Another spirited rally brought together roughly 20 staff and students at our Brooklyn campus to protest ICE kidnappings and the drive toward imperialist war. As the rally unfolded, dozens of students passing by raised their fists, chanted in solidarity, and some stopped to join us. The response made clear that there is a deep well of anger and resistance among young people.

Firing up against capitalism 

This marked our fifth rally of the year, and we are already preparing for the next on May 1st—International Workers’ Day, or May Day. Our school’s anti-ICE committee has decided to hold future rallies after school rather than in the morning, so more students can witness—and take part in—the growing resistance within their own community to the racist violence of this system.

At our most recent organizing meeting, we discussed the escalating war in Iran and the very real threat of World War III. There was unanimous agreement: we must organize not just for our students, but with them. We also debated how to invite student participation while navigating school rules. In that discussion, one deeply committed antiracist teacher captured the mood perfectly: “So what if we get in trouble? Bring it on!”CHALLENGE newspaper was distributed to all as was an invitation to PLP’s annual May Day march down Flatbush Avenue.

Her righteous anger at the system is what should be driving all of us to continue to organize to smash capitalism. It reflects a growing understanding that this racist, imperialist, capitalist system offers our youth nothing but repression at home and war abroad. Our responsibility is to keep building, organizing, and fighting for a communist future: one where all young people, no matter where they are born, are valued and can live with dignity, free from exploitation and violence.