In 1912, twenty thousand textile workers went on strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Mostly women and mostly immigrants, they faced violent military and police repression in what is known today as the Bread and Roses strike.

Lawrence is not far from Harvard University. Naturally Harvard, long a stronghold for the ruling elite, chose the side of the mill owners. The university even offered academic credit to students who joined the National Guard and took up arms against the strikers. They advertised this program with the motto: “Defend Your Class!”

Harvard has long known which side of the fight it’s on. While the institution has developed savvier optics since 1912, it’s still dedicated to reproducing the dominant class. Just this month, a Harvard dean publicly expressed his concern about the “erosion of faith in capitalism” and asked, “What can we do to make sure that society’s trust in capitalism remains strong and can be rebuilt?” While Harvard scholars may receive sizeable grants to study the externalities of capitalism, the integrity and political stability of the profit-driven economic system remains one of the institution’s primary concerns.