Thousands of adjuncts at the City University of New York (CUNY), who fought hard for a wage increase in the last contract, are now facing imminent layoffs (see interview). CUNY students are facing the prospect of a tuition hike, additional fees, less course offerings and the possibility of overcrowded online classes. These cutbacks will be devastating to the careers and dreams of the working class students and adjuncts of New York City. NYC billionaires and their puppet politicians control CUNY. They don’t want to educate the Black, Latin, Asian and white working class students of NYC to run the world. These billionaires want students that are obedient, that can perform the many tasks that keep the capitalist profits flowing, and they want us to fight in their imperialist wars.
Rank and file members within the union have been steadily organizing both students and faculty to oppose these pre-emptive layoffs and budget cuts. With the #CutCovidNotCUNY hashtag they have produced a few short videos and held some well attended events. They have organized town halls and virtual meetings to launch a campaign of “grade striking” or withholding grades until the last minute to send a message of strength and solidarity to CUNY. This campaign, along with a campaign called “A for All”, has been an attempt to galvanize both students and faculty to draw a line in the sand and not go on with “business as usual.”
But stopping “business as usual” is not enough. A CUNY education is meant to reinforce the racist and sexist inequalities of capitalism. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been active in these reform campaigns, but we have been stressing that the entire capitalist system has to be destroyed. These attacks at CUNY are racist and sexist in nature. We need a united, multiracial working class, not only to stop layoffs and budget cuts, but also to fight for communism, a system actually run by and for the working class. We have been promoting these ideas from study groups to mass meetings and town halls. PLP professors have been explaining to students why we are participating in this grade strike, why we need to plan much larger strikes and protests in the fall, and why we ultimately need a communist revolution. We plan to make this a “summer of struggle” whether virtual or on the streets, to build a bigger base for communist ideas and joining PLP.
At a very well attended Solidarity Town Hall meeting for Bronx CUNY campuses, over 220 people attended and discussed issues such as how to build the worker student alliance, how to fight these cuts and layoffs, how to address the racist inequities at CUNY and how to keep ourselves strong during the ongoing pandemic. We talked about how the Bronx has been so hard hit by Covid-19, pointing out that Lincoln Hospital had the highest numbers of coronavirus deaths, how the subway system is totally inadequate and still crowded during the pandemic, and that Bronx politicians have basically abandoned the community.
Two PLP members spoke at the town hall, one pointing out that while some folks think Governor Andrew Cuomo is “doing a great job” he is the politician who closed hospitals and has helped to starve CUNY. He pointed out that militant collective action with students and faculty together is the best strategy. He also commented that the stress that adjuncts live with, not knowing if they will have employment (and health insurance) can be deadly.
Another PLP member spoke, suggesting that our demand be that the Chancellor (who earns $7,000,000 a year not including his exorbitant free rent) and the members of the Board of Trustees take salary cuts. She pointed out that there had been over 200 strikes and job actions since the pandemic, so we should be inspired and follow their lead.
The union leadership, meanwhile, has continued where they left off in the last contract campaign, prioritizing dead-end legislative tactics and demobilizing the membership. At a recent union meeting, the union president called the struggle “the fight of our lives” and then spent the next two hours explaining why we can’t break the Taylor Law (state law outlawing strikes). It’s clear that the union leadership has no plan to save the jobs and healthcare of potentially thousands of adjuncts.
PLP members have been focused on organizing with students and other rank and file activists. We are experiencing modest success during these difficult times. We have a few weekly study groups where students discuss both communist theory and practice. In one group, students read the editorials and discussed how to apply those ideas to the struggles around them- it has a solid core of enthusiastic participants. In another group, we have discussed how students have been dealing with the pandemic as well as reading CHALLENGE articles and evaluating our participation in mass work.
This struggle will be ongoing – join the Summer of Struggle 2020. We must continue the mass virtual meetings, local caravans and protests in the street and more. We will fight hard against the attacks on our working class students and adjuncts, but always with a vision of the communist world we fight to build! Join PLP!
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Interview with adjunct
The The following is an interview with an adjunct instructor at CUNY
1. How long have you been an adjunct instructor? What kind of salary do you earn?
Since 2005, I started making $53 an hour and now after three contracts it's $92. It took me twelve years to have an increase of $10. It’s unfair that adjuncts have to also fight with the administration at times to get our raises - full timers automatically get their raises.
2.What are your working/teaching conditions like?
My wage from one college is not enough. I have to commute from one college to another . I have been in three different colleges at one time, one in Brooklyn, one in the Bronx. Over the years, I have taught at eight colleges out of the fifteen [CUNY] colleges. I did have two semesters when I didn’t have enough classes to have health insurance (adjuncts need six credits of teaching hours to get coverage). But, even when I have a full program, it’s not enough to earn a living wage.
We are always cramped into unventilated adjunct rooms where we have to scramble for chairs and computers. At the last campus, NYC Technical College, there was no paper for months and we had to buy our own. Adjuncts are not respected by CUNY. We are seen as second class citizens. We do the same work, but we get less respect. Actually, we are over 60 percent of the teaching faculty.
3. How well do you think the union has done in addressing the inequities?
They have maintained the two tier system. It took me twelve years to get into the top level. In your first year you cannot get health insurance. You must maintain two classes. We are still getting crumbs and facing difficult working conditions. In terms of the dire living and working conditions, we must also emphasize the bloated salaries of administrations, The President receives $200,000, they don’t even play a role in the teaching and learning conditions of students. It's outrageous I think the union is just reactive and not pro-active about these austerity cuts.
4. Do you support the “wild cat grade strike”? Why?
Yes, I think it’s a good step. I haven’t seen enough concrete action in how you can fight the system and show them we are a force to be dealt with. Even if its one day, it’s a big deal It’s a way of dealing with tuition hikes and massive layoffs This is one way of trying to force the CUNY administration’s policy of pre-emptive strikes against both adjuncts and students
5. How have you been impacted by the austerity measures/cutbacks at CUNY?
For the first time in 15 years, I have not been reappointed at any colleges in CUNY. The cut throat austerity measures mean me and potentially thousands of others will lose their positions. There are 435 adjuncts at John Jay who have already received “pink slips”. All adjuncts are now dealing with the anxiety and uncertainty of not knowing if they will have work. We may not be killed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we are being ravaged by the cutthroat austerity measures.
6. What do you see as the possible solutions, both immediate and long term?
Organizing. Mobilizing. Networking. Coalition building. Unions must make themselves part of the grassroots struggle. In the short term, the unions must provide a lifeline to vulnerable adjuncts. The union should divert funds from their legislative agenda and protect the workers.
We should threaten to strike if adjuncts are not reappointed. What will put pressure on CUNY? Striking is still the strongest weapon workers have. We need to confront both the neo-liberal capitalists and the sellout union leadership in all of our unions. I have had enough of the dictatorship of the profit system which only serves the few. Workers like me have the capacity to lead and re-imagine a better world.
