LOS ANGELES, February 29 — In the months following the clearing of the Occupy encampment in downtown Los Angeles, the idea of the 99% has penetrated college campuses and workplaces throughout Southern California. From public college students facing tuition hikes to transit and airport workers confronted with wage-cuts, the Occupy message resonates deeply in their respective fights. This political development is an opportunity to build the strategic worker-student alliance that can serve as the basis for a revolutionary communist movement.
Student members of Progressive Labor Party recently organized a conference on the economic crisis of capitalism and higher education at a state university here. The students collaborated with transit workers, high school teachers and friends from the Occupy movement to hold workshops on the need for a worker-student alliance. One political goal was to show the similarities between the struggles of students and teachers in high schools and colleges.
Point of Disunity
At the morning plenary, one group of students raised a “point of unity” that called for the exclusion of communist parties from the conference. Some Occupy participants, particularly the self-proclaimed “facilitators” (the de facto leaders of this “leaderless” movement), red bait organizations they see as “authoritarian.”
But on this campus, where a PL comrade has spent months building a base around communist politics, most disapproved of this red-baiting. A PL teacher pointed out that this proposed “point of unity” was both anti-communist and dishonest at a conference that was designed for the exchange of ideas. Many in the audience responded with applause, and the anti-communist proposal was shot down.
Later in the afternoon, the worker-student alliance workshop explored the real points of unity between student and worker struggles. One transit worker recalled his experiences as a student organizer in Central America and pointed out capitalism will continue to oppress us regardless of any victories in reform struggles around tuition hikes or wages. The discussion then turned to consider what kind of revolutionary movement was necessary to destroy capitalism.
Connect Cuts to Capitalist Crisis
At a writing workshop, teachers and students planned a pamphlet to explain the economic causes of the problems in education and to strategize fight-backs that unify students and teachers on high school and college campuses. Another workshop connected the rapidly rising cost of higher education, firings of teachers, and cutbacks in class offerings to the current crisis of finance capital.
Students and instructors understood that a failing economic system is to blame for these problems and enthusiastically agreed that this discussion should be part of future conferences.
Between now and May Day, PLP students and workers plan to organize similar events in various worksite and campus struggles in Southern California. The Occupy movement shows that many are angered and frustrated with the crisis of capitalism but also unclear as to how to respond. By building a mass, militant worker-student alliance, PLP can advance toward the development of a revolutionary communist movement that is powerful enough to destroy capitalism.