Despite Madison's rich history of political activism among the university and residential community on behalf of a host of liberal issues, the activist trend in the city and on the UW-Madison campus has begun to decline.
While not always apparent, the wear on the liberal community is beginning to show. The liberal wear and tear is apparent in the little things. Offices of campus activist groups are more often closed than open. Protests for peace, which had began in earnest after Sept. 11, are few and far between only nine months later, in a community whose aging activist body prided themselves on beginning the rallies for peace in the '60s.
Madison has historically been a hotbed for activism, particularly for its easy access to a variety of governments. With the convenient arrangement of state, county and city government offices within blocks of each other and at the opposite end of a half-mile street from a historically liberal national university, students have probably marched issues up to the capitol for the duration of State Street's existence.
While it might be convenient to blame President Bush's \war on terrorism"" for creating a political atmosphere which stifles dissent, Madison's activist degeneration began far before Sept. 11. And besides, the political ultimatums ending in ""...or the terrorists will win,"" have been fodder for late-show punchlines since late November, despite a presidential approval rating hovering in the 70th percentile.
Less than five years ago, organizations like Alliance for Democracy and the International Socialist Organization flooded local media outlets with letters to the editor and press releases about their issues; furthermore, they created highly visible campaigns to make their point and took initiative in highlighting the issues the community would come to discuss.
While perhaps atypical of standard protest fare, others like former UW-Madison student Ben Granby and his Ten Fat Tigers ""political party"" created the Shaft of the Year award to highlight issues with which they were concerned. The award, a large, phallic object was transported noticeably to its lucky winner. Tasteful? No. But visible? Extremely. And groups like Granby's put their opponents on the defensive, which provided a small advantage in the world of ""us vs. them,"" ""students vs. administration,"" David vs. Goliath.
Where is Alliance today? It is not a coincidence that the decline of the coalition and its activist peers corresponded to the graduation of their strongest leaders.
Ben Manski, currently the co-chair of the national Green Party, served as the head of Alliance as well as an office in the university student government, the Associated Students of Madison, during his tenure on campus.
Shortly after the graduation of Manski, Granby, John Ephron and a number of other activism leaders of campus, remaining student Alliance members began to go their own separate ways.
For a number of them, this constituted joining ASM, where students hoped to take their own form of legislative action on issues of concern. Others devoted more time to their respective organizations of the 24 groups that made up Alliance. Those remaining in Alliance renamed the coalition Education for Liberation, which has dropped significantly in stature from its predecessor.
Manski himself described one of the Alliance's main flaws late in its existence as a lack of drive. Not only do ISO and the remnants of Alliance lack the motivation to publicize and maintain their former level of public profile, but more specifically, there is a shortage of qualified, motivated leaders in these organizations. With the departure of potential leaders to the bureaucratic hang-ups of ASM and the continuous establishment of (albeit well-meaning) alternative activist groups on campus, the university's activists, for the first time in years, lack the well-organized, effective leaders.
For whatever personal reasons driving individual leadership prospects from the traditional activist community to student government, perhaps the inherent organizational structure itself is to blame: The activist community takes up more worthy causes than it can help.
Alliance for Democracy consisted of organizations like those for a free Tibet and the university's Green Party, which, at best, shared general political and sociological beliefs, but at the same time divided Alliance's financial and human resources.
This same flaw is at work in other liberal institutions. Biting off more than they can chew, the organizations end up pursuing so many noble goals that they forget to achieve their main objective.
Until activists' leadership and priorities are reformed, their case will be characterized by the fate of their ideological cousin, the grocery co-operatives, whose primary intent is to allow members to collectively bargain for cheaper groceries, is overshadowed in the name of organic fruit and decent working conditions to offering higher-priced products than their corporate neighbors.
