We are happy to publish for the first time our political program, which was ratified by the RSU national body February of this year. Our political program serves as our basis of unity and guide to action. Since the ratification of our political program, RSU has seen great success in refining our political work, expanding to more areas, and working to develop a genuinely revolutionary student movement. This program solidifies our vision of students as “shock-troops” of socialist revolution in our country, led by the multinational proletariat. We hope the dissemination of our political program will serve as a basis for struggling for greater success and unity with the student movement.

Our Political Program is also available as a PDF and a printable zine. To print be sure to click the settings for “double sided” and “flip on short edge”

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Political Program of The Revolutionary Student Union

March 20, 2025

Objectives

Students are fed up. Throughout America student conditions have worsened by the year; in the universities tuitions are reaching never-before-seen heights, in the public school system the quality and conditions of education are declining, literacy rates are dropping, there are fewer teachers for more students, and both students and educators are more and more repressed by an ever-growing legion of school administrators, bureaucrats and police. The general crisis of capitalism has been felt in the system of education. Repression against progressive students is at an all-time high; meanwhile, many national student organizations are in a knee-deep swamp of liberalism and opportunism, replacing dreams of a better society with half-hearted false “concessions” from school administrators, NGO/nonprofit work, heartfelt pleas to school boards and board of regents, and everything but fighting back against administrators, principals, and elected bureaucrats whose job is to oppress us.

The truth is that the modern capitalist educational system’s primary purpose is not actually education itself, but instead the reproduction of imperialist class society with all of its exploitation and oppression. Since the dawn of monopoly capitalism, schools and universities have been organized on factory lines so that they can better fulfill the needs of U.S. imperialism and indoctrinate the youth with the lies and propaganda that camouflage the harsh realities of our society. They served the role of hiding the need to defeat the capitalist ruling class and establish a state of the workers that rules for the great majority of humanity rather than a select few. From the original religious schools in this country, to the Indigenous boarding schools, children’s workhouses, and the prohibition of education for enslaved Black people, the ruling class throughout history has used the careful denial or manipulation of the education system to further its own interests and defend its future exploitation.

For the last 10 years, there have been outpourings of mass anger at the oppression core to the system of exploitation ruling over our society. At Ferguson, during the George Floyd Rebellion, and the Palestine student encampments, people bravely and selflessly sacrificed for a revolutionary future. Meanwhile, many groups sat idly by and failed to sharpen the struggle at best and, at worst, channeled genuine mass uproar back into the system, into electoralism, nonprofit work, and other dead ends. The Revolutionary Student Union (RSU) exists as a national organization to acknowledge, deepen, and spread this mass anger, to systematize it into our work, and to transform it from the independent actions of a few into an organized force for the liberation of students and workers.

While we fight for the demands of the student masses, in particular students from a nationally oppressed, poor, and proletarian background, RSU is an organization built in struggle against concessions as a goal in and of themselves, against cutting backroom deals with our enemies in school administrations or public officials. We believe that the only acceptable student movement is one that understands the final goal we are all fighting for: a society free of all exploitation and oppression. Principally, we believe in going where the current student movement has failed to: through systematic social investigation we work to create campaigns that mobilize the students, organize them into class-conscious organizations of struggle, and politicize them so that they internalize and put into practice the perspectives and methods of the revolutionary working class. This means routinely talking with and listening to the needs and worries of the broad student masses and building radical mass action based on sharpening current struggles among students and exposing the core of the ruling class dictatorship over education.

Our work doesn’t start or end at opposing reformism and building a fighting student movement; we understand that the education system isn’t the only system in this country built for oppression. Our student movement will live and die on our ability to align ourselves behind those of the working class, oppressed nations, and oppressed social groups in this country. We oppose narrow-minded attitudes of students struggling particularly over student issues and the additional narrow attitude that student issues are not worth investing time into. In everything we do, we organize as auxiliaries of the revolutionary working-class movement, and should support related efforts and opportunities to build a student-worker alliance. It is the workers who with their labor created the entire human society, and it is the workers who should run it. In practice, to build the student-worker alliance means we must especially link ourselves with the organized workers and their revolutionary movement, like the New Labor Organizing Committee and the People’s Defense Committees, doing all we can to support and learn from them.

Opposing concessions means we must also oppose mentalities that fight for representation, not change. When we say revolutionary work, it doesn’t mean a seat at the table of war criminals on most boards of regents or a 3-hour-a-week do-nothing schoolboard meeting that exists to create the facade of “democratic rule” and “education reform”. We don’t stand for power to a few students; we stand for power to the student masses, meaning the broad majority of students who are oppressed by the everyday life of the working class, via organizations of struggle guided by revolutionary theory. We stand for unity amongst the student masses despite divisions imposed on us by the ruling class and school administrations. This is to say, everyone should talk to and organize with everyone else; we all share common oppression as the student masses and eventually as workers, and we must embrace our work in service of that reality. The work that National RSU does is broadly meant in service of the masses, students, and membership to build both national and local revolutionary organizing efforts. Joining National RSU is a commitment to building both revolutionary organizing on a local level, and to building a broader organization capable of spreading the steadfast spirit of revolution in the educational system far and wide. All kinds of skills are useful, though every member will be expected to learn how to talk with and listen to the masses, learn from them, recruit among them, and stand with them.

Six Points of Principle of the Revolutionary Student Union

1. We support socialist revolution led by the nationally oppressed working class.
This means we support and work towards the goal of establishing a workers government by seizing political power from the ruling capitalist class. Socialism will be a society where working people are the masters of our own destiny. It is the only remedy that can cure all the systematic injustice and exploitation in our society. The revolution in this country will be our best contribution to the revolutionary movements in other countries under the boots of “US” imperialism.

2. We are class-conscious.
This means we understand that society is dominated by a class of people who make their money through owning and banking for big business. We understand the wealth and power they hold is primarily through making other people, the working class, work hard only to take large amounts of surplus value for themselves. We understand that the nationally oppressed working class in the “United States” is the vanguard of our revolution, and we must place a special focus on supporting the revolutionary struggle of this class and fighting for the demands of students from a nationally oppressed and working-class background. We take this principle as the centerpiece to our work.

3. We are anti-imperialists and uphold proletarian internationalism.
This means we understand the first and biggest threat to the “US” proletariat and global working class is the owning class’s domination and super-exploitation of countries across the world, including the nationally oppressed Black nation and the internally colonized, nationally oppressed Indigenous nations. We do not support one country’s imperialism over another, and recognize our task is to combat the education system’s concerted effort to rationalize and justify “US” imperialism. At the same time, we see our struggle connected with the struggle of oppressed people around the world, and we must actively work to support their struggles.

4. We oppose reformism and opportunism in the student movement.
Reformism is the policy of seeking compromises with our enemies in popular and revolutionary struggles. We understand that no amount of deals with enemies of students and workers can change their incentives to oppress and exploit us. Reformist solutions are no excuse for failing to serve students, and we understand the first and last task of the student movement is to fight, not negotiate. Opportunism means trading the long-term interests of the proletariat and the student masses for short-term gains, and it is unquestionable that every member of RSU must combat it.

5. We believe that practice is the best teacher of correct ideas.
If a political idea is correct, it must also be tested and proven in our struggle. Only
through testing and refining ideas in our own practice can we understand their
usefulness. We see through narrow ideas that the education system presents us to
believe uncritically. However, putting practice as the centerpiece does not mean we reject theory and study; rather, we study and propagate Marxism with the goal of applying its rich knowledge to guide our action, and through our practice reinforce and adjust the programs and lines we put forward based on our theory. We affirm that only through practice can our revolutionary ideas become a material force.

6. We uphold democratic centralism.
That is, we understand our organizations must be both democratic and efficient at accomplishing political work. This means that all students must share their political opinions among RSU membership but should carry out democratically agreed-upon work regardless of individual disagreements in strategy.

General Demands and Work RSU Upholds

● We demand an education system that serves workers and students, as opposed to the current system, which transforms the revolutionary core of education into a tool for ruling class oppression. Students should be taught a scientific and historic worldview in contrast to current curriculum largely based on impractical understandings of the world and backward ideas.

● Cops off campus. We demand our schools end all collaboration with police departments, ICE, DHS, FBI, the National Guard, private security forces, and all other local, state, or federal policing and the (in)justice system.

● Military recruiters off campus. We demand that the JROTC, ROTC, and all forms of recruitment for the American imperialist military are removed from all high school, college, and university campuses. These programs funnel working-class students into imperialist wars that serve the ruling class death machine.

● We demand free, confidential, timely, and accessible therapy available to all students, workers, and faculty. We demand an end to certain therapists and programs acting as a school HR department, via gossip and often already illegal disclosures of patient info to school officials.

● Fight against drug addiction. We understand the rising rates of drug addiction in schools to be an alarming sign of the degeneration of capitalist society. We stand for safe, free, and fair programs from school that exist not as a tool of punishment, but rather as a means to genuinely assist students struggling.

● We demand schooling safe from virus and disease. This means that we expect educational institutions to provide equitable access to information, resources, and strategic responses to public health crises. This advances the right of working class people and all disabled people to access and enjoy these public spaces.

● We demand additional protections for disabled students against abuse, isolation, and neglect. For far too long students with disabilities have been treated as second class citizens. We want a school environment where disabled students are humanized, respected, and given leadership opportunities amongst their peers. We demand comprehensive education on the history of disability with a solutions-focused mindset for all students, led by people with disabilities.

● We educate among students Marxist and socialist ideas to promote revolutionary principles that guide our work. We emphasize the need to study the breadth of revolutionary works and theory to help guide us in our political struggles.

● Quality education and better job arrangement post-graduation. More often than not students are left to fend for themselves beyond graduation. This is not accidental, as the ruling class arranges the education system in such a way that only those it needs to continue education are given the tools to do so, leaving working-class and students from oppressed nations behind. We demand fair and equal assistance for students to continue education or arrange job opportunities.

● Defend immigration rights. We understand sections of the American ruling class to differ on the question of whether the inclusion of immigrants into the schooling system is beneficial for the reproduction of the bourgeois order. We stand against this framing entirely, understanding the unquestionable right of all peoples in this country to education, materializing in the defense of immigrants in schools. We advocate particularly for the rights of international students to a safe and comprehensive educational environment without fear of state repression.

● Fight against reactionary legislature. We mobilize and organize students to bring down any reactionary bills and acts that seek to further segregate the education system along racial, ethnic, gender, or class divisions.

● Support workers in their struggle, particularly independent union efforts. The very existence of our movement, our life-blood, is predicated upon our ability to link with the beating heart of struggle, the revolutionary proletarian movement. Thus, we emphasize and organize around the need to support the working class in their struggles.

● Partake in, celebrate, and study the rich history of revolutionary culture produced by centuries of struggle by the international working and peasant classes.

● Women’s liberation. We understand that for thousands of years women have been exploited at the hands of the ruling class and the patriarchy. We stand against male chauvinism (expressions of patriarchy in organizing spaces through prejudice, coercion, and violence) in organizing spaces and promote women’s leadership in the worker-student struggle. Women have historically been denied any equal access to education and we fight to destroy and eliminate any such discrimination and policies in our schools and universities.

● We stand for the liberation of queer people from the oppression and violence of capitalism. Queer people suffer at the hands of state and social repression, which manifests as legislature infringing on their bodily autonomy and attempting to deny their very existence, constant moral panics, religious oppression, and pervasive social isolation, prejudice, and violence which evinces most acutely against Black trans women.

● Combating racism. We understand schooling has historically been denied to nationally oppressed groups, and today manifests in systematic over-policing and low acceptance and enrollment rates of Black, Indigenous and Pacific Islander, and Latino/a/e students in colleges and universities. The phenomenon of “Predominantly White Institutions” is a purposeful and oppressive arrangement to benefit the ruling class’s policies of national oppression. Furthermore, we see internal manifestations of American imperialist violence in Southwest Asia and North Africa through the targeting and harassment of Arab, East Asian, and Muslim students domestically. We stand for an end to national and religious oppression in schools.

College/University Specific Demands

● Democratize our universities. We demand an end to small groups of servants of the ruling class (boards of trustees/regents, others) dictating how schools are run and how funds are divvied out. Students, workers, and faculty should decide how schools are run—not the owning class! We demand the right for a student veto over all college investments and decisions. Students are grossly underrepresented in the decision-making process of the universities and colleges they attend and pay for. Administrators should not be the end-all, be-all of school decisions, and students, workers, and faculty should be the driving factor behind this process. Students have a right to rebel against decisions made against them!

● Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs) must be given autonomy to serve Black and Indigenous students and have an education that best serves these groups. HBCUs and TCUs were created to serve the Black and Indigenous nations in a time when PWIs did not serve them after the Civil War. HBCUs and TCUs provide education to Black and Indigenous students who may not be able to afford the costs of other PWI institutions, yet these students are not receiving the full scope and benefits of university due to this underlying discrimination. Another trend we have seen is the enrollment of white students at HBCUs and TCUs. Since HBCUs and TCUs face historically low funding from the government, low enrollment rates, and these institutions must meet a quota for diversity, they are forced to enroll rich white students in favor of Black students due to their ability to pay tuition in full. We demand an end to the forced diversification of HBCUs and TCUs that not only continues to hand over preferential treatment to white students but obscures the authentic power and value of HBCUs and TCUs. HBCUs and TCUs must serve in the best interests of Black and Indigenous students and continue the legacy of the fight against oppression in the United States.

● Defund and cut all projects for imperialist expansion and war in our universities. We want immediate and lasting divestment from all imperialist projects and the disclosure of where all college and university funds and investments are going. We want our schools to end their reliance on international markets, multinational corporations, weapons and defense industries, and other arms of this violent capitalist system, using extra funds to invest in bettering conditions for students, faculty, and university workers.

● End all attacks, repressive measures, and silencing of progressive and oppressed student voices and organizations. We demand a university system free for students to express themselves and their interests as students and free for the campuses to turn into sites of political struggle for a better world.

● Fight against all backward, unhealthy, and oppressive cultures and practices. All racist, misogynistic, reactionary, imperialist/Zionist, and anti-people organizations and professors must be expelled off of all university and college campuses. Universities and colleges should be safe spaces for students from working-class and oppressed backgrounds. Discrimination on the basis of chauvinist views must be combated through struggle, and anyone on campuses who upholds these views must be punished by the broad masses of progressive students and faculty. We demand the banning of all academic trips to the Zionist state, encompassing Birthright, Fulbright, and prospective trips, and the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions. We demand an end to the oppressive and backwards culture in fraternities and sororities. Hazing, sexual assault, patriarchal violence, and racial violence are all examples of the cultural rot of capitalist society and its effects in the universities and colleges. We demand compensation for victims at the hands of fraternities and the expulsion of all abusive and violent fraternity and sorority students, along with the abolition of politically/socially backwards fraternities.

● We demand open admission for all students. This means that all students, regardless of their grades or test scores, must be accepted into every single university and college. We demand the breaking down of the dynamic of “good student” vs. “bad student” and allowing students the opportunity for equal education regardless of class background.

● Free tuition and the abolition of student debt. In line with open admission, free tuition for all students allows for equal opportunity in regards to education and advances the rights of all poor and working-class people who may struggle to afford proper education. Education should be a right for all, not a privilege for some.

● We demand a living wage for all university faculty, student athletes, university/college workers, and student workers. We demand the end of all unpaid labor at the hands of the colleges/universities and proper compensation for all employees who suffer under the boot of the education system. Not only do our educational institutions exploit us, the students. But they also exploit workers and faculty who sell their ability to work to the university in exchange for often minuscule wages. We believe in working-class revolution; therefore we must make it a priority to fight for the needs and demands of the educational workers.

● We demand accessible housing for students. More often than not students are forced to pay an excessive amount for hiked-up prices to live on-campus, or forced to commute or remain unhoused due to the school’s inability to provide housing for students. Therefore we demand housing accommodations for students.

High School Specific Demands

● We demand an end to public school autocracy over their student bodies by granting the student body veto over school policies. Many school rules are blatantly outside the interests of students, teachers, and workers and in the interest of well-paid bureaucrats, politicians, and the prison system.

● Equal funding and access to education at the K–12 level. We demand the immediate handover of all private K–12 education facilities and funds to the public education system and an end to recognition of K–12 private school education. Wealth-based education inequality must end, and this is the first step.

● We demand needs-based funding for all US schools and an end to land-value-based school development. This is a blatant example of class warfare against poorer districts.

● We demand the right of all students to enroll in public school, regardless of parental consent. Parents have no right to isolate their children from a quality education.

● We demand free, healthy, quality food for all students and an end to corporate domination over the lunchroom. Aramark, state governments, and school districts have no right to serve increasingly food insecure students small portions of often disgusting food. Additionally, as food is an important aspect of culture, schools should make every effort to integrate local food common to oppressed nations and groups within cafeterias.

● We demand timely, safe, and accessible transportation provided to students at no cost. Students should not have to make massive sacrifices in terms of sleep schedule, transportation time, or monetary investments to get to school. We demand school developments that prioritize pedestrians and mass transit over car-centric infrastructure prone to injuring or killing students.

● Students should have oversight of their schedule. We demand variable start times by student choice and an end to the false dichotomy of either school schedules that serve the educational needs of many students not to wake up at early hours of the morning to attend school or school end times that make getting sufficient hours/pay at work difficult. The education system should serve the needs of working people, not the other way around.

● Accessible non-language classes to second language speakers. We demand that classes are offered in both English and second languages common to an area and that all classes offered in English are also available as ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. We demand the establishment of optional after-school classes and assistance built to support the needs of educationally neglected, poorer, and/or ESL students. This includes free English classes for the local school community.

● We demand schools offer quality jobs for students within a high school setting. This includes schools offering students direct employment and indirect assistance at finding and maintaining a local job.

● We demand access to and sex education. This means we want age-appropriate, empowering sex education that respects the individual’s right to self-determination of identity, to understand their body, and to communicate their needs.

● We demand an end to the teaching, facilitating, and spreading of backwards ideas that lead to and contribute to rising gun violence and anti-social behavior. Additionally, we call for both student- and school-led initiatives to fight social isolation, backwards ideas, and other contributing factors to pervasive violence in schools.

For a class-conscious and combative student movement!
~ The Revolutionary Student Union