Posted on 06/30/2004 2:54:16 PM PDT by Chris_Shugart
What I Did on My Summer Vacation
By Chris Shugart, 22 June, 04
Are you out of work? Do you lack professional ambition? Are your career options limited? Well, bunky, then the Ruckus Society may be for you. This summer you can go to camp. Protest camp. If you’re a young anarchist with the summertime blues, you needn’t have to stew in your own nihilistic bile.
Founded in 1995, The Ruckus Society has been providing training programs for left-wing activists for several years, and now that we’re in a presidential election year they’re aiming their sights on the Republican primary convention in New York. This summer, the Ruckus Society will be running a weekend training camp for the purpose of training their fringe group minion in the disorganized art of protest. Welcome to Camp Run-Amok.
You’ll learn survival techniques: how to treat your eyes against pepper spray. You’ll acquire valuable skills: how to scale a building or how to resist rubber bullets. Participate in arts and crafts: create blockades and sit-ins, or throw a pie. Summer camp was never like this.
The left likes to romantically refer to their anti-authority demonstrations as “direct action,” which, admittedly, sounds a lot better than “riot.” While this may have adolescent appeal among fledgling revolutionary wannabes, it doesn’t play well in Middle America. Consequently, many activists have come to recognize the need to appeal to the political mainstream. John Sellers, director of the Ruckus Society says, “I don’t think the American public understands it as a political act.” Quite so. The American public understands it as pointless mayhem.
Consequently, the Ruckus Society has taken on the task of turning radical left wing political demonstrations and repackaging them into benign but wacky, media-friendly events. It’s a little like if Gallagher had his own political party.
Squashed fruit aside, there are those on the left who believe that their message would be better received if they had more mainstream credibility. But a disruptive freak show is still a disruptive freak show no matter how big the clown shoes are. Behind the big banners, the costumes, and giant puppet heads remain the same old messages of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-just-about-anything embraced by ordinary Americans.
Go ahead and paint a happy face on the Earth Liberation Front. Knock yourself out. The FBI still knows that they’re domestic terrorist group. Go ahead and give members of the Communist Party USA a shave and a haircut. Maybe you can even teach them how to smile. Doesn’t matter. They’re still incoherent. And what’s with those bad sweaters that seem so popular among angry young anarchists? Talk about extreme makeover. Is national politics ready for “American Eye for the Radical Guy?”
Society Director Sellers gets it, but only to a point. He says, “Anarchism has gotten a really bad rap, like communism.” That’s true. All that theft, vandalism, and arson, can create such an unfortunate misperception. Sellers would have us believe that those malicious fringe groups we’ve seen in places like Seattle, Washington D.C, and elsewhere are merely poor misunderstood idealists suffering from a lack of positive media spin. As the summer unfolds, and the radical left begins to descend on our cities, let’s remember who the majority of these people really are: A mish-mash rabble of bitter malcontents who resent their own inept lack of political clout and want to take it out on everyone else.
On August 31, Madison Square Garden (the site of the Republican National Convention) looks to be a major battle front for the radical left. Organizers won’t publicly disclose their plans, but plans are definitely in the works for sit-ins, blockades, pie-throwing at high-level officials, and street theater outside Broadway shows. Expect to see zany anarchists and madcap radicals making merry havoc in the streets of New York.
These fun-loving activists have also designated August 31 as an “official day of civil disobedience.” Their hope is that protesters all over the country will take to the streets. Meanwhile, police spokespeople are predicting lots of arrests. Does any of this really matter? All the street theater in the world will not turn an anti-globalization demonstration into a Boy Scout Jamboree. Radical politics is ugly politics no matter how you dress it up.
In one sense, the Ruckus Society may actually be providing the country with a public service. They have provided a summer’s worth of activity for the chronically unemployable. That’s something anyway.
By the way, Gallagher, the aforementioned fruit-pounding prop comedian may already have his own political party. At least he says he’s running for president. I don’t know what his platform is, though he probably doesn’t know either. But in the world of radical politics, that apparently doesn’t matter any more. All you need is an outrageous outfit, a gooshy pie, a giant purple puppet, and a few hackneyed old left-wing slogans and you’re boffo in today’s political arena.
"Communism got a lot of bad press in the last century"
--Ed Asner, heard on the Sean Hannity show a few months back.
Is this the one that Tuh-ray-zuh Kerry donates big bucks to?
The Ruckus Society
369 15th Street
Oakland, CA 94612
phone: 510 763-7078
fax: 510 763-7068
info@ruckus.org
Oh goody, I like arguing with anarchists, they're easy.
Are the protesters getting paid for this? If so, they are helping Bush by strengthening the economy! ;o) That little fact ought to blow their minds!
The Ruckus Society is a direct beneficiary of the Tides Foundation and Ted Turner. Tides is primarily funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Theresa Heinz-Kerry has been known to make donations to Tides as well.
Great. That is only about 2 blocks from where I go to hockey practice every Friday.
please don't let the puck get away from you - you might put someone's eye out
Great photo. Looks like they are getting ready for a Gulag experience.
He's actually a Democrat pretending to be an anarchist.
LOL, actually we are required to wear a full face shield, so they already thought of that.
I probably would anyway (already had one bad eye injury, don't need another). It came in handy two weeks ago when I got the puck full in the face from an errant shot by my teammate.
Kinda creepy though that they are so close to someplace I go everyweek, though I guess it should not surprise considering where I live.
ah Oakland - birthplace of Black Panthers and SLA I believe ... don't know how you can stand it ... Ithaca West
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