I just transferred from a smaller college to a school of 50,000 students. It is neighbors with another school in Southern California that famous on student movement. I joined the school’s Students for Bernie club (which unfortunately was the only active leftist club at the school), and they were very strange, very strange even for American. They started out organizing for Bernie’s presidential campaign and now they encompass YDSA, new SDS,local unions. Like the old video game bundles where you get all in one bite. The problem comes in the fact that there are only about ten active members a piece, all of whom are members of the above organizations. Some called themselves ML, some laborists,Some are social democrats, some are politically apathetic but pro-labor. This led to me not forming friendships with them. Plus, the club leaders are graduating soon and there is no one to take their place. I asked a graduated PSL member if there weren’t any “normal” leftist organizations here. They replied that most real ML wouldn’t join this club because it’s a registered club with the school, they’re afraid of being recognized by the school, and they’re Bernie supporters after all.
On top of that, I joined six to seven non-political clubs, but things still weren’t going well. Most of the people in the clubs have known each other since freshman year and now that they’re seniors I’m the one who jumped in in the middle. I have an alcohol allergy I can’t go to any fraternity sorority parties and I’m not interested. The people on my course are super self-isolated, they look down and ignore you when I try to talk to them. I’m looking for help off campus right now so if you’re a student in the neighborhood you can contact me.
I’m surprised a Bernie org would still be active. Why don’t they just pretend to be Bernie supporters but secretly convince people into ML? Would it be possible to seek out people in the same boat and ask which clubs they’re in or if they’d like to join them? Idk. Otherwise idk what to do.
I wish they were like that! Their meetings were so boring and short that hardly anyone spoke to each other, which is why I couldn’t make a connection with them. I still don’t know their names
But they are still there. Their intents may be good. And the seniors may be just tired, too busy, or just mentally checked out of it.
It feels to me that this is a great chance to step up and make it a ml study group, eventually discuss praxis, and make the thing grow.
Everything not done needs to be done. The barebones org is there for you to drive, if you have the time. And as a freshman with an alcohol allergy, you may just be the perfect candidate.
I think I will try. The current leader is an excellent labor organizer, they are grad students who are at least 30+ years old, will be graduating next year.
By ‘neighbor’, I presume you’re referring to UC Berkeley (hereon referred to as Cal).
No radical ML organizations will officially form clubs at any university, even radical ones like Cal. Some orgs may meet on-campus, but it will be off-the-book. Any real work will be done in the wider community (e.g. Oakland) and not on-campus.
This is due to university administrations’ historic hostilities toward student movements. For instance, the Free Speech Movement at Cal certainly was not organized through official school channels. In fact, university admin had banned all political activities and fundraising until students forced them to concede by chaining their doorknobs, locking them inside the admin buildings (which is why today all the doors on campus have only 1 doorknob to prevent chaining again).
I would also warn that most UCs today in California have almost no radical energy anymore. After Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966, he brought in the National Guard to beat up students, shut down UC and Cal State campuses, and steadily cut public funding toward said schools to prevent the formation of a dangerous “educated proletariat” (his words, see here). California state schools were previously almost free, so this drop in funding forced them to charge more and more tuition, pricing out poorer students. This has caused a steady gentrification in students at the UCs. Today, most Cal students have affluent backgrounds (median family income = $119,900), compared to the 1960s when most were low-income (NYTimes). I think all the UCs have this problem (median income +$100k) except for UC San Diego, Riverside, and Merced (median income 60-80k)
Any radicalism left in Cal today is due to the leftism of the city of Berkeley, not the UC.
Thank you for your knowledge! This explains why these two public schools(UCB,UCLA) are included in the “preppy” colleges recommended in the book* The Official Preppy Handbook*. The neighbors I’m talking about are UCLA, also from the UC system, who are closer to the LA community as a whole. Currently, they have SJP, Students For Socialism the youth branch under PSL. They’ve been holding huge marches over the past few days and have been involved in events in other Los Angeles neighborhoods.I’m ignoring the important fact that there is still a Red Scare in the US university system, as a foreigner I have a preconceived notion that a farce like the 60’s won’t happen again, but this is America. In where I come from, beating up students is decidedly impossible and untolerated, because people recognize college students as “kids” even though they are legally adults.
