Hate on tap?

Motivations and tactics of campus Socialists

By Michael Klein
From the March 2005 Print Edition

Members of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) gathered one week after the presidential inauguration for something quite contrary to an inaugural ball. They entitled this week’s meeting “How to Beat Bush,” and thoroughly promoted the meeting beforehand by selling copies of the Socialist Worker and asking students if they were tired of the Bush administration’s oppressive policies.

Amidst approximately 20 comrades, and posters stating “abortion on demand” and “Israel out of Palestine,” the plan to beat Bush and incite revolution started to unravel. Despite the ISO’s campaign for peaceful, collectivist world living, the plan to beat Bush appears quite charged with anger and hatred.

One member of the organization took the podium and began to recapitulate the results of the past election to an audience of grim-faced self-proclaimed revolutionaries. Attacks were aimed not only at the Bush administration, but also at the Democratic Party. The speaker lashed out at the lack of opposition the Democratic Party offered in the recent elections as she harangued, “Last time we checked, we’re supposed to have an opposition party.” John Kerry took the brunt of the attacks, as the speaker criticized him for his closeness to Bush and assumed the role of Kerry campaign manager by demanding that the Kerry campaign should have spoken more about his “honorable” start of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

To combat Bush’s efforts, the speaker reminded the audience that they had to “challenge Bush’s appeal to the nation.” To this, members of the audience took advantage of an extensive commentary period to stress the nature of their plight, and the “appeal” they desired.

In the front row sat a member with a shirt which bore a famous quote from Malcolm X, “You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.” Capitalism was thoroughly denounced as an unjust and even violent system. Commenting on the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum this past January, one member claimed that this was the place where capitalist leaders “figure out ways to bleed each other’s working classes.”

Another member advised that putting off reform would force people to “live in a world of sh**.” Most members believed so strongly in socialism that they agreed that as long as Bush promoted capitalism the United States, there could be no capacity for good in the world.

Snehal Shingavi, a prominent member of the ISO, lamented the lack of revolution occurring on the UC Berkeley campus these days. Despite his cries for world peace, Shingavi claimed that “we’ve got to get people excited … we have to tap the hate.” Thus, he shouted invective at the notion of fragmented, undirected hatred in the world.

Shingavi also proposed the next revolution on the Berkeley campus, aimed at the Bush administration, by impeding the recruitment efforts of the U.S. military on campus. Enthused at the plan, Shingavi touted, “Do you know how great that would be to kick the military recruiters off the UC Berkeley campus?”

To this another member replied, “If we can screw with the military recruiters in the Bay Area … it could stir up the waters.”

In an e-mail sent to all potential political activists, Anna Scholtz of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition (partner of the ISO) called for an urgent, emergency organizational meeting to take place on campus in preparation for a protest of the Marine Corps recruiters who were scheduled to come to campus for a career fair on February 25. In the e-mail, Scholtz exclaims, “Our campaign to get the military recruiters off campus will certainly be more sustained than a single protest, but now we have an opportunity to do some immediate, creative, smart direct action against the recruiters to get people on campus talking about this!”

Thus, on the morning of February 25, approximately 20 members of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition scrambled to make signs for their imminent protest. They managed to enter Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, where the career fair was held, and marched for a short time near the Marine Corps recruiting table. William Tu, a UC Berkeley senior, spoke to a recruiter following the protest. Tu relayed that the Marines had seen several protests such as these while recruiting, but never before had the protestors actually entered the building.

Despite the reported reasons for the protest, namely the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the ISO and its partner organization suggest ulterior motives of intentionally hampering the recruitment efforts of the armed forces in general.

For the International Socialists, the mainstream politics of today is simply not revolutionary enough to bring about the type of change they want to see; neither is it effective enough to combat Bush’s policies. One member of the ISO reminded the comrades that “you have to see yourself as a freedom fighter.” Another admitted that “the only people in favor of reforms are revolutionaries.” For them, revolution is the only answer to the question of “how to beat Bush.”

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