HAMMOND, IN, November 21— “If issues like racist police killings and the deportations bother you, we need you to stand up and join this rally!” Over 20 members of various student groups at Purdue University Northwest rallied against racist police terror and deportations. The goal was to show multi-racial unity in the face of injustices faced by students and their families. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) comrades in attendance took an active role in planning and sharpening the event’s multi-racial politics.
Anti-Racist Students Take Initiative
The Black Student Union, the Spanish Club, and the Social Justice Club represent the bulk of anti-racist, anti-sexist fightback at the university. The organizations came together to build unity on campus and fight racism at the time of rising fascism under President Donald Trump and growing global instability. They coordinated their efforts more collectively to draw more students, faculty, and campus workers into the struggle.
The female leaders of the groups kicked off the rally with a megaphone, shouting, “Black Lives Matter!” and “Together, United, We’ll Never Be Defeated!” The protesters grabbed the attention of students socializing nearby. The students made a quick but spirited march across campus before returning indoors to give speeches.
One leader of the Spanish Club gave an impassioned speech about the termination of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the deadly increase in racist mass deportations in recent years. She stressed that no human being is illegal. DACA is not enough; we must fight for our working-class brothers and sisters and smash the racist borders that divide us.
A leader from the Social Justice Club connected the racist deportations to racist police murders, calling out the capitalist system as their source and multi-racial, pro-working-class unity as the alternative.
Another leader, from the Black Student Union, called on all those in the rally to link arms as a sign of solidarity against racist and sexist attacks. He noticed that some students in the student area did not link arms and said that those who cannot turn to their neighbor and link together with them in solidarity must examine their position in the fightback.
By the end of the rally, at least twice as many people had joined in to lock arms in support of the action.
More Fightback Needed
During a potluck/open mic that took place at the university dorms after the rally, a PL’er pushed future struggle. “So, how are we going to use the momentum of this event to continue being a thorn in the side of this racist, sexist, elitist university administration?”
Although Purdue Northwest is located in a majority working-class region, an area long punished by de-industrialization and environmental racism, the university can hardly claim to serve working-class students. Administrators and trustees have annually increased tuition costs and pushed outrageous fees, while using the increased cash flow to give the campus a cosmetic overhaul and pay themselves handsome salaries.
All the while, this same racist administration marginalizes non-traditional and international students by gutting support services that might otherwise help them integrate academically and socially.
The PL’er brought up previous multi-racial student struggles at Purdue in 2012 against racist and sexist professor Maurice Eisenstein, a despicable Zionist who the “pro-free speech” administration continues to defend. Eisenstein has spewed racism against Muslim students and students with disabilities. Then, as now, the only way that the university will be forced to take action against Eisenstein is if a significant portion of the campus students, faculty, and workers organize a protracted and militant struggle against the racist, sexist, and imperialist ideas promoted by both Eisenstein and all universities under capitalism in general.
The university bosses are quick to promote and defend racist and sexist speech because their capitalist masters use these ideas to divide working people. A revolutionary communist educational system will smash all the bosses’ non-scientific and divisive misinformation, and instead promote lifelong learning as a liberating weapon to advance the needs of the working masses.  
Fight On
In the Party, we like to say “Fight to learn, learn to fight.” The fight against capitalism and for communist revolution is one that the university bosses will never teach, but remains the most important lesson that the international working-class can learn. PLP salutes these anti-racist, anti-sexist fighters at Purdue for their efforts to organize multi-racial unity in the face of fascist attacks. Obreros unidos, ¡jamás serán vencidos!