I'm only 21, and only fell into an informed anti-capitalist stance in 2009 (I can't identify as a marxist/socialist/communist without some equivocation...in part because I don't know any in real life, in part because I've come to my beliefs as a reaction against the brittle dogmas of Imperial America post '89). I voted for Obama, I drank the kool-aid, about as much as any other young person, though I did expect some degree of 'disillusionment'...... But I also have to say that I was probably not alone in expecting a strong lurch to the left, on healthcare, card-check, environmental and energy legislation, a crackdown on the banks....
Obama's crooked healthcare deal started the process of my radicalization, the more I followed the 'debate' and the details, the more disgusted I became with the two party system and Obama and the DP's completely repulsive behavior, but the BP oil spill drove the stakes into the ground. I finished my first read through of Das Kapital, volume 1 in june 2010, I'd say my position was fairly crystallized by that point.
I have a six year old daughter, which means I am a teen parent. Rough ticket... I'm wrapping up my bachelor's degree in history at Florida Gulf Coast University this fall. I've supported myself in some form or another, through shit jobs, but the past year or so, I've fallen out of the workforce, into the reserve army.... for that reason, I'm also being more or less pushed into getting my realtor's license by my father, who has an independent small brokerage, a one man show, that he wants to try and turn into a feasible business. I'm resistant, and a little resentful, given that he's not been terribly helpful the past few years... and this Faustian bargain of joining capitalism... really disgusts me.
But, I'm REALLY convinced that the next wave of left wing leaders and activists are going to NEED business/finance/industrial/technical/'capitalist' knowledge in order to begin liberating small groups of people and some small pools of capital as a necessary pre-requisitie to successively administering, any local, state, or federal goverment or political party or pre-1914 SPD type organization, or even small business enterprises. I'd even suggest that if all marxists put their money where their mouth was, in a specifically 'marxist' bank or stock brokerage, that'd be taking the class struggle INTO the markets in a way that may help.... I was once very attracted to academia, but it's increasingly less appealing as a career, and also less and less 'tied' into the mainstream of politcal discourse.... (NO OFFENSE, I respect the profession, but don't know if I'd be able to make it.)
But, I'm also ready to try my hand at local activism of a sort. I want to just raise some semblance of student consciousness, a desire to think of school, state, national and global levels. FGCU is a rather small school that's staking most of its growth on nursing, business (we have a large 'Hospitality and Resort Management' program.....), and there's left little for english, history, or the other 'liberal arts.' I believe we were one of the first schools founded with a clear no-tenure policy...
I have a few friends who are ready to write as many articles as needed to plug gaps if they arise; we have a few hundred dollars, to get a website going. We have a few avenues to network through, but trying to form an alternative source of 'local' news, in opposition to the DREADFUL puff-piece college paper, seems like a good first step and a way to start a conversation. Though, maybe it'd be better to try and start writing for the paper and pull it in a different direction...
Thoughts? Suggestion? I have quite a few more questions for the list, but I'll start off with this. If this turns out well, I'd like some advice on what to do next, school-wise, law school, grad school, etc.
Best, John Glastonbury