Brooklyn: Expose Billionaire’s Wrecking Crew

March 20, BROOKLYN, NY — “When our schools are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” Chants, led by angry students, parents and teachers of the Tilden High School Campus, rang out again against the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting today. They arrived at the meeting ready to fight, even though they knew that the panel of bosses’ puppets would approve the “proposal” to co-locate a charter elementary school in the Tilden campus, which already houses three district high schools. In fact, the PEP, whom are mostly hand-picked by billionaire Mayor Bloomberg to vote on educational policy and decisions, have always voted in favor of the Department of Education’s (DOE) proposals.
Tilden students arrived at the meeting chanting and marching. As school cops tried to push them into a barricade pen, students and teachers formed a picket line along the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the building. They held strong and kept up the loud chanting as cops tried to push them to move from the entrance.
They continued chanting as they entered the auditorium where the meeting was held, making it loud and clear that Tilden was there and ready to fight. Throughout the proceedings, as panelists spoke, students and teachers burst into chants to drown out their racist, anti-student statements. As the list of schools on the “chopping block” that night was listed, the group booed and at the end chanted, “whose schools? Our schools!”
Students and teachers found every opportunity to shout the panelists down. Several students and some teachers made strong speeches blasting the DOE for their attacks on schools. One teacher made an impassioned speech accusing the DOE of not caring about students, which he ended by announcing a walkout from the meeting. The group of students and teachers stood and chanted as they marched out of the room and spilled out onto the street.
While the PEP did go ahead and vote in favor of the co-location, those at Tilden know that we have won what’s important. Over the last two months, since Tilden was informed of the Department of Education’s proposal, students have taken this on and have learned, very quickly, how to fight back, how to lead, and how to organize for unity. Under capitalism, there are always more attacks on youth coming, and these students are ready to fight. Students are seeing these attacks right now, in the kkkop murder of Kiki Gray four blocks from the school. Some of these same students have joined the rebellions against the murder, and have faced constant fascist attacks by the cops.
In the two months since the DOE’s co-location proposal, students and teachers have responded by organizing rallies outside the school (see CHALLENGE, 2/28), traveled to the headquarters of the DOE and City Hall to rally there, and have disrupted and walked out of a DOE Public Hearing at Tilden and two PEP meetings.
Everywhere they go, they bring anger, energy and an increasing understanding that the DOE does not make plans in the interest of students. More and more they see the racism of the DOE’s actions, as black and Latino schools are shut down, turned around, or co-located without a second thought.
Students in one Tilden school’s Student Activism Club are discussing the nature of capitalist schools; that they will never serve the working class and are inherently racist. They have studied what schools could be like under communism, and what the working class needs. There is excitement about marching on PLP’s May Day this year, as we continue to tie the fight-back in our school to the need to smash capitalism and fight for a communist world!