If you go to UNCG and have the fortitude to keep up with the Carolinian, our “independent” student newspaper, than you have have invariably encountered the anti-International Socialist Organization (ISO) bent that the paper has.

I’m not particularly ideoplogical in my politics. I think people should be able to decide their own future for themselves and this means freedom, equality, the rule of law, etc. Unfotunately in our world today it also carries with it, in most cases, the prerequisite of liberation. In this I am a firm believer in the moral, ethical and indeed stratigic power of nonviolent direct-action. Anyway, I say al this as a prelude to saying that i am not a socialist and am certainly not a Socialist.

Some of my best friends however, are Socialists and I really don’t care. I think the group-think stuff is pretty creepy and antithetical to true liberation, but hey, whatever. Also, using the word “comrade” in 2005 in the United States strikes me as an affectation, but again – whatever.

The Carolinian published an op-ed by Joe Killian about a debate that was held earlier between the College Republicans (see here for their ridiculous office sign) and the College Democrats. The UNCG ISO group did ask to be included in the debate and they were summarily refused. So Killian wrote his piece about how bad the debate was and how neither side really offered anything new or intelligent. Um, yeah.

He also took a cheap shot at the UNCG ISO folks that finally broke the proverbial camel’s back and I had to write in. To their credit they did publish it just as I sent it but with one minor ommision; they left out of my signature that I am not part of the UNCG ISO. I included this not to distance myself from the ISO stuff (believe me, I’m pretty distant on my own) but rather to make the point that the papers attacks were bothering people not even in the ISO.

I’m not even gonna discuss the blatently racist “Faux News” column by Luke McIntyre in this weeks issue that was structured as an “interview” with God and Allah. Suffice it to say that it used to be you had to know stuff to be able to write for a paper. Allah is Arabic for God. The rest of it was just boilerplate ignorant American “humour.” In an op-ed in the same issue McIntyre argued that we should kill more people by execution (especially white women) because it doesn’t seem to be a deterent to crime yet. That is to say, the state sanctioned murder of people is not a deterent to crime after 200 years…

Anyway, here’s my letter. I’m pretty happy with the last line, I think it kills.

Dear Editor,
Joe Killian’s snippy comment about the International Socialist Organization in the 11/08 issue has finally driven me to write in their defense. Killian denigrates the ISO as “hawk[ers] of propaganda” who, judging by his tone, deserve less respect than other political groups on campus because of their “crudely printed flyers.” It’s good to see that serious political analysis is alive and well at the Carolinian.

Hardly a week goes by without the Carolinian printing some kind of scurrilous dig at the ISO. An outsider whose only information about UNCG comes from this paper would be excused for thinking that our campus had become a hotbed of socialist activity. Who knew the socialist revolution would begin here at the Bell Tower? Apparently only the editorial staff of the Carolinian.

In truth, the UNCG ISO is the only political group on campus that has taken consistent and principled positions on a wide range of issues facing our nation and our student body today. They have spoken out against the war on Iraq, the rollback of our civil liberties and the growing assaults on the very foundations of our democratic system. Perhaps the College Democrats were preoccupied with maintaining their legitimacy with Killian by tweaking their flyer art…

At the end of his column Killian laments that our generation has forgotten how to have a real debate because the news media has replaced “reasoned arguments” with “one-sentence slogans.” I agree. It should be noted however that Joe Killlians’ cheap shot at the International Socialist Organization is exactly one sentence long.

Dave Reed is a member of the Campus Anti-War Network’s UNCG Chapter. He is not a member of the ISO.