Freedom Socialist • Vol. 28, No. 6 • December 2007-January 2008

SOAPBOX

The making of a Gen Y revolutionary

by Elias Holtz

Elias Holtz Credit: S. Hoffman/FS

When I first came around the Freedom Socialist Party, I was a 19-year-old art student stoner spurred into activism by my shock at the drive towards war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In one discussion I had with an older FSP member, I remember the surprise on his face when he brought up the Stonewall revolt and I had no idea what he was talking about. Here I was, this young dude who went to Gay Pride parades for the drag queens and glitter-covered pectorals - but had no clue that Pride is held in June because that's the month of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, a landmark incident of queer insurgent action against the tyranny of New York City cops.

Although I was myself a gay insurgent in the making, I didn't know anything about the amazing history of queer organizing that came before me. At my high school we were too busy learning a sanitized, glossy version of history, in which people in U.S. society just "evolved" to become more aware of things like racism and sexism and, on a good day, maybe even homophobia. We weren't taught about a past in which walking, talking activists gave their blood, sweat and lives to fight for recognition and rights.

Now that I have learned some of this history, I see that I'm not just someone who puts the word "activism" or "politics" under the "Interests" section of my MySpace page. I am someone who is a part of this continuum of resistance over time in the United States of Amnesia. I am Stonewall, and it is me.

I didn't actually sit down to write a piece about Stonewall. After reading Guerry Hoddersen's Soapbox on bridging the age gap in the last issue of the Freedom Socialist, I meant to write a column from the "other side" about different generations and how they can work together in radical organizations.

But in the process I took a look at myself and how I became politically active. And, thinking back, I realized that a distinct and essential part of my decision to be a revolutionary was talking to older people about their experiences in the movements.

Without learning about that history and connecting myself to it, I think I would still be like many of the people around me who are in their 20s. Disoriented, disenchanted, isolated.

Growing up in the U.S. tends to make young people that way. First of all, living in the world's most media-rich society ever has its devastating consequences. The bombardment of ads, entertainment, and information (of whatever worth) makes us more distracted, more occupied, more immersed in a numbing flurry than any other generation.

At the same time, we often feel too stressed and too pessimistic to imagine that we can alter the FUBAR state of things. A big part of this comes from being born in the 1980s and '90s. After the Soviet Union fell, capitalism, consumerism, corruption, and greed were taught to us as "the way things are" with no evidence in our field of vision of an alternative (i.e., socialism) and no real education about people fighting back for something better. (It's not like we got a dose of revolutionary history with our Saturday morning cartoons.)

But that's why, as young activists crucially evolving into organizers and revolutionaries, we need to link up and work with people who have been organizing and revolutionizing for most of their lives.

That's not to say that organizing is exactly the same for us today as it was in decades past. The same communications and information technology that inundates us with BS also gives us more power than any other generation to change things.

Take the protests in support of the Jena Six in Louisiana for example. Young people used social networking sites to get out the word, and then turned typical internet activism into concrete action by renting buses and sending thousands of people down to Jena to rally. And remember how text messaging helped spread the news last year of the student walkouts for immigrant rights? We have new tools and methods for getting people to pay attention and move, mechanisms that are essential for a modern resistance movement.

With a good chunk of our lives ahead of us, we also realize that we are pretty much screwed if we don't majorly revamp society. This applies to everything from our insane levels of student debt to the melting polar ice caps.

But none of our efforts will go anywhere if we don't study the successes and mistakes of times past. And the best place to learn about this history is obviously from the people who lived it. So if you are reading this and are "age advanced" but haven't outgrown your revolutionary perspective, sure, let's work together. Get in touch, and I'll txt u.

Email Elias Holtz, a web designer and member of Seattle FSP's elected leadership team, at eliasholtz@gmail.com.