Student Rally Links Racist Fare Fraud to War, Bankers’ Bailout

BROOKLYN, NY, December 21 — As soon as students at our school heard about the rally against Metrocard cuts, they got together to figure out plans to mobilize our friends and teachers. We were furious about the MTA’s latest proposal to cut free and reduced-fare student Metrocards for all NYC students in order to balance their budget. This racist attack against the overwhelmingly black and Latino school population would cost families about $1,000 a year for each child when one-in-three black workers and one-in-four Latino workers are unemployed. Half-a-million students use free or half-fare Metrocards to get to school.

Once again the bosses are forcing the working class to pay for their ongoing capitalist crisis and imperialist wars. This system, that can’t provide basic education and transportation for its young people, must be destroyed.

Over the weekend we decided to hand out flyers by the train station most students use, calling for a walkout and then to go to the city-wide rally. All day students talked with their friends about the actions. We passed out leaflets in the cafeteria and in their classes. We made signs for the rally and there was a sense of excitement throughout the school.

Some teachers used their history classroom to help organize for the rally. They said that these attacks are part of a class war being waged against the workers by the ruling class. The point was made that we could see these attacks as a test, to see how New York City students will respond to ongoing attacks.

In one class, students organized a debate. The resolution was: “Mayor Bloomberg should pay for NYC’s economic crisis.” Twenty-six students supported the resolution while only three argued against it. This debate led to even more discussions about whether a walkout and protests were the correct way to deal with budget cuts.

One student talked about the need to fight back and explained that the reason why the budget cuts exist is partly because of the trillions of dollars being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for oil. He pointed to all the bases the U.S. has built in the Middle East and told students not to have any illusions about the U.S. pulling the troops out.

When two o’clock came, a small group of students, signs in hand, went around the school knocking on classroom doors and encouraging students to walk out. Unfortunately the walk out was smaller than we had hoped. More time was needed to really organize such an event. Although some students got discouraged, the students who did go to the rally were glad they went and plan on continuing to organize more actions in the school.

When we got to the rally, Charles Barron and other city council members were making speeches and playing loud music. The music was so loud that it drowned out most attempts at chanting led by students. As PLP members arrived with our own bullhorns, we began to give speeches exposing this latest racist attack as part of the capitalist system, and raising the need for communist revolution. We explained that since trillions are being spent on imperialist war in Iraq and Afghanistan, bailouts for the banks and auto industry and debt service to the banks, the bosses must increasingly attack the working class. This began a series of speeches made by students, all expressing their anger at this attack.

One young man said that students had joined the rally to show their anger, not to celebrate. He directed his comments at the politicians and demanded that they turn the music off. Within seconds the whole crowd was chanting “Turn the music off.” The bosses’ politicians were isolated and students then took charge of the rally, chanting and picketing in the cold for the next hour. Three students, who made speeches about the need to fight back, were speaking on a bullhorn for the first time.

We learned a lot about what it takes to organize class struggle with both boldness and patience. We are gaining confidence in our ability to defend revolutionary ideas. One student expressed it this way: “This wasn’t my first experience walking out from school, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. I was excited and proud to be part of this movement and I know we will fight back and win students, teachers and workers to our side.”