On the decline of SASCO and the rise of EFFSC in UFH by Lindokuhle Mponco

SASCO in the University of Fort Hare is a shadow of its former self due to a litany of issues. One of those issues is a decline in ideological understanding. SASCO is a representation of movement that started on a revolutionary path, but due to interactions and alliances with bourgeois power structures they have become reformist. This is the case at a national level, and also at an institutional level. The decline of ideological understanding can be located in the development of a student aristocracy. The development of a student aristocracy over the past 28 years has led to SASCO being a brake in the student movement, and the biggest reformist/sellout organization in the broad politics of the higher education sector.

This development of SASCO cannot be dislocated from the decline of the YCL and the ANCYL. It is public knowledge that these three organizations have an alliance (Progressive Youth Alliance) which seeks to unite the youth behind the banner of the politics of the tripartite alliance (COSATU-ANC-SACP). This alliance has not produced anything progressive in the past 10 - 15 years due to the assault of the reactionary leaders of the ANC who have used the PYA (Progressive Youth Alliance) as their mobilization and lobbying vehicle. This is the case in the University of Fort Hare and it seems like it will be the case for many more years to come. This decline can be located to the shifting of political priorities in the PYA. The PYA is now deployment-centric and proximity centered. Most of the leading layers of the organization are concerned with being deployed and having proximity to institutional managers. The issues of students are used as a tool to get deployment, the deployment is then used to secure all kinds of bourgeois luxuries and in some cases jobs! This is not possible without selling out.

We cannot disassociate SASCO from selloutism because selloutism has become part of the DNA of SASCO, especially in the University of Fort Hare. Those few SASCO activists that still uphold the founding principles have been victims of suspensions and internal suppression. The character of a reformist/sellout movement is the suppression of the best layers of the organization in exchange for the promotion of the most reactionary and incompetent layers of the organization. The reason why the reactionaries and incompetents get promoted is due to them being easy to control and dictate. They can't present cogent arguments because they have not even grasped the basics of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. They can't present cogent arguments because they have not invested their time in reading Biko or even engaging the history and the roots of SASCO. In the University of Fort Hare, SASCO is like the ANC in all characters and form. It is thus a dying horse that has no kicks left to offer. Its saving grace is the interference of managers and higher ups that save them from near death at every juncture.

The EFFSC's existence has further amplified the need for a revolutionary organization. The EFFSC has thoroughly replaced SASCO as the vanguard of student and worker struggles in the University of Fort Hare. The EFFSC represents the brand of politics that SASCO used to represent 30 years ago due to how the movement has been able to self-correct when necessary. The EFFSC in the University of Fort Hare might have gone through a turbulent period in as far as internal politics are concerned, but the ability to self-correct has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the EFFSC is revolutionary through and through. The ideological decline in SASCO has been thoroughly exposed by the EFFSC due to how the EFFSC has represented itself in governance, and in the broad politics of the institution. This is the reason why the EFFSC is on an upward trajectory. The EFFSC represents a new hope and is a rising star in as far as the politics of the University of Fort Hare are concerned. Its first taste of governance in 2019/20 in the East London Campus proved that with the EFFSC at the helm, progress will be a reality.

The EFFSC's manifesto has proven to be a manifesto that resonates with the masses of our people because it is derived from the masses of our people. The EFFSC is a now a bulwark of student and worker struggles because it is the only organization that genuinely embraces the struggle of the students and the workers. The author is not ashamed to admit that mistakes have been made, and failures have occurred. However, the EFFSC has shown a unique skill and tendency of utilizing the ideological tools of analysis bestowed to it by the masses of our people. It has been able to use Marxism-Leninism and Fanonian thought in a very concrete manner, such that the students have been drawn to its revolutionary politics. These tools have been used to shift and reorient the movement towards the revolutionary path. 

It is our revolutionary duty as Marxists to safeguard the EFFSC and ensure its rise continues. The EFFSC must be sheltered from charlatans and opportunists that seek to use it as a tool to escalate the careerist ladder. We must shelter the EFFSC from opportunists that want to use the EFFSC as a bargaining chip to secure bourgeois luxuries and cushy jobs. We must shelter EFFSC from the agents and pawns that are being used by the management to destabilize the movement from achieving its revolutionary mission of free, quality, decolonized, and well resourced education in our lifetime. We must begin the process of purging all of those that have been involved in selloutist tendencies that seek to prop up the incompetence that exists in this gallant but colonial institution called the University of Fort Hare. We must safeguard the EFFSC from those that continue to chant management sponsored slogans which represent tyranny and the collapse of student activism within our institution.

It must be known to all that the EFFSC is not a home for thieves, scoundrels, opportunists, charlatans, demagogues, reactionaries, and sellouts. The EFFSC is a home for revolutionary progressives, and people centered activists that seek no profit for their work but the advancement of the revolutionary movement, and a socialist society built on the principles of Student and Worker Power. This political period requires us to hold fast to the words of Amilcar Cabral, "Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies wherever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories."