Marx is not dead: Pittsburgh students keep the revolution alive

Their flyers are compelling, flashing pictures of socialist icons such as Karl Marx and Malcolm X. Their message is fight capitalism and empower the working class. 

At a time when many young people in America are apolitical, according to a 2014 poll from Harvard’s Institute of Politic, these are budding Marxists at Pitt.

“Marxism is the idea that workers create all of the worth and the working class should run the economy,” a student at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), who goes by the pseudonym Jose Manuel in fear of being blacklisted, said. “The MSA has two goals in mind. One is to have political discussions about Marxism and one is to mobilize students about local labor struggles.”

Roughly 20 students from Pitt, CCAC and Duquesne University are part of the Marxist Student Association (MSA). Since 2012, members have discussed the history of leftist politics and done outreach to local workers.

They are a private group, and, at first, some of them were reluctant to provide their real names in fear of job discrimination. Some of them were skeptical of the interview process.

Their weekly meetings are a round-table discussion, except members must raise their hand and be called on before speaking. Their discussions center on workers’ rights and the failure of the capitalist system. The members are either frustrated with capitalism or doubt its abilities. 

The MSA is part of a larger organization. Its parent organization is the national Worker’s International League (WIL), which is headquartered in New York Cityand is part of the International Marxist Tendency.

Student Involvement

Susanna Deemer, a junior anthropology major at Pitt, joined the MSA in March and serves as its vice president.

She said she has agreed with leftist ideas since she was younger, but she solidified them in college.

“The Marxist group connected thoughts that I was having to something that was tangible that I could hold on to,” Deemer said. “I co-authored an article in the most recent issue of the Socialist Appeal about textbook prices and their relationship with capitalism.”

Susan Hepburn, a freshman at Duquesne University, got involved with the WIL when she was 16 and then signed up with the MSA this year. A post on Facebook brought her in.

“When I was in high school, I was focused on doing the readings and I feel that getting involved in these other activities, like selling paper, adds another dimension to political development,” Hepburn said. “Selling paper means we sell issues of the Socialist Appeal, the newspaper of our national organization, to educate people about our organization’s activities and our position on different current events.”

Hepburn said, since high school, her involvement has intensified.

“I am doing a lot more stuff now because I am pretty involved with the MSA. I try to get out and do tabling more than once a week, which is cool, and I am happy with that,” Hepburn said.

The flyers handed out on Pitt’s campus to recruit members had a headline that read, “What is Marxism?” followed by, “Come to an event … to get behind the myths and propaganda of the media and find out what Marxism is really about.”

“At the moment, most of our efforts to recruit students are concentrated at Pitt and CCAC because those are the schools where we have already established student clubs,” Hepburn said in an email.

Rogers, a junior nonfiction writing major, said he got involved during his sophomore year at Pitt.

“I joined the group out of being disillusioned with the Democratic party and capitalism’s inability to sustain itself. I heard about it online on a list of student groups,” Rogers said.

 History

 The MSA has picked issues where it can make a noticable change, such as protesting for workers’ rights in Oakland.

“Last year, we founded Students in Solidarity with UPMC workers, which mobilized 40 students, which I am proud of because it was like sub-zero temperatures,” Manuel said.

Manuel said the WIL has worked with the Port Authority Transit bus drivers on fighting budget cuts.

“Members of the WIL founded Pittsburghers for Public Transit, which became a permanent fixture in public transit advocacy and that is still going on today,” Manuel said.

Deemer said she was involved with the WIL Congress at Pitt last spring.

“This year we drafted a code of conduct for the group,” Deemer said, “We were just in congress for two days but it built a lot of solidarity.”

Deemer said this congress was especially exciting because they “reached their 100 comrade-level in the United States,” meaning that there are 100 members of the national WIL.

 Goals

 “Our aim is to mobilize and educate students and make them aware of the conditions that are going around locally and worldwide,” Rogers said.

This year, they hope to help the cleaning staff at Pitt obtain better healthcare.

“They have a union contract re-negotiation because their contract is up this year,” Manuel said. “They are fighting for better healthcare and better status for part-time janitors. We want to send students to meetings and events and have a student presence at their protests and events.”

Jane Volk, director of employee and labor relations at Pitt, said the University was unaware of the group’s efforts to work with Pitt employees.

“The terms and conditions of employment of University cleaners, including wage rates and growth opportunities, are fairly negotiated in a collective bargaining setting and voted upon by the membership before going into effect,” Volk said in an email.

Events

On Sept. 11, the group held its first public event of the school year, which attracted a mix of 20 students and community members. The event dealt with “socialism and the struggle against racism.”

A poster with the slogan, “‘You can’t have capitalism without racism.’ –Malcolm X #MarxistStudentAssociation,” hung on a wall in the room.

Manuel lectured for an hour about the connection between capitalism and racism, and then students and the community members briefly discussed the lecture.

“In the wake of Ferguson, having an event like that was really important,” Deemer said. “As Marxists, we are trying to explain events and how things fit into a larger trend of class conflict.”

Deemer said events similar to the one in Ferguson continue to happen.

“We received lots of positive feedback from individuals who attended the meeting,” Rogers said in an email. “If we can spark interest or an impetus to get involved, I think we did a good job.”

The group has five public events planned for this semester. Hepburn said one will focus on women’s and LGBT issues and another on the history of American labor.

 Myths and Perceptions

Because of society’s negative perception of far-leftist politics, some of the members are reluctant to associate themselves formally with Marxism. Other members don’t care if their views are unpopular, because they believe they are helping the general welfare.

“I don’t worry about whether Marxism fits into ‘societal norms,’” Rogers said. “The relevance of the rights of mankind isn’t contingent on popularity.”

He said that Marxism has gotten a bad rap throughout history.

“The Stalinist system used it to propagate its own self-image while the West used it to propagate the image of capitalism. Neither what the Stalinist system or the West has called Marxism really is Marxist,” Rogers said.

Deemer identifies with Marxism because it holds the answers to problems afflicting students today.

“The question comes up, ‘What are you going to do when you’re going to graduate? I am going to have so much debt.’ It is sort of inexplicable why you have so much debt and you are just walking into this new situation,” Deemer said.

Hepburn said that Marxism can eradicate issues plaguing the world.

“Capitalism brings all of these horrific things like extreme poverty and racism and violence against women and all sorts of other issues and they have no way of being solved except by overthrowing capitalism,” Hepburn said.

Despite the use the of pseudonym, Manuel wears his political affiliation on his sleeve.

 “I walk through Downtown frequently wearing socialist shirts,” Manuel said. “I would be infinitely more fearful if I was wearing a shirt that said ‘capitalist’ or ‘proud member of the 1 percent’ because, honestly, socialists are viewed better than capitalists by the youth these days.”