Modern Language Association Convention PL’ers Put Communism on the Agenda

BOSTON, MA, January 6 — Members of PLP active in the Modern Language Association (MLA), along with friends in the Radical Caucus, helped to bring communism and class struggle to the 2013 MLA convention here. 
Party members gave papers on various facets of literary radicalism: the role played by communists in the proletarian and post-colonial literary movements; speculation about post-class society in literary works focusing on racism and sexism; debates over the “idea of communism” in current political theory. The current economic crisis, along with the dire job market faced by many humanities scholars and teachers, has many MLA members querying the legitimacy of capitalism. PL members contributed to a sharpening of the discussion and distributed significantly more CHALLENGES than we have in the past.
The activist core of the Party’s work here for years has centered on motions and resolutions raised by the Radical Caucus. One of this year’s initiatives focused on the need for serious data gathering on the wages and working conditions of part-time and adjunct faculty, who teach about 75 percent of college-level humanities courses, for as little as $1,500 per course, with no benefits. The other urged the MLA to condemn the so-called Pathways project at the City University of New York (CUNY). This project overrules faculty governance in an effort to cut costs and exert tighter control over curriculum.
Those in power don’t care that this policy produces inferior education — science courses without labs, writing and language courses with reduced contact hours. Students disadvantaged by the curricular changes are overwhelmingly immigrant, black, Latino, and Asian. Teachers who have opposed Pathways have been threatened with dismissal.
Discussion and debate over the CUNY resolution revealed that Pathways is funded by the Lumina Corporation and the Gates Foundation, both ruling-class efforts to privatize and corporatize public higher education. These efforts are widespread: members of the Delegate Assembly spoke passionately about the capitalist profiteering and authoritarian ideological repression occurring on dozens of campuses around the U.S. and Canada.
Both Radical Caucus initiatives were passed with overwhelming majorities. Several people joined the Radical Caucus, and one delegate, new to the Radical Caucus, helped to fight for passage of the opposing Pathways resolution. While this support was gratifying, our level of success made PL’ers and friends aware that we need to push harder for a stronger anti-capitalist analysis in the measures brought before the Delegate Assembly.
The annual Radical Caucus meeting was large and spirited, with several young new members offering to take leadership in framing the sessions and activities for the 2014 convention. Featured next year will be more discussion of “alternatives to capitalism,” as well as of universities as sites of ruling-class ideology. Onward!