Defend Teachers Who Fight for Their Students!
LOS ANGELES, USA, Nov. 20 – Schools today, whether public, private or charter, are capitalist schools. They teach the ideas, behavior and skills the bosses need. Some people say that the public schools are “our schools.” This is an illusion. The governments that run all schools use them as instruments of class rule.
Education in a communist society will be totally different. Communist will do away with money and classes and the private ownership of the means of production. Everyone will contribute as best they can, and everyone’s needs will be met so that nobody lives better or worse than anyone else. Social relationships of cooperation, collectivity and share-and-share alike will be primary and communist education will promote those values.
Communist educators build trust in each other and struggle to bring out the best in each one of us. They fight against the ideas and practices that divide us as a working class: racism, sexism, nationalism and homophobia. They know that education can’t be confined to the classroom, but must extend to the community as well. They teach that an injury to one is an injury to all and we must practice what we preach.
When educators don’t toe the line, they can come under attack from the bosses at any time. No matter how high their students’ test scores are, or how well they deliver a standards-based instruction, the Board of Education will try to shut them up or get rid of them.
At Washington Prep High School, a teacher, known affectionately as “Mr. P,” has been taken out of his classroom. He has lived in the community since Junior High. For thirty years he has been a respected educator, department chair, soccer coach, mentor and friend.
Has he been accused of being too outspoken in standing up for students? Of protesting the LA Sheriffs’ murder of 17-year-old A J Weber around the corner from the school last year? Of welcoming migrants and refugees? Of calling for a better world for all, a communist world without money, racism or borders? NO.
The Board of Education has wanted to get rid of him for years, because he tells the truth about the capitalist system we live in and fights against it. Now the same Sheriffs that Mr. P protested against when they murdered A J Weber are threatening to file misdemeanor charges of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor.” Everyone who knows Mr. P knows that this is bogus.
Many teachers, parents and students have joined with him in the fight over the years. Many have marched on May Day, protested racist police terror, and joined with ICWP in protests against racist attacks on immigrants.
We are reaching out to members of the community and Red Flag readers to join the fight against the frame-up of Mr. P. Already, colleagues, parents and ex-students have written letters of support. The girls’ soccer team has also started circulating a petition calling for him to be returned to his position as coach.
But the real victory will be a stronger collective of parents, students, former students and teachers in Los Angeles. Help us get the word out, donate money, distribute Red Flag, and join ICWP!
To Be Attacked by the Enemy is Not a Bad Thing but a Good ThingT
“It is good if we are attacked by the enemy, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly bad and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves but achieved a great deal in our work”
—Mao Zedong, 1939
Read Our Pamphlet:
Communist Education for a Classless Society
Available at icwpredflag.org/epe.pdf
