PLP’s Ideas Spreading: 'Cutbacks No!’ Students Take to the Streets

Newark, NJ, April 7 — “If Cami Anderson thinks that putting me in jail is going to stop me as a parent, then she is sadly mistaken,” said a PTA President who is banned from entering any Newark public school and was arrested after he spoke out against the Newark schools superintendent’s plan called One Newark. He went on to say, “I have to keep it real, if (U.S. Education Secretary) Arne Duncan came here, then we have to go after him and Obama. Anyone that makes money off the backs of our kids, whether it be a pastor, elected official or whoever. So going to jail is not going to stop me.”
This fight is against the racist cutbacks on the students, mainly black and Latino. They suffer from the ruling class’s drive for superprofits. The bosses track these students into low-wage jobs, racist unemployment, or into the military to kill Arab, Muslim, and Asian youth on behalf of U.S. imperialism.
The education struggle has intensified as students, workers and parents took their fight to the streets with two big demonstrations over the past month. On March 18, more than 300 students and workers marched to protest the cutbacks in store for us. On April 3, more than a thousand students walked out of school to protest against the cuts and the Foundation for Newark’s Future, the group that administers the $100 million grant to the city’s schools by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  
The March 18 demonstration, organized by the Newark Education Workers, or NEW (a caucus within the Newark Teachers Union), Newark Student Union, and NJ Communities, reflected a growing anger among those in the struggle.
At the start of the march, a member of Newark Student Union told a member of Progressive Labor Party that she overheard a teacher telling another teacher to avoid the rally because communists were going to be there. She said she interrupted that teacher and told him she was going and that he should stop being an anti-communist.
Energy at the demonstration was high, as the group of over 300 shut down the center of the city, Broad and Market, during rush hour. After one or two speeches, the students marched down Broad Street and took over the intersection of Raymond Boulevard and Broad. Despite the cops’ demands to clear the area, the streets remained blocked for about 15 minutes.
At that time, several people spoke passionately about the need to address the bigger picture: imperialism and capitalism. “This is about power,” said a member of the People’s Organization for Progress, a community group in Newark that holds anti-racist rallies. “This is about social control. This is about a decaying imperialist system.”
Another teacher from the NEW Caucus spoke about the need to understand capitalism and how it really works.
While this rally showed a growing militancy within the working class as well as PL’s influence in winning workers and students to our world analysis, it still reflected many of the bosses’ ideas. This included supporting one politician over another and nationalism: falling into the illusion that a black politician will serve the interests of Newark’s largely black and Latino working class. Superintendent Anderson and Governor Chris Christie were the main focus of the event, with most of the chants reverting to “Cami Must Go!” Many demonstrators held “Baraka” signs in support of Newark mayoral candidate Ras Baraka, whose group has considerable influence in this struggle.
The same contradictions were on display during the April 3 walkout. The students defied pushback from their administrators and an attempt by Newark police to intimidate them by standing outside the school. Many students chanted, “They say cut back, we say fight back!”
Newark Student Union President Kristen Towkaniuk acknowledged that the problem was bigger than Superintendent Anderson:  “Even if we get Cami Anderson out, even if we stop the One Newark Plan, somebody else will come in and continue doing what she is doing.”  While this is correct, there weren’t any broader critiques of the proposed budget cuts or the capitalist system. The demonstration stuck to the same chants and political content as before, in tune with speaker Ras Baraka.
As this battle sharpens, the fight to win workers to the idea of running the world rather than depending on politicians or a “better” superintendent is essential. While we are making some headway in bringing workers and students to our study group on Vladimir Lenin’s What is To Be Done?, we need to win others to put forward a communist analysis in the rallies, walkouts, and everyday struggles that workers are engaged in. We are optimistic that over time more workers and students will be won to our ideas.