Marina del Rey, Calif., April 16 - The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) has launched a major campaign against Bill Clinton's Philadelphia Summit to promote citizen service, labeling it an "anti-American servitude summit."
ARI is an educational organization dedicated to advancing novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy and its principal tenets: reason, rational egoism, and capitalism.
Dr. Michael Berliner, ARI's Executive Director, has called Bill Clinton's citizen service proposals, "an inversion of the principles on which this nation was established: an individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"The Founding Fathers wrote a Declaration of Independence, not a declaration of servitude," Berliner adds. "To hold this summit in Independence Hall is a profound insult to Americans and to what this country stands for. The philosophy of duty, obligation and sacrifice is the philosophy of dictatorships -- not the philosophy of America. America stands for independence, self-reliance, self-confidence."
"This country has been a beacon of hope for the oppressed throughout the world," Dr. Berliner points out. "They have come here to escape tyrannies; they have come here to live their own lives, where they aren't owned by King George III, the Soviets, or the needy."
Dr. Berliner emphasizes that "The Ayn Rand Institute is working to re-establish the original meaning of the Declaration of Independence: an individual's moral right to the pursuit of his own happiness, his right to every minute of his life."
Among ARI's campaign activities is an anti-Summit press conference in Philadelphia, beginning at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, April 26, in the Sherman Room of the Independence Mall Holiday Inn.

Featured speakers and topics slated for the ARI press conference are:

• Peter Schwartz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ARI - "The immorality of Bill Clinton's proposals."
• Dr. John Ridpath, historian - "The real meaning of Americanism."
• Dr. Andrew Bernstein, philosopher - "What young people really need: heroes, freedom, and personal values."
• Barry Wood, a Harvard graduate student - "The effect of Bill Clinton's service proposals on students."

ARI's campaign activities are coordinated with The Coalition of Students against Servitude, a group of students from more than 100 campuses nationwide who will be opposing the Summit, either by postering their campuses or protesting in Philadelphia.
Also, Americans can petition electronically against Bill Clinton's goals and proposals via ARI's website: http:www.aynrand.org/no_servitude.
Contact Mr. McConnell for press kits and to arrange interviews with a diversity of experts protesting Bill Clinton's proposals.