The history of the communist movement is fighting for the working class. The communist movement was born out of the struggle for a better world. It was born out of the fight by the working class to resist their exploitation and demand equality. As the communist movement grew the capitalist ruling class quickly realized the existential threat posed by a conscious working class.
As long as the working class has fought for a better world the ruling class has attacked the movement. It’s hard to be attacked. The bosses attack us to scare us and our class and stop us from fighting back. Their goal is to demoralize the working class so it doesn’t see its own power as a class to get rid of capitalism.
We have learned that the best way to respond to attacks by the bosses is to fight back. In Progressive Labor Party’s (PLP) history there have been many struggles, many attacks, often firings and sometimes harsher consequences. All these battles are part of the struggle for the working class to gain confidence in itself, to see its power and learn that we don’t need the bosses or capitalism.
In this article we’ll look at two places where teachers and students were fighting back under the leadership of PLP, the teacher’s union in Oaxaca and Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn.
Fighting back in Oaxaca
This May Day will mark 43 years of intense struggle by teachers in Oaxaca. PLP has been active in this struggle for all those years, fighting for the needs of students and parents to get a decent education and to build a communist movement that fights for a world where all students are educated. In response there have been intense attacks by the bosses against the teachers, in the 1980’s, and around 2000, 2006, 2013 and 2015. Some of these attacks have been very severe including dismissals, imprisonments and even murders.
In each of these periods we’ve responded by going on strike, setting up barricades and building alliances with other groups of workers. There are 80,000 teachers in Oaxaca. During some of the struggles we’ve mobilized as many as 60,000 people, including workers from other sectors. One of our strongest responses was in 2002 when after a very militant fightback we brought about 1000 people to march on May Day under PLP’s leadership.
PLP has spread our line among the masses. Many people in Oaxaca know CHALLENGE. In the teachers union leaders' assemblies we have promoted the class struggle, we have distributed flyers denouncing the policies of the government and we have attacked imperialism. As a Party we have built an alternative leadership to the bosses. Our advances are still small and slow and attacks continue. We have led very militant fights against reformist ideology, though political progress is still slow in this area.
Throughout these years of struggle we’ve always tried to build a base for communist ideas and now many people know the Party. We’ve lost members because the bosses have cut the number of teachers and others have retired, but we are still fighting. We have made progress in building a new younger leadership for our work in the union which bodes well for the future. We also know that while building a base for communism we’ve also fought off even more dismissals and jailings which has helped preserve and grow our base and keeps us in the fight.
Teachers, students and parents fight back in Brooklyn
Our teachers’ collective at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn came under attack by the administration after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005. PLP organized people to go to New Orleans and help Black workers there who had been left to fend for themselves by the bosses’ system.
A racist, careerist Assistant Principal hated that communists were organizing people to go to New Orleans and building PLP while helping Black workers abandoned by the ruling class after the hurricane. He reported us for taking students on an “unauthorized trip” even though students had permission slips from their parents.
One parent wrote a glowing letter supporting our efforts. “As a parent…I give my full support to this hard working team… I wish to commend the teachers, parents and students for their commitment to their goals and holding strong to their beliefs…” The lesson here is to be bold. Working class students and parents will support you.
Another attack occurred in the fall of 2010 when teachers and students fought racism together. As a student was entering school through security and the metal detectors a copy of CHALLENGE was found in the student’s possession. The administrator wanted to know how and where the student got the paper- and learned that students and teachers had been to a rally in D.C. against racism with PLP members.
This racist principal had been after the PL’ers for years. As the principal was harassing both students and parents trying to get information about the trip, we organized a walkout and rally outside the school with hundreds of students. All the parents said that their young people had their complete permission and some brought them to the busses early in the morning. Now 18 years later we are still in touch with some of the parents, and students who went with us to New Orleans and also those that protested in D.C. Some are leaders of the Party today. We got Unsatisfactory ratings for that school year and they were well earned! But all of us who were involved in these struggles emerged stronger with more confidence in the working class and our ideas.
Fight to Win
These days the working class is often on the defensive more than going on the offensive against the bosses. When the demonstrations against racism, against the bosses’ imperialist wars and for workers power and communist revolution are relatively small it can be difficult when the bosses attack but the lesson is the same.
The small battles will lead to bigger ones and the small victories of the communist movement growing out of the struggle are where the big victory of communist revolution is born. Whether it is a big struggle or small, our class can only win when we fight.
When the bosses attack, we have to fight back. That is what communists do.