CHICAGO, September 17 — Chanting “Si se puede” and “We want a library, we’re not criminals,” about 100 mostly Latino parents, elementary school children and supporters crossed the police line when a veteran comrade made the call to crash the police tape. They were supporting the dozen parents and children who were occupying the elementary school field house the Chicago Public School (CPS) bosses want to demolish.
Earlier, the protestors who had been occupying the field house for three days were rushed by the cops and threatened with arrests. Meanwhile, many supporters who were bringing in supplies were blocked from entry. The racist cops and ex-cop Michael Shields (a cousin of Michelle Obama), head of CPS security, taped off the entire block. The cops were preventing anyone who didn’t live on the block from entering.
We heard from a close friend inside the field house that they were preparing for arrests, predicting the cops would move in once school was out and the grounds cleared. Acting quickly, a veteran comrade from the neighborhood who had been there for two days bringing in food and building ties with those inside, called on everyone present to cross the police lines and march to the field house.
When the comrade crossed the tape line, youth and parents and moms pushing strollers began crossing en masse! Without the comrade’s militant leadership and the massive support of the workers and youth, those inside likely would have been arrested, ending the sit-in. It was a momentous afternoon for everyone. When we showed up chanting and hopping the fence, the police were taken by surprise, giving a reprieve for the parents inside.
The demolition of this field house is part of a larger racist trend to attack this city’s mostly black and Latino communities. This includes privatization of schools (Charters), massive layoffs of teachers and increasing violence and killings of hundreds of black and Latino youth as schools are shut down and students shuffled into neighborhoods with rival gangs.
Of course, with racist mass murderer Obama commanding the slaughters in Iraq and Afghanistan and appointing ex-CPS boss Arne Duncan to the Education post in his cabinet, racist privatization, cutbacks and layoffs are occurring nationwide. This field house, in particular, has been used for after-school programs as well as a space for teachers and parents to organize in. They recently led a fight to win $1.4 million for school renovations and for the field house to become a library.
Instead, the school bosses and local alderman Danny Solis, a Mayor Daley lackey and new mayoral candidate, want to construct a soccer field for the local private school. But the parents have had enough, which is why they’ve occupied the place for three days.
We in PLP know that this or any reform struggle will not lead to the quality of education our children deserve, namely being taught the truth about the horrors of capitalism and the need for communist revolution. That’s why PLP’ers and friends are trying to make this struggle “a school for communism.”
Ultimately, the bosses may concede on this field house but it won’t be a victory unless we build the Party. Otherwise, it will only be another example of how the reform struggle simply builds patriotism and class-collaboration — boss-worker “unity,” a hallmark of fascism.
Thus far the Party has played a modest but critical role. Without our leadership this struggle would likely be over. However, now we must deepen our ties with the parents and youth we’ve met; bring our friends to support and distribute CHALLENGE; and fight to build PLP amid this small class struggle, one that could help start fires elsewhere.J