Marxist Student at Highschool

[HatefulRed]

I have been wanting to start a club at school devoted to Marxism but we need a host teacher, and I haven't been able to find one. Apparently, here in America all groups have the right to assemble except for communists (this was from a law back in the Cold War which hasn't been repealed). Does anyone know if this law really exists? I hardly believe it does, but if so we need to fight it. Any ideas?

(sorry if this is the wrong forum, maybe this should be in Learning?)

[Spirit of Spartacus]

I don't think you should organize so openly. Being a Marxist in high-school either marks one out as a dangerous element, or a loon (depending on what country you live in).

I suggest you organize Marxist study-circles on your own, and do it informally. Don't be too open about it, I doubt if any teacher would help with it anyway.

[( R )evolution]

idk about that law but here in San Diego, CA teachers are not allowed to host clubs that have political sentiment. Because teachers are suppose to be unbiased and if they are the host of the communist club then that would reflect some sort of political alliance. Right now I am orginazing a club that has a cover of helping out the cities poor (which we do) but in reality it is a club that is dedicated to studying revolutionary politics and spreading class conscious. So to all of the administrators we are just helping poor people (which we do) but in reality we are educating ourselves and spreading the word of communism. You must chose a teacher who doesnt really look hard at stuff or doesnt really care for clubs but will host them. You only need an adviser and this person doesn't have to actually know what is going on in the club. Good luck comrade

[bolshevik butcher]

Do it informally, no need to have a communism club, just read things pass it among friends have informal discussions etc. That way will probably be easier to get people involved as well. By the way you never know, you get left wing teachers around.

[sexyguy]

Good stuff! No, great stuff!

Study, Study everything while you have the chance. And don’t get diverted by your frustration at not being at the centre of mass movements and don’t be provoked by smart arses who tell you that you aren't being “practical” or “active” enough. A mass movement without correct revolutionary theory can not win the revolution. Soon the teachers as well as other students and workers will be kicking your doors down to join your clubs. How soon? I don’t know and no one else knows either, but this capitalist ‘overproduction’ crisis is causing war mayhem and social dislocation everywhere with old and new class conflict and revolutions bubbling up again as Marx predicted. What the movement is short of is well read communists who can argue and debate about everything of importance to the working class. We can’t defeat imperialism without developing our revolutionary theory to be correct revolutionary theory.


Please exuse my spelling, I suck as at spelling. Sorry.

Believe it or not, you can read it.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit plcae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

Don't apologise for your spelling or language. If this is how communist revolutionaries struggle with the world to develop theory and make it understood, only pedantic academics will complain. Better tactics, improvements, and innovations of every kind will follow on the heals of the struggle for theory to understand the complexity of all class conflict.


Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. This is not only true of formal written English it is true for political speech and writing generally. It does not need to be as 'formally' correct as many of us have been taught. What matters is the essence, the relationship we have to the world as a whole. Communism can not be confined in 'formal' sectarian factions any longer, because of the setbacks of the last fifty years, which have themselves been caused by the prolonged post war capitalist inflationary boom. The current state of the communist movement is as much a product of the ‘dominant class’ pressure as everything else is. It is capitalism’s crisis of ’overproduction’ (of capital itself), money, hurtling around the world finding fewer profitable places to settle and having to be destroyed in war after war with rival capitalists interests causing widespread spontaneous resentment and resistance. Communist theory is the consciousness of all this and will not be held back any longer by custom and ‘formality‘.

Dump the philistine sectarian ‘activists‘!
Struggle for correct theory is the best practice!
Let a million “study circles” bloom!

[Janus]

I have been wanting to start a club at school devoted to Marxism but we need a host teacher, and I haven't been able to find one.
Unless you have a large number of Marxists at your school, it's probably best to broaden the group's composition.


Apparently, here in America all groups have the right to assemble except for communists (this was from a law back in the Cold War which hasn't been repealed). Does anyone know if this law really exists?
No, it doesn't. If you're talking about the Smith Act, it's been reduced to a pretty much powerless law.

[Labor Shall Rule]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26, 2007 05:32 am
I have been wanting to start a club at school devoted to Marxism but we need a host teacher, and I haven't been able to find one. Apparently, here in America all groups have the right to assemble except for communists (this was from a law back in the Cold War which hasn't been repealed). Does anyone know if this law really exists? I hardly believe it does, but if so we need to fight it. Any ideas?

(sorry if this is the wrong forum, maybe this should be in Learning?)
I would recommend making flyers advertising the study group, and place them in library books that are related to subjects that you can relate with from a socialist perspective. I was, actually, the other day, roaming through the library and opened up a book entitled The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Jail, and there was a flyer in there for a Green Party discussion that was to be held at a nearby park. It works, because people that find an interest in those subjects would most likely be able to relate with Marxism in some shape or form.

[che_diwas]

Very goodnews indeed... but it will really make u pull off ur skin comrade...

I am also trying it in some sort... but its really hardwork... We find students who are showing good intentions on becoming revolutionaries... but these capitalists and feudalistic bastards keep on trying to deviate the minds of young learners.. they keep on attracting the youths with all the money and power they have, so that their future will be bright inorder to exploit the working class...

Anyway best of luck and keep us informed about the club...

[HatefulRed]

Thanks guys, I'll definitely work on it. I'll broaden the group a bit.. maybe make it Socialist Student Union or something. I'd really like to make it official just to attract the more uninformed students that want to learn more.

[RedArmyFaction]

We had a Marxist group at my university at Oxford. There was never any problems with this. Oxford is a very left wing political city

[redcannon]

i'm trying to start a commie club at my school. they have a young conservatives club, so i thought that by principle i should get a communist club. however, there is a law that says that they don't need to comply with my club idea. it also applies for getting various degrees in school.

[Y Chwyldro Comiwnyddol Cymraeg]

Dont tell any teachers and then meat in library or somwhere private i.e not a class room.

They CBA to stop a litle tthing like that....surley

[Lark]

I'm not sure that adopting the tactics of the Christian bible studies small groups is such a good idea, I'd say it would be a much better idea to form a meaningful social group like the early "friendly societies" in England when urbanism and industrial capitalism were just taking off.

Then people can just consider the problems they are encountering, I think the contradictions in popular culture, conservative ideology and the capitalist economy are there, it wouldnt be a long time before it came up.

I'd seriously question the value of rote learning old russian demagogues rants though, seriously.

[sp468732]

Just start the group, but under a different name. It doesn't have to be called a Marxist or Socialist club, even if that is what it is. Use a more "friendly" name. Call it a Progressive club. That way, you attract left leaning liberals who will likely move even further left after a few discussions. ;)

[OneBrickOneVoice]

Um... Dude, there's a thread nearly identical to this like two threads down the forum (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=66711&st=0)

[More Fire for the People]

I wouldn't do it simply because it's a bad idea. A good goal to work toward is helping to forge a student organization that deals with student & youth issues like school alienation [ both personal and systemic ], cafeteria quality, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-homophobia, finding work, defending students in the workplace, protecting victims of domestic violence, etc.

[People's Councillor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26, 2007 05:32 am
I have been wanting to start a club at school devoted to Marxism but we need a host teacher, and I haven't been able to find one. Apparently, here in America all groups have the right to assemble except for communists (this was from a law back in the Cold War which hasn't been repealed). Does anyone know if this law really exists? I hardly believe it does, but if so we need to fight it. Any ideas?

(sorry if this is the wrong forum, maybe this should be in Learning?)
It's called the Smith Act, which was passed in the 1940s to apply the provisions of the Sedition Act (1917) to peacetime.

[propertyistheft]

My friend and I founded the "Students for Social Change" in my high school. We were basically an Anarchist/Marxist group that did anti recruitment measures whenever the military came, we also had meetings to discuss various things, such as the Iraq war, but our talks would always stray into the evils of capitalism and the need for a workers revolution. But you definately need to hide the communist affiliation until people interested have met you and know that you are sane. Also we found an administrator easily, but Hes a member of the socialist workers party so I guess that was a lucky find.
But my friend has become a proponent of primitivism so we sorta fell apart. It was good while it lasted.

[BreadBros]

Finding sympathetic teachers in high school can often be very difficult. Even if they do sympathize with you many wont risk their neck to sponsor an overtly Marxist group.

I personally like the idea of study groups if done right. A while back me and some leftists I knew started an informal study group to read 'Capital' vol 1 chapter by chapter. Part of what made it great is that we all came from different backgrounds (Trotskyists, anarcho-communists, non-Leninist Marxists, Cliffites) which made for interesting debate and in my opinion made it not be rote learning but rather gave the theory a more practical lively nature. On the other hand I've been to some organized study groups where everyone was from the same tendency or were essentially being "taught" the theory by a cadre...in my opinion in that case you're often better off just reading it on your own. I wouldn't recommend a Capital reading group as high-school kids are likely new to leftist and will most definitely want a broad overview and not in-depth economics, but I attest to the fact that the study group can be very valuable.