Baltimore, MD, March 7- On Wednesday, March 1st, in direct response to an all-but-imminent closing of 15% of the buildings of the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPSS), over four hundred Baltimore City high school students demonstrated at the State Education building across from the local arena, chanting for Nancy S. Grasmick, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, to either let them in, or to come outside and make a statement. The vast majority of protesters were students from the schools threatening closure. And of course, Grasmick did not come outside to talk to the chanting crowd. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun reported that "chaos erupted at the school Wednesday as students tried to leave for a protest at the State Department of Education and found doors blocked by staff" At that, the article continues, "about 100 students got together and ran out the front door" in what one student described as a "bum rush" ("Protesting students say way blocked at school," 03/04/2006). It was the beginning of a three-day strike organized by the Baltimore branch of the Algebra Project, a mathematics tutoring organization focused on inner-city black youth that also espouses civil rights and direct-action principles. On Thursday, March 2nd, a few city high school students defied grey weather, rain, and similar odds and rallied again, this time at the North Avenue BCPSS headquarers. For the final rally at City Hall on March 3, however, numbers were back up again to at least a couple hundred, and the day was very clear and sunny, though also very cold and windy. Having seen the results of Wednesday and Thursday, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and his cronies were so nervous about the final day's rally that they called in Algebra Project representatives early Friday morning in a vain, laughable last-minute attempt to get them not to go and "make a fuss." O'Malley is running for governor and even has his eye on the U.S. presidency at some point. He called the pre-rally meeting because he did not want to be embarrassed by a very large student rally outside of the local center of ruling-class power. He failed. Algebra Project turned this pre-rally meeting to their advantage by presenting O'Malley with a list of pledges to improve the schools, and demanding he sign his name on the bottom. O'Malley did agree to hold a press conference the following Monday with State reps present, but he refused the other demands, saying they were unrealistic. With that, Project reps departed, reported back to the ralliers outside, and pressure continued. This week, there are three public hearings on school closings at a local high school in the city. These hearings are mandated by Maryland law to put the rubber stamp on rulers' plans to shutter schools and proceed further with the massive cutbacks that have, of course, already been going on for years. The bravery of the students in doing this three-day strike was notable, and despite not provoking a system-wide strike, it seems to have had the intended effect of making it impossible for O'Malley to continue his future bids for power in the ruling class without dealing up-front with the issue of Baltimore City school closings and delapidation. Without taking away from how great it is that the student strike and similar actions have been happening these past few years, one concern from a revolutionary communist perspective is that success in these areas — if it does come, which it probably won't, through one mechanism of trickery or another — might lead students to believe, or solidify their belief if they already have it, that concessions from O'Malley and company basically means that all rulers can be "shamed" into providing proper services etc. for poor schoolchildren, particularly poor black schoolchildren. Progressive Labor Party must work hard to counter such illusions of "accountability" in capitalist society, especially since so many on the U.S. left believe that it can be achieved. After all, even the long-strong social safety nets of Western Europe, Scandanavia, Canada, the UK, Japan, and (to a lesser degree due to recent militancy) Germany and France are being gradually eroded now that the failure of the old communist movement has signaled to the world's bosses that they are basically free to do whatever they want. And if that's the case throughout the eastern part of the globe, there is no reason to ever seriously think that things can get fundamentally better here in the Americas. The U.S. has to follow world patterns in order to compete. And world patterns indicate that conditions for students and workers, and the poor in general, keep getting worse and worse, not better and better. This disintegration of capitalism is what we have to look forward to until the communist movement is rebuilt in a mass way and communist revolution is made. Our PL club in Baltimore is small, but we try to fight hard, and we know that small steps like these are essential for advancing the real interests of the working class against ruling class attacks. www.plp.org