Schools: organize masses to fight attacks on educations

Montgomery County, Maryland, March 19, 2025 “We walk in today, we walk out tomorrow” said teachers at multiple schools in the suburbs of Washington D.C.. The National Education Association (NEA) had called for a “walk in for education” at the beginning of the school day for teachers to speak out for education and against the executive order closing the Department of Education (DOE). Teachers in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) jumped on this opportunity to build a base at their schools with short rallies and leafleting, knowing full well that the NEA’s initiative was simply performative posturing. Our leaflet demanded increased funding for the schools, even as the county council prepares a cutback budget. The county expects to lose nine percent of its funding from the federal government and even more as liberal governor Wes Moore and the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) slash public school budgets in this diverse county to offset a state budget deficit. 

Our rallies were a spark to the day! The leaflet and posters we brought about cutbacks and racism in our schools went way beyond the NEA’s plan and provided an excellent opportunity to get to know more of our fellow teachers. One teacher declared upon reading our leaflet, “We are walking into a burning building! We should be walking out!” Teachers led chants and children carried posters into their classrooms. Some posters prepared by PLP members attacked immigration threats while others called for more money for schools, smaller class sizes, and no cuts to the budget by the MGA. As a result of this action, a parent invited a PLP member to speak at her upcoming PTA meeting. 

In addition, other local PLP members joined teachers at nearby schools and made contacts with teachers and parents. The camaraderie built by even this small action is carrying over into aggressive advocacy at county budget hearings and is bringing more teachers closer to understanding that the PLP and revolutionary action are needed to secure lasting change.
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No such thing as good capitalism

Many people realize that capitalism (commodity production,  production for profit,  “free” enterprise,  market economy,  …) is a racist,  sexist, anti-working class,  police-terror way to organize society, BUT they also feel that capitalism can be changed to get rid of these supposedly “unwanted” aspects.  In a word:  This is false!!!  All of these characteristics of capitalism are exactly that:  They are just as much inherent parts of capitalism as money,  bosses,  and workers.  Why is this so?

The very object of capitalism is to make as much profit as possible so as to drive other capitalists out-of-business. This means that everything else must be subordinate to the goal of higher profits, even when that means things like building airplanes improperly or polluting lakes and rivers to “save money.” It is NOT a matter of greedy capitalists – even though the capitalists as a class certainly are much worse than greedy. Capitalists act the way they do because that is how capitalism works! Furthermore,  ALL politicians (Republicans and Democrats – including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) support capitalism so it is useless to count on them for anything except more capitalist oppression.

The liberal bosses’ trick is identity politics where a person’s gender, skin color,  or sexual orientation supposedly “determines” their political outlook. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The most that any of the phony so-called “working class politicians” do is make speeches and false promises.  None of these sellouts organizes even ONE worker to fight back.  And blaming it all on Donald Trump and Elon Musk is simply wrong!  Trump and Musk are trying to save U.S. capitalism from losing to Chinese or Russian capitalism.  Getting rid of Trump and Musk will NOT solve the fundamental contradiction that all capitalists MUST compete with all other capitalists!!! 

CHALLENGE Response: The writer is 100% correct! It’s not just Trump or Elon Musk— it’s capitalism in crisis! The crisis is being driven by inter-imperialist rivalry. The U.S. is in a life or death struggle to preserve its top dog status against rising rival imperialists in China and Russia.
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