Linda Whetstone, a great champion of global liberty, passed away last week. She dedicated her life to expanding freedom through tireless activism, the promotion of classical liberal ideas, and through her example, which epitomized the spirit of liberalism. Linda was the president of the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), chair of the Atlas Network, and was on the board of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. She served twice on the selection committee of Cato’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (with awards going to the Ladies in White Cuban dissident group in 2018 and to Chinese market-liberal Mao Yushi in 2012).
There is hardly an organization or individual in the pro-freedom movement anywhere who has not been influenced by Linda either indirectly or, more often than not, through her direct encouragement and support. She was especially enthusiastic and active in promoting classical liberalism in the most challenging of places, working closely with countless individuals throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and many parts of Asia and beyond. To give just one of what could be endless examples, my colleague Mustafa Akyol recalls how in 2014, when he was still living in Turkey, Linda arranged for him to speak in Tehran, Iran on “Globalization and Free Trade from an Islamic Point of View.” The promotion of freedom in Islamic societies was one of her ongoing projects.
I benefited from Linda’s friendship, knowledge, and inspiration, and I know I’m not the only one at Cato who would receive, at least once a year, a handwritten note from her expressing how important she thought our work was. I was fortunate to have spoken with her recently on a couple of occasions—at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Guatemala last month and at the Atlas Network annual meeting in Miami last week where the above picture was taken with Cato sponsor John Garvey. Linda marveled at how far the movement had come from when she first became involved in it (she attended her first MPS meeting in 1959). I marveled too, but with not nearly the perspective and knowledge she had. We agreed that the growth in size and international representation of the MPS was an impressive and positive sign and that the Atlas Network’s growth and increasing effectiveness in recent years was also a source of optimism at a time when illiberalism poses serious challenges. Those accomplishments too are part of her legacy.
Linda will be missed by people around the world. For other remembrances, see the Atlas Network page, which features a reflection from Cato and Atlas scholar Tom Palmer who notes, in present tense, that “Linda is one of the strongest influences on our movement.” Quite so.
