No free speech for racists! KCC fighters defend antiracist prof

BROOKLYN, NY, January 23— After months of asking, prodding, and at last threatening disciplinary action, the City University of New York’s (CUNY) interrogation squad finally got an anti-racist professor into a room to grill him!
As CHALLENGE has been reporting since last spring, a multiracial group of students,and staff  at Kingsborough Community College (KCC) produced and began distributing leaflets calling for the termination of a racist administrator, Michael Goldstein. Members of the communist Progressive Labor Party struggled over and received a positive response to the militant anti-racist position of “no free speech for racists!”
Led by mostly immigrant women students, along with Black and white students, workers and faculty, the struggle quickly grew to dozens of students. These students reached hundreds more, distributing over 1,500 leaflets and hundreds of CHALLENGE newspapers calling for racist Goldstein’s termination.
Instead of investigating racist Goldstein, CUNY’s Public Safety bosses decided to try intimidating faculty they suspect took part in the campaign. The cops sent these faculty certified letters requesting them to appear so they could “fish” for information. Following the bad advice of their union representatives, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), several professors appeared. The cops used campus video surveillance to identify an antiracist professor they were certain was involved, and compelled him to appear.
Turning danger into opportunity
This professor rejected the passive, legalistic, strategy counseled by the PSC. Instead, bold and militant plans were made to continue organizing mass struggle, defend both the leaflet and the campaign against Goldstein, defy the interrogators, and challenge them to investigate the racists.
This struggle provided many opportunities for PLers to expose the racist, pro-capitalist class nature of both KCC and of CUNY in our student PLP study groups. We also made a plan to collaborate on a new leaflet, and distribute it on the day of the interrogation.
At the interrogation, the professor came with an anti-racist faculty member as a witness, instead of a PSC representative. “What caused you to attack [Goldstein] with these leaflets?” the investigators asked. The professor answered simply: “Racists should not be working at our school.” He explained that while he was not involved in the leaflet’s production, he supports this struggle, and will always support exposing racists.
Students: potential revolutionary force
The interrogators brought up the notion of “free speech”and a “free and fair exchange of ideas.” A small group of so-called progressive or left faculty at the school argue in favor of this view as well. Students, workers and many faculty, however, generally agree with us. No free speech for racists!
How can a classroom of immigrant and Black students be fair and equitable if faculty or administrators feel free to express racist ideas against these students? A few of these fake leftist professors also have the racist view that when students fight back, they don’t understand what they are doing. They are being used. But students understand racism better than many professors because it directly affects their lives.
Yet in practice, these same liberal faculty often fail to follow their own cherished idealism. After students and staff attacked racist Goldstein for his hateful views against immigrant, Muslim, Black, Latin, and LGBT workers, the anti-racist faculty were criticized by some of these liberal faculty. Some even asked this anti-racist professor to step down from a union leadership position. As it turned out, some other faculty were inspired by this anti racist struggle. Because of these anti-racists, the effort failed.
There is irony in this experience. Liberal “left” faculty, in their actions, supported the rights of the racist to express his views, but then worked to limit anti-racist views.  A couple of “leaders of the left” on campus even asked the antiracist faculty to turn themselves in to the police. The students were outraged when they found out this had been said by the same faculty who claim to support them.
In the PLP study groups, we discuss how liberal ideas often end up attacking militant anti-racism. These events underline the importance of expanding our CHALLENGE networks even further beyond the mass of students and staff who read it regularly,and struggling to continue expanding revolutionary communist ideas.
Gear up for spring and May Day!
A dozen students and faculty waited an hour and a half to hear a report from the interrogation. Our spirits were high and our determination to continue the fight against racism was strengthened. Being attacked for fighting racism is a good thing. With every step we’ve taken, our sisters and brothers have responded with friendship and comradeship. We’re gaining the confidence that many workers and students support this fight, and some are joining us. This coming spring semester we’re enlisting every one of our new comrades and friends to continue our mass anti-racist struggle, and build for May Day