CHICAGO, January 14 – Hundreds of multi-racial, working-class youth took over the streets downtown to challenge a racist capitalist education system in crisis. Students across the U.S. staged walkouts from their campuses and students from across the city converged for a militant and spirited rally in front of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) headquarters.
This inspiring action was organized as negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the racist education bosses of CPS and Big Fascist Mayor Lori Lightfoot fell apart. Working-class youth took this militant action upon themselves, as the city bosses and union hacks have done nothing to stop Covid-19 infections and deaths.
Communists from the international Progressive Labor Party (PLP) proudly supported these bold youth in their fight. But the profit system offers no future for our youth other than unemployment, exploitation, or imperialist war. PLP offers the only real route out of this capitalist nightmare: that of an international communist revolution. Under communism, the initiative, creativity, and leadership of youth will help steer society forward, instead of being trivialized. The working-class youth that took the streets today are future generals in the Red Army that will bury capitalism forever!
Antiracist youth lead the future
As soon as we learned that CPS students were planning a walkout, enthusiasm grew among our local collective. In contrast to the closed door negotiations between CPS and CTU, this direct action represented a more militant and grassroots protest against racist education conditions.
We organized to support two high schools on the city’s south side where the Party has a presence. As the walkout started, the young people were met by PLP members distributing CHALLENGE, holding signs, and joining in on pro-student chants like, “When I say, ‘Youth voice,’ you say, ‘Youth voice matters!’” and “Get up, get down – We’ve got to tear this system down!” Many eagerly took copies of CHALLENGE.
The energy increased as students from many schools joined forces at the CPS headquarters. The front entrances were blocked, as the youth gave speeches and led more chants. Black and Latin students – those most viciously attacked under this racist capitalist system – delivered some of the most passionate speeches and militant leadership.
The protest closed with a short march to shut down traffic on nearby State Street. Despite a heavy presence of the kkkops, the young fighters were able to safely marshal the march in order to prevent any confrontations or arrests. Many students hung around to talk about communism and the Party with us, gave contact information, and even shared the link for our 1/17 forum on Revolutionary Violence on social media!
Liberal capitalists remain the principal danger
The working-class students leading this movement are demanding more social distancing measures, more testing, masks and therapy, as well as laptops for those in remote learning (Block Club Chicago, 1/14). But under the capitalist profit system even the most simple health and safety measures for workers are routinely denied. Under a communist society run by the working-class, basic health and safety measures will be routinely provided.
This social murder is being committed under the watchful eye of the dominant liberal capitalist bosses, particularly the racist Black misleader Lightfoot, who has been relentless in pushing working-class youth and education workers back into unsafe schools (see page 3). She’s following the lead of the Big Fascist wing (see Glossary, page 6) of the U.S. capitalist class. These Wall Street finance capitalists are currently fronted by Joe Biden. They are eager to return to their “normal” profiteering ways, while millions of workers get infected and thousands get sick and die.
And now these Big Fascists are promoting the idea that an ongoing pandemic will be normal for the foreseeable future. They want us to accept our deaths, and the deaths of our class brothers and sisters, as normal, as they live on and profit. As domestic Small Fascist rivals threaten them from within and imperialists in Russia and China threaten them abroad, they are desperate to control the youth they know will be needed to fight and die in their future wars for profit.
Class struggle is in session!
Workers and students must not accept this fate. Let’s keep this youth-led anti-racist fightback alive and connect it to our collective need to build the mass international PLP and a new communist world. Class struggle is in session! Join PLP!