BOSTON, January 27 — On a bitter cold day with a major snowstorm brewing, a group of students at Roxbury Community College — boldly standing up to the administration’s naked attack on their education — rallied outside the Academic Building, reaching hundreds of fellow students and others with their fliers, petition and passionate voices. A few days into the new semester, they were protesting larger class sizes and cuts to dozens of sections and many low-enrolled courses. Roxbury is a mainly Black and Latin community college and these cuts are a racist attack on students.
Student-Worker Unity
One hundred and forty students eagerly signed the protest petition and some held up signs. Several faculty members came outside to lend their support. A few days later, the students received unanimous backing for their petition at a faculty meeting and they are now planning to deliver the petition to the administration.
The cuts would slash costs and prove to wealthy foundations and legislators that the administration is running an “efficient” operation (code word for budget cuts), one of the performance measurements that will determine the amount of the college’s state funding. The cuts were made without faculty or student input or regard for how they would affect students’ learning or academic plans.
Just like in K–12, wealthy foundations (i.e., Gates, Lumina, Boston), are setting the agenda for Education Reform in the community colleges to focus their mission on training for mostly low-level jobs to serve the local business economy. The ruling class wants higher education, especially the public colleges which are directly under its control, to produce the wage slaves (and soldiers) that capitalism requires.
The Roberson administration was hired to implement the local ruling-class agenda. For the most part, they’ve been getting away with layoffs and cutbacks because students, faculty and staff are not organized to defend their own interests. Most students are in the dark about what’s happening, and like the rest of society, have been conditioned by individualism to think narrowly. Faculty and staff are more aware and are deeply troubled about the corporate direction towards which the college is being led. However, they’re demoralized and afraid to confront the administration.
Furthermore, the long-standing division within the workforce is weakening the fightback. While cuts in sections and increases in class size hurt students the most, adjunct faculty also bear the brunt of the attacks. The general historic disregard for adjuncts causes a lack of urgency among full-timers. This, combined with the union’s refusal to fight this two-tier system of employment is the ultimate betrayal.
Some faculty mistakenly think they will have a better chance of keeping their jobs if they stay on the “good side” of the administration. They’ve been conditioned by 40 years of sellout unionism to rely on liberal politicians and other “friends in high places” to protect their interests. Students, faculty and campus workers may very well learn the hard way that we need to fight back, both in the short run and the long run.
Progressive Labor Party’s uncompromising outlook of defending working-class interests was instrumental in inspiring students in the Pizza and Politics group to take action. Their rally shows that students do respond to bold, honest leadership. In fact, action is the only way to wake up the “sleeping giant.” The Student Government Association’s absence shows that they’re a bought organization. Their real purpose is to control the student body by refusing to organize students to address the real issues at hand.
No matter how the administration responds to student demands, the real victory will be for these students and many more to commit themselves to serving the working class and learning more about PLP. Even if the administration was forced to back down today, they will always look for an opportunity to advance the agenda they’ve been hired to carry out for tomorrow. We must keep fighting back to maintain our momentum at the same time as we build the revolutionary communist movement that can lead the working class to a lasting victory.