The students have always found themselves at loggerheads with the Institution. The first question we must ask ourselves is what the Institution is. An institution according to the Oxford dictionary is an organization founded for religious, educational, professional, or social purposes. To us Marxists, the Institution is a representation and the characterization of the State, based on the mode of production of that particular state. Another question that might arise is what is the mode of production? The mode of production according to Marxist theory is the way of producing, and it is a combination of:
1. Productive forces: Human labor power and the means of production (the tools used for producing the material goods and services needed in a society)
2. Social and relations of production: these include the property, power and control relations governing society's productive assets (often codified in law), cooperative work relations and forms of association, relations between people and the objects of their work and the relations between social classes. Essentially it is the power relations between the ruling class and the subject class.
Marx also further went on to say that the mode of production influences all aspects of life. Lenin exposed this further in his classic work The State and Revolution. Lenin said, "Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners". He then goes further and uses an Institution of the State as an example in the following quote, "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent them and repress them in parliament!" This is a very clear characterization of the State, and in turn its institutions. The Universities are no different because their duty is to educate the students in a way which will benefit the mode of production. We are essentially being trained to be tools of the mode of production. The mode of production in South Africa is not the so-called mixed economy, but rather a capitalist economy which follows the Keynesian model of economics. Keynes in his theory allows the State to intervene should the markets fail (And they do every 7 - 10 years!), and this leads to the State (being the institution of capital) to bail out the material base which produces the State. This is not sustainable in the long run and will not only ultimately lead to the demise of the State itself, but the mode of production itself.
The universities therefore serve a purpose of being the educational and cultural custodian of the State. The universities are by default institutions meant to serve the State, and the leader of the State which is the ruling class, the Bourgeoisie! The Bourgeoisie in a nutshell are the upper layers of society. They accumulate more wealth than the rest of society, and within themselves there are two layers which are opposed to each other but eventually unite to protect their interests against the oppressed layers of society. The lower layer of this ruling class is the Petit/Petty Bourgeoisie, which is essentially your white-collar workers, or as they are commonly known professionals. The doctors, lawyers, clerks, accountants, economists, engineers, and teachers are this lower layer of the Bourgeoisie. However, over the years we have seen that most of these white-collar jobs are slowly but surely losing the material strength they had due to a stagnant economic system which is no longer developing the productive forces in a way that uplifts the majority from the pit of ignorance and poverty. The universities in South Africa still uphold an elitist character which represents their character of being meant for the upper layers of society, and not the oppressed layers of society, who are the working class, peasants, unemployed masses, and piece job workers (precariat). Even historically blacks only universities like the University of Fort Hare were not meant to uplift the oppressed layers of society and give them an education that will liberate the mind, but it was meant to turn the colonized indigenous folk into puppets of the capitalist system.
Till today universities across the country, and even across the Capitalist world still maintain this very same character. The reason why they maintain this character is due to the existing mode of production. The reason why financial exclusion will always exist and will affect the poor in the current context is due to the existing mode of production. Capitalism in its nature leads to the commodification of everything in its wake. The commodification comes as a result of the profit motive, which is the driving force of capitalism. This profit motive affects everything in its wake like a cancer does. It commodifies even the most basic necessities required by society to reproduce life on a day-to-day basis. If the capitalist mode of production can commodify water, do you think education won't be commodified? The commodification follows the logic of capital to turn everything in its wake into commodities which one can buy and sell and make a profit from. This leads to the emphasis of quantity over quality, as is shown by the basic production of certain things like food. The more the capitalist system has grown the more the food has tasted duller due to the genetic modification of basic food stuffs in order to increase the quantity available. Education in South Africa is following the same pattern, and the phasing out of funding for certain courses is inspired by this profit motive. Supply and demand are determining which degrees will be funded by the National Financial Student Aid Scheme (NSFAS), and as a result poor students which come from working class, and peasantry backgrounds are being affected. The student populace is unfortunately misguided by a number of organizations which are supposed to serve them like the South African Union for Students (SAUS).
The students are being made to believe that they can conquer and win alone, when in reality that is not true. Whatever gain the students make will be wiped out by the capitalist system due to how its 'anarchy in production' leads to its occasional collapse. Marx was indeed right that the system has planted the seeds of its own destruction, and has also created its own gravediggers, the Working Class! The student movement in history has never gained anything sustainable without aligning itself with the Working Class. The class of 1976 were able to rise up in that fashion due to the resurgence of the strike movement which was led by the Working Class! The student therefore cannot achieve an institutional revolution without the assistance of the Working Class, while the Working Class cannot sustain their momentum without the energy of the students. The Russian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, and the 1994 breakthrough moment in South Africa are an example of such. In the revolution, the students should subordinate their program, and their demands to the program of the workers. Free Education was never achieved in isolation from other sectors of societies; FREE EDUCATION WAS, HAS, WILL ALWAYS BE ATTAINED THROUGH AN ALLIANCE WITH THE WORKING CLASS!
