In the interest of full disclosure, I wish to let you know that I am a Marxist. But at the same time I request that I not be held responsible for the actions of those who also claimed to have been or presently claim to be Marxist.
The question has been raised (until now privately) as to whether we are a vanguard or mass organization — “vanguard” and “mass” being the terminology of self-styled Marxist and Leftist groups. The question has been posed in this way to discredit the notion that CPE should be a leading organization in the education field. The alternative presented is for us to be a “mass” organization, which translates into being a group in the liberal mainstream, trailing after a politics and ideology with which our members and future members would be most comfortable, a kind of lowest common denominator.
I believe we are now and should continue to be a leading organization. Unfortunately, we have members who are trying to pull us away from playing that role. What do I mean by ’’leading”? It means having the understanding and promoting the understanding that it is the masses which make history, that serious change, social change, serious change in our educational system (which is, after all, an important component of social change) only comes about as a result of grassroots movements, from the bottom up and not from the political establishment down. Yes, the political establishment will concede reforms, but only when confronted with the power of the masses; The politicians then take credit for those reforms, forced upon them by the people, and the historians, commentators and pundits obligingly bestow on them authorship of social change.
Why are these concessions granted? Because the powers-that-be fear that refusal to do so could lead to more radical consequences, could lead to more radical demands, to the people embracing more radical ideas such as that the real solution to their problems is to take power themselves.
Being a leading organization in the education arena means identifying the underlying problem in our schools as being historic, institutional racism.
Unlike other groups which place racism as merely one of a shopping list of “equally important” ills, groups which are overwhelmingly composed of European-Americans and which despite their claims to being Left or progressive have the Achilles heel, as they always have had, of Eurocentrism.
As the leading group in the educational arena, CPE, with its philosophy regarding the role of the people and the centrality of racism, has worked out a position and a strategy combining these two basic propositions, namely, that our primary role is to organize and mobilize the masses of parents and students, who alone are capable of bringing to bear sufficient force to transform fundamentally our educational system, and to concentrate our efforts among those most victimized by that system — the communities of color, especially those of African descent, as well as Latinos (many of whom are of African descent, as well). Further, that the fact that the overwhelming school population is composed of these two groups presents us with the possibility of not only struggling for community control of the schools in neighborhoods of color, but to press for control of the school system citywide by the communities of color. For we believe that a democratic education requires ensuring, for example, that curricula in all schools include a true history of this country and of the world, and not a Eurocentric and biased one, as is currently the case, and that this is vital for European-American children, as well as for children of color.
Being a leading organization means that we prioritize organizing and mobilizing parents and students rather than appealing to politicians, lobbying, presenting testimony at hearings, participating at conferences of advocacy groups — in short, what is commonly referred to as advocacy work. The operative word here is “prioritize”. This position should not be caricatured, however. Of course, there is a place for advocacy, for trying to assist parents with their individual problems or steering them to agencies or organizations which might render some assistance. But our emphasis must be on solving problems not for parents and students but by virtue of their own collective efforts. And yes, there is a place for making demands on the politicians, but relating to the politicians in a manner that does not reinforce illusions about their role, does not encourage a deferential or subservient attitude toward them, does not involve sacrificing our long-term aims for a bone thrown to us by the politician for supporting them. That is why we say we do not define ourselves as an advocacy organization.
Being a leading organization in the education field means identifying (where they exist) common objectives with the liberal educational groups, uniting with them in common actions, but doing so in a way that does not submerge or negate our own principles. And it means being willing to criticize those groups for their shortcomings, when those shortcomings present a serious impediment to the attainment of CPE’s ultimate goals.
