When the schools of rural Pennsylvania were divided with one side of the classroom seating the ‘Bolshevik’ children of the miners, on the other, children of the Klan. War ensures.

‘Young Reds Brave Persecution in Fight Against Capitalist Teachings in Pennsylvania Schools’ by Black Diamond from Young Worker. Vol. 3 No. 7. April 1, 1924.

CANONSBURG, Pa. The elementary school struggle in the now famous Chartiers Valley, of Western Pennsylvania is assuming a very outspoken class character. In order to fully understand and appreciate the importance of this struggle a brief survey of the historical background is necessary.

Western Pennsylvania or the Pitts- burgh district, is one of the most important industrial centers in the world. The capitalist class has long ago realized the importance of organization in order to maintain its dictatorship, and very fortunately, the revolutionary proletariat is slowly organizing its forces to counteract the most brazen reaction in the history of America. This district also boasts of having the most reactionary “leadership” in the mine workers Union, which is working, at times openly and at other times secretly with the forces of reaction, to prevent any expression of revolutionary sentiment on the part of the workers. The Pittsburgh district is also “famous” for its Cos- sacks and Coal and Iron police, the latter being an openly armed bunch of thugs employed, paid and organized by and for the coal and steel barons. Then too, Pennsylvania has one of the most vicious “Anti-Sedition” laws in the United States. A perusal of this law will convince the most skeptical of its brutality and utter disregard of the elementary rights of the workers. Almost all at- tempts at the organization of the workers is bitterly opposed by the coal and steel barons.

It is under such conditions that the children are “taught” in the elementary schools. The conditions in these schools is a direct reflex of the general conditions in this territory.

It is common knowledge among class conscious workers that the present school system is only another means used by the capitalist dictatorship to keep the children of the workers in ignorance of their class interests and to make good scabs of them. The above fact is so brazenly displayed here that the most “fair-minded” will be forced to admit to our contention.

To begin with. the actual physical conditions of most of these schools is a menace to the health of the children attending them. Anyone familiar with “company houses” the miners and their families live in will readily understand that the “schools” would be built on the same plane as the “company houses.” The excuse for a home is without gas light, so are some of the schools despite the fact, that this section is rich in natural gas. Most or all of the schools are of wooden structure and are nothing short of fire traps. Children of tender age spend the best part of the winter days in a room insufficiently heated. A coal stove, with its poisonous gases is still being used to keep the room warm. The writer recently learned of a school building without light of any kind. On winter days the children have to strain their eyes in the darkened room and when it gets too dark they sit doing nothing until the class is dismissed. We haven’t mentioned anything about sanitary accommodations, for we dare not, lest we be accused by the coal interests of trying to “spoil” these “hunkies” with extravagant notions, such as toilets with running water in place of the reeking, foul smelling wooden enclosures, that are placed about 20 yards from the building.

Very naturally the children are interested in everything but the “three Rs,” for the capitalist class is not so much concerned with making them literate, as to propagate them to be willing slaves and good scabs. Therefore they employ the most inefficient teaching staff conceivable. It is readily understood that only the sons and daughters of the bourgeoisie ever get the chance to go through “college” in order to become “teachers,” hence the capitalists have a monopoly on teachers after their own heart. The brutality and stupidity of these teachers is appalling. Reared in provincial towns most of these people are devoid of any semblance any semblance of social vision. All they recognize is brute force and wield the whipping rods unmercifully.

The children of the more advanced thinking workers are as much alive. to the issues of the class struggle as their parents and in some instances display an even greater interest. The children openly discuss such matters as the Ku Klux Klan, which is rearing its vipers’ head in this section, the American Legion, the Russian Revolution, and other live issues facing the workers. These discussions and debates between the children of the opposite camp and the “Red” children has resulted in the complete route of the reactionaries and has reached a point where the teachers and the principals are openly defending the institutions of capitalism. One child was brutally beaten with a gum-hose (a rubber hose about 3/4 in. in diameter) by his principal for giving a working class interpretation of Russia. Another child was roughly thrown against a seat, resulting in the breaking of one of his teeth, for defending the Bolsheviks against the Ku Klux Klan in an argument with a child sympathising with the Klan. The seventh and eighth grade children are holding daily discussions with their principal against his will. He is teaching both of these classes in the same room. (How he does it the writer fails to understand.) In one of their discussions with this man, who is reputed to be a fairly well-to-do person and who, it is alleged, owns considerable property in the same town the school is situated, the question of the Klan came up. He hypocritically pretended “neutrality” and when one of the junior members of the Y.W.L., pinned him down as to what he thinks of the Klan he said that “there are some things good in the Klan and some things he does not agree with.” When he was further pressed to tell the class just what wasn’t good about the Klan, he officiously ordered the boy to sit down, threatening him with a beating and warning him not to bring “any of this Boolshevick propaganda into the class.’ Suffice it to say that the boy was temporarily vanquished, only to bring the question up again at some later time. Considerable time is taken up in the classes with the discussion of these vital problems, which is not only teaching them the movement, but also sharpening the class instinct and their fighting spirit.

Some of the juniors did not quite see their way about saluting the flag, which is supposed to stand for “liberty, equality and justice,” because they had seen it employed in coal strikes as a symbol, not of democratic government but of the brutal class interests of the greedy coal operators. They put up a brave fight, but were ultimately forced to salute very unwillingly. One of the boys was signaled out by the principal for not saluting the flag with the “proper spirit” and threatened with a beating.

On another occasion the teacher whipped a boy for defending the “Roosians.” He asked her why she does not beat the boy who defends the Klan. All he got in reply was a frown and a threat to “shut up.”

Detailed incidents are too numerous to mention to point out the brazenness of the class character of these schools. The teachers and principal are amazed at the “audacity” and understanding these children have of the class struggle. It is a new thing to them and they are frankly stunned at the remarkable way in which the “kids” defend the workers. This surprise has very recently turned into fear and the school authorities are now not only using the gum-hose, but are threatening them with being sent to Morganza (a juvenile prison situated not far from Canonsburgh, Pa.), for daring to express an opinion contrary to the flag waving patriots. One boy, a young, wiry, Irish lad was told to ‘go back to Roosia” for defending the “Reds” against the Klan. The boy answered this “educator” that he doesn’t know exactly where he would send him. If he had the chance, whether it would be to an insane asylum, or to the Fiji islands.

The charge that our young rebels are not good students cannot be made against them by their teachers. The Red children “put it all over the Kluxers,” one of the children expressed himself. The Bolshevik children sit on one side of the room (left) and the reactionary children on the right. The “lefts” always beat the “rights” in everything; spelling, geography and even capitalist history. In the field of sports the Bolshevik children are complete masters.

These children are not only putting up an organized fight in the schools, but are also engaged in assisting, in their limited manner, the older workers in their political struggle with the reactionaries. Recently the members of the junior section distributed 5,000 leaflets announcing a meeting being held under the auspices of the Chartiers Valley Central Labor Union, protesting against the removal of a Chief of Police and the placing of another in his place, who it is alleged was a strike breaker in West Virginia. These children are being initiated into the struggle while very young, for in a few years these school kids will be working and this preliminary training will be invaluable to them and to our movement.

The only summary we can make will be to quote the secretary of the junior group, “Gee, if it wouldn’t be for the juniors those damn Kluxers would put it all over us.”

The Young Worker was produced by the Young Workers League of America beginning in 1922. The name of the Workers Party youth league followed the name of the adult party, changing to the Young Workers (Communist) League when the Workers Party became the Workers (Communist) Party in 1926. The journal was published monthly in Chicago and continued until 1927. Editors included Oliver Carlson, Martin Abern, Max Schachtman, Nat Kaplan, and Harry Gannes.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/youngworker/v03n07-apr-01-1924-yw.pdf