BROOKLYN, November 23—As federal immigration raids ramp up across the country, a group of teachers at our school has been meeting regularly to figure out how to protect our students. What began as a few worried conversations has grown into a strong collective. Teachers who had never been part of this kind of organizing are now taking leading roles—calling families, creating safety plans, and refusing to let fear isolate our immigrant students.
Members of the Progressive Labor Party have been active in the collective as well, bringing their long experience fighting racism and ICE terror in the neighborhood and in the schools. Their presence has helped ground the group politically—the necessity for parent, student, staff unity, not depending on politicians, not excusing liberal politicians’ fascism, but what’s been especially heartening is how many other teachers have stepped forward with real determination to defend our students. Both of these groups will help lead us to running class society for ourselves and ourselves only one day!
Mobilizing to crush ICE
The work has taken on a new urgency as we discussed what unfolded in North Carolina in November. ICE launched “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” sweeping up dozens of people and terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods.
The response from young people was immediate. More than 30,000 students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district stayed home or walked out in protest.
At schools in the Raleigh-Durham area, students also organized walkouts. A junior from Rolesville High, Logan DeLaurentis, said, “What people don’t tend to see a lot is that was the one moment … where everybody was together and there was just a warmth” (ABC11, 11/20). That sense of unity carried across multiple campuses as students defended their classmates and their community.
While no news outlet has confirmed that these walkouts forced ICE to stop the operation altogether, the actions created a political crisis for the authorities and showed what it looks like when students refuse to be intimidated.
Making plans at home
Those events hit close to home. We want our own student government to begin to sketch out plans to get students moving in defense of migrant families here. We want to build that same spirit on our campus—before an ICE operation hits our neighborhood.
The conversations among teachers have become more serious too. People are talking about how to make sure families know their rights, how to protect students if ICE shows up near the school, and how to build the kind of unity that makes it impossible for the authorities to pick people off quietly. The collective is growing every week, with teachers and school staff coming in not just to talk, but to prepare.
What happened in North Carolina showed that there is real power in students and workers taking action together. It also reminded us that immigrant families are not alone, and that they don’t have to face these raids in silence.
People here are ready to stand with them. We’re not waiting for the next headline. We’re getting organized now, and we’re building the kind of unity that makes a real difference, not just against ICE, but against the whole system that uses raids, racism, and fear to keep us divided.
A growing number of students and workers realize that capitalism cannot provide what the international working class needs to live decent lives. It is the challenge of those of us in Progressive Labor Party to win these same people to the understanding that communism, a system led by workers for workers, not for the profit of a few billionaires, is possible. We are linking the fight against capitalism to the fight for communism so that one day we can melt ICE and the capitalist system that breeds it once and for all!
