HOME
your socialist home on the internet
ABOUT US
who we are, our politics, and what we do
GET ACTIVE!
joining ysa, getting active locally, making a difference
NEWS & VIEWS
articles, fliers, statements and opinions
THEORY
what is socialism, reading lists and study guides
CONTACT US
our email, snail mail, phone number and club directory
LINKS
socialist, youth, activist, labor, feminist, anti-racist, and other important sites
WHAT'S NEW
listing of what's been recently added
soa protest
Socialist Action Newspaper Interview With Mike Rogge on the SOA Protests
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into activist politics?
A: I’m nineteen years old and I live in Duluth, Minnesota. Growing up I always had a sense that something was wrong with our society, and I’ve never had any interest or faith in Democrats or Republicans. It was September 11 though that really inspired me to get involved in activist politics. A friend of mine brought me to my first anti-war rally in Duluth, and through that I got involved in Youth for Socialist Action and Students Against War.
Q: You went to Fort Benning, GA recently for the protest against the School of the Americas. What motivated you to do that?
A: Just as I started getting active in the anti-war movement, I had the opportunity to hear Jack Nelson-Palmeyer speak on a local campus about the School. Afterwards I did some more reading on my own about the School, and was outraged by all of the things I learned, about how many crimes the U.S. has perpetrated on Latin America through this school.
Q: Tell us about what the School of the Americas is?
A: It’s an institution that was set up and run by the U.S. military to train Latin American soldiers and police in tactics of “low-intensity warfare.” It basically trains proxy armies for the U.S. to use in its war against workers and peasants struggling against U.S. corporate interests in Latin America. It’s a tool of peoples’ oppression, and it has an incredibly bloody list of dictators and death squad members that have passed through its doors.
Q: Who went to the anti-SOA protest, and what were the demands of the protest?
A: People of all ages and walks of life came from all over the country, especially students like the group of College of St. Scholastica students that I traveled with. It ended up being an awesome convergence of activists of all kinds of stripes, communists and socialists, anarchists, liberals, pacifists, people of faith – over 10,000 all told. The official demand of the protest was to shut down the School, but many of the protesters and speakers called for more, such as shutting down the IMF and World Trade Organization, and even the whole system.
Q: Tell us about the anti-SOA protest. What were some of your experiences there?
A: I went there a little skeptical about how radical it would be, but I was blown away once I got there. It had such an energetic and militant climate, which
Re: was not at all what I expected. It was a very peaceful and orderly protest, but it was also very radical and there was a lot of recognition on the part of protesters that we needed to challenge the whole system. Argentina, for example, came up a lot, and was tied into the anti-SOA protest with pot bangers and signs.
Q: Did Iraq come up much?
A: Yes, there were a lot of connections made between what the SOA does, and Bush’s so called “war on terror” and the threatened war with Iraq.
Q: Now that you’re back in Duluth, and have had a chance to talk to your friends about the event, what kind of response have you gotten?
A: My political friends were very envious and disappointed that they weren’t able to go. A lot of them were surprised to hear how militant the protest was, expecting it by primarily a pacifist event. I was surprised though by how supportive many of my apolitical friends were. I have a friend, Ben, who is in the military and who is unfortunately very pro-war, but even he said that the SOA was a part of U.S. foreign policy that he in no way supported.
Q: Any final words:
A: It really gives me hope to see so many people of all creeds, colors, and ages to stand in opposition of something so horrendous, and for the most part, unknown to the general population. For every 2 people at the protest, there must have been at least 1 other person that was there in spirit. It's even more reassuring to see that while people are standing in solidarity, they have no illusions about what their real source of oppression is, the whole system. The SOA is just a cog in the big machine of oppression that is capitalism, and people are realizing this.
