Skeet Surrency: 6 Replies to TheRadikal.com

1) The quote in which I call Machen an ally was both paraphrased and taken out of context by the alligator and yourself. As you probably know, Alligator reporters don't usually walk around with voice recorders - it's pen and pad for them, which almost always means your quotes will wind up paraphrased the next day. A more accurate quotation would have read "It's nice to Machen as an ally on this issue...” Now of course that sentence they chose to quote me on was just one of many I spoke during the interview, and the one immediately prior to that one was important contextually. It went something like "Budget cuts and tuition increases are symptoms of the same problem - Tallahassee refusing to adequately fund education." And the reason Machen is an ally on that particular issue is because he agrees with that statement 100%. We even got the man to agree that FL is in need of an income tax, which was a real surprise considering his conservatism.

It doesn't mean his handling of the situation is exemplary or commendable - I'd say he's done a horrible job advocating on behalf of students, faculty, and staff at UF. And when we confronted him with that sentiment, his reply was unsurprisingly pragmatic: it's easier to get money out of you students through tuition increases than it is to get this state to fund our school. So his role in this funding crisis is really just a symptom of the crisis itself, not the cause of it.

It is also worth nothing that at this time last year, 4 friends and I starved ourselves for 2 weeks trying to get a seat across the table from Machen to discuss our university's investment practices, which he refused to do. To get into all the ups and downs of my interactions with the man over the past 4 years easily fill an essay. Needless to say, I trust the man as far as I can throw him, yet I am not opposed in principle to working with him when it suits our needs.

2) I have friends and and allies in every political party represented in SG right now. I'm willing to work with anyone willing to work with me.

3) "Old" SDS was primarily a group of friends who got into activism together, and who mostly got out of activism at around the same time. The reasons for that are numerous and include, variously: activist burnout, loss of moral due to our defeat in the SRI campaign, school obligations, other activist obligations, people moving away, and a loss of direction or lack of creative ideas on where to go next.

"New" SDS could refer to anyone who joined SDS around the time when the original members were leaving, and represented a new generation of activists. Old SDS members failed to leave the organization with any sense of institutional memory, or with any meaningful training of new members on how to be successful activists. At the same time, the old SDS members who stuck around still held a considerable amount of sway over the organization, but were not coming up with any plans of their own, or were not able or willing to follow through on them. Even so, it was during this time that we won our first significant victory as activists, which was to stop the installation of handscanners at the rec centers on campus. But compared with our previous levels of activity, SDS was largely stagnant during this time.

New members obviously grew restless with this, and when it became clear that the old members were not offering anything in terms of where to go from here, they charted their own course, which included heavy participation in SG elections and a restructuring of the organization. For better or worse, the prospect of restructuring SDS brought back some old members, who were opposed to some of the measures. Tensions ran high for a while, and the end result was that most of the restructuring proposals passed a vote, but some didn't, and this left many new members dissatisfied. Some ended up leaving to form a new group, the International Socialist Organization. Most of those who left have not been back to a meeting since then.

Since then, SDS has returned to levels of activity similar to what we saw when we first started. Our focus is on the anti-budget cut campaign. Specifically we see our role as operating both independently and within the coalition formed around opposing the cuts (Coalition Save our Schools), in order to push the dialogue of this fledgling movement towards a more radical analysis of the situation. The ISO has also been active during this time, tabling, recruiting members, and attending meetings and conventions. Membership crossover between the two organizations exists on some levels, and it is undoubtedly a good thing that a explicitly socialist organization exists on campus. We could be wonderful compliments of one another, if the levels of collaboration between the two organizations would increase. That's obviously the most constructive direction the two groups could go together, and that's what we're working towards.

4) Frank Bracco has always been a friend of mine within SG. Before there was an Orange and Blue or SDS, I was active in getting an SG referendum question passed in the 2006 elections, and Frank helped me navigate the confusing culture and bureaucracy of SG. Since then he has helped in the same capacity in two other SG referendums I helped get onto election ballots.

Sam and I have no relationship to speak of, except that he served as the president of a political party I was marginally involved in. Politically I'm sure we'd disagree on most subjects.

5) SDS has slated members in the Orange and Blue and the Progress Party. Our constitution officially says that "We are not a mouthpiece for any particular party or ideology... (you can find the rest on our facebook group)." If it made tactical sense, I don't think many in SDS would object as a matter of principle in welcoming members of any political party who are willing to work constructively towards the broad goals outlined in our constitution, nor would we forbid our members from joining such parties. That said, we are unabashedly leftist in our analysis, so it would be odd indeed for much crossover to occur between us and, say, the college libertarians. Even then, we have often welcomed libertarians at our meetings, and have collaborated in putting on events with them, College Democrats, and even the College Republicans (most notably, in debating them on the issue of healthcare, where we were the only advocates of a single payer, universal system, but also in the aftermath of the Andrew Meyer protest, where we worked with the College Libertarians to put on a forum on civil liberties)

6) I did not participate in organizing the last radical rush, but it seemed okay to me.