For a child who liked learning, he was not treated like one. Claude was pushed out because he wasn’t the type of kid who put his head down. No, he had a beautiful mind of his own:

• When asked to describe himself in a personal narrative unit, he wrote, “I’m funny, fast, and smart. I like to laugh and joke around a lot. I am passionate about living, and who I am today.”

• When taught to use figurative language, he wrote his best friend was “as brave as a shark.” He also loved music and word play.

• In a free-write, he wrote, “The moment I’m most ashamed of is doing online work…I think the school owes me an apology because I get bad attendance for having my camera off.”

• For his persuasive speech, he had chosen to write about how testing negatively affects students and why it should be eliminated.Instead of nurturing a child who knew how to think for himself, the public school system discarded Claude.

One purpose of capitalist education is to recreate all the inequalities of a profit system and teach obedience. It sells the fake idea that if you only work hard enough, you’ll make it so just shut up and do your job. This logic ends up blaming students for a rigged system where some have to fail in order for a very few to win (and even the winners are losers at the end). That is what we call a scam, one that disproportionately cheats Black, Brown, and immigrant students out of an education.

Claude deserves a world where we care about kids, not grades; music programs, not imperialist wars; and relationships, not suspensions. That world is not possible under capitalism.

BROOKLYN, NY, March 29—When a neighborhood shooting took the life of a former student, a small school had two very different responses. The administration killed 17-year-old Claude* twice—once by pushing him out, and again by blaming him for his own death—while the students and education workers memorialized him again and again.

In doing so, the Department of Education exposed themselves as a racist child-hating system while the working class in this school of mainly untenured teachers is learning how to be pro-student. As his teacher and communist, I am learning how to win people to fight back and connect Claude to the violent nature of capitalism. A system that kills kids has got to go.

His life mattered
What can I say about Claude except that people loved him as much as he loved life and learning (see box). Three schools are mourning him—his primary/middle school, our school, and his transfer school. The union grief counselor remarked that he “never saw anything like it.” Claude was a neighborhood kid and everyone knew him or of him. He has left a senior and junior class in despair and anger, while the administration has left all the students and workers in the dark.

Instead of acknowledging the death and providing support to grieving students, the principal refused crisis support from the bigger DoE bosses. Instead of reaching out to the family, she smeared Claude’s reputation and character. Instead of holding a school-wide memorial, she reluctantly surrendered to a memorial wall, albeit deep inside the school.

This is the kind of leadership capitalist schools give—all done under a Democratic mayor in a liberal city. 

Students organize vigil
We added photos and messages on the memorial wall. To counter the racist narrative, the academic and character awards Claude had received while at this school were posted as well. The poem “Kids Who Die” by Langston Hughes (see page 8) was also added and shared with participants.   

Later in the week, two education workers and I called out of work to attend Claude’s funeral, which further angered administration. I delivered a portfolio of all the writings of Claude from his freshman year to the family. So many students showed up.

When we asked students what they wanted to do, some said, “at least a balloon release and photos.” So, that’s what we did. Two days after the funeral, students organized a vigil after school. A leaflet explaining that capitalism killed Claude was circulated.

Little did we know that while 24 students and 8 teachers were paying tribute to a clearly beloved student outside the building, a disgusting plan was underway on the inside the school. In true mafia fashion, when barely anyone was around, the memorial wall was disappeared.

Who tore down the memorial?
The next morning, students demanded to know who tore down the memorial wall. One thought it was a kid: “Did they catch him? Did they check the cameras?”

The criminal was none other than the DoE-darling, our Black Caribbean teacher-turned-principal who spends her days fudging data and terrorizing Black, Latin, and immigrant students. Reason for her crime?

“The funeral is over,” said the racist.

Learning to stand up
The utter disregard for a child’s life angered the students and workers. I asked the students, “What should we do?”

“Put it back up” they said, and so that’s what we did. After school, students from the Newspaper Club donated their bulletin board space and posted up a new memorial wall—near the main entrance this time. The administration do their dirty business in secret, but we workers and students must make our fight known. We spoke to every person who passed the halls: athletes in search of the finally-fixed water fountains, guidance counselors and students from other schools in the building, custodians sweeping piles of pencils. Every one of them expressed support for Claude.

The school day hadn’t even officially started the next morning, and the second memorial wall was already removed. People overheard the principal yelling, “Take this down now!”

The ruling class—as manifested in this administration—has put students and education workers in a position to take a stance. An angry meeting ensued with the educator workers’ union representative. I was also pulled out of class for 30 minutes to be disciplined. But, we walked out of the principal’s office with a tiny victory: she was forced to agree to put the memorial wall back up, but in the original less prominent location.

During lunch, a crowd of students and some teachers gathered to put up the memorial for the third time. “Every time she removes it, we’ll just put it back up. And make it even bigger.”

And that’s what we are doing. Working-class students are proving again and again that they can give leadership, and they don’t need the bosses and the overseers to run things.

Making Black boys disappear
Today, three junior boys said they were suspended and are now at risk of failing. When one parent asked to see the suspension letter, the school said they’d get back to them. The students were told to stay home, and weren’t allowed in the building without a parent. Not only did this DoE administration—more like a criminal gang—steal learning time away from the students, they also stole work hours and pay from working-class families who were forced into parent meetings after parent meetings.

Push-out of “difficult” (read: Black, Latin, and immigrant) students from schools is a racist policy. This is exactly what they had done to Claude.

Much like Success Academy—the charter school notorious for having a “got to go” list with names of kids who didn’t fit into their prison environment (New York Times, 10/29/15)—this public school disappears student to keep their graduation numbers and other scholastic data high. The principal loves to laud around her stacks of accolades in an unscreened Title 1 school with nearly 1 in 4 students with a special need. The secret recipe is racism.

At the union meeting today, we reported on the administration’s racist response to Claude and how it’s affecting students. I said, “what happened to [Claude] in the streets was violent, but what this administration is doing to [Claude’s] memorial is also violent…and whether or not you knew him, when one of us is attacked, we are all attacked…When students have an event, show up. When your student disappears, speak up.”

The workers responded with bravery. One new teacher suggested, “We can send a message by everyone wearing a pin.”

Another asked, “Do you have more photos of him that we can post in our rooms?”

Another added, “We need to find a way to incorporate this into our lessons.”

If Claude weren’t pushed out, would he have been alive to walk on graduation day in three
months? An administration that cares more about their 95 percent graduation rate than a
Black child has got to go. Claude’s killing has exposed a criminal policy that we need to
fight.

Claude was not a number. He was a member of the working class, and he deserved better. A
system that treats certain students as expendable DOES NOT deserve to exist. For our
students, shut this racist system down. The fight has only begun.

*The pseudonym Claude is inspired by the communist fighter and writer, Claude Mckay.

The collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature banks exposed the worst financial crisis to hit world capitalism since 2008. Even as the U.S. bosses rushed to protect the millionaires’ and billionaires’ deposits, and Europe’s financial bosses did the same for the giant Credit Suisse, a broader disaster is brewing. The instability in the world banking system is the direct result of the larger crisis of capitalism. It is driven by the decline of U.S. finance capitalism and the rise of the Chinese capitalist bosses. As worldwide recession looms, the working class is shouldering the pain. The bosses’ troubles can only get worse. Our liberation has one path: communist revolution.

Blood-soaked banks
Banks are one of the great crimes of capitalism. They produce nothing of value yet rake in trillions in profits. U.S. and European banks were born from slavery and built on racism. The banking system financed the ships that sailed to Africa and kidnapped workers.  It grew by providing loans for the cotton bosses to buy more land and more enslaved workers to farm it. The banks valued these enslaved workers more highly than the assets of all the railroad companies combined. All of the bogus racist theories that divide workers today were created to justify the brutal exploitation of slavery and the banks’ grotesque, blood-soaked fortunes (1619 Project Vox, 8/16/19).

Latest crisis could rock the system
The current banking crisis reflects the boom-and-bust nature of capitalism. It was triggered by a brazen lack of bank regulation and a fall in the value of long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, a form of debt that is bought with a promise that it will be repaid at a certain interest rate. Today’s world capitalist system is drowning in debt, from deficit-ridden governments to over-borrowing companies to workers who can’t pay their credit card bills and still feed their families.

Since the mortgage crisis of 15 years ago, the U.S. has propped up its struggling economy with extremely low interest rates that encouraged banks, businesses, and workers to borrow heavily, invest recklessly, and spend freely. When inflation soared with the Covid-19 pandemic, and the U.S. Federal Reserve responded by raising interest rates, the banks’ lower-interest Treasury bonds lost much of their value. At the same time, many midsized and smaller tech companies—the dominant depositors at Silicon Valley and Signature—were forced to withdraw funds as their cost of doing business went up and their revenues went down. To pay these depositors, the banks were forced to sell off their bonds at a steep loss. Other depositors panicked and rushed to take out their money as well, setting off a bank run—a prime example of the anarchy of the profit system.

With as many as fifty other banks in crisis (CNN, 3/13), the U.S. rulers rushed in to reassure obscenely wealthy venture capitalists that their money is safe because the bosses’ government will guarantee it. On the other hand, inflation and high interest rates mean that tens of millions of workers can’t afford to buy a home. Millions have been foreclosed upon by the banks or evicted because they can’t afford their rent.  With grocery prices skyrocketing, one of four U.S. adults now struggles to get enough to eat (CBS News, 3/21).

Tech industry crashing
The tech Industry, once hailed as the hope of U.S. capitalism, is the latest industry to suffer a plunge in profits--and to make workers pay with massive layoffs.  Of the 144 publicly traded tech companies valued at over $1 billion, only 12 percent made any profit last year. Most of them will never overcome their cumulative losses (Market Watch, 3/25). The bosses’ greed and lack of discipline are coming home to roost.

Worldwide crisis drives move toward fascism
As the failing Credit Suisse was taken over by rival USB, central banks in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and Switzerland rushed in to guarantee deposits and prevent the collapse of the entire international banking system (Business Insider, 3/20). But this short-term fix cannot stave off the threat of the next massive economic recession or depression.

The U.S. bosses’ main rivals, the Chinese capitalists, are better positioned to weather the coming storm. By contrast to the U.S., the Chinese bosses still make most of their profits from manufacturing—from the production of actual goods. In addition, they are much further along the road to full-blown fascism and direct rule, without the constraints of liberal democracy. They are better able to force their billionaires and bankers to put the interests of the entire ruling class first, even if it means that some of them will take big losses (New York Times, 3/27).

At the same time, China’s provinces are faced with slowing growth and as much as $9.5 trillion in debt. Strapped for revenue, local governments have slashed workers’ pay and health insurance. Hebei Province, bordering Beijing, cut off heating subsidies for natural gas during a record-breaking cold wave (NYT, 3/29). Wherever bosses are forced to balance their books, workers are sure to suffer most.

If the U.S. rulers hope to protect their profits and come out on top in the looming World War III, they will be forced to discipline their fellow bosses while viciously attacking the working class—and ultimately to slaughter millions.

Communist world is worth fighting for
Progressive Labor Party is fighting for a communist world. Under capitalism, buildings sit empty while millions are homeless; food is thrown away as people starve. The education, healthcare, and transportation systems are all failing. You can’t eat money. You can’t shelter people with hundred-dollar bills. You can’t treat diseases or educate children with Treasury bonds. Under capitalism, we are forced to sell our labor for much less than what it’s worth, and then to exchange money to get things we need. Money only exists because a system based on profit needs to track how much it steals from the working class. Money has driven workers apart by promoting selfishness and individualism. And when workers are too old or sick to be squeezed for more profit, a society based on money kicks them to the curb.

Under communism, all production will be organized through a communist party to serve the needs of the working class. There will be no profits, no money—and no bloodsucking banks. A communist society will be so much stronger because we will work collectively to run society. Without money to warp our priorities, everybody will be valued. Everyone will be helped to find ways to contribute. Capitalism is quickly going south, and there is no point in trying to save it. The time has come for the working class to say “Enough!” The time to fight for communism is now.

Claude was set to graduate and enlist in the army at a time when the U.S., Russia, and China are in a collusion course towards world war. The U.S. war budget in 2021 reached $801 billion (Watson Institute at Brown University) but there are currently over 70,000 young people without jobs in New York City.

WHY are there so few options for working-class students? To kill or be killed in imperialist war. To be killed in the streets. Yes, the shooter pulled the trigger but capitalism planted the gun.

Individual violence in the streets is the byproduct of the toxicity that capitalism creates. Capitalism’s very DNA is the violent exploitation and oppression of the working class by the big gangsters: the rich and their government. The conditions in which working-class students are forced to grow up in are violent—failing schools, dirty waters, slumlord housing, food deserts, sickening hospitals, killer cops, rising homelessness, unsafe transit, inflated prices. All these attacks create a culture of hopelessness and alienation—which the pandemic only made worse—and makes our class more vulnerable to individualism and violence.