Mr. P in action on his own time
Communist Teachers Live and Breathe the Community
“Mr. P was my teacher in high school and a positive male role model in my life,” said a young teacher. “Although we teach different subjects, his example was a lot of the reason I became a teacher. Mr. P always has been a comrade to me and all his students.”
Mr. P is under attack for building working-class solidarity with his students!
He was sent home under investigation in April. Finally in September, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) interrogated him. They asked him if he knew about Red Flag – of course! Everybody at Washington Prep knows about Red Flag. If he had recruited a specific student and, if not, why this student called him a comrade?
Why would a student call their teacher “comrade?” Because that’s who he is…a comrade and a committed member of the community.
Throughout over thirty years at Washington, Mr. P, like other Party teachers, has been committed to his students. He has fought against racism and anti-worker ideology in the schools. He has joined May Day marches and protests against deportations, imperialist war, and racist police murder. He maintains close relationships with alumni and their families, serving as godfather for several. He’s played soccer for years on community teams with parents and students.
This unity of teachers and the working-class community is the opposite of capitalist schooling.
This comrade is under attack because the administration has felt the threat of communist truth. Our comrade is not staying “in line.”
LAUSD is desperately trying to identify (or invent) some “inappropriate behavior” on his part. After interrogating students, all they came up with is getting a ride from students to pick up his car from the shop after school and giving them gas money for it—and vague unsupported allegations of “hugging” and saying “inappropriate” things.
“All this ‘inappropriate behavior’ is slander and would not be accepted by anyone who has known Mr. P. We should all be enraged! We will not accept it with folded arms!” said one parent. “My daughter and two of my sons were his students. My son and I have played on a soccer team with him for years. We have marched with him on May Day. I consider him my comrade and a man committed to the good of all workers.”
The unsubstantial allegations against Mr. P indicate how ignorant and threatened the bosses are. Communist teachers build trusting and solid relationships with students. We break the division that capitalism imposes on us.
The system separates us from each other so we will not see that what hurts the students also hurts the teachers. Communist teachers fight for working class unity to build a successful revolution and set up a communist society.
“When a high school teacher opens the classroom door, there are about thirty students at different emotional states, different mindsets, different personal home situations, and different educational levels,” said another comrade teacher. “This happens again and again every hour or hour and a half. That is life in capitalism: instability working against factory-like conditions.”
The capitalist “educational standards” that teachers are ordered to teach contradict the truth that students are living. Economics classes require the children of garment workers to create “entrepreneurship models” for how best to exploit garment workers. Children who experience racism every day are taught to pledge allegiance to a nation “with liberty and justice for all.” Our students want and need the truth, and that is when communist teachers step in.
Attacks like the one on Mr. P are attempts to bully other teachers who refuse to stay in line with the capitalist lies or who want to build solidarity with the community.
Capitalist schools use teachers much like capitalist armies use soldiers. Both are in the thick of capitalist ideology. A soldier must march to its cadence. When soldiers question the system and refuse to follow the drumbeat, the bosses are threatened. Just like factories: when workers speak up to expose exploitative conditions, the bosses get scared.
Capitalist schools control the cadence of teachers to keep them “in line” with capitalist ideology. Well, communist teachers refuse to stay “in line!” And when we engage our students with the truth, the bosses hate it.
Let’s unite to fight this attack on Mr. P!
But come what may, communist teachers, students, parents, and other workers will continue to tell the truth and to build relationships of solidarity.
Organizing in the schools, the factories, and most importantly in the barracks, we will build an International Communist Workers’ Party capable of mobilizing the masses for revolution. We will build the communist society where we teach the truth and share the fruits of our labor—COMRADES ALL!
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