CUNY: SAME ENEMY, SAME FIGHT!

NEW YORK CITY, March 6–—The job of communists is to link workers’ struggles, making it clear that the international working class has one enemy—capitalism and its defenders. This is why we chanted “Imperialist war means—Fight Back!” across the Brooklyn Bridge with 1,000 people marching for funding for the City University of New York (CUNY).
On the bullhorn and as we talked with our students and coworkers, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) contingent connected the racist budget cuts at CUNY with the imperialist war unfolding in Ukraine; both are aspects of the profit system. Our friends also read our vision for the future in the pages of the 200 copies of CHALLENGE that were distributed: revolutionary war to end this system and replace it with communism.  
Gotta be in the class struggle
Across all five boroughs and on many campuses across CUNY, we’ve been building a base for communist revolution with students and workers. We’ve fought for lower tuition, for more funding,  and against war criminal David Petraeus. During the pandemic we’ve fought, for better health and safety measures, for lower online class size and to prevent CUNY from unfairly taking money from students who failed to adhere to CUNY’s confusing and arbitrary vaccine policy.
Even as we’ve fought for these reforms with our students and coworkers, we’ve struggled to make communist politics, such as the unity of all workers regardless of “race” or “nationality,” primary.
The hard work that we’ve been doing over many months and years was evident, as we were able to organize a sizable contingent of over 15 to attend the demonstration. The ride to the march was an opportunity, not only to connect the Russian invasion of Ukraine to our fight at CUNY, but also for discussion about where our struggles have gotten us, the possibilities and limits of these fights, and whether we need a different kind of fight—one that attacks the
capitalist system itself.  
The best possible ending
At the march, we joined with a more militant section of education workers who have rejected the union leadership’s dead-end politics: call on legislators to “do the right thing.”
Instead, the chants coming from our section of the march ended with “Strike! Strike! Strike!”
A strike at CUNY would represent a significant sharpening of the class struggle and give us a tremendous opportunity to put forward a revolutionary line. The antiracist class consciousness of these militant education workers was also on full display, as they linked the financial attack on CUNY with an incident at Queens College, where racist graffiti was found on a campus building. We’ve been active with these education workers for many years and will continue to do so as the campaign for our next contract heats up.  
The day ended on the best possible note: one of our students decided to become a member of PLP and join the fight for communism! This is most critical. We need to be active in reform fights, and we need to push these fights to be as sharp as possible.
But most importantly, as we fight alongside our students and coworkers, we need to struggle to win them to see that only destroying this system and replacing it with workers’ power will secure the future that we need.
Today we have one more member who will make this fight their own. Will you be next?