The Strobino file

Ingrained in Dante Strobino's left calf is a tattoo of a mechanical snail. It's a reference to his affection for math - particularly chaos theory, exactly the type of thing that might excite a graduate student in electrical engineering.

But something about the chaos theory and Dante Strobino makes sense.

Save the math jargon, chaos theory essentially says small things can have enormous influence. It says the bottom affects the top. The beginning influences the end.

Yes, something about Dante Strobino and chaos theory makes sense.

Or maybe it's just that word - chaos.

Dante Strobino isn't chaotic. In fact, his frizzled hair and wrinkled, brandless T-shirts aside, he's a fairly organized, in-control kind of guy.

He just loves chaos. He loves to stare chaos in the eyes and say, "Kiss my ass."

Dante Strobino thinks he's out for social justice. He organizes workers and strikes and walk-outs. He goes out and gets arrested on purpose to make political statements. He calls the death penalty "racist," and he says the United States government "murdered" the people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He rides a bike almost everywhere he goes because he's looking out for the environment. He's the guy who never stops smiling and who can't hide his enthusiasm about anything.

Perhaps an understatement is the best way to leave it for now - Dante Strobino is controversial.

But there's a lot more to him than what people see at the demonstrations or what they read in the newspapers. Underneath the smiles and the politics and the passion, there's a soul in need of answers. Beyond the confusion - the chaos - that Dante Strobino surrounds himself with, there's a story about how one family's nightmare has turned into the son's life crusade.

And maybe that's why Dante Strobino has that tattoo symbolizing the chaos theory on his left calf.

He's the little guy. He's the underdog. He's the beginning.

And Dante Strobino is making a difference.

Adventurous, 'white-guy bullshit'

Strobino just likes challenging people. Whether it's at a political rally, in an article for some publication or through a letter to decision-making people, the guy is constantly forcing people to think about and confront issues.

He said he really started his political activism protesting the War in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001.

"I was really just taken up. It was really adventurous. At first it was just exciting white-guy bull shit," he said. "But I really had to understand my own role with U.S. imperialism and understand it on a local level."

The talk about "U.S. imperialism" is where Strobino becomes controversial. He believes capitalism is at the root of all social injustice in America. He quotes Karl Marx and is well versed in literature on black liberation. He has no problem explaining what he feels is wrong with the United States.

"It's power we have to change. It's not just giving stuff out. It's about power," he said. "That's our struggle. It's a fight for power. Right now, we see who has all the power in our country and it's the corporate elite, which is mainly white men."

"We can win little struggles on the ground, but in the end, it's the power - the cops, the courts, the banks - they are all owned by mostly white men."

His life is essentially centered on the idea of developing and empowering the working class in this country. In that effort, he's constantly drawing connections between social and political problems and how the working class can have an impact.

Case in point is the War in Iraq. Like any good Marxist, Strobino believes the working class holds the keys to a nation's production vehicle.

"We have to shut down production. See, these capitalists - what's really real to them, is money. It's dollars and their profits," he said. "If you stop production, it puts such a strain on the system. That's where the workers' power is."

"There were workers on the docks in Wilmington and in New Orleans and on the West coast who were refusing to load war armaments onto these warships. If there's billions of dollars of war armaments that can't get on the boats, then they're useless. At every line of production, there are workers who have the ability to stop the machine and to stop production."

Strobino's outlook on U.S. capitalism affects virtually every aspect of his life. He spends his weekends on the move - New York, Washington, D.C. and other cities for demonstrations. He rides his bike as much as he can because he doesn't want to support the oil industry. And he only uses his car - a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta that he rigged himself to run on biodiesel - when he has to go to and from work. But he still thinks he spends too much on fuel each month - $40 by his estimates.

UE150 and union organizing

Strobino is one busy guy. He's taking nine hours of graduate work in electrical engineering, and when he talks about his school work, he looks exhausted. His shoulders and head drop, and he admitted he flirts with the idea of dropping out of grad school. He won't, however, because he thinks his mom "will kill him."

School aside, he documents 20 hours working for UE Local 150, a rank-and-file union for North Carolina's state workers. The union pays Strobino $12 per hour for his work as a field organizer, but he's only paid for the first 20 hours of each week. He said he works much more than 20 hours each week for the union.

One of Strobino's co-workers at the union is Steve Bader, also a field organizer. He said Strobino volunteered for a few years before the union agreed to pay him, and throughout, the N.C. State student has made a difference.

"He's done quite a bit," Bader said. "I think the biggest thing he's done is getting N.C. State's workers united again. He's really spent a lot of time talking to workers at State and helping them organize."