It's not just Columbia, it's capitalism!

Now that students have won the bulk of their immediate curricular reforms, it's time to turn the tide of struggle and get it behind Harlem's working class to fight back against Columbia's racist, anti-worker expansion. We must broaden and sharpen the struggle on all fronts!

In order to do this, students must continue to get a better grasp of the nature of the expansion. This first means understanding Columbia's history of working-class displacement. Additionally, students must go into this battle with the understanding that no matter what concessions we manage to wrestle from Columbia about curriculum or expansion are at best a temporary fix, not a solution. Our struggle will be in vain if we fail to see that no reforms or concessions will fundamentally alter Columbia's racist, imperialist nature. Beyond Columbia, and US colleges in general, such reforms will not change the racist, imperialist nature of the US or the capitalist class its government and universities serve. Indeed, to give the struggle meaning, it must be always growing. Not just numerically, but in the scope of its demands, and even more importantly, the scope of its political outlook.

At the end of the day, the problem's not just Columbia, it's capitalism! Capitalism, not CU's administration, is the system that encourages, supports, allows, and legally protects Columbia's "right" to push working-class residents out of their homes and neighborhoods. Capitalism, not CU's administration, is the monstrosity that systematically devalues the lives of all workers, especially "national" or "racial" minorities. Capitalism, not CU's administration, is what makes the dollar and profits all-mighty; and capitalism, not CU's administration, is what makes one dollar or a million of them worth more than a "lowly" worker's life.

Imagine you are a doctor. An HIV-positive patient comes in with a case of pneumonia. Now, which is the real root problem--the HIV or the pneumonia? Sure, the penumonia's bad, but the HIV is what systematically disarmed the patient's immune system, opening the door to a whole host of diseases; diseases that, while normally are highly treatable, in a patient with HIV can be life-threatening. Capitalism is the disease. Columbia is merely an outgrowth of it. Poverty, unemployment, war, racism, sexism, workfare, racist cops, and Columbia's expansion effort are only the symptoms.

Of course, we want to alleviate the symptoms (in this case, displacement of 5,000 residents, mass job loss, etc.). But we won't be doing the patient much good if that's the only thing on which our efforts are focused; if we're not attacking the disease itself. The difference between HIV and capitalism is that right now, both could be prevented, but only one of them can be cured. Sure, we have to fight Columbia's expansion, even if it's only a stop-gap measure. But we need to broaden and use this reform struggle as a school for communism, to raise the political and class consciousness of students and workers. Then we can make sure the struggle doesn't end in vain, and build our strength, unity, and organization to wipe away the entire profit system.