news & analysis: Commie Soccer

by Meghan Wahman

Duluth’s Chester Bowl Park, a patch of grassy land set in a beautiful hilly landscape, is the perfect place to unwind after a busy day. For a group of left-wing activists, it is also the perfect place for a spirited game of soccer. Every Thursday night at 6 p.m., members of the Commie Sporting League gather in the park for an hour-long informal pick-up game. The Commie Sporting League is a branch of the local division of Youth for Socialist Action (YSA), a national organization that combines activism with revolutionary theory and is committed to the fight for socialism.

"YSA focuses mainly on antiwar organizing, the labor movement, and other serious topics, and its really easy to get burned out," said YSA activist Adam Ritscher. "So we set up fun group activities shortly after the chapter was founded. Originally, it was only an occasional thing, we would go sledding or ice-skating once a month just for fun."

It was during those occasional social gatherings that Ritscher had the idea to form the Commie Sporting League. "It wasn’t until last summer that we set up the league, and decided to get really professional about it,” he said. “We began advertising the games in the Ripsaw and similar publications throughout Duluth and Superior. We made flyers and handed them out at political rallies, and before long the weekly summer games started."

Since then, the Commie Sporting League has been quite a success. Word spread quickly about the league, and before long people of all ages were showing for the games.

"The league is supposed to be just about fun, and it’s not a required activity for members," said Ritscher. "The turn-out varies week to week, sometimes we’ve had as little as two people, and other weeks we’ve had 14 or 15 people show up to play. After last summer we thought we were going to discontinue the league, but there is a group of people who come every single week and really pushed for the league to be continued and strengthened."

The game itself is unstructured and the members democratically decide the rules before every game. If someone wants to change the rules or make up new ones, the group votes. "It keeps things fun and interesting. When the rules change it can feel like you’re playing a completely different game week-to-week," exclaimed a participant.

Andy Olson, a UMD graduate and YSA member, attends almost all the soccer games. He said most of his fellow soccer-players are students or the younger activists that belong to the YSA. "Occasionally some middle-aged men show up, and there was this span of three weeks where we played with a Duluth man in his mid-sixties,” he added. “He was a really cool guy." Olson explained that in Duluth during the early 1900s, “socialist groups were extremely active in socialist causes, but were socially active as well. The goal of the YSA Twin Ports Chapter is to resurrect that tradition to some extent. We wanted to bring back the social tradition of the socialist movement and create a place where activists can come together."

This article first appeared in the September 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.