NEW YORK CITY, March 1—A surprised college administrator shifted in his seat and fidgeted with his pen, surrounded at a table by several angry workers. This was an emergency meeting, called by a group of multiracial, immigrant and native-born anti-sexist staff and faculty at a local college, in defense of their woman coworker who was being terminated. Prior to the meeting, the workers had concluded this administrator was primarily responsible for years of sexist attacks on their coworker. The workers called the meeting and, at long last, they confronted him. Now, they sat in judgment.
Facing the administrator, a male worker delivered the charges. He concluded with the verdict and the sentence: “You’re guilty of sexism, and everything that’s happened to our coworker. We demand your resignation!” The boss refused to resign, and threatened the department that if he were to lose his job, the future funding of the department’s programs and staff would be “uncertain.”
This woman worker had endured years of harassment and sexist attacks. The attacks included routinely dealing with sexist comments made by the administrators’ friends, feeling like the bosses encouraged an atmosphere of a “boys’ club,” and more. She witnessed and was intimidated into supporting administrative corruption and was terminated at the same time that this particular administrator received a promotion and increase in pay—despite being removed from actual responsibilities due to incompetence.
This struggle created an opening for wider fightback on campus, a fightback that can and must be linked to the growing “sanctuary” movement supporting undocumented students, and growing restlessness among campus workers against their racist and sexist working conditions.
To Fight or Not to Fight
The workers’ demands for their coworkers’ immediate reinstatement, and for the termination of this sexist administrator, split workers in the department. Some workers followed the passive line of  “what can you do?”
In front of this woman worker, they argued that what’s done was done, and out of fear of losing funding, we need to “come together” and make each other look good so as not to hurt the department’s image. One worker cynically asserted that he’d rather have this administrator because “it could always be worse.”
Other workers argued that publicity (good or bad) does not determine the survival of a department; the needs of the college to save money do. One woman worker stated the whole concept of “justice” was that people who do bad things should face consequences. She was exasperated that, because of fears over their jobs, some were making a perceived choice to save themselves instead of taking a principled anti-sexist position and defending their coworker.
Ultimately, fear won out over militant anti-sexism. Despite passionate and loud opposition, a slight majority called to drop the demand for the administrator to resign. Agreement was eventually reached on drafting a letter of support on behalf of the department to the college president to save this workers’ job. This proposal was loudly endorsed by the more passive workers, who, as a group one week later, refused to sign it and apologized to their terminated woman coworker that the letter was “too extreme”—even though they helped write it!
Which Side Are You On?
The passive, cynical workers hide their fear of struggle behind anti- working class ideas like their “look out for no one but me” philosophy. In the dark night that has followed the collapse of the old communist movement, individualistic bosses’ ideas like these have saturated the international working class. In practice, these ideas amount to abandoning a woman worker they once considered a friend. In practice, these ideas destroy working class unity, and let sexist pigs like their administrator get off with a promotion and less work. As the struggle in this college department clarifies, individualism benefits no one but the capitalists.
On the other hand, international working-class unity is growing in this department. That the administrator was confronted at all, and “indicted” by the multiracial group of militant women and men workers, is a victory. This struggle has the potential to grow. The department was a different place after the meeting, with no more ambiguity about who stood where. In the weeks that followed, many casual work friendships began solidifying into bonds of solidarity.
Sharper Practice, Sharper Theory
Sharp political discussions have ensued since the termination, and the workers have all remained in close touch. One question of “what to do next” was followed by another question: “what result do we want to achieve?” If the workers pull off a great anti-sexist victory and won her reinstatement, and stopped there, they would still be left with the capitalist system that created the sexist working conditions in the first place. Not to mention they could still lose all of their jobs anyway. Some workers’ fears of budget cuts have a real material basis; the U.S. rulers are savagely attacking all public education programs across the country to pay for their imperialist war machine!
Communists want to achieve a different society altogether, where the working class runs the world under communism, free of borders, money, sexism, imperialism and racism. Most workers in the department would agree that a communist world is preferable to the current one. To get there, it will take building working-class consciousness, to see that an injury to one is an injury to all. Fighting against sexist and racist attacks on the job are more than just the best way to win jobs back, they are the “schools for communism” our class needs to break free from fear and passivity.
Communist Potential Grows
The workers in this department fight on. Current and former students have been contacted and are collectively editing a petition to be distributed demanding reinstatement. There are plans to propose a union resolution with the same demands, in addition to an official college investigation into departmental corruption.
Further connecting the fight against capitalism with the local struggles on campus, a plan was made to enlist friends in different campus groups to fight back as well, and struggling to involve this woman worker in a CHALLENGE study group. The struggle continues!