They're Mad as Hell

ANGER MANAGEMENT: Much like these NYC protestors, local "Pissed-Off" voters are speaking out. Photo courtesy of Bloomberg News

The Philadelphia League of Pissed-Off Voters throws its hat into the election fray.

by Jonas Raab

When City Paper recently received a press release from an outfit called The Philadelphia League of Pissed off Voters, we just had to know more. Having co-sponsored an event at AFSCME District Council 47's offices at 16th and Walnut on Tuesday — it featured a speech from former City Councilman Angel Ortiz — these pissed-off voters (there's five to 10 core organizers and about 40 supporters on the group's e-mail list) say they plan to be heard loudly between now and November.

Backing liberal ideas such as the decriminalization of drugs, ending of military aid to Israel and returning land to Palestinians, and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from peacekeeping positions in Iraq, pissed-off league member Sara Zia Ebrahimi recently sat down to talk a bit about their future plans.

City Paper: First of all, why are you so pissed off?
Sara Zia Ebrahimi: The idea is to try to pull together a group of young people that we define as 35 [years old] and under into a progressive voting bloc. The pissed-off part comes from this idea that our role is to harness a lot of energy among young people who are really pissed off and frustrated, whether it's with issues at the national level or the local level, and to take that "pissed-off-ness" and transform it into organizing skills or voting or different ways of political engagement.

CP: What exactly do you do as a group?
SZE: Nationally, we're a loose federation of local chapters. There's sort of an agreed-upon idea that we'll have a voter-registration guide for our local areas, and so each chapter is deciding how they're approaching it. Ours is still in progress. It looks like we are going for a shorter information sheet that will give references, because in Philadelphia, since we're in a swing state, there is so much going on around voter registration that we recognize that it is pointless for us to replicate the resources that are already out there. … I would say what makes us different is that we're not endorsing candidates at this point, but we do have a clear agenda and platform.

CP: After looking at the issues on the Web site, it doesn't follow that you would support Bush.
SZE: No, we're definitely against Bush. It seems that a lot of the voter-registration work that is out there is actually [being done by] people who are really working to get Bush out of office. Now, a lot of us can't say that because of the organizations we're working with, but the idea is to get as many young people as possible involved in the voting process. The idea of doing a local event is that people are so caught up in the national election right now, but they should also take a moment to think about how local politics affect our daily lives.

CP: The League was brought about as something geared toward the election?
SZE: It sprung off the idea of organizing around the presidential election, but the larger vision of the movement is to build a progressive voting bloc of young people that can actually have some sort of sway as a unified force.

CP: What is the connection between the group and Angel Ortiz?
SZE: Angel Ortiz has been one of the most progressive City Council members that we've had besides David Cohen. He's been a real ally to a lot of progressive causes. Most recently, [Ortiz] helped pass the resolution against the Patriot Act. … [Politics are] about power ultimately. It's not about whether you're right or wrong. So we may be against the death penalty or want less military presence in Iraq or locally we might be against tax breaks for corporations and want the city to actually prioritize supporting city workers, but we can't walk into a situation thinking that just because we're right someone is going to listen to us. You have to understand where the power lies and who is accountable to who because they might agree with you personally, but they may be in a situation where they can't really do anything about it.

CP: In regards to the group's name, do you think that it might turn people off?
SZE: I would hope that we could build an image for ourselves so that people would understand that what we're about is transforming that sense of being pissed off into something positive. If we're successful, we'll get ourselves to the point where people will hear our name and know that we are doing positive work.

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