Participantes, not Spectators
As participantes, we are the ones who are willing to work and struggle for change. In order to achieve equality, one has to leave the comfort of a protected classroom or the complacency of “objective” journalism and move into the reality of the outside world. In a world divided, in which conflict between the powerful the oppressed, the owners and the workers, to be “objective” is to implicitly accept the legitimacy of the structures of domination, exploitation, and privilege. To be a “spectator” in the context of struggle and conflict makes it impossible to actually comprehend and engage our society. The spectator is hardly apolitical; it is the politics of the status quo.
Our intention must be to start a movement through mass mobilization. While we are building coalitions and movements, we must also step back and analyze our actions and ideas as organizers and activists. el participante provides the space for those discussions as a strong visible forum for those who feel discontent to connect with and support the movement. Only mass mobilization gives voice and power to those who are structurally silenced, thereby forcing change in politics, the economy and society. Spectators just watch what happens. They talk about the results the next day, but they did not have any part in building the movement. When it is convenient, the opportunistic Spectator jumps on popular issues, criticizing and offering useless rhetoric. When a movement is created it has to move past discourse and discussion that is isolated from the concrete struggles. As participantes we embrace the unity of theory and practice: thought without action is sterile and irrelevant—action without directionless and undisciplined. Without action, a cause will remain theoretical, unrealized.
As a publication of the left, el participante strives to be the place for thought and debate so that concrete political struggles on and off campus can be addressed in a more coherent manner. In a world divided, we must take sides. We are not “objective” Spectators, sycophants of the status-quo. We are partisans, Luchistas and participantes.
