NEW YORK CITY, March 12 — The Political Science club on our campus has provided a glimpse of the force that young workers and students can become in leading the struggle for change. These students are providing leadership in the multi-racial, working-class struggle against our school’s administration, against the racist budget-cutters on the CUNY Board of Trustees and in the New York City and State governments. Communist ideas are not only present, but in a leading position.
The most recent club activities highlight both the international character of class struggle in the fight against capitalism as well as the need for workers and students to engage in both theoretical discussion and practice. The first event was a teach-in, entitled ‚”Youth Movement Rising”. Three professors covered the events in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the student protests and rebellions in Europe and the role of U.S. foreign policy in all of these places. Unlike in the bosses’ media which stresses the fight for democracy and freedom, the speakers focused on the class struggle, including the fight against racist unemployment and increases in food prices.
The final speaker was a student leader who enthusiastically linked the uprisings around the world to the situation in New York. He noted students’ protests against budget cuts, against tuition increases, how we have held solidarity events for students in Haiti (including another teach-in last year). And he stressed the need to do more: for more students, teachers and workers to stand up against the attacks that the bosses launch at us.
Afterwards, the discussion reflected the communist-led nature of the event. One student asked if what we are seeing is a fulfillment of Marx’s prediction that the underclass would rise up to defeat the bourgeoisie.
But these students walk the walk‚ as well as talk the talk. Our cafeteria is being renovated and a new service provider is being brought in. Many students are happy with this change because the old food service was terrible, with very few healthy options (U.S. urban areas have the highest rates of obesity and Type II diabetes). In the process, however, the nine long-time employees, all union members (in UNITE-HERE), and all black and Latino were laid off.
This racist attack did not go unnoticed by the Political Science club, which joined the professors’ union, the cafeteria workers and other students for a campus rally. About 70 people rallied and chanted, “Union workers are under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” We also witnessed the utter fear that bosses (be they big CEOs or our relatively small-time administrators) have of a united, militant working class.
Our rally begin in front of the cafeteria, but we quickly moved to the administration building. You should have seen their faces! Every single security guard on campus was there to stop us. They even called some NYPD pigs to help them out. This time we were not ready to challenge the cops and enter the building, so we rallied for 10 minutes in front and then returned to the cafeteria.
This struggle is not over and the Political Science club is committed to taking part and providing young leadership. The club is getting bigger, with more and more students attending meetings. PLP’ers are there, with CHALLENGE in hand, trying to consistently fight for a vision of a communist future. The club’s focus will likely turn back to the budget cuts and the further tuition increases that are coming, but whatever the issue, the Political Science club will be ready to fight.