAKIA . . .
Dalibor Rohac, the Bratislava coordinator for Prodos reported that the turnout was low (about 12 – due possibly to bad weather) but that local television covered the event and interviewed him. Several ISIL members were in attendance, including Josef Sima of the Liberalni Institut in Prague, and Tom Grey who was a former counselor to the Slovak Prime Minister (members may recall how contacts developed by Tom Grey and Sean Gabb enabled ISIL to set up a free-market library at the Prime Minister's office in Bratislava back in the early 90s – Ed).
Rohac reported that people they met on the Walk were quite interested and that they were giving them copies of a Czech libertarian magazine called "Terra Libra".
NIGERIA . . .
ISIL Rep Agwu Amogu reported that the "Walk" and the capitalism day celebration was a huge success with 80 individuals involved in the walk. Blue ribbons and literature were given out. Agwu reported that a wonderful celebration at the beach followed the "Walk". Entertainment was supplied by some native musicians and there was lots to drink and eat. It ended with a speech by Agwu and prayers for a better Walk in 2002.
SERBIA . . .
ISIL Rep Tomislav Krsmanovic reports that several dozen people showed up for the Walk in Kalimegdan park in Belgrade. The weather like that in other parts of Europe was cold and cloudy. Participants gave speeches on the virtues of capitalism and later met at Grcka kraljica, a local cafe where a Capitalism Award was presented to Miroslav Kostic, a writer and journalist at Radio Belgrade.
CANADA . . .
Bill Hall of the local CKWS News, Youth for Liberty member Adam Daifallah and Paul Quick (one of the counter-demonstrators) take advantage of a photo-op during the Walk for Capitalism in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Obviously the Canadian counter-demonstrators are much more into civilized dialogue than those in Sweden.
Peter Jaworski of "Youth for Liberty" reports that in Kingston, Ontario, about 30 people participated. They were also counter-demonstrated by 12 protesters (with banners and top hats). Later following the Walk they received some coverage in the university campus press and in local papers & letters-to-the-editors columns.
We understand that there was also a Walk in Toronto sponsored by the University of Toronto Objectivist Club.
Internationally there were many more, including a walk organized by Barun Mitra of India's Liberty Institute in New Delhi (50 "Walkers" were involved there). Many blue-ribbon awards were distributed to exemplary entrepreneurs and even a poor drummer boy joined the procession. The Walk was covered by many newspapers.
To sum up, I asked Prodos if he was satisfied with the results of the first "Walk."
He replied:
"I think the campaign was very successful. We ended up reaching millions of people around the world with our positive message. And, just as important, everyone had great fun!
"Our theme this year is "Capitalism & Human Creativity" and as well as our "official" thinkers: Adam Smith, Von Mises, Ayn Rand, Bastiat, Locke, Jefferson & The US Founding Fathers, we'll be adding "Creative heroes of Capitalism" such as Edison, Disney, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc.
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