CUNY Needs Communist Leadership

NEW YORK CITY, November 4 — “No Contract, No Peace!” Today, 800 workers and students rallied outside of City University of New York headquarters demanding a raise. This struggle is intensifying the contradiction between union leadership and the need for communist leadership.
The cops made a mass arrest of 54 workers who staged a planned act of civil disobedience by blocking the entrance of the building (see letter). They are part of the Professional Staff Congress union (PSC). We salute our sisters and brothers and respect their willingness to put themselves on the line.
This rally had many strengths: the spirited leadership by workers, the multiracial and intergenerational unity. The chants included calling for a strike and calling to shut down the city. College students played a leadership role in the march and called for a massive student march next week. One worker in PSC said, “We will need some uncivil disobedience.” While civil disobedience can bring public attention to the CUNY crisis, they can also build the illusion that workers can negotiate within this capitalist system.  
Don’t Negotiate, Fight Back!
What kind of leadership do professors and students need at CUNY? The limits of leadership under union president Barbara Bowen are high and lead us down a path of negotiation with oppressors. What we need is communist leadership leading us on the path to revolution. Let’s go on a strike against racist attacks on our class with other city workers and students to shut this city down.
It is no surprise that 25,000 have been working without a contract for six years at a university system that teaches 500,000 students. Clearly, putting the emphasis on contract negotiations has not borne fruit. The union itself described the latest contract offer as a “severe disappointment.”
We can push the limits of this struggle. PSC failed to unite with its natural allies: campus workers. The largest labor union in the city, DC 37, also has been working without a contract. These are some of same workers who keep the college campuses running. Professors and staff at PSC should unite with workers from DC 37, who are mainly Black and Latin manual laborers.
We also need to politicize our campuses about the nature of capitalist education and racism. The fight for high wages cannot stay an economic one. It must be the one and the same fight against tuition hikes and police on campuses. A lesson we are learning here is not to underestimate what the working class can do when they are mobilized.
It’s our job to continue to build inside the PSC and transform the fight for our daily needs into the fight for communist revolution. PLP members hope to win many union members to become communist organizers. Moving forward, we must discuss the historical role of unions in global capitalism.

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Whose CUNY? Not Our CUNY

CUNY, like all schools, is a place where capitalist ideas are driven into the minds of the working class. From kindergarten, we are taught that competition is better than cooperation; some people are smart and others dumb; the rich and poor deserve to their place in life; racism and sexism have always and will always exist; and the individual is the most important thing. We have all been told that capitalism, even if it’s not the best society we can think of, is the best society we can hope for. And just in case we don’t quite believe it, they add a large serving of anti-communism and lies about the Soviet Union.
So, it’s no surprise that all of the racism, sexism, exploitation and union-busting are on full display at CUNY. The faculty and staff are engaged in the fight for a better contract against the Board of Trustees and Governor Cuomo (see sidebar). More and more classes are taught by adjuncts, which have zero job security, little benefits, and earn literally starvation wages. One out of every four adjuncts lives at or below the poverty level, and are in a government assistance program like Medicaid or food stamps (The Atlantic, 8/15/15).
CUNY is a racist institution where Black, Latin, and South Asian students are shuffled into community colleges and Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC). The senior colleges are increasingly white. This segregation divides students and leads us to blame each other for the failures of capitalism. The CUNY bosses just approved continuation of annual tuition hike! Yet, the rulers want to rally support for war from the same students they alienate. After decades of sharp struggle to kick them out, ROTC programs have returned to two campuses. David Petraeus, former head of the CIA and military commander in Afghanistan and Iraq has been teaching at CUNY, despite protests against his appointment. There is a lot to be angry about.
But, schools are also a place where thousands of working class students come to study in the hopes of improving their lives and learning about the world. It has a tradition of fightback, including the huge student movement for equal access to education for Black and Latin students. CUNY has attracted many progressive workers who want to serve and fight with the working class.
Ultimately, CUNY is not “ours” to take back. The University does not belong to the working class. Like all institutions under capitalism, it belongs to the capitalist rulers. But it is a battleground for communist ideas. Let’s fight the good fight!

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Who does Andrew Cuomo Serve?

Like all politicians, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo serves the ruling class, never working people and students. The following facts show how Cuomo attacks the working class and takes his marching orders from the bankers and bosses:
Cuomo earned $2.5 million in a three-year period after he left the Clinton Administration working for Andrew Farkas, a wealthy real estate developer.
Farkas and his associates contributed over $800,000 to Cuomo’s election campaign, with billionaire David Koch also contributing a large sum.
As soon as Cuomo took office, he promised to cut taxes on the wealthy and reduce benefits to public employees, promises he made good on.
Cuomo coerced two state unions (CSEA and PEF) to accept contracts that included a three-year salary freeze, nine unpaid furlough days, and higher payments for health care premiums.
In March 2012, Cuomo pushed through a state pension plan that provides lower pension benefits and raises the minimum retirement age.
In his first budget, Cuomo reduced state spending on education by $1.3 billion, forcing statewide layoffs of teachers and larger class sizes. What a racist attack on these already under-financed schools!
Cuomo allowed the “Millionaire’s Tax,” a tax on households earning over $500,000 a year, to expire. This tax had provided hundreds of millions of in-state revenue.
Cuomo has been the most powerful New York cheerleader for hyper-segregated charter schools. It’s no coincidence that he collected $800,000 in campaign contributions from bankers and businesses that back these schools.