Samuel’s high school history teacher makes fun of him in class, marking down his work for no apparent reason. When Samuel was out sick with bronchitis, the teacher lowered his grade for missing class. Samuel was very upset. He hasn’t been in the US for long. Talking to other students, he learned that the teacher bullies others too. After discussing this together, some students are finding ways to stick up for each other.
Capitalism and its schools teach divisive ideologies: racism, sexism, nationalism, competition, individualism, and “us-versus-them” ideas. Capitalist individualism promotes a sense of superiority. Some adults who have embraced capitalist culture give unequal, biased, racist, or preferential treatment to some children. All these factors foster bullying.
Bullying has become a worldwide anti-social epidemic. In the US, more than 28% of students in grades 6-12 and more than 20% of students in grades 9-12 experienced bullying. This includes name-calling, pushing, shoving, beating, brawls, sexist comments, cyberbullying, and threats of harm.
Capitalism is based on competition. So is capitalist culture. The rulers want students to compete against each other. Students are encouraged to look down on fellow students based on “race,” gender, “nationality,” immigration status, “ability,” proficiency, and social skills.
Capitalist schools take little to no action against bullying. They even blame and punish the victims of bullying. Schools exist to serve the capitalists, not the workers or students.
Severe mistreatment by bullies, and the often-cold-hearted neglect by schools, traumatize those who are bullied. It can cause depression and suicidal thoughts, even suicide. These tragedies can be easily avoided if other class brothers and sisters collectively stand up against bullying.
Unfortunately, capitalist individualism teaches us to “mind our own business.” This makes the environment apathetic and divided. As a result, bystanders who witness bullying often fail to confront the bullies and stop the deadly behaviors. Some even encourage them.
Individualism is another deadly ideology that keeps the working class from uniting. While “minding your own business” persists and often comes from parents, there are students who do stand up to bullies and are not just minding their own business. This character trait shows great potential for organizing because they are not only able to question the status quo but to take action.
Anti-bullying organizations worldwide condemn bullying. However, they are pro-capitalist organizations. They call for reformist solutions, like calling on schools to implement stricter rules against bullying. Although the organizations also talk about how to prevent and stop bullying, their fight is not based on communism. They don’t address and aim to uproot the system and its ideas that foster deadly anti-social behaviors.
The real solution to end bullying and make the environment safer is not to rely on capitalist school authorities to punish bullies. Instead, it’s by mobilizing our class siblings (bullies and victims) to see themselves as part of the same working class that needs to liberate ourselves. Bullies will learn new ways of relating to their victims, to build egalitarian communist social relations.
The former bullies can come to realize that bullying only helps the capitalist exploiting class. It harms all working-class siblings. Those bullied are not merely victims; they are fighters. They can help lead the international working class in the fight for communist revolution against the capitalist system and its ideas that generate bullying. Uprooting the capitalist system and its competition, money, wage slavery, and private property will remove the material basis that causes bullying.
Communism will eliminate classes and all capitalist divisions. In the new communist world, no one will receive biased or preferential treatment because of who they are. No one will live better or worse than anyone else.
Collectivity, cooperation, and mutual egalitarian relations will be the norm. We will live, work and make decisions together. We’ll share the fruits of our collective labor according to the needs of the masses.
Comrades, wherever you are, if you witness bullying, bravely confront the bullying person and patiently teach them new communist values. They can also be won to join the revolutionary communist fight against bullying and capitalism. We have a world to win!
This picture from the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution shows the mutual egalitarian relations that we will build in a communist society.