“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

Pushes for progressive social reform are nothing new, but here at Bellarmine the Progressives Club regularly converse about leftward economic ideas, criticize facets of capitalism, and venture into political philosophy.

So far, the club has explored and critiqued neoliberalism, late stage capitalism, and defined and promoted left-leaning economics and unions. Founders and leaders junior Eric Kiguru and senior Lauren Main, have held meetings explaining various political and economic ideologies within each quadrant of the political compass, thoughtfully critiquing what they and other members of the club believe to be liberal hypocrisy, and explaining complex issues such as housing, city-planning, and unionization.

When asked what inspired him to create the Progressives Club, Kiguru said, “2021 was a big, formative year for everyone including myself, and personally having watched Black Lives Matter and other movements go by and what I personally consider the failure of our current systems, I started to look leftwards politically and observe my ideals and what misconceptions I might have believed for the longest time. Because of all that, I started talking about it with more people, like Lauren, and eventually we wanted to try to spread awareness to others while having healthy discussion about the current state of politics from a leftward standpoint. I am glad that there are other people out there who are interested in my views.”

Progressivism in many of its facets is not new to Bellarmine. After all, Feminists at Bellarmine, the Pride Club, and Sustainability could all be considered progressive within American society, but Kiguru’s and Main’s club tackles economic issues, as well as social ones.

When asked why he promotes left-leaning economics, Kiguru said, “The entire goal of left-leaning economics is to benefit the people. The whole idea of right wing economics of anarcho-capitalism or capitalism is to bring profits to the owner, but the entire basis of left wing economics, good or bad, is to help provide for the average working person. I will acknowledge that there were states that were completely bogus like the Soviet Union and China, which is why they fell. There is more to left wing economics besides military dictatorships, which is what I like to talk about in the club. So, yeah, that’s the way I see it.”

A common theme of the past meetings has been exploring and critiquing neoliberalism, specifically within the Democratic Party.

When asked about his opinions on neoliberalism, Kiguru said, “Because at least from what I’ve observed and what I’ve learned through many sources about the recent history of American history is that neoliberalism has failed us. When it comes to the fact that we subsidize the rich, and we see the death of the middle class that has gone on for the past 30 years, and we have been seeing cuts on taxes on the rich with the lie of “trickle down economics” still persisting to today. We also see that the forces at be concede all the power to the top 1%. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is crumbling, our healthcare system is on the verge of a breakdown, and the pandemic has made the already bad situation worse, and it has become abundantly clear that with Biden trying and failing to pass legislation and Manchin making sorry excuses for why he doesn’t think we should have good infrastructure or people should have voting rights. Because of all those things I just talked about, it is overwhelmingly clear that the system right now is not going to stay, not for too long anyway.”

Kiguru has recently been in contact with the International Workers of the World, an international labor union, and has invited a member of the Union to talk at school.

“I want to take [the club] to newer heights,” Kiguru said, “We are having a meeting next week with a member of the IWW, which is a local union that has been influential throughout history. I wanted to involve the local DSA and even try to get members [of the Progressives Club] to participate in things like mutual aid programs and things like that, mutual aid programs, especially. I do not want us to sit around and talk about it at school all the time and not get out there and get involved, because what is the point of calling yourself politically involved, if you are talking into the void? Be the change that you want to see in the world.”