BROOKLYN, NY, January 26 — Billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Panel on Educational Policy voted to close twenty “failing” NYC schools today, some time after 3:00 am following nine hours of testimony from staff, students and parents at these schools protesting such a decision. Two thousand angry workers and youth drowned out NYC schools’ Chancellor Joel Klein with chants during his entire opening remarks. Through long-standing ties at one of the twenty schools, three PLPers managed to gain early spots on the speakers’ list. We used these opportunities to broaden out the already sharp attacks on Klein and condemn the overall racist nature of these school closings and education under capitalism in general.

This was an angry crowd. When a woman called Klein KKK, the crowd shouted out in agreement. When Klein checked his Blackberry, the entire room chanted “pay attention, Klein!” He left the table for a few minutes after a young woman ended her speech by warning him that he was “messing with the youth of New York City and that was not a smart thing for him to be doing.” The crowd, limited by illusions of reform but feeling the power of refusing to obey, roared that he come back to his seat and do his job, which for that one night was to listen to regular workers and youth. The huge police presence in the room did nothing to dampen the fighting spirit of this crowd.

All 200 CHALLENGES we brought were distributed and important political ties to friends were re-affirmed. The bosses will go ahead and close these schools that their racist system neglected for so long. However, our analysis that such a system must go was well received. The union’s stupid line that “our schools are good schools” rings hollow for everyone who knows how badly the system has abandoned so many thousands of children to failing schools in this city alone.

The bosses may attack, and the unions mislead, but we in the PLP will go ahead and do our work to condemn a system that treats our youth like trash to the dustbin of history. As a young comrade pointed out to the thousands in the room, there is no good education to be found in the schools under this racist capitalist system. Real education happens when workers confront the bosses and communists are there to inject revolutionary content into the fight.

This fight over school closures is not over, and the brutal logic of capitalism can only mean one thing: more fights are sure to come. Each attack the bosses mount on our class increases the opportunities we have to bring more of our friends into the communist movement.