RCC Workers, Students Confront Racist Privatization

BOSTON, November 20 —When capitalists talk about “restructuring,” from the imperialist International Monetary Fund to Roxbury Community College (RCC), they mean robbing workers of their livelihoods and youth of a future. At RCC, where the student body is almost all working-class Black, Latin, and immigrant, racist attacks come in the form of attacking the workers. In less than two years, the administration has fired or forced out more than one-quarter of the faculty and staff, creating instability and degrading the college’s programs.   
The latest attack came with a scheme to privatize the Information Technology (IT) Department, with the support of the Massachusetts state government and its Board of Higher Education. But a group of RCC staff and faculty and students are fighting back! We plan to deliver a petition at the next Board of Trustees meeting.  We hope this action will spur more workers and students to fight back and to combat fear and passivity, which feed into the hands of the college administration. 
“Privatization” Means Attacks on Workers
“Privatization” is a tactic capitalist governments are using the world over to boost profits and drive down workers’ standard of living.  Governments sell off public-sector departments to private companies and replace relatively secure government jobs and decent benefits with low-wage, dead-end jobs with zero job security. Privatization is part of developing fascism. The bosses rake in handsome profits through this increased exploitation. It’s one way the capitalists are responding to their growing economic crisis.
The administration’s justification for privatizing IT is based on their false claim that the RCC IT staff is incompetent.  Their plan to outsource the department began last spring with a malicious smear campaign designed to ruin the reputations of the IT workers. College President Valerie Roberson called in the state police and the state attorney general’s office to lock down the IT office and investigate a supposed breach in the computer system.  Earlier that morning, Roberson called the Boston Globe, which printed an article about the alleged breach without investigating. Other news media then picked it up.  To date, not a shred of evidence has been produced to prove that a “breach” ever occurred.  This vicious attack on workers shows how the capitalists use their state power to control the government, the police and the media.
The leadership of AFSCME, the IT workers’ union, is relying on the state’s anti-outsourcing Pacheco Law to stop the RCC administration from privatizing IT and firing the workers.  But capitalists can always circumvent their own laws.  The Massachusetts state auditor pledged help for the college make its case to skirt Pacheco.  (The state legislature voted in January to grant the public transportation system a three-year reprieve from following Pacheco, a green light to privatize some bus routes.) Under capitalism, workers are not protected by the bosses’ laws, the governor, or the supposedly neutral state auditor’s office.
Build A Movement, Fight to Win!
While many workers at RCC may feel powerless, feelings are not facts.  We can challenge the administration’s power by uniting our natural allies: workers, students and the community. We can expose Roberson’s lies and upset RCC’s status quo.  But even if we stop their plans to privatize IT, the administration would keep trying to use their power to hire and fire, set harsh work rules, and restructure the college.  Our victory,though important, would most likely be short-lived. 
Everybody at RCC knows that the bosses are united against us, and nobody wants to fight and lose. This contradiction in the class struggle under capitalism requires us to think politically and strategically about the meaning of “victory.” Real victory will be ours when the working class makes the rules for society.  To achieve this, we need a long-term revolutionary outlook and a vision for a communist future free from the rule of profit.  This victory may seem far off, but what we do today counts.  We will be moving toward real victory if we build unity and confidence in our class and a spirit of resistance for the long fight ahead.  Today we will be winning if some RCC students and workers decide to embrace this outlook. For the working class, this will be the most important victory of all. We will be building our army for the monumental and decisive battles to come!