Communist Group Influencing Recent Student Walkouts Nationwide: Report

In Oakland, California, students at 11 different schools skipped class to protest recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests. A video later posted on social media linked to those events shows an angry middle school student reading a script and shouting into a microphone as her peers cheer and an adult in the background adjusts an amplifier.

“Trump, you are nuts,” the girl reads. “We will not stop at ICE. We will come after this whole system of fascism, injustice, and discrimination.”

On the same day, Jan. 30, similar walkouts took place in five separate Rhode Island districts, including at three different high schools in Providence alone. There were also five in Austin, Texas, two in North Carolina, and one in Portland, Oregon, according to nonprofit parental rights organization Defending Education.

Rhyen Staley, the organization’s research director, has so far this year tracked more than 40 anti-ICE high school and middle school walkouts across several states, in which students were seen holding signs that he says were provided by the Party for Socialism and Liberation. His ongoing investigation is largely based on an analysis of news outlets, social media, and press releases. The findings so far are available on Defending Education’s online Student Walkout and Protest Tracker.

Staley said he believes that the organization connects with students via social media and offers signs—typically black with white lettering—to those planning protests. In some cases, he said, the schools have social activism clubs.

All told, Defending Education has counted 357 protests and walkouts in schools this year so far, compared with 51 total last year. In addition to protesting ICE, causes included support for Palestine, LGBT ideology, environmental action, or diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Other organizations connected with the walkouts include the Sunrise Movement, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and By Any Means Necessary.

“There’s an activist pipeline in public schools,” he told The Epoch Times. “Nothing is more disruptive to learning than kids leaving the classroom.”

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a self-proclaimed Marxist organization that proclaims on its website, “For the planet to live, capitalism must end.” It advocates socialism as the main step toward an eventual communist system.

“The aim of the PSL is to abolish the corrupt, rotten, and anti-people capitalist economy, state, and governmental system, and replace it with one dedicated to meeting the needs of the people—a socialist system,” the website states.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Party for Socialism and Liberation for comment but did not receive a reply before publication time.

Defending Education’s tracker also showed that a similar organization, Young Democratic Socialists of America, was also involved in student walkouts, including an event in support of Palestine in North Carolina last year.

Staley said socialist groups and their adult supporters are grooming young people through social media. It’s not unusual for some parents and teachers to post comments noting that they are proud of a child’s social activism. The kids bask in all the attention brought to them by likes and retweets.

“They’re not doing this because of their deeply held beliefs,” he said, adding that the goal for most is attention and the chance to get out of class. “This is a different kind of love bombing on the kids.”

Marxists hiding behind the cloak of youth anti-ICE sentiments are particularly disturbing, Staley said. Students can relate to some degree to other kids and families being detained or deported but probably have little to no understanding of socialism or communism and the PSL’s mission.

“The issue is never the issue,” he said. “For PSL, the issue is revolution.”

The Oakland Unified and Providence school districts did not respond to requests for comment.