NEW YORK CITY, NY, November 12—Planning for the annual Progressive Labor Party (PLP) College Conference began a couple months ago and we decided that the theme would be “Big Fascism on Campus.” We wanted to study and discuss how the Big Fascists, finance and oil bosses represented by liberal Democratic politicians, are using our colleges and universities to advance their agenda: to use liberal ideas like identity politics and “representation” to mask the naked brutality and racism of their system as an attempt to win broad political support for taking on China and/or Russia in World War III. PLP has its eye turned toward looming World War, as we see fascism world-wide rise in response to capitalism in crisis and an undisciplined ruling class.
KCC fightback inspires working class brothers and sisters
The conference was enlivened by an amazing group of students from Kingsborough Community College (KCC) in New York City, who are in the middle of a sharp struggle (see details on Page 1) against the exact kind of racist attack that is, and will always be, a part of capitalism. Racist police terror is part of capitalism and all bosses and politicians, whether they are liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican, are committed to maintaining it. The Big Fascist playbook, however, is to use identity and representation to soften working-class anger and militancy. In this case, the president of Kingsborough Claudia V. Schrader, a Black woman, met with the students after a Black student was assaulted and detained by KCC cops, while the racist troll that he was trying to move away from the antiracist Common Grounds\ student group was left untouched. In response to the troll yelling the n-word and not facing any punitive measures, the President told students , “everyone’s racist, there’s nothing we can do about it, just be a good person…” The Kingsborough administrators offered to meet with the students on committees and have sent out emails to the campus stressing their commitment to “respect” and “understanding.”
This strategy might have worked in other situations, but the conference attendees heard first-hand how communist ideas, combined with the amazing bravery and leadership of young Black and Latin students, can transform these struggles. Friends and PLP members were active in the fight from the start, arguing for the need for multiracial unity and warning against the danger of the Big Fascist Kingsborough administration. The students eagerly took on these ideas as their own, facing up to the President, various deans and vice-presidents and public safety, and proving that liberal defenders of racist policing would not sway them.
The presence of these brave students energized the conference immensely and helped us to see clearly the dynamics of Big Fascism on our various campuses.
The power of class struggle, communist ideas and our potential to grow and to lead the working class is clear from one important example: one student, who admitted to previously being distrustful of white people, took part in the multiracial fightback on campus, then sat in an integrated conference for 4 hours and joined the Party (along with others) at the conclusion! The revolution and the creation of a communist society is that much closer!
