PLP School: ‘It has changed me, and I like it…’
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 4:12PM
Contributor

Before I was introduced to PLP, I was clueless to know that students, teachers and parents were fighting for this victory against the bosses. Throughout this weekend I learned a lot about this struggle that PLP is working to accomplish, and it inspired me to be part of this struggle. I feel like way too many people are being lied to; more people need to be exposed to PLP and unite to overcome the bosses. Thank you, PLP, for introducing these everyday problems. It has also changed me, and I like it.
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For these few days, I enjoyed this communist school trip with my eight classmates and my teachers. It gave me a great simple idea about communism. Before I attended this trip, I really didn’t understand the meaning of capitalism and communism. I used to think capitalism was cool because it was all about making money. Then when I realized that it’s a certain number of people, not all, who make the money, it gave me a different point of view.
This trip showed me that with communism more people can be satisfied and equal because everybody is sharing and working together such as cleaning, cooking and sharing our knowledge. But with capitalism it’s all about the paper money that changes you and affects many people by their “race” and gender. A lot of people think it’s cool to be a part of the middle class and not worry about the lower-income class because it seems such people  supposedly choose to put themselves in that category, but that’s not true. They can’t choose the dreams they want because they can’t afford them, such as colleges and other programs. But imagine if the society was all about sharing — it would help everything become better than it is now.
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They say honesty is the best policy, so I will be honest by stating that I really didn’t have any idea what the outcome of this PLP camp was going to be, and I had no idea we were going to be sharing our thoughts about how the world is run under capitalism and what it’d be like under communism. From the main idea of how everyone can understand the way the world works and can figure out how to change it, I have learned that a lot of stereotyping is what segregates us human beings from interacting and stops us from creating a great force which can stabilize us.
Apart from racism, the way we are set up by class structure under capitalism is pitiful and just brutish. The government just wants us to compete with each other, which is ugly like a dark, evil force that stops us from progressing. Under communism, none of these rivalries would occur. Instead, humans will help lift each other to greater heights instead of knocking them down.  All these cases made me think of one of my favorite philosophies: “Man is born free and everywhere he’s in shackles.” All these attacks by the upper class need to be eliminated.
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I came here at first not knowing much about this group and the reason it wanted to get justice from the government. Being here made me realize how much people wanted to fight back and not be treated like they were not part of this world and had no say. It also made me see how a group of people could feel so strongly towards something and work hard to try to achieve something they believed in. Being here opened my eyes to see that you shouldn’t just sit and watch something happen that you know is wrong. You should say something and fight for what you think is right.
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My experience here has been a great opportunity. I got the chance to learn about the ideas that other people have of the system. These ideas have led me to realize how the government really works and how much of a change is needed. I have learned more about the capitalist ideas and how wrong they are. They want to have full control over everything and everyone, which only helps them and no one else. With the ideas I’ve learned here, people would be equal and the world would be a better place.
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When I first got to this communist school, I thought it was a retreat. not a mini-school. I made new friends and learned new things. One thing I’ve learned was that stereotypes are not true, because the media can always twist up things. You should meet people before you believe those stereotypes. We also learned about contradictions and that you always pick a side that you want to work on to do better. Another thing we learned was dialectical materialism, the study of how things change. This helps us understand our experiences, giving us a deeper knowledge of the world. I would like to join PLP.


Article originally appeared on The Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party (http://www.plparchive.org/).
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