HAMMOND, IN, November 27 — Demonstrations at Purdue U. Calumet (PUC) against racist Professor Maurice Eisenstein show no signs of dying down. Students have been campaigning without let-up to force the administration to fire Eisenstein.
The students’ actions include circulating petitions, urging victims of Eisenstein’s racist and sexist attacks to file formal complaints, and organizing public demonstrations and a campus-wide forum. Despite right-wing opposition and institutional apathy, students are demanding nothing less than immediate termination of Eisenstein’s professorship at PUC, and won’t back down until that goal is achieved.
Eisenstein has used his classes to disseminate his extreme Zionist and imperialist rhetoric — advocating extermination of Arabs, and the colonization of their lands by Israelis and Americans. He has stepped far beyond the usual pro-imperialist stance on current events, propagating into hateful dehumanization of Arabs, blacks, Latinos, migrant workers, and women. His extremism has culminated in direct personal attacks on students and faculty.
Despite much evidence to show his complete unsuitability as a professor, the university has been apathetic to the point of complacency for almost two decades. Only after the impassioned protests from a multi-racial coalition of angry students has the university begun to take the issue seriously. Meanwhile, both Eisenstein and a small group of his supporters are hiding behind a right-wing excuse of “free speech” while turning a blind eye to his abuse of power as a professor and the potential consequences of racist indoctrination.
PL’ers have been active in this fight since its onset, working with fellow class-conscious demonstrators to inject a much-needed energy and radicalism to the struggle. While some demonstrators want to fight within the restrictive confines of university policy, PL’ers and friends have been ensuring that the struggle won’t be diluted to fit a weaker liberal agenda.
We in PLP don’t see Eisenstein as just one “bad apple,” whose dismissal will automatically cure the university system of racism and bigotry. Even if Eisenstein is fired, PL’ers intend to keep the militant fire burning in our fellow students, many of whom have faced the brunt of racism their whole lives from imperialist propaganda. It is our goal to build solidarity with fellow students fighting bigotry and help them see that racism will be eradicated only with the destruction of the capitalist system that needs the extra profits from racist wage differentials to survive.
We will continue working with students and workers who face similar racist intolerance and intimidation. With solid communist leadership, these small struggles can harness the energy and commitment to destroy racism and capitalism once and for all.