CUNY: make the bosses take the losses

NEW YORK CITY, July 18— A mix of caravans and protests organized against the impending racist cuts to City University of New York (CUNY) that hurt Black, Latin, and immigrant students the most. The workers and students at CUNY are not taking these attacks lying down. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and friends participated, bringing CHALLENGE and the message that workers and students will only be able to create an educational system free from racism, sexism, individualism and idealism if we smash capitalism and build a communist world.
The racist administrators of CUNY have joined with bosses across the world in attempting to solve their pandemic-driven financial crisis on the backs of workers and students. Last week, they announced the layoffs of nearly 3,000 adjunct (part-time) instructors, amounting to nearly 10 percent of the unionized faculty and staff at CUNY. A simultaneous announcement of larger class sizes in the Fall semester, and their despicable silence about a pending $320 increase in tuition and fees, shows their racist contempt for the majority Black and Latin students at CUNY.
PLP pointed out the racist nature of the attack, for CUNY has exposed themselves as uninterested in their students, of whom 71 percent are Black, Latin, and Asian and 63 percent are women (CUNY Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, 11/12/2019). The bosses would rather prepare them for a world of fascist discipline and world war. It is worth noting that these racist attacks against students are taking place at one of the most liberal cities in the U.S., thus revealing that both Democrats and Republicans are enemies of the working class.
Bronx College, a site of growing fightback
A couple days prior, a multiracial and multi-generational group of 50 faculty, staff and students gathered in front of the gates of Bronx Community College to protest the callous and disgusting firing of 36 long-term adjuncts. Some of these instructors have been at the college for more than 15 years, but because they were the highest-paid, they were the first to be offloaded by a racist administration that is only concerned with balancing the budget.
Worker-student solidarity is key
Two of the laid-off instructors spoke passionately about their love for teaching BCC students. Even as they were facing the loss of a significant chunk of their livelihood, they recognized that the primary target for this racist attack was the students, who will be crammed into larger classes with fewer resources. They also both spoke about the need for militant fight back to be the primary way forward. There was no mention of politicians or voting, indicating that the bosses’ illusions about elections were secondary.
These moments present a tremendous opportunity for the injection of communist politics and friends.Comrades present attempted this in speeches and in conversations with coworkers and students. We made sure that every participant left with a copy of CHALLENGE.
There was a tremendous student turn-out, including two students who have been active in a PLP study group. They, and others, spoke about how CUNY’s racist policies in general, and these layoffs in particular, hurt both students and faculty and the need for unity in order to have any hope of defeating the attacks. The unity of students and teachers is the greatest fear of college administrators, because they will ultimately resort to portraying the faculty as selfish and greedy should a strike or other work action be organized. For this reason, having such significant student support is key.
The demonstration finished with a march, showing workers in the neighborhood that there is a multiracial, worker-student alliance that is ready to take the fight to a higher level. A PL’er led most of the chants, and so the sounds of “Shut it Down!” and “The Workers United Will Never Be Defeated!” were taken up by the marchers.
Driving the fightback
Nearly 200 cars, including some driven by PLP members, participated in caravans in four of the five NYC boroughs, organized by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union representing CUNY faculty and staff. A simultaneous Zoom online meeting expanded the action to another 800 PSC members, and in addition 2,000 more people watched the livestream on Facebook, many of them from other unions and other colleges around the country.
One caravan ended with a rally of participants proud of having brought this off and feeling closer to our co-workers. It was a gathering of force for the hard battles to come. For example, if the PSC calls a strike in the Fall, lessons learned from these first caravans can teach us how to organize a picket on wheels, or roving flying squads of bikes and cars going from campus to campus. There is agitation within the union for a strike to be called. But whether or not the union leadership takes this up, they cannot provide a solution that benefits students and education workers both.
What is victory?
One of the main victories of actions like these is workers’ and students’ growing sense of our own collective power and the confidence to wield that power. The recent rebellions against police terror are an inspiration for CUNY workers and students to beat back this racist attack.
In these and future events, PLP will bring students and workers into study groups and into the Party where they can work for communism together with and under the leadership of the Black and Latin youth they teach. We will be present at future demonstrations, increasing confidence in our ability to lead a communist revolution and secure a communist future.