The crisis in Honduras is increasing. Thousands of teachers and medical workers have mobilized nationwide to fight against increasing attacks on the working class. They demand justice for the young people and peasant leaders who have been murdered and increasingly are mobilizing against attacks on the public schools and health services.
They are fighting against the decrees that would allow the government to defund the education and health sector, paving the way for the privatization of schools, hospitals and clinics.
These struggles have been met by the National Police of Honduras with tear gas, bullets, beatings and arrests.
Although these decrees were repealed by the government, some organizations decided to continue in the struggles, while other teachers’ unions have negotiated with the government. This has increased the conflict between leaders of these unions and their base, who accuse them of not consulting with the membership and betraying the struggle.
Capitalist Education Only Serves the Interests of the Capitalists.
While the privatization of education can be postponed or prevented, these reforms are not enough. Education under capitalism represents a profit-generating commodity, where the development of the students is what matters the least. The only thing that capitalism in crisis can offer is to educate students to be a cheap and docile labor force.
These mobilizations of education and health workers show the potential for communist organization: the struggle for a system that will transform education as it transforms society.
This struggle is a great opportunity to distribute our Red Flag newspaper and the pamphlet, “Communist Education for a Classless Society.” (Available at icwpredflag.org/epe.pdf.) Students need to know that there is a communist world to win.
From the classroom to the class struggle
In the classrooms of Honduras and around the world we must mobilize for communism. We can’t just keep reproducing the programs of capitalist education. These are nothing more than an educational prevention plan for students to keep them from rising up and protesting. They are designed to convince students to accept inequality as a natural thing imposed by the ruling class.
Education workers cannot get new generations to be class-aware, if they are only teaching skills to prepare students for the labor market. This is a contradiction. There is no alternative. No negotiation will serve to free students and teachers from wage slavery.
The more communist principles are shared in the classroom, the more we will be on the right track and accelerating the building of Communism. We go through a process of collective learning, learning from each other by developing science for humanity and not for the elite.
We urge teachers and other workers, students, and parents to join the fight for a classless society, and communist education. The teacher who is organizing is also teaching. We invite you to read and distribute Red Flag and to join the International Communist Workers’ Party.