More May Day antics
The Swarthmore Commune story gets better. The socialists (students from the "Socialism in Europe" poli sci class) held a May Day rally in support of workers and leftist students and such, but in the middle of their reading their manifesto to the assembled crowd, a group of black-clad students burst on the scene: students from the "Fascist Europe" history class, taking the part of fascist counterrevolutionaries. A water-gun battle ensued, and an inspired clash of ideologies:
"If you're talking about an equal distribution of wealth, why are all the lawn chairs on your side? Why do you have all the beer?" exclaimed [fascist student Danny] Fink.
. . .
Matt Rubin '03, who spoke for the fascists, [said] "The college is more than the materialistic concerns of individual students that these Bolsheviks are demanding, and we will not stand for the deterioration of the purity of gorgeous Swarthmore. . . . Our socialism is a Swarthmore socialism, a Fascist socialism, grounded in the traditions of pastoral beauty and the glorification of the institution."
The professors of the two classes weren't involved in staging this counterdemonstration, but they approved: "for all the apparent chaos it was an excellent pedagogical experience," said the Socialism professor, and the Fascism professor agreed that it "gave the students a chance to put into practice some important points they have studied this semester about the power of mass politics and the theatrical ways in which fascist movements used crowds."
There was a little concern that there was too much similarity between the two groups:
In response to allegations that the fascists appeared similar to their socialist brethren, William Tran '03 named a number of uniquely fascist goals that his group espoused, "including increasing the Swarthmore birthrate, prioritizing the state over the individual, a focus on rearmament, and more Wagner."
But in the end, the socialists said they won:
"I think we did [win the crowd], we just had more preparation ideologically," said Rodriguez. "Besides, red is a better color than black."
See the full article for more details.