QUEENS, NY, December 9 — A picket line at LaGuardia Community College united professors, staff, campus workers and students to overcome a climate of fear and speak out. Members of Progressive Labor Party helped organize this alliance to expose the racist disinvestment in public education. The chant, “Students, faculty, staff unite. Same struggle, same fight!” fired up over 100 protesters who made time on the last day of classes to join the struggle.
Union members of both the Professor Staff Congress and local DC 37 (campus workers) have gone more than five years without a contract, while students have seen their tuition increase each year. Where is the money going?
In short, it’s going to make up for racist city and state budget cuts in education for mainly working-class Black, Latin, Asian, and immigrant students. In 1990, tuition covered 22 percent of total community college budgets, with the rest paid by the city and state. Now, tuition covers 45 percent of overall costs. Meanwhile, students who can’t afford college are being pushed into the military by a capitalist system that needs the working class to fight imperialist wars, not to learn. But students, faculty, and staff have had enough! We need education, not oil wars in the Middle East. We need a communist world that will value our labor and intellect not as commodities for profit, but for the good of society.
The atmosphere at LaGuardia is tense, with untenured teachers and adjuncts fearful of losing their jobs if they speak out. A recent survey found that of all CUNY faculty, those at LaGuardia overburdened by job demands outside teaching. Overworked, underpaid, untenured faculty hop from meeting to meeting to comply with administrative policies to “improve” the college. These initiatives often leave devoted faculty members with no time or energy to actually help students—or to fight back for our class. At the rally, student leaders reported intimidation from administration to discourage their involvement. For at least one student, the warnings led to a deeper commitment to this struggle.
On the morning of the rally, College President Gail Mellow sent a long email to LaGuardia workers. It suggested that CUNY faculty should be grateful that the administration’s proposed contract did not include furlough days or increased contributions for health benefits, like SUNY’s recent sellout contract. Mellow also said:
I wanted…to remind us all about the freedom of expression. It is a hallowed tenet of our democracy, and one we should all cherish. Throughout America’s history, the ability to publicly state one’s opinion without interference is part of what makes us a great country, and I want to simply affirm and welcome the LaGuardia’s chapter efforts.
This “reminder” was a threat to silence militant fightback, the only way for students and staff to win anything of value. The college administration fears a strike, but most of all they fear a multiracial worker-student alliance.
But we will not be pacified by crumbs from the bosses when we know the working class has created all value and can run the world without them. In defiance of the president’s email, students, faculty and staff shouted out for solidarity: “Tax the Rich, Not the Poor! Stop the War on CUNY!”
Students who were not yet courageous enough to stand with the picketers said they were inspired. With more struggle, those students will soon be leading the way! This is only the beginning of a long fight. Over coming months, PLP and friends need to build worker-student unity. We must raise class consciousness and win people to see that attacks by the bosses will continue as long as capitalism exists. The only way to create schools and work that meet our needs is to build a communist society. Students and workers, unite!