The above poster was used to promote the club’s first meeting last week.
Poster courtesy of Young Radical Leftists
Last week, posters advertising a new club were posted across campus. They read, “There will be no food, there will be no water, there will be only anarchy,” coupled with an image of a red fist. This eccentric and attention-grabbing notice belonged to a club named “Young Radical Leftists,” formerly known as “Anarchist Club.”
On Monday, February 11, the Young Radical Leftists had their first meeting in a full St. John Hall Bay Room. The club received a massive number of attendees, with numerous clubs such as Debate Club and Economics Club canceling meetings and directing their members to attend Young Radical Leftists instead. According to Cam Kelley ’19, President, or as he likes to be known, the “Brotherly Leader,” of Young Radical Leftists, “we ended up having over 60 people on our email list, and the list was very hard to find. Some people have estimated that over 100 people were the Bay Room, as it was completely filled.”
Kelley provided insight on how he came about the idea to start the club: “Honestly, the initial idea of the club was a joke. I thought that it would be ironic for an anarchist organization to exist at an institution like Choate.” However, this initial idea led Kelley to ponder other political organizations on campus. “Once I started looking into actually starting the club, I looked at the other political organizations on campus. For example, Young Democrats and Young Republicans focus on party topics, and there is no political club that looks into other political items with open discussions,” he stated.
The question of the legitimacy of the club as a recognized organization on campus is a complicated one. The Committee of Student Activities (COSA) initially received emails from Kelley, proposing his idea of “Anarchist Club.” Kelley also approached Mr. James Yanelli, Director of Student Activities, to further explain why he wanted to start the club. Mr. Yanelli agreed that the club could hold value on campus but encouraged Kelley to have a conversation with Mr. Stanley, simply as a precaution regarding the nature of the club. Kelley reported that the conversation went well, and that Young Radical Leftists is now officially in the midst of the club proposal process, in which a club must hold a series of introductory meetings before it is recognized as being in “good standing.”
The first meeting was a huge success, starting with an introduction to the three core ideologies of the club: anarchism, socialism, and communism. Afterward, Kelley held a Q&A session to answer questions about the initial lesson as well as the purpose of the club going forward. The club meeting concluded with a discussion focused on songs with anarchist inclinations like John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Kelley hopes that the club can build on its momentum going forward. He reminded, “The goal of the club is not indoctrination, but rather the promotion of free thought on campus.”
