Michael Dranove is a self-described anarchist.
“It has nothing to do with chaos — that was some Wilson Red Scare propaganda that seems to have stuck to this day for some reason,” said the freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who was arrested at the recent “Funk the War: Bad Romance” protest. “[Anarchism] advocates workers’ control over the means of production. [It’s] all about organization and community.”
It was last year, while taking time off after high school in Athens, Ga., when Dranove first started reading work by Noam Chomsky, a noted anarchist and political activist.
“After I read Noam Chomsky, my whole world opened up,” he said. “I read these books about activism, anarchism, war. I just learned so much and kept reading [and] listening to speeches.”
At “Funk the War” this past Friday, Dranove was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Armed Forces Recruiting Center with yellow paint. When asked whether he would still have gone to the protest if he had known the outcome, he responded without hesitation.
“It’s never going to deter me,” he said. “It’s not like [we’re in] Palestine where you get shot for protesting. You get charged with a misdemeanor. We live in the freest country in the world. The consequences are minimal to say the least [and] if you’re scared by the consequences, this isn’t the business for you.”
During the protest Dranove started chants like “No justice, no peace, U.S. out of the Middle East.”
“[Dancing in the street without a set route] is like casting off those imaginary bonds which the government and the system puts on us,” he said. “For that one day, for that march you’re just free to do what you want.”
AU graduate Mike Madden will be Dranove’s lawyer if his case goes to trial. The charge was never a felony and was always a misdemeanor, according to Dranove. He said the police were trying to scare him with the felony charge. He expects the case will not go to trial.
“[Madden] said that if at my arraignment they don’t give me a deal for community service, he’ll be my lawyer,” Dranove said. “He’s a lawyer for activists, so he said that instead of pro bono, you do activism as your payment ... which was the coolest thing ever to hear because he was like, don’t give me money, just do your thing.”
In high school, Dranove was arrested for smoking marijuana, but prior to Friday’s events, he had never been to jail, he said. The jail time was easy because he only stayed for a few hours, Dranove said, but he would not want to stay for an extended period of time.
“Just the thought of being in there the whole weekend scared me enough to never want to do it again,” he said. “Although, if you’re involved in this stuff and you’re not ready for the consequences then I think you’re doing the wrong thing.”
Dranove was one of the students who helped plan the street party, trudging through the snow at the beginning of February’s blizzards to make it to a meeting at Howard University.
A lot of activism is less exciting than “Funk the War,” Dranove said.
“Most of activism is not ‘Funk the War,’” he said. “Some professor comes to AU, you hand out pamphlets at the event, and then you go spend the next two weeks preparing another event. It takes a lot of time and energy. It’s rewarding, but it’s not fun.”
Nevertheless, Dranove finds being an activist fulfilling.
“Not only is [activism] great because you meet friends and ... because you’re actually changing the world,” he said. “You know that there’s something worth fighting for in life.”
You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
