In a move that has some people in the community cringing, a
group of Anzar High School students jokingly formed the USSA
– the Union of Socialist Students at Anzar.
The unofficial club was started as a humorous reaction to
commonly held ideas at Anzar.
In a move that has some people in the community cringing, a group of Anzar High School students jokingly formed the USSA – the Union of Socialist Students at Anzar.
The unofficial club was started as a humorous reaction to commonly held ideas at Anzar.
“It had to do with the politics of the school. We had an idea to mock how heavily biased Anzar is,” said Brittany Conrad, the group’s assistant minister of truth and reasoning.
Many of the group’s members feel Anzar “is so liberal with everything – they (teachers and administrators) say they’re very open, but they push so many of their own philosophies and beliefs,” Conrad said.
Referred to as the “communist club,” the group is an unofficial club not sponsored by the school administration nor affiliated with the school. Currently, the group has about 70 members.
Sophomore Daniel Goodman said the communist theme was chosen for its shock value.
“Communism shocks people,” said Goodman, the group’s minister of truth and reasoning. “The idea of communism wasn’t a bad thing.”
USSA is an unofficial club because members could not find any staff to serve as an advisor, Goodman said. None of the staff at Anzar contacted would comment on the group.
USSA, similar to the USSR, has three purposes according to its comrade’s handbook: To perform service projects and receive Service Learning credit (volunteering required for graduation), to learn about communism and to have fun.
In October, the group participated in the school’s canned food drive. Usually, each grade at a school competes to see which one can collect the most cans. USSA members spread their donations out so each class raised the same amount, illustrating working together as a group so everyone is equal.
“Everyone is included. Everyone has an equal opportunity, an equal voice,” Goodman said. “We were looking for something we can organize and do. We were bored and wanted somewhere we could do our Service Learning and it’d be fun.”
The group also offers student-run after-school and lunch-time tutorials to “alleviate the trouble of overcrowded teacher-run tutorials,” according to the handbook. In May, members plan to celebrate May Day, the anniversary of the first general strike of the working party – what some regard as the true Labor Day.
USSA’s slogan – “Students of all grades: Unite!” – is a pun of “Workers of the world, unite!”
There are also ranks in the mock club – comrade generals, minister of plenty and giving, minister of pleasure and leisure, minister of truth and reasoning, minister of friendship and camaraderie and minister of peace.
Members picked communism, as opposed to democracy, because it “is one of the few forms of government that rewards a group of people working together,” according to the handbook. The group’s ideals are based on the original, non-corrupted version of communism, according to the handbook.
Although members do not mean to offend anyone, they say USSA is only a joke.
“It’s not about communism. It’s mainly – looking at the people who are involved – really conservative students who have been retaliated against for speaking out about Anzar,” Conrad said. “It’s about being able to have an alternative opinion.”
Goodman urged people not to be offended or take the group personally.
But, some Anzar staff members don’t see it that way. One compared it to a slap in the face since the students have no idea what real communism is or what it stands for.
