Dear Revolution,

The last couple of articles that revcom.us ran on the unfolding battle between Harvard and the Trump fascist regime have been very helpful in terms of setting the correct orientation as to how to understand the stakes of this battle and determining the principal contradiction.¹ This is especially so because so many progressive faculty (and students) feel so ambiguous about the school, which, especially under the Alan Garber presidency, has taken a number of very bad steps including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-semitism,² severing its partnership several months ago with Birzeit University in the West Bank, dismantling the pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus, etc. This disaffection with Harvard predates Israel's invasion of Gaza, but the genocide there has brought a lot to the surface.

The most recent fascist assault revoking Harvard's certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor program and stripping the University of its authority to sponsor F-1 and J-1 visas for international students for the 2025-26 academic school year has only served to ratchet up the uncertainty about how this standoff with the Trump regime will play out. But it is clear to many at the school that the stakes are high and go far beyond the school. There is a sense among faculty that if the Trump regime is successful in breaking Harvard, the administrations at most other schools, less well funded than Harvard, will throw in the towel. There is an unheard-of sense of unity among faculty who are often in pitched battles over petty turf issues. Now we have the totally crazy situation of Larry Summers becoming one of the most vocal opponents to the Trump regime's efforts. This is the same Lawrence Summers who the Harvard faculty twice voted "no confidence" in because he was a bullying patriarchal jerk while Harvard president in the early 2000s, forcing his resignation.

While the stakes of this battle are incredibly high and it is unclear how this specific attack will play out, one element that is particularly significant is how this battle underscores the importance of deeply grasping Bob Avakian’s point that there are “two countries” within this country and that split runs through the very top of society. (See his social media message REVOLUTION #102: “Two Countries” Within This Country—And the Whole Damn System’s Got to Go! This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination.) It has been well documented that the head of the Harvard Corporation,³ Penny Pritzker—older sister of the governor of Illinois, a Harvard graduate and a billionaire in her own right—is the key figure fighting for Harvard's independence from the regime, not Alan Garber. Additionally, four of the nine sitting justices on the Supreme Court graduated from Harvard Law School, and the list of industry and political leaders who went to school at or graduated from Harvard is long. 

None of this can be used to predict who will fall out where, nor can we, in any way, rely on these forces to defeat the MAGA fascists. But it does add layers of complexity to this struggle as it sharpens up and the understanding that, while they are all part of the bourgeois class, they are not all the same. Being able to grasp that helps to determine what the principal contradiction is at any given moment and being able to work on it. To come at it another way, if you were looking at this struggle between Harvard and Trump through the lens of a Bernie Sanders or AOC (or Party for Socialism and Liberation [PSL]), you might simply present this as a struggle between the 1%ers: Harvard, the richest university in the world, versus the oligarchs around Trump. So understanding the very real nature of this split, its potential consequences and the possible opportunities it opens up for revolutionaries, is critical.

So thanks for the analysis!!