01.05.1997

Class censorship

Democracy under capitalism is formal. As soon as it endangers the system, it is taken away - Chile in 1973 proved that. Democracy is only given to the masses if they are docile, compliant and vote for the status quo.

What is true of society at large is true of society in microcosm - not least the schools. Like the capitalist state schools are in fact dictatorships.

Hence in school mock elections democracy is fine as long as students vote for safe, establishment parties. Once revolutionary ideas begin to gather strength, the sham of democracy is discarded.

The CPGB has been banned in Slough and Rochdale. Students wanting to stand a CPGB candidate in Slough were told: “The governors and head teacher wanted the parties standing to represent the public view of Slough.”

This spurious excuse seemed to have more to do with the extent of communist support, not least a mass of CPGB posters: the governors were camera-shy, since the BBC was due to film the election campaign.

Many teachers were outraged by the decision. Many students protested by writing ‘communist’ across their ballot papers.

Helen Ellis