Communist Education: Study to Better Serve the Masses

LOS ANGELES (USA)— “In communism will I have to study to get my diploma?” asked Alicia in a meeting of four high school students and an older comrade in an ICWP collective.

“No,” answered Adriana. “No, because diplomas separate us. They divide us because in some jobs they require your diploma to do a supposedly higher quality job.

“Imagine. You can’t work here if you don’t have your diploma, and you can’t work there because you haven’t studied for a career. With communism, all that will be eliminated. There won’t be diplomas, or careers, or professions.”

That’s how education is in capitalism. Our parents who are workers haven’t studied for a career. They don’t have diplomas. My own father used to tell me, “Son, you have to go to the university, so you can graduate, so you can be someone.” Like as if he himself is saying that he’s nobody.

Capitalist education not only divides the working class, but also covers up the truth that it’s the workers—men and women—who are the true creators of everything we need to survive. Nevertheless, it’s the capitalists who steal this essential production from us.

“And studying?” asked Alicia, and added, “We’re studying to go to the university, so then it won’t be necessary to go to school?”

Studying will be necessary. Its how humanity advances. We have to study to understand how to grow food, how machines work, and the universe. And this study won’t be to get ahead as an individual, but we will study to improve the whole human race.

In communism education will be organized to be able to achieve and have everything we need. There won’t be money or different social classes. We’ll all work for the good of everyone and nobody will live better than anyone else. We’ll all live with our needs satisfied. There won’t be borders of racial or sexist divisions. Men and women will treat each other with dignity and respect.

There will be people who understand medicine, but they won’t be “doctors.” They’ll study theory and techniques and carry out medical treatments and operations, but they’ll also do maintenance and cleaning tasks. Other times they’ll go study agricultural theory and cultivate the land or study and work in a new production center, according to what the masses may need.

There will be people who understand mechanics, but they won’t be “mechanics.” The field of mechanics will not only be similar to the field of medicine, but to all the other spheres of human production. In other words, they will be no distinction between mental and manual labor.

In this way it will be necessary to study. But study won’t be separated from work; theory and practice won’t be divorced from each other. We’ll study and work, not to better ourselves individually but rather improve the wellbeing of all; a collective wellbeing.

We’ll have to discover new foods and new medicines. We’ll also have to understand nutrition, everything that humans need to live. But it won’t be an individual thing, and theory and practice won’t be separated. Everyone will work and study.

These young people aren’t only trying to understand communist education but also trying to understand communist production relations. They’re also trying to spread communist ideas by distributing Red Flag. Each of them distributes from 3 to 6 papers. Little by little they’re having conversations with friends and family members about communist ideas. They’re trying to mobilize for communism. We need to struggle more sharply with them to make communist ideas mass ideas, to participate in the marches and workers’ mobilizations and distribute Red Flag.

Read our pamphlet:

Communist Education for a Classless Society

Available here: English or Spanish

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