On the last night of the Summer Project the participants watched Lily’s Education, a play set in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Most of the actors were recruited from Chelsea HS where a comrade teaches and it was performed in Chelsea too, an immigrant community that’s been at the brunt of ICE’s terror.
Lily’s Education tells the story of a recent HS graduate who wants to go to college. When she applies for financial aid, she discovers she’s undocumented. This sets the plot in motion. Lily’s mother, Lupe, fled El Salvador with her infant daughter when she herself was a teenager. The stress Lupe experiences as a single mom keeps her laser focused on saving money to buy a house, which gives her hope in life. Lily, too, is determined to have a meaningful life. Her job at a supermarket teaches her about class and exploitation and solidarity—how to rely on fellow workers. When ICE raids their workplace, she learns that workers can unite and defend themselves.
Through Lily and her mother, the audience experiences the terror of Trump’s attacks on undocumented workers. Mother and daughter figure out how to work together despite their colliding goals. Lily's ability to transcend obstacles presents an empowering vision that can counter the fear and powerlessness that so many workers are struggling with today. The play shows what happens to a working class immigrant family when the cards are stacked against them and they are overextended with not enough support. It shows the destructive impact of the government’s racist anti-immigrant policies and how government policies, like DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), are politically motivated to keep immigrants oppressed, and divide the “good immigrants” (the young ones who can build the U.S. economy) from the “bad immigrants” (who have a harder time assimilating).
Culture reflects reality. Under capitalism, it’s presented through the eyes of our exploiters, to promote cynicism, individualism, and escapism. Our movement needs to produce more of our own working class culture to build unity, solidarity and the spirit of resistance. We hope to stage the play again, at Chelsea HS and other parts of the community where we have a political base. We invite others to use the play and modify it as needed to fit their local circumstances. Our party should develop its use of culture and other creative means to engage others in political discussion. If you’d like a copy of the script or a video of the recording, contact