NO SAFE SCHOOLS UNDER CAPITALISM

CHICAGO, February 17—Scores of working-class parents over the past month have fought together in bold opposition to the bosses’ racist lose-lose scenario for school reopenings. Sharply attacked by the profit system, they are collectively pushing struggles that prioritize greater working-class safety and a better future for youth.
Some of the fiercest leadership is coming from Latin workers, organizing out of schools where members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have helped build class struggle against the bosses. We have been proud to fight alongside many of them and inject communist politics and multiracial unity into the militant campaigns.
Lose-lose scenario
The majority of parents, education workers, and students know that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. From harsh experience they understand there is absolutely zero reason to trust that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are looking out for the interest of students, after decades of allowing schools in mostly Black and Latin neighborhoods fall to pieces.
On the other hand, they acknowledge the reality that remote learning is profoundly failing working-class students and worsening the already disgusting racist educational inequalities present under capitalism.
The truth is, the bosses have no real interest in genuinely educating or protecting the health of the international working class. To them, the push for school reopening is directly connected to fascistic political control and the profit necessities of their system.
Our Party’s revolutionary role is to point out their deadly plans for our class, continuing to fight and win more workers to see that a communist future is the only one worthy and sustainable for our class.
When bosses attack, unite and fight back
Throughout this winter, officials from CPS have been steadily increasing pressure to get education workers and students physically back in the classroom. Citing often contradictory health data and pledges to update ventilation and sanitation in the buildings, they were able to get a small percentage of grade-school aged children and education workers back for in-person instruction in early January.
Their insistent approach provoked major pushback from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) which increased organizing efforts of rank-and-file teachers to defy demands to return to in-person instruction until more safety concerns could be met.
It also motivated Latin working-class parents and PLP members to organize a multiracial picket in front of a CPS elementary school on the west side of the city on January 15.
Although in many ways they have seen themselves excluded from the debate about reopening, Latin working-class families have every reason to want to fight back. They have been the second hardest hit citywide during the pandemic, with close to 1,400 dead from Covid-19 (South Side Weekly, 2/16). More than 40 percent of positive cases among children are among Latin students (CBS Chicago, 1/15).
The racism that the capitalist bosses use against mostly Black and immigrant workers is the cutting edge of the attacks that they use to drive down the standards of the entire working class.
Our efforts soon plugged into a groundswell of fightback that spread across the city.
Small conversation threads soon expanded into networks of hundreds of parents and concerned workers, leading to caravans, petitions, student “sickouts,” and virtual press conferences. Although CTU and CPS have recently reached an agreement to return to school, the solidarity and class consciousness built during the past month will give us momentum moving forward to continue fighting.
U.S. Big Fascists push to get their house in order to prep for war
The call to reopen schools in Chicago is in lockstep with the plan that new U.S. President Joe Biden—and the dominant Big Fascist wing of the U.S. ruling class he represents—have laid out clearly in recent addresses. (See glossary)
They talk about reopening schools as a vehicle to prevent the academic achievement gap from widening, but this is a racist lie. They created the achievement gap through racist disinvestment, profit-driven standardized testing and deadly school closings.
As the liberal Big Fascists nationally scramble to discipline the domestically-oriented Small Fascist wing who flexed their muscle in the recent Capitol siege, they are also plagued with the struggle of reviving a stalling economy. Pretending things are “all good” and forcing the schools back open is a key component for that plan.
Chicago’s economy has taken a big hit during the pandemic. With double-digit unemployment and the bosses losing millions in profit, the city’s capitalists have launched an offensive to get things “back and running.” Even with the threat of more contagious and deadly Covid-19 variants, bars and restaurants have reopened.
The Big Fascists like Biden and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot know that failing to reopen the schools also presents a long-term political problem for them. They need working-class youth physically in the buildings in order to better reestablish loyalty and patriotism in their build-up to future imperialist war with China. All reforms and calls to unity that the liberal bosses make must be viewed through the lens of saving their racist and sexist world empire.
Only communist education serves the masses
The unity and fightback that has grown between working-class parents, education workers and students is a powerful development, which PLP is committed to continue building. But ultimately, if our unity is channeled into reforming the capitalist system, we will always lack the educational equality and opportunities that the working class needs and deserves.
Education can be wielded to serve the masses only if it is freed from the chains of capital. PLP invites all workers to fight for communism and a lifetime of revolutionary learning.