Cleveland Scene: The Commies Next Door...

by Kyle Swenson

(from the latest issue of Cleveland Scene)

Caleb Maupin would like you to know he's not a super-villain, despite what you may have seen on TV. A communist? Sure. But he's not out to indoctrinate your children. Not yet.

The 22-year-old is chatty and affable, a skinny pale kid with a burning bush of unruly red hair. When it comes to talking politics, he's obviously done his homework: facts, dates, obscure legislation, the fates of forgotten labor leaders, snippets of protest songs — in conversation he drops all forms of arcana from the annals of the American left. In part, he's learned the game as a careful student of history, but he also sees himself as an inheritor of the radical tradition.

Maupin is the leader of a small group of like-minded communists called Cleveland FIST, the local arm of a national youth organization. Maupin's sidekick is Adam Gluntz, a stocky blond philosophy student from Baldwin-Wallace College. Together, they're a straight-faced Laurel and Hardy of liberal radicalism: two white guys from suburban and rural backgrounds who have inserted themselves at the forefront of the local far-left.

While most young Marxists may be content to rap about Mao in the dorm room between bong rips, these guys take a more sober and proactive approach to kick-starting their revolution. They attend nearly every public demonstration held in the area, from immigration rallies to protests against police brutality. This is not necessarily an easy world to inhabit: Far from big-budget political establishment, the radical left is a mix of old-school union types and inner-city activists, groups that can be distrustful of anyone new, mainstream, and — in many cases — white. But Maupin and Gluntz have quickly become fixtures in this crowd. By the end of the month, they plan to leave their Berea stomping grounds and move into a house in Collinwood. It gets them closer to Cleveland's working class — and to the scene of their first mainstream attention.

In mid-May, the pair got wind of a student walkout at Collinwood High School and showed up with a video camera in time to see two young girls arrested by Cleveland police. After their clip of the rough arrest went public, the TV news and community leaders suggested Maupin was some kind of agent provocateur out of a '50s comic book, orchestrating the protest and using the kids as pawns in his Marxist agenda.

"They acted like I was some communist Snidely Whiplash twirling my mustache," Maupin says. "We're trained in this country from the time that we're little to believe that communism is a devilish, evil ideology — that communists are all just big and scary — not to engage the actual political beliefs."

Maupin and Gluntz admit their group is small — fewer than ten active members — but the two aren't afraid to dive headfirst into the class and race issues still brewing in Cleveland. At times it seems they might be the only ones paying attention.

Maupin grew up in red, white, and blue-blooded Orrville, the oldest son in one of the only liberal families on the block. Politics was a common topic of conversation in the household, and a young Maupin got an early taste of the picket line when his mother and other Stark County librarians went on strike. As he got older, he spent most of his free time reading, eventually cracking open The Communist Manifesto in the fifth grade. Hooked on the message, Maupin read his way through other communist staples and began contacting local socialist groups about how he could get involved. By 19, he was a member of the Workers World Party, one of the largest communist groups in America.

In 2006, Maupin took up political science at Baldwin-Wallace. But once classes began, he became disappointed with the beer-bong dilettantism and unengaged attitude of most of the student body.

"I came to college because I wanted to learn — political theory, international politics, all of it. Other students weren't there to learn; they were there to get their grade and get a job . . . and they're going to be lucky if they have a job at this point," he says.

Shortly thereafter, Maupin met Gluntz, a B-W music student from Hudson. The two shared an interest in politics, despite Gluntz's conservative leanings at the time. They spent long nights talking politics at a nearby Denny's, and eventually Maupin drafted his friend into the communist ranks. Now boasting a Trotsky to his Lenin, Maupin founded the local chapter of FIST and dropped out of school to focus full time on activism.

Their timing may have been right on. Marxism today — more than two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall — is enjoying a bit of a new vogue on the American scene. The philosophy has become the favorite boogieman of the right-wing media, and as anyone who's spent time at a Tea Party or two can tell you, the denizens of that particular corner of the spectrum are convinced that Obama has swapped every Bible in the White House for a copy of Das Kapital.

Despite the negative attention, socialist groups believe their message is ripe for the times. Tagging the Great Recession as the endgame of the capitalist project, they claim they've seen fresh interest in socialism and Marxist theory, especially among young people who've come of age amid bank bailouts, a manic stock market, and record unemployment.

Frances Dostal is one of the ideology's old-timers with confidence in a communist future, thanks largely to a new youth movement. Now in her eighties, she's spent the lion's share of the century working the frontlines of social causes from civil rights to the anti-war movement. Dostal says she's seen a growing number of younger socialists become involved in hard-hit Rust Belt cities like Detroit; she believes Maupin and Gluntz could be the spark of a wider local resurgence. "[Maupin's] energy is just incredible," she says. "I have hopes they'll continue to bring in interest."

Maupin and Gluntz say their presence in Cleveland's inner city and working classes has drummed up curiosity in their philosophy. There are obstacles, they admit. For one, they say many in the working class don't see that liberal political organizations and unions have lost touch with the people they purportedly serve. Such groups, they believe, only lubricate the interests of the mainstream political and business machine.

"ACORN's goal is to get Democrats elected and raise money for the party," Gluntz says. "They may benefit people in the process, but ultimately their interest is for themselves. Their job is to capture people's anger they have about economic and political issues, and channel it into the party." He believes unions have fallen into a similar situation, with the ruling caste in bed with the bosses, rather than openly fighting for workers' rights.

"That's what being a communist is about: organizing our class — the working class — to organize along their own interests," he says.

That disconnect between liberal groups and the people they claim to serve may have been spotlighted with the Collinwood incident. On May 13, Collinwood students staged a walkout — a bit of social disobedience tied to recent budget cuts. Maupin and Gluntz say they were contacted before the event on Facebook by a student organizer. The pair attended in a show of support, but say they had nothing to do with the planning.

But while there, the two captured video of Cleveland police arresting two teenage girls, Destini and DeAsia Bronaugh, ages 19 and 17. The video shows four officers slamming the girls against a cruiser and dropping them face-down on the pavement. (The girls both face charges stemming from the incident.) Maupin and Gluntz took their footage to area TV stations; the next day, a protest was held outside the school calling for the Bronaugh sisters' release. TV crews showed up.

The WKYC report that ran later that day clearly suggests Maupin was the mastermind behind the events. Anchor Ramona Robinson says the protest included "some adults, whose motives for being there have been questioned." At one point in reporter Dick Russ' clip, Maupin is introduced with a slow-motion shot, as if he were an action-movie evildoer marching toward a showdown. The segment also includes clips of a clearly agitated Maupin denying any role in the walkout; nevertheless, Russ later mentions suspicions that the Marxists had "duped and manipulated the Collinwood kids."

Community leaders echoed the accusation. In the segment, NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller states that he thought "there are some other people out here with different intentions that are trying to take advantage and direct the thinking of these kids. And that's a problem."

Maupin believes he was fingered because the media and community leaders would rather blame a Red for the incident than talk about police brutality. Tina Bronaugh, the mother of the two girls, agrees.

"[The police] beat up my girls, they threw them in jail, and now they're putting them through these charges," she says. "I can't see how this goes on and nobody says anything. [Maupin] saw something that was unjust, and he stood up," she says. "I don't see a lot of other people doing that here."

Send feedback to kswenson@clevescene.com.

You Will Learn, ON OUR TERMS - On The Knowledge Industry of Capitalism

In my experience as a college student in the United States, I have learned that the virtue most helpful to a student in achieving academic success is ignorance. Of course, I can only speak to what I have seen personally, having had seven semesters of college courses in Social Sciences, Humanities, and a few other fields under my belt, all of them at a small “liberal arts” college, highly rated among U.S. learning establishments.

The college student first enters the classroom coming from a society that punishes critical thought. Children with books are “nerds.” Adults with books are “snobs” and “elitists.” Someone who is overly critical of government politics is “pretentious”, “a blow hard” or “nut job.” Protestors and political activists are largely considered to be “immature” or “mentally deranged.”

However, when entering the college classroom, a student suddenly is thrust into a situation in which they are told the opposite about critical thought, than what they have been told by the society at large. The student is expected to leave their previous training in anti-intellectualism and mental conformity at classroom door, and suddenly “love to learn” and “think freely” while sitting in front of the chalk board and podium of an even more highly educated individual, with a degree to prove it.

Yet, even within this intellectual “safe space” students are once again subject to similar rigid, thorough regulation of their mental activities. The rules however, have changed. No longer is the mantra “thou shalt not learn.” The new rule of conformity, its followers rewarded and dissidents punished, is “you shall learn, but on OUR TERMS.”

Test Formats & The Truth

Courses are often structured in the traditional manner of “lecture format.” A professor will stand before the class and “profess” their knowledge about whatever subject they are teaching. The students are invited to participate, debate, argue, and in other ways engage with the content of the course.

Then, a few times within this process, the students are tested over the knowledge they gained in course material, by taking quizzes, tests, or exams.

However, the traditional format of multiple-choice questions has long fallen out of favor among the “learning experts” of educational theory. Because it is true that students can in fact guess whether the answer is choice A, B, C, or D, and some element of their grade is subject to “luck of the draw” academic administrators now pressure educators not to use this so easily manipulated method, but rather to use the revolutionary “short answer” format, designed to show how well students have “learned” and “increased their ability to think.”

On the surface, this make a bit of sense. However, the extension and application of this “method” has become the basis for a ruthless enhancement the “enforced ignorance” in education that Noam Chomsky and other left critics bemoan so strongly.
For the purpose of this discussion, I shall use a hypothetical class and situation. Let us envision a course in American Literature, in which the students are studying the novel: “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin.

A fair short answer question would be:

“What did the protagonist experience throughout the novel? How do these events articulate what the author was hoping to express? What literary techniques does the author use to express such points? How does this novel reflect the condition of women in the period of its publication?”

However, this method or design of short answer questions has been rare in modern college courses. Professors instead simply structure their “revolutionary” “short answer” questions like this:

“What did you learn from Kate Chopin?”

This question is very short and broad. Perhaps it would be appropriate if the professor were taking a survey, but it is quite inappropriate for an examination, if the goal is to see if the student has properly engaged with the novel and its content.

How exactly does one answer this question, and provide the professor with the material they are looking for? The question is simply one sentence, that being “What did you learn from Kate Chopin?”

One could answer that they learned about the culture or New Orleans in the 1800s, the use of language among wealthy cajuns, the plight of a housewife, the problems of women under patriarchy, the horror of sexual repression, the painlessness of suicide by drowning, the amount of beachfront property in Louisiana, the division between town and country in the rural southern U.S., the differing views of morality held by the larger society of the United States in comparison to the past, etc.

A question such as the one described above could be answered in more ways than can be imagined. Every person and individual can “learn something” from Kate Chopin’s classic, and not a single one would perfectly match another.

All of the answers listed above are literally correct. These are all things that one could learn from Kate Chopin’s novel “The Awakening.” But it is very unlikely that any of these answers would redeem one the full credit for this “short answer” question, often worth the vast majority of the exam’s percentage points.

Why?

Because one is not really being asked “What did you learn from Kate Chopin?” One is in fact being told “please regurgitate what your instructor wants you to have learned from Kate Chopin.”

The student is not expected to learn from Kate Chopin, or in fact, to learn at all. Rather, the student is supposed to come to believe and be indoctrinated in the professor’s opinion and beliefs about Kate Chopin. The students job is to inflate the ego of their instructor by allowing this “superior person” to see their own words come from the mouth of another.

If a student says exactly what the professor has said, perhaps even verbatim, making the professor feel as if they are extremely important and genius, and that the student, through the grace of his/her presence has been trained to think in the super human manner of this nearly divine entity, they are rewarded with full credit, kindergarten style smiley faces, and in some cases flattery worthy of sycophantic office employee, desperate for a raise.

However, if the student answers the question presented truthfully, and therefore learned “the wrong thing” from Kate Chopin, i.e. something other than what has been “professed” to the student as what they are “supposed” to learn, they are punished, downgraded, reprimanded.

Yet, this begs the question, how can one learn the “wrong thing” from a book? How is this possible? A work of literature, an interpretation of history, are all very subjective things. Every person brings their own experience to the text, and takes away from it respectively.

One could very easily “learn” something from Kate Chopin that is the exact opposite of what their instructor learned or dictated that they learn. Evidence that even the most well-known literary scholars do this sits in every academic library, where one can read the differing interpretations and debated articles in countless peer reviewed journals on nearly every subject imaginable.

Thought As A Commodity, Assessed and Sold as Such

Yet, why is it that the well-known academics, published in the various journals can freely disagree with the established narrative, whereas students are punished for it. The answer is simple: vetting.

Just as Supreme Court Justice nominees, CEOs, and political candidates are reviewed to see if they are “safe” for the power structure, so are those who staff the ranks of capitalisms very own “thinking industry.”

Yes, one will get published and gain the “right” to disagree, but only once someone has proved through purchasing and passing hundreds of credit hours in courses doing the exact opposite. Once you have learned to see the world from the viewpoint you are instructed to see it from, and you have not challenged that viewpoint excessively, and you have allowed your mind to exist as a blank piece paper for the establishment to write whatever they so desire on numerous times over, then, and only then, are you “safe” enough to go and “profess” the same principles and ideas you have been taught, perhaps putting your own spin or interpretation on them, perhaps not.

It was only after a theologian in the Middle Ages had been thoroughly trained and indoctrinated into the ideas of the Roman Catholic Church and proved to be a true believer, that he was considered “qualified” to debate whether Satan’s army of Demons had 4,500 among its ranks or merely 3,700 with other such “well educated” theologians.
From my experience, we have not advanced beyond this point. We still live in a society where power structures are dominated by a ruling elite, and that ruling elite has the ability to control and dominate all aspects of culture, education, industry, finance, and anything else.

The colleges and universities of this country and most of the world, are not centers of free thought, innovation, or dissent. They are not “marketplaces of ideas.” They are not places where “a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend.”

They are the opposite. They are the place where those who seek to do jobs for the ruling elite that require some level of thinking are trained, forged, and purged to the point that doing so is done only by “safe” people, who will use this privilege of thought only for the ends of those who already hold control the world to be analyzed.

A certificate of education is not proof of one’s intellect, or thinking ability. A diploma is proof that one has attained a certain level of conformity and is deemed “safe” enough to be “qualified” to speak on a particular matter, and will do so in a way not capable of “rocking the boat” to vociferously.

Yes, even the most “educated” among the non-owning classes of the world are commodities. Whether one works with their hands or with their minds, their labor is still a commodity and shall be treated as such. The only remaining question is how well they will do this particular job, even the job doing being the intellectual work of thinking and educating for the perpetuation and perfection of the status quo, without questioning its existence.

Leilani Dowell: March 4th Protest Against Tuition Hikes!

Upcoming Event!

Presented by the Atheist Humanist Agnostics of Baldwin-Wallace College:

Reading Marx in 2010:

Revolutionary Socialism and The Future of Our Generation

Caleb T. Maupin, Workers World Party and FIST organizer, co-author of "What is Marxism all about?"

9PM, Feb. 16th, 2010.

Malicky Center, 2nd Floor, Baldwin-Wallace College.

The Free Times Calls Me A "Young Rabble Rouser"

The below article was in the latest issue of the Cleveland Free Times. The mention and comments of me were interesting, to say the least. It is good that the poor people's march, a mass outpouring of working people was covered at all. The article isn't entirely hostile which is good as well.

Not Poor In Spirit
Around 100 people of mixed ages and races and with mixed purposes gathered last Friday for the 5th annual Poor Peoples’ March.

Organizers Prisscilla Cooper of the Family Connection Center and Valerie Robinson of Stop Targeting Ohio’s Poor, the two main sponsors, kicked it off by talking about working to change policy to help the poor. Established activists like Larry Bressler of Advocates for Budget Legislation Equality, George Hrbek of the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and Greg Coleridge of the American Friends’ Service Committee, economist George Zeller and auto worker Martha Grevatt laid out the facts and figures relating to unemployment and poverty.

As the march wended its way around Public Square and made stops at the County Office Building, the Celebrezze Office Building and City Hall, before ending up in Willard Park by the Free Stamp, participants brandished photos of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hand-lettered signs that asked “Why is Cleveland the poverty capital?” and suggested we “End poverty and war,” while chanting things like “One-two-three-four, money for jobs not for war” and “Stop the war against the poor.”

Such informal events draw those with their own agendas. A lone man tried to get a chant of “Stop police brutality” going and someone (maybe the same guy) yelled, “Kill killer cops.” Given that Cleveland police officers were escorting the group and holding up traffic for the walkers, it seemed ungracious at the very least, and at the next stop, MC Silver B. Richards asked for a hand for the officers.

And there were youthful rabble-rousers: Dvin Branch of the Jericho Project suggested the violence should be answered with violence, causing eyeball-rolling among some of the more seasoned activists. And red-haired Baldwin-Wallace student Caleb Maupin, sporting a T-shirt that said “Read Lenin and Trostsky,” gave a speech as fiery as his hair, shouting, “Power to the workers! Power to the people! Fight on! Fight on!” He should have been born 40 years earlier. — Anastasia Pantsios

God Has Punished Bryan Kemper For Posting Pics of My Comrades Without

"Stand True has its office and warehouse in my home and garage here in Troy, Ohio. We also house many of our summer missionaries here. Two nights ago we discovered that the basement under the office part of the house was filling with sewage. We had Roto Rooter out to unclog the sewage pipes last night and today the cleanup crew came to give us an estimate."

It seems that God does not approve of Bryan Kemper's sinful ways of lying about me on facebook, posting pictures without permission, and make it his mission in life to deprive women of their freedom.

Protest Against "Ex-Gay" Speaker at Baldwin-Wallace College

The B-W Chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ invited an "Ex-Gay" speaker to preach about why homosexuality is a "disease" that must be "cured." Nearly 30 students protested the event, with only about 50 attending in support.

The Picket Line Outside of the Event


A Leader of Campus Crusade for Christ Gives Anti-LGBT and Anti-Woman Rant saying women exist simply to "help men."


A Lesbian B-W Student Challenges the Speaker


Interview with Lesbian Student After the Event is Over

From the Exponent Archives: Who is Mumia Abu Jamal?

This was the second to last article I wrote for the Exponent before being permanently banned.


On December 6th, the Today Show will be interviewing Maureen Faulkner about her new book Murdered By Mumia. Maureen Faulkner, whose husband was tragically murdered in 1981, will go on the T.V. program and rail against the man accused of killing her husband, Mumia Abu Jamal.

She will complain about how Mumia is a “celebrity” and how he has gotten the support of the Pope and various leftists of the world. What she will fail to mention is that Mumia is probably innocent. The bullets found in the body of Officer Faulkner, according to the police’s own ballistics tests, do not match Mumia’s firearm.

Several witnesses have come forward and said they saw another person do it. Someone else has even confessed to the crime. But such is never mentioned in the media. Instead, when Mumia’s namecomes up, the phrase “cop killer” is sprawled at us, and discussion is closed.

Never do those calling for Mumia to be put to death challenge the evidence which points to Mumia’s innocence. Never do they admit the fact that those who testified against Mumia at his trial were coerced by police terror and have admitted that their testimony was false. Never do they admit that the judge in the trial was a former member of the Fraternal Order of Police, who was hardly capable of giving justice to someone accused of killing one of his brothers in blue. Never do they admit that the people who support Mumia and call for his freedom are doing so because they overwhelmingly think he is innocent of the crime.

Mumia Abu Jamal, prior to being accused of shooting Officer Daniel Faulkner, was a radio journalist. His main target of exposure was the horrific police brutality that went on in Philadelphia. Mumia is a socialist and was a member of the Black Panther Party as a teen. Mumia is a brilliant writer, speaking for those who often have novoice--those locked behind the prison bars.

But on the Today Show the supporters of Mumia who have so much of a popular base that a street has been named for Mumia in Paris, will get no publicity. Rather, Maureen Faulkner and the right-wing talk show host who helped write her book will be given the entire section of the program to emotionally pump-up a racist desire for revenge against a “cop killer” and rail against leftists for supporting him.

The attacks on Mumia are very personal to me. When I was just a teen starting to discover the world of radical politics, I learned so, so much from Mumia’s writings. His short, concise, essays, which explode with truth and criticism of this society, have been so inspiring. Mumia is innocent of his crime, and he is a voice we cannot afford to lose. Shame on those who wish to silence the people defending Mr. Jamal.

Brick by Brick! Wall by Wall! Free Mumia Abu Jamal!

Note: Due to the mass protest of hundreds of people outside of the "Today Show" when Maureen Faulkner was interviewed, NBC was forced to actually challenge her arguements. They even showed footage of the protest, showing Workers World Party signs, as well as the signs of the Internationalist Group, and the Partisan Defense Committee.

B-W FJC: WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council

Emergency Communiqué

WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Tonight is an interesting night. We, in the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council, have been distributing leaflets announcing our meeting on this coming Thursday. Through our leafleting, we have found out some interesting facts.

1. We have almost universal support on campus. Not a single person has challenged us, or said they disagree with us. As we were leafleting through one fraternity hall, a crowd of Fraternity Brothers were whipped up into a frenzy of cheers as they saw us leafleting. They told us that they were mad as hell about the prices, and happy that somebody was doing something about it.

2. Our leaflets have been banned by the college administration. As one member of our group was printing out more leaflets in the computer lab, we noticed a lab monitor throwing them away as they were being printed out. We questioned her about it, and she informed us that she had been told by the college administration to throw leaflets with “Food Justice Council” on them away. She said this was because “only official student organizations may post fliers.” This is false. B-W’s campus is decorated with leaflets promoting all kinds of off campus events. Rap concerts, Vector Marketing, Quickstar, rooms for rent, and other non-campus organization advertising covers the campus. The B-W Food Justice Council is the only one subject to be ripped down. This is an outrage.

3. We Have Been “Documented.” As the campus has directed its employees to rip down our signs, we found it best to slip them under student’s doors, as to best reach them without being interfered with by the administration. For this “crime” or “advertising” which is frequently done by Fraternities, Sororities, Charities, and Vector Marketing, one of our members has been “documented” and could be subject to disciplinary action.

We wish to announce that we will continue to leaflet and spread our message, and fight for fair food prices. The Baldwin-Wallace Student Handbook and the United States Constitution defend the right of students and other human beings to peacefully petition authority with grievances. We will not be silenced and suppressed by the administration. We will continue to speak. We will not be shut down. We are human beings. We are not “brats”, “kids”, “punks” etc. We are adults paying $30,000 a year to attend an institution of higher learning. We will not surrender.

Contact Us At: foodjusticebw@gmail.com

Join Us on Facebook!

From the Exponent Archives: The Case Against Libertarianism

This is one of the articles that got me banned from The Exponent, Baldwin-Wallace's Campus Newspaper. I was probably the most popular writer in the Op-ed section, though this probably due to the fact that I was the only one who wrote about the real world, not silly "I love my college" childishness. A rich alumni threatened not to give any money any longer if I was permitted to continue writing for the campus paper. Apparently, rumor has it that somebody on the college's Board of Trustees had it in for me from day one, and actually tried to make the case that my articles were "illegal" under some law.

I was banned from the Exponent after Timothy S. Davey started writing articles in response to mine in the paper. I eventually debated Davey, and 100 people came out to watch the debate. This was the first student debate in Baldwin-Wallace's history. The debate then circled the internet, and was covered in Workers World Newspaper. It was shortly after the debate that I was banned from the paper. In my opinion, the Exponent Staff are mostly a bunch of greedy, childish, careerists. During the election, the Exponent featured articles on "The Good Points of Barack Obama" and "The Good Points of John Mccain", written by the same person. The Exponent also attacked the campus protests against John Mccain's speech, with an article titled "Rudeness is not covered by the first amendement." Ironically even the Supreme Court has ruled otherwise, but what does research matter when you are a mouthpeice for the college bureaucracy...

None of the Exponent staff even had the balls to so much as speak to me about this issue since it occured. Ironic no? Oh well, here is an article from the archive. I intend on publishing many more of them.


The history classes in this country’s high schools are not doing their jobs. If they were, we would all know that there was a time in American History when there were no minimum wage laws, no welfare, no social security, no unemployment insurance, and no trade union rights.

If history classes were doing their job, we would learn about how this period of American history was known for horrendous working conditions, starvation, massive poverty, massive unemployment, child labor, and basic misery for almost everyone. If history classes were doing their jobs we would learn that the only people that benefited from this Lassaize-Faire period were the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and like, who brutally smashed all who resisted such conditions by forming trade unions and striking.

If history classes were doing their jobs, we would learn that it was because of the misery created by these conditions, that the government was forced by movements of the people to adopt programs to save people from the built in horrors of the free market economy. We do not have workplace health and safety regulations because of “elitism”, the agenda to make sure people make more than 6.85 an hour, hardly a living wage, has nothing to do with socialism.

If history classes were doing their jobs, we would know that the extreme free market capitalist system advocated by Ayn Rand, Ron Paul, and such has already existed and it was misery. Changes were forced by the people, who suffered greatly under them.

If history classes were doing their jobs, rather than lecturing us about the evils of “Communism”, there would be no massive support for Ron Paul’s candidacy among college students.

When I say “history classes”, I specifically refer to High School, because it is in college that many of us are forced to see the reality that there are, in fact, problems with the free market system. Sadly, many refuse to acknowledge this even now, and simply declare what they are learning is “liberal propaganda.” This is tragic.

Think about it? Do you want your student loans to still exist? Do you want to be able to collect unemployment while you are between jobs? Do you want to be safe in your workplace, and know that if you are injured on the job your boss will be held accountable? Do you want people to be starving because they cannot get government assistance to buy food?

The New York Times reports that this is already happening in Japan, as
one old man died of hunger because his benefits were cut.

Now, I can already guess what the libertarian response to such a claim will be. “His fault!” They will say. This is the libertarian belief to its core. Are you poor? It is your own fault. Do you not have the same educational opportunities as someone else? It is your own fault. Are you discriminated against? It is your own fault. The government should do nothing to help you. It must be your own fault, because everybody knows that capitalism is great, end of discussion.

The above is lunacy! But this is the belief of libertarians.

Wake up fellow college students! There are loads of the problems that exist in this world, and we have learned a long time ago that free market chaos and anarchy is not going to solve them.

Let’s march into a future that puts people in control of the economy, that’s a solution that HAS worked.

Note on Copyright: I was given verbal permission from Matthew Jurick, the Editor of the Exponent before it became the mouthpeice of the administration to publish any articles published in it on my blog, despite the fact that Exponent Campus Media owns the rights. If ECM wishes to challenge me for posting these "offensive" and "ravid" articles, I will happily take them to court, and use the trial to expose the censorship of this campus "forum."

Students Demand Food!

by Caleb T. Maupin
Berea, OH

Richard Durst, president of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, claims to have served in Vietnam alongside Bob Kerrey, the president of New School University. Both went on orders from the U.S. government to repress the Vietnamese people and their resistance.

Durst and Kerrey are once again repressing justified resistance—this time from students at the institutions of higher education they have directed.

New School students who opposed Kerrey's policies occupied the cafeteria for 30 hours in December. The students demanded more involvement in decision making and recognition of the campus workers’ union. The students’ demands were met and Kerrey resigned from his post as interim-provost.

Durst is now the target of a campaign organized by B-W students for a basic human right: the right to eat. Instead of having a meal plan, like most colleges in the U.S., through which students are assured three decent meals a day, Baldwin-Wallace deposits an amount of money on a campus debit card known as the Jacket Express Card.

When this money runs out, students must pay out of their own pockets for any additional expenses. Financial aid cannot legally cover the additional costs. Students are expected to eat for $4 a day. If the food prices were reasonable, this would be realistic, but they aren’t. The director of auxiliary services at B-W, David Jensen, even confirmed in an e-mail that the average cost of purchases during meal times is sometimes as high as $5.56 and this average includes students who buy only beverages or single items.

Students whose cards have run out and whose parents do not have the resources to add more money have had to steal food. The response of the college to the food stealing has been punishment. When some concerned students approached the cafeteria regarding the problem, they were told that the youth needed to “take responsibility for their actions” and that the $4 allowance was somehow reasonable.

In response, several students—including three members of the B-W chapter of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST)formed the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council. The group recruited using the Internet and, within 48 hours of announcing its existence, had 142 online supporters, all of whom were B-W students, faculty or alumni.

Members of the council got unanimous support when they distributed leaflets to other students face to face. Students happily grabbed stacks of leaflets to give to their friends. Every dorm on the campus was covered.

Attempts were made on the Internet to redbait one of the group’s founders for being an “anti-Zionist communist.” This failed to stop the group’s growing support. The council still maintains over 140 members on Facebook.

A meeting has been called for March 19 at 9 p.m. in Ernsthausen Hall at Baldwin-Wallace at which students will discuss plans to challenge President Durst when he gives his address on the college budget at an upcoming date. A petition is being circulated among the student body that will be delivered to the campus authorities in a future mass demonstration.

The B-W Food Justice Council has also unanimously voted to endorse the Bail Out the People marches on Wall Street on April 3 and 4.

Just as the Vietnamese people drove Durst and his fellow imperialist occupiers out of Vietnam, the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council hopes to be victorious and win the basic right to eat for the students at Baldwin-Wallace College.

The Food Justice Council can be contacted at foodjusticebw@gmail.com.

Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

On Student Councils and States

I was amazed and filled with excitement as a 6th Grader in the fall of 1999, when I found out that I had been elected to the executive board of my Elementary School’s Student Council. I could hardly contain my joy. I had given a speech just before the vote, to an assembly of all the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I had given my speech as a rap, and I had charmed this audience of my peers. It helped that I was the only male running for the office, which got me a lot of votes I’m sure, in the age when “girls have cooties.”

The Student Council met an hour before school started on Friday mornings. We planned the various bake sales, charitable donations, canned food drives, and such. We read scripture to our fellow students during the Thanksgiving assembly, which was later addressed by a local clergyman, who reminded us to be thankful that we lived in such a great Christian country called “America.”

I went on to be in Student Council in 7th and 8th grade as well. Student Council in 7th and 8th great came with a whole lot of privileges. We got to go on special “educational” trips. These trips were an all day affair. I recall one trip was to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We explored the Museum for about two hours, then we went to the Hard Rock Café in Cleveland to eat a $20 lunch on the school budget, and then we walked through Tower City Mall, shopping at the Gap, Abercrombie, and other trendy clothing shops.

I decided never to run for Student Council again that year. Earlier that year three students had been banned from Student Council for misbehavior. One student had gotten into a fist fight. Another had flipped off the school’s only security camera. They were removed for their “misbehavior.”

But later that year, on New Year’s Eve, the executive board had gathered in the basement of a member’s house, and gotten smashed on underage alcohol. Upon joining Student Council we had all signed a form saying that any use of alcohol or drugs would results immediate dismissal. Everyone knew that the executive board had done this. But they weren’t punished at all. There was some discussion of it, and I think they may have had to go to counseling or something, but no one ever considered throwing them out.

I was outraged, and never ran for student council again.

I am forced to think of this now, as I am in College. I am helping to organize the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council, an organization that fights for a reasonable meal plan on my campus. Our demands are modest. We ask merely for reasonable prices, or the ability to use financial aid to cover the expensive prices.

But upon forming the group, who came to attack us? None other than the Student Senate, the College Version of the Student Council. I knew several of the attackers. One of them has the goal of being a CIA agent, and I had the privilege of debating him in “Socialism v. Capitalism” last spring. Another was a guy who was in a lot my Political Science classes. He never speaks in class, unless making a sarcastic joke. However, outside of class, he had frequently e-mailed me and berated me telling me that arguing with a professor is disrespectful, and instead of thinking, I should just close my mouth and accept everything a professor says as gospel truth. (How Ironic that his type are constantly whining about the “liberal bias” in education, when they dare not even raise their hands to challenge this bias, and berate those who do so from further left.)

I do not know much about the Baldwin-Wallace Student Government, and I frankly don’t think I want to. I suppose they go on a lot of expensive trips as well. I suppose they think they are superior to us “regular student” who have the “bad attitude” to challenge authority. I suppose the college bureaucracy respects these clowns, but not merely as much as they respect themselves.

The more I think about it, Student Councils aren’t that different from the real government. My High School, Elementary School, and College Student councils don’t really have much power. They set up bake sales, dances, they give speeches, they make themselves feel good, and they make us feel good by being able to vote for them. But the real power at any school is not with the students, it’s with the school officials.

If the principal wanted to implement a dress code at my elementary school, no vote by my student council would have stopped him. If anything, we would have all been sent out to justify it to our “peers”, on the day before another trip to the mall and Hard Rock Café. We would probably be loudly criticizing any students who challenged the policies as “trouble makers.”

The capitalist government is the same. The bankers, the capitalists, and the ruling class make the decisions. But the Politicians get up and speechify, and make their wishes sound good, between weekends at Camp David or other health resorts where the liquor and cheap sex runs free. Then, after they have done nothing and changed nothing for long enough, they get a retirement pension that would make any of these “overpaid” autoworkers we hear about on the news, jealous as hell.

And when politicians come along who dissent, they get trampled on. Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were ignored at the Democratic Primary Debates. The governor of Illinois went down for some minor corruption, he was exposed because he sided with the Republic Window and Door Makers who occupied their factory and defeated their bosses, and Bank of America. Howard Dean learned that shouting into a microphone to loud can cost you your career, especially if you say things capitalist don’t want to hear. Rev. Pinkney of Benton Harbor is now in jail for quoting scripture to a judge. Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney was humiliated for defending herself from a violent capitol security guard.

But George W. Bush revealed the identity of a CIA agent, lied about WMDs, dodged the draft, shredded the bill of rights, and then left office in a helicopter to live in luxury until his death, which will be of natural causes, as secret service will make sure he is safe from assassination until that occurs.

Just like the executive board who got smashed, the rules don’t apply unless you start doing your job, and thinking for yourself. Student Councils, Student Governments, and Governments themselves are supposed to shut us up, tell us peons and students what we want to hear, and enjoy the luxuries of being “good kids” and “honorable men” who are superior to us.

I learned something in 8th Grade that has stayed with me for my whole life. Student Councils, Governments, and everything in this capitalist system is rotten. Revolution is the solution.

3rd Communique - BW Admits We Are Right, But the Struggle Continues

We in the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council have had an interesting week. Following our first meeting, and its announcement www.mrzine.org we have been contacted by several B-W alumni who support us and our efforts. We have also faced continuous harassment from the College Administration.

In the cafeteria, one of our members always makes sure that when he gets a free glass of water from the beverage fountain, that as he walks by the check out counter, he is sure to point out that he only has a free glass of water, as not to be accused of stealing. He does this in light of the fact that college bureaucracy has attempted to paint the Council as a food stealing conspiracy.

One day, in response to this justified precaution, a woman, not a cafeteria worker, but a college bureaucrat who polices the student union screamed at the member harshly. “Don’t make a big deal out of it!” She screamed at high-pitched tone and loud volume making a scene, and causing many to pause nervously. “It’s not bad anymore!” She screeched at him.

The phrase “it’s not bad anymore” raises many questions about the Union’s water. Was it bad at one time? Is that what this woman meant? We shall be investigating this further. Contamination of Water at Baldwin-Wallace would a matter that if it existed, all students should have been informed of. Is more foul play afoot at B-W than just price gauging?

A member of the Council was personally e-mailed, without solicitation by David Jenson, director of Auxiliary Services at Baldwin-Wallace College. Though he may have been attempting to make the case that we were wrong, the information he provided in his e-mail confirmed what the Council has been arguing since our first communiqué.

Jenson, in a graph he sent us, showed the average total of union of purchases on various recent dates. Not a single one of the averages was below $4.00. On top of that, these averages include all purchases made during the times he chose to highlight. If someone got a cup of coffee or other beverage for little over a dollar, this brought the averages down significantly. According to Jenson’s own statistics, we in the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council are correct about the fact that 4.00 meals are impossible on the union budget, even including the statistical outliers of small purchases.

As the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council grows in strength and numbers daily, the Union has stripped all critical comments, especially those involving food prices, from the comments board. A single, anonymous comment in sloppy handwriting telling the staff “don’t listen to the food justice council.” Does the College intend make it look as if this were the opinion of the vast majority of the students? We in the Council find this to be hilarious, and thank whoever wrote this note attacking us for the free publicity.

It is clear that college administration and its officials, which constantly lecture us “kids” about taking “responsibility” for our actions, are not ready to do so themselves. Their response to our pointing out their dishonesty has been harassment and abuse, from screaming in lunch lines, to disruption of our internet activity, and a slew of personal insults against several of the groups founders which can be found across facebook.

How ironic it is, that to so many of the college bureaucracy’s members, we are “brats” and “kids” who need to “grow up.” There is nothing more mature than seeing an injustice, and not cowering in fear, but standing up like a human being and fighting back. Likewise, there is nothing more immature than to intimidate, threaten, and degrade those who point out your faults, rather than merely correcting them for the good of all parties involved.

We, in the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council wish to announce our second public meeting. This meeting will be held on Thursday March 19th in the lounge of Ernsthausen Hall located in the C wing. The meeting will begin at 9 PM.

As many of us are skipping meals and hungry, and our supporters in the community and the general area have been generous, free Pizza will be provided to all in attendance. Join us and eat, as we plot how to make sure we can do so for the rest of our college experience.

Various community activists and organizations have come out in our support. We recognize that justice is something that must be won. We will fight for food justice, and we will win. We will eat! See you there on March 19th, at 9 PM.

Contact Us At: foodjusticebw@gmail.com

Humiliating Bryan Kemper

As a communist, and someone who is militantly pro-choice, I was outraged when Bryan Kemper of “Stand True” ministries was scheduled to speak on my campus. Perhaps my outrage was unjustified. Kemper is no James Dobson or Pat Robertson. He has no mass following. He’s merely one of probably a few thousand flim-flam men, who makes their career telling Jesus-Camp alumni what they want to hear, and letting them think it is rebellious because he has an ear piercing and limited electric guitar playing ability in addition to being good at preaching “feel good bigotry.”

It was probably not worth protesting his event, because even the facebook event had a whooping 28 confirmed guests, most of which didn’t show, as usual.

Kemper was there, near the Baldwin-Wallace cyber café, with his Christian rock t-shirt, his ear piercing, and his oh-so-badass “unshaven” facial hair. He saw my comrades and I, seven us of total, who were there to picket his event. He walked up to us giving us his usual “I’m a happy peace-loving Christian” smile acting like he wanted to be our friends. (Interesting how on his blog he refers to us as “mass murderers.”)

We blew him off, which is usual. We figured we wouldn’t let him bait us into a debate, since this man has made a career for himself preaching against women. My position was as usual. I protest these fucks, and I ignore them, since any dialogue you have with these fools just gives them more credibility.

So, he walks past our picket line outside of the pro-life club’s event, and he makes a snide comment at my girlfriend’s sign which read “We won’t return to back alley butchers!”

Kemper snidely said to her, a woman, someone he views as his biblical inferior, saying “More women die now in legal abortion clinics than ever died before it was legal.” (A lie, of course, but something the Jesus Camp Alumni Association will nod and accept without a thought.)

Then, one of my comrades made the mistake of responding. He said “That sounds like a medical issue, not a moral issue.”

Then Bryan had exactly what he wanted, dialogue! He was able to have a confrontation in front of his flock.

“Only the worst doctors who have flunked out of medical school perform abortions, because it’s the only thing they can do, no one else will hire them!” (A lie, again, Bryan knows how to pump out whoppers…)

I then figured, because a confrontation had started, I would do my best not to let him get the “I’m so peaceful and loving Christian” front while he baited us.
I loudly told him “Maybe that’s because people like you kill them!”

“I’ve never killed anyone. I just want love…” He continued blathering.

I then held up one of his “Stand True” pamphlets I had picked up from inside his event.

“Interesting how you quote Langston Hughes, someone you would have executed for being gay!”

“I oppose the death penalty.” He said. I could see the fire burning within him, his “Jesus in sandals” act was starting to wear off.

I then began to verbally berate him. “Why aren’t you protesting for Mumia Abu Jamal? What about the political prisoners in this country the government is murdering?”
He then exploded, walking close to me and pointing at me like Bill O’rielly does with his guests who have leftist political views and are therefore not worthy of respect.

“Don’t quote the Bible to me kid, I know the Bible!”

“Get the fuck out my face!” I screamed at him, as he continued to do his best to physically intimidate me with his loud voice and pointing fingers. “Leviticus, it says when a man lies with another man he shall be put to death.”

“No!” He screamed. “It says it’s an abomination.”

“and he shall be put to death…” I said quoting the exact verse to him. (LEVITICUS 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.)

“No…. No… No…” He started to say. I loudly shouted “I know the Bible better than you do.” Prompting laughter from a number of on-lookers.

He was so furious, his head could have exploded.

“Look….” He said, starting to back away, finally, “I… I… I oppose the death penalty…”
“So, you oppose the Death Penalty, even though the Bible supports it!” I screamed at him, prompting more laughter.

At that point Bryan just walked away humiliated, and defeated. I made a fool out of him, in front his own flock, with his own Bible. He then called campus security on us.

We then decided to leave. As we left, suddenly, the humiliated Bryan Kemper is chasing after us with childish tears in his eyes, holding out his blackberry.
He snaps a picture of one of us with a pro-choice sign: “I’m gonna put this on my facebook, and my myspace, and my twitter!” He screams in rage.

“Good.” My comrade, an older guy, responds calmly. “I’m proud to be pro-choice.”
Byran stormed off in a rage. We made a fool out of him, and rightly so.

Communique #2 - Our Plan of Action

We, in the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council have had our first meeting, and discussed the strategy and tactics we plan on using in combating the insanity and greed of the college administration’s food policies.

We then declared the following: we will be circulating a petition among the student body. Once a large number of signatures have been gathered, we plan to hold a demonstration outside of the Strosacker Student Union, and then deliver the petition by hand to the director of the building in which the main cafeteria is located.

We also are issuing President Richard Durst the following challenge. We challenge him to eat nothing but food from the Student Union, do his laundry only in B-W sanctioned laundry machines paying full price, buy all coffee and other relaxing beverages from the cyber-café, and spend in one week, less than $90.

If the administration is adamant that one can eat 3 meals a day, do laundry, and buy the occasional coffee of tea for this cost, President Durst, and other college officials should prove that it can be done.

We plan on asking President Durst for a personal meeting in which we will present him with this challenge.

Also, the B-W Food Justice Council, at our Tuesday meeting voted to endorse the Bail Out the People March on Wall Street on April 3rd & 4th, called by the International Action Center and the Bail Out the People Movement. We in the B-W FJC, believe that the economic crisis merits a government response that benefits all the people, not just bankers and capitalists, and that a lack thereof is contributing the problems we are combating here at Baldwin-Wallace.

We plan on distributing informational leaflets, and asking for signatures on our petition at various places around the campus to lead up to our demonstration.

The Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council Will Not Surrender! No Justice! No Peace! We Will Eat!

foodjusticebw@gmail.com

As Seen in Monthly Review Zine:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bw250209.html

We Will Eat!

1st Communiqué of the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council

Baldwin-Wallace is a well-heeled liberal arts college in Berea, Ohio. Students in dorms there are being driven to pilfer food in the cafeteria because their $12.00 per day food allowances are totally inadequate for the prices. I'm told by a firsthand witness that students of color were the first to be punished for pilfering. To solve this problem, B-W students began to organize a food justice group. One of the leaders of the group has been involved with the housing foreclosure group here in Cleveland that I am part of. -- Jay Rothermel

1st Communiqué of the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council

We, the founders of the B-W Food Justice Council wish to issue this communiqué to state our goals and purpose in founding this group.

Two of our members witnessed someone in the Cafeteria be caught and punished for stealing food. One of us asked an anonymous cafeteria worker about this, and we discovered that this is a crisis.

Food Prices have long been an outrage among our circle of friends and others. However, with the economy in a state of collapse, and students stealing food, we decided something had to be done.

We understand that vendor prices may affect the food prices negatively. However, we also know that B-W, unlike any restaurant, is given subsidies for all its work-study employees. We also know that if one divides the total of money we are expected to spend on food in the union, without adding additional funds to our Jacket Cards, the total comes to less than $12 a day, not including laundry, school supplies, and other expenses.

Anyone who can eat three solid meals in the Cafeteria at B-W every day and not spend any more than $12 is not within the norm.

The myth that reducing food prices will cause cafeteria workers to be fired is disgusting. Perhaps the college administrators can sacrifice some of their huge salaries. Perhaps the college could lobby the government for more financial aid. Perhaps the college could raise the amount given to Jacket Cards at the beginning of the semester, in order to allow students to use financial aid for such costs, rather than having to pay out of their own pockets, or the pockets of their parents, many of whom are laid off, unemployed, and possibly in the process of home foreclosure.

We are not trying to cause drama, or chaos. We are, exercising our rights as given to us not only by the U.S. constitution, but also the B-W Student Handbook, which allows us to petition the college administration and the government with grievances.

The college's response is already shameful. Two agents have already been sent to disrupt our internet activity. One was directly employed by the Cafeteria, and the other was a high ranking member of the Student Government and friend of the administration. Both blamed the students for the problem, one accusing us of eating too many donuts and not buying our books without our Jacket Cards, and the other lecturing us and talking down to us, and directly attacking two of the groups founders.

We, as college students and human beings, must eat. If being able to eat means a struggle, we are ready for it. This is not an attack on the college, the food service staff, or other entities. This is a struggle for food.

When food theft is going on, as it clearly is, there is a problem. The problem is not that we are "brats" and "kids" -- the problem is a college policy which we feel must be changed.

We wish to call our first meeting for Tuesday, Feb. 24th at 12:00. The meeting will be held at Book and Bean Coffee Shop, off campus. This meeting is not for Student Government, College Administrators, or others who oppose us. This meeting is for students who seek to change a college policy and discuss how to do so.

We will eat. We will win.

Join us at Book and Bean to discuss how to stop the insanity of unacceptable food conditions.

From: Monthly Review Zine http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/bw200209.html

Political Persecution at "The Exponent"

Hi loyal readers,
It seems the right-wing forces within the Exponent Campus Newspaper have deemed my work "ravid" and decided I am not worthy to print. Since the Exponent comes out, but once every two weeks, and is greatly reduced in size, this not my biggest concern. However, I am calling for e-mails to be sent to the following people within the Exponent Bureaucracy who felt it was neccesary to remove me. They should be informed that Mccarthyism is over, and free speech should exist for Marxist-Leninists.

Thanks,
Caleb T. Maupin

Anthony Imes - aimes@bw.edu

Justin Wilson - jvwilson@bw.edu

Alex Sherman - ajsherma@bw.edu

FIST Member Defends Socialism by Tyneisha Bowens

By Tyneisha Bowens
Berea, Ohio

Published Mar 16, 2008 7:44 PM

“I learned about a time in the history of this country when people worked for literally pennies an hour ... worked 12-hour shifts ... and when children worked in factories ... when organizing a union was a crime ... when Black men were being lynched ... the Vietnam War in which 4 million Vietnamese lost their lives ... and while all of this was going on what did they say about the people that were organizing against this? They said what they really want is socialism; they are a bunch of communists. I learned that the first gay rights organization was founded by Harry Hay, a proud member of the Communist Party. And I learned that in women’s liberation ... the suffragists contained many socialists and many revolutionaries. And it was learning all of this that made me think maybe these communists and socialists aren’t so bad.”

—Caleb Maupin

Students and community members gathered at Baldwin-Wallace College on March 3 to hear two students debate socioeconomic ideology. The event, entitled “Socialism vs. Capitalism,” took place in Berea, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

On the side of socialism was Caleb Maupin, a member of Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST). Defending capitalism was Timothy Davey, a member of Pi Lambda Phi. Both are students at Baldwin-Wallace College and contributors to the college’s newspaper. The debate was initiated through the newspaper, where the two first began to debate their socioeconomic beliefs through articles.

This first student-organized debate in the history of Baldwin-Wallace College began with opening statements by both participants. Maupin explained how his reading of history brought him to socialism (see quote above). To stress the importance of the timing of such a debate, he emphasized the current war and economic crisis, including foreclosures and evictions in which Cleveland is second only to Detroit, the mass layoffs and the statistic that 11.9 percent of the families in the U.S. are food insecure. Maupin ended with the following: “I was taught in school when I was growing up that we have a government of the people, by the people, for the people. But one thing I have come to understand is that in this country we have a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. What we advocate as socialists is that the people should have control of society.”

In his introduction Davey stated, “I can’t prove to you numbers-wise that capitalism is the best but what I will do is point to the countries that have tried to implement socialism.” Davey cited the Soviet Union, which he claimed failed because of the “abysmal living standards placed on the citizens of the country” and that the growth of the USSR economy was “inflated by the fact that they had surrounding countries that they sold their products to that they ultimately controlled.”

Davey did not acknowledge, however, the strong attacks that socialist countries, including the USSR, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Cuba, have had to face from imperialist forces such as the U.S. He also failed to acknowledge the situations where the USSR traded with developing countries in order to help them boost their economies with little or no benefit to the USSR. Davey cited other negative occurrences in socialist countries in his defense of capitalism.

In rebuttal, Maupin pointed out that the economic, health and cultural levels of the people in the former Soviet Union dropped enormously after capitalism was restored in 1991. He emphasized how socialist countries, particularly Cuba, have dealt with and rid themselves of the products of capitalism—including racism, sexism, homophobia, unemployment, and lack of healthcare, education, housing and social programs.

When asked about the current wage cuts, layoffs, evictions, foreclosures and lack of education and healthcare in the U.S., Davey admitted to the downfalls of capitalism but insisted, though without any current references, that an altered form of capitalism could remedy these problems.

Some questions included in the debate had been previously agreed on; others were submitted by the audience. These involved the history of former and current socialist countries, the growing divide between the rich and the poor in capitalist countries, the relation of socialism to democracy, and the material nature of both capitalism and socialism.

Each party was given 10 minutes for closing remarks. Caleb Maupin gave a call to action on the part of the people for a socialist revolution. Timothy Davey continued his stance that capitalism is the best socioeconomic system despite its obvious contradictions.

To hear the debate in its entirety, visit fistyouth.wordpress.com.

"Socialism v. Capitalism" Debate Announcement

On Monday, March 3rd, 2008, I will be debating Libertarian Capitalist Timothy S. Davey and Baldwin-Wallace College. The debate will be at 8:00 in Malicky Center, Room 10. The debate will eventually be posted on www.youtube.com, and played on two local access television stations.

B-W Student Raises a FIST Against Injustice

By LISA M. NAGY

(Note From Caleb: I didn't write this! My way cool friend Lisa M. Nagy did! Thanks again Lisa!)

A national student organization has opened a chapter on the Baldwin-Wallace College campus, thanks to the efforts of one second-year political science major.

Caleb Maupin is currently writing the charter for FIST (Fight Imperialism-Stand Together) which he aims to complete by December. FIST was formed under the belief that imperialism and capitalism are the causes of injustice in society, and only socialism can bring about true liberation for all citizens.

Maupin’s academic advisor, Dr. Mark Mattern, acts as faculty advisor to the group. “I agreed to serve as advisor because I believe that student activism is very important. I would like to see FIST raise awareness of issues and of alternative views on those issues,” he said.

FIST membership is currently open, and Maupin stated approximately 10 students have joined him in his efforts thus far.

Maupin said his plans for member activity will include efforts to raise awareness on topics such as the fight against racism, sexism, and the exploitation of the working class. He said the group will also organize guest lectures and participate in national events, such as the demonstration in Washington demanding the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq in September.

Maupin referred to FIST as an organization “of action,” and said he hopes it will provide a forum where students may become active in informed debate.

Interest in FIST on campus has been limited, however Maupin understands that many students must work as well as attend college and simply do not have the time to commit to extra-curricular activities.

In spite of this, Maupin said he feels that student involvement is changing, and sees his classmates as becoming more passionate about the issues. “Students today have a lot more to lose than they did during the time of the Vietnam War, for instance. Back then, if you lost your job due to protesting or radical behavior, you could walk across the street and find another one the same day. Today there is no job security, you have to watch what you say and do,” he said.
Professor Charles Burke, chair of the political science department at B-W, says he sees the sort of lonely path chosen by those who commit themselves to an unpopular stance as a “hard role, but a useful one.”

Burke said he views FIST as having its utility on campus and feels it is better to have the group than not. “Be happy we live in a country where speaking out against the government is tolerated,” he said.

Maupin said he first became interested in communism about the age of ten, when much of his time was spent in the library where his mother worked, reading “The Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital,” by Karl Marx. He said his father sparked an interest in working class solidarity in him as he educated him on the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Maupin said he continued to read about socialism and communism throughout his youth, yet dreamed of writing horror movies until Sept. 11, 2001, when he said his views of reality were changed forever.

He remembers feeling as though he were the only one questioning the “blind patriotism” which seemed to take over society after the attacks. He said he knew the terrorists must have had reasons for the extreme acts, but no one around him seemed to care what they might be.

At Orville High School, Maupin considered himself to be the only student who objected to the war in Iraq. He claims to have been physically assaulted by a fellow student and verbally accosted by the school librarian for his views, yet he held on to his values and became a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party during his sophomore year. Maupin said he ended his involvement with the RCP as he began to realize its mission consisted more of indoctrination and less of the action he felt necessary to promote change.

At the U.S. Labor against War convention in 2006, Maupin was introduced to the Workers World Party, which he remains a member of today. He said he values the way in which the party demonstrates respect for the oppressed and understands that communities have the right to solve their own problems. Maupin said he does not believe in forcing views onto others, or blind adherence to an ideology based on power differentials.

FIST was created by youth members of the Workers World Party around the time of the Republican National Convention in 2004. Currently, the largest chapter of FIST is located in North Carolina, with chapters in California and New York City following close behind.

A few students on campus have referred to Maupin as “anti-American.” In response to this, he wondered aloud why he would be working toward a better economy and healthcare for the people if this were true. Maupin stated that he is a socialist because he loves his country and he believes in democracy for all.

He does, however, openly admit to hating the American government. “I hate the CIA. I disagree with the prevalent ideas in this society,” he said. In spite of this he said he does not want to live anywhere else, or even study abroad. He said he is loyal to his country, and vowed to work toward “liberty and justice for all” until the day he dies.

Mark Mattern supports Maupin’s efforts. “Caleb is to be commended for his political activism. Whether or not one agrees with his political stances, he is a model of engaged global citizen. He is fearless in expressing his views, even when they cut WAY against the grain of contemporary political culture in the U.S. He is also willing and able to listen to others with different views, and engage in constructive dialogue with them,” he said.

Students may join FIST by emailing Maupin at cmaupin@bw.edu, join the Facebook groups “B-W FIST,” and “FIST” or find information at http://fistyouth.wordpress.com/. ###

REPRINTED WITH LISA M. NAGY'S PERMISSION!