Daily Lobo column
“We make war upon the state as the chief invader of person and property, as the cause of substantially all the crime and misery that exist, as itself the most gigantic criminal extant. It manufactures criminals faster than it punishes them. It exists to create and sustain the privileges that produce economic and social chaos.”
Benjamin R. Tucker, 1882
“Eat the Regents.”
Benjamin A. R. Tucker, 1997
As an anti-statist, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-regent activist, I was charmed when I picked up Thursday’s Daily Lobo and saw Matthew Dunn’s feature photo of Ryan Rice, chairman of the College Republicans.
The picture focused on Rice and his podium, which read, ‘I LOVE CAPITALI$M,” and had an American flag draped in the background. This is truly the GOP spirit I witnessed at last summer’s national convention in Philadelphia. This is the Republican Party that caters to corporate profits first, people’s needs a far second and the Earth’s ecology a far third.
Republicans who preach the merits of fiscal responsibility when it comes to social programs such as education, welfare and health care usually answer to the higher call of capitalism. These same Republicans favor larger tax cuts for the rich than the poor, handouts to already profitable corporations and a ballooning military program that threatens to militarize space, despite a possible arms race it might cause.
Democrats were not unrepresented in last week’s Daily Lobo. Ray Rivera had a column in the Feb.19 edition, and he talked about the excitement of having Al Gore on campus last fall, when people couldn’t seem to wave their signs high enough to express their support for Gore’s presidential campaign.
Notably absent was any mention of dissenters who were barred from holding signs at the rally. He then encouraged UNM students to become “radical youth activists” by voting. Rivera used common liberal logic, which assumes that by exercising the right to vote, an ordinary person has ultimate control over the political process. If only all those “apathetic” people would just vote, we could create reform.
I assert that many youth who don’t vote aren’t apathetic but rather cynical; that is, resistant to any lasting institutional changes. If our electoral system was an ice cream stand, it would have two flavors: vanilla and French vanilla. And if you dare ask for chocolate or strawberry, you are a commie-pinko-jew-fag. If you ask for Rocky Road or a banana split, you are a radical enemy of the state and will rot in prison.
Many youth are not voting, because most elections are a choice between two bland candidates. Our political system is run by a handful of rich capitalist zealots — with the cooperation of millions of other self-interested lackeys — who run the public/private state system, which in turn controls the lives of its subjects.
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Do you really want to be a radical youth activist? Start by educating yourself. If you’re on campus, you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. Not only has the Internet made it possible to get porn and free music, but it has also empowered teams of media activists to get organized.
Check out the Independent Media Center at www.indymedia.org. It will give you views from around the world that you’ll never see on TV. The library will also educate you on the views of past radicals who were fortunate enough to get published.
The second step to becoming a radical youth activist is to organize. What does that mean? Start talking to your friends, neighbors, co-workers and classmates. Chances are there’s something that’s been pissing you off. It could be something local, such as a Student Ghetto slumlord, artistic censorship or another thoughtless tuition increase bearing down on students.
Finally, you have to take action, direct action. Go on strike, paint over a billboard, march against police orders, make your voice heard, fight back.
As Martha Ackelsberg wrote, “Direct action (means) that the goal of any and all these activities (is) to provide ways for people to get in touch with their own powers and capacities, to take back the power of naming themselves and their lives.”
Take control of your life and your community.
