Graduation Lesson: Protest Racist Governor’s Racist Cuts

NEW YORK CITY, May 28 — The administration of Bronx Community College fully displayed its contempt and disregard for our students by inviting Governor David Paterson to speak at graduation. In doing so, it also revealed the tremendous danger that nationalism and racism hold for the working class and the absolute necessity for their defeat, along with all other capitalist ideas, by communist revolution.

The president, a black woman, praised Paterson as the first black governor and stated that he should be welcomed because of this fact. Apparently the fact that Paterson had submitted a budget full of racist cuts that will directly affect our mostly black and Latino students wasn’t an issue for her, or the administration. In fact, Paterson has proposed cutting the tuition assistance program more than $90 million and his budget cuts will cut almost $3 million from the school’s budget alone over the next two years. Add to this the threatened cuts to free student subway passes and the attempt to lay off thousands of public school teachers and it is apparent that a boss is a boss and the governor’s “race” hasn’t stopped him from launching one racist attack after another against workers in New York. 

In the weeks leading up to commencement, a few students and professors decided that his presence was an insult to our college where students and faculty endure this rotten, racist system, yet work very hard to educate and learn. At our initial planning meeting, we struggled over whether to loudly boo or to stand silently and turn our backs to Paterson as he spoke. In deference to the graduating class, we chose the silent protest, hoping that the friends and family seated behind us would see our actions.

We spent a week leafleting and talking to people on campus about the racist budget cuts and linking them to the economic crisis caused by banks and to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An overwhelming number of campus members were upset at the choice of speaker and were supportive of the protest. At the same time, nationalism did rear its ugly head, with some commenting that Paterson should be respected as the first black governor of New York.

At commencement it was immediately clear that our small size and general lack of militancy among students and faculty limited what we could do. Ordinarily, faculty members sit directly behind the graduating students and in front of family and friends. This year the administration, who knew of the protest, seated the faculty at the very back of the assembly. When we stood and turned around, only a few people could see, rather than hundreds and hundreds.

As Paterson rose to speak, about 20 people, consisting of mostly faculty and a few students and family members, stood and showed him our backs. Having graduating students join us would have been a powerful statement, but unfortunately none did. We will continue to work with graduates and students at the school so that when the administration makes an equally racist and anti-working-class choice for commencement speaker next year, we will be there with a bigger and stronger action to counter them.

Our task for the future is to not only convince students and teachers that we should loudly and militantly protest Paterson or his successor, but more importantly that, through communist revolution, we can remake society completely. Then there will be no politicians and their boss-masters to solve their crises on our backs. We will organize education in a way that best benefits our class. This protest helped us to advance this struggle with many of our friends and allowed us to begin it with others. J