BROOKLYN, March  20 — As ICE raids continue to hit working-class communities, educators, students, and families at our school are continuing to organize. Our latest step was an after-school rally aimed at bringing more students into the struggle and strengthening our collective fightback.

ICE out of our schools!

This work has been building over time. The anti-ICE rapid response committee, which includes Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and other staff, has been organizing to defend students and families from immigration enforcement. What’s changed recently is a growing willingness among more teachers to step forward and take action. People are less willing to sit back and hope things get better.

In our meetings, we’ve been talking about what it means to actually build power. There was growing agreement that we can’t rely on politicians, no matter how they present themselves, to protect our students. If anything, recent events have made it clearer that we have to rely on each other. That led to a shift, putting more emphasis on getting out into the streets and organizing openly.

Holding the rally after school made a difference. Students who couldn’t make the morning rallies were able to join. As dismissal ended, students stopped, watched, and many decided to stay. Some jumped into chants right away. Others hung back at first but got pulled in. It felt like something was starting to open up.

We continued chants like “ICE means we gotta fight back,” but also added “Oil war means we gotta fight back,” bringing out the connection between what’s happening here and U.S. wars abroad. These aren’t separate issues. The same system behind deportations is behind imperialist wars, and students are beginning to see that more clearly.

Keeping the antiracist momentum going 

Another thing that came out of our discussions was the need to be consistent. One rally isn’t enough. We’re planning to hold rallies on the first Friday of every month, building toward May Day. The goal is to make this kind of action a regular part of school life, not something occasional.
The situation our students are facing hasn’t changed–ICE raids are still happening, families are still under pressure, and the system continues to rely on fear and division. But more people are starting to respond differently.

Each action brings in new people. Students start to recognize each other, to feel less alone, to see that something collective is possible. 

That’s what we’re trying to build, something steady, something that grows.

There’s still a lot of work to do, but this was a step forward.