The EFFSC is a radical and militant student wing of the fastest growing political party in South Africa, and in Africa, the EFF. It is steeped in the politics of ensuring that the EFF manifests itself in every sector and space of society. The EFFSC exists to bring together all the revolutionary elements within student populace to ensure that students and workers in the sector of Higher Education are mobilized behind the banner of the EFF which seeks to attain economic freedom in our lifetime, and in this current epoch. The EFFSC is therefore important in the sector of Higher Education as it exists in this space to galvanize support for the EFF. In this document we will deal with three fundamental things:
a) The Importance of the EFFSC in Institutions of Higher Learning
b) The concept of relative autonomy
c) The need to popularize the politics of the EFF & the EFFSC in the sector
a) The importance of the EFFSC in Institutions of Higher Learning
The EFFSC exists in the institutions of Higher learning to primarily mobilize students behind the banner of the EFF which stands and fights for economic freedom in our lifetime. It exists in institutions to show that there is an alternative to the current status quo which has many contradictions. First and foremost, students must understand that they are not a class on their own, but rather come from class backgrounds. An example of this is a student who is funded by NSFAS. A student funded by NSFAS is most likely a child of a working-class parent or a poor peasant/rural dweller. This speaks to the class character of those funded by NSFAS as students that come from working class and peasantry backgrounds. These two classes form the backbone of the oppressed layers of society. Students on the other hand are in a factory which seeks to transform them into the next working class which will be controlled by the bourgeois. This is not necessarily the case for every student because some are being transformed into being the next bourgeoisie.
Therefore, institutions of Higher Learning become another terrain of class struggle and class contradictions due to the fact that institutions are microcosms of society. A typical institution of Higher Learning is the mirror image of the society it finds itself in, and this includes the patterns of relations to knowledge production and accumulation. The EFFSC being a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonist organization draws from this reality, and therefore postures itself in the primary as a tool to wage the class struggle on behalf of the working class and the peasantry. In the secondary, as a tool to ensure that institutions are transformed into havens of revolutionary knowledge and the development of the most advanced layers of the oppressed classes. The founding principle of mobilizing students behind the banner of economic freedom in our lifetime as espoused by the founding manifesto of the EFF is fulfilled through the EFFSC being a tool of class struggle, thus rendering it a protest movement, or rather a manifestation of a protest movement called the EFF in the sector of Higher Education. The other aim is to mobilize students and workers to be vessels of the struggle against commodified education, and capitalist patterns or relations in the sector. The other founding principles such as transforming the higher education sector and promoting academic excellence and research are also fulfilled through the EFFSC being a tool to ensure that institutions are transformed into havens of revolutionary knowledge. The process of transformation also includes the need for us to decolonize the sector to ensure proper representation of all knowledge producers, and to eradicate the dirty stains of colonial pedagogy and epistemology.
The importance of the EFFSC in institutions of Higher Learning is that it seeks to dialectically connect the struggle for free, quality, well resourced, and decolonized education with that of economic freedom in our lifetime, while ensuring it is rooted in the struggle for a Socialist Society steeped in the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Fanonism. The importance of EFFSC in institutions of Higher Learning also helps us to combat the racist order of our education system whether the institution is a historically black or historically white institution. This importance cannot be understated by charlatans who refuse to acknowledge that our struggle is primarily a class struggle even though it is intertwined with the race struggle. This is the importance of Fanonism in the grand scheme of the ideological framework of the EFFSC as it helps us understand our colonial society as it is, and not what we want it to be or how we want to see it. If we cannot practically link this with the work of the EFF then all our efforts are futile, and the EFFSC should just dissolve itself. We do not exist to solely contest SRC elections, but rather we see contestation of SRC elections as one of the many means to an end and not an end in itself.
b) The relative autonomy of EFFSC
The EFFSC's founding provision is in Section 32 of the EFF Constitution which was ratified in the 2nd National People's Assembly (NPA) in 2019. Section 32.1 clearly states that the EFFSC is an autonomous structure which should exist in every institution of Higher Learning. Section 32.2 of the EFF constitution also states that should the EFFSC seek to exist outside institutions of Higher Learning, then the National Students' Assembly (NSA) must take that decision and it should have the concurrence of the EFF Central Command Team (CCT). Therefore, from these constitutional provisions we can see two things:
a) The EFFSC has the autonomy to make and take decisions which will advance its political life, and its subsequent development. This means that in navigating the spaces of Higher Learning the EFFSC has every right to take decision that will not only benefit the EFFSC as an organization but also benefit students at large. This also means that the EFFSC can align itself with the organizations that it sees fit to align with it, so long as the alignment is ideologically principled, grounded in a sound scientific program of action, and will advance the revolutionary movement which seeks to overthrow the Capitalist regime which is represented by the ANC and its affiliates. The ANC in our institutions contests through SASCO, therefore, the EFFSC must take decisions that will unseat these friends of management while remaining ideologically principled.
b) The EFFSC cannot take decisions that involve it campaigning outside institutions of Higher Learning or exist outside these institutions without the agreeing with the EFF CCT. This means that whatever decision the EFFSC takes to link the struggle of students with the general struggle against the Capitalist regime, they must work hand in hand, and agree with the EFF CCT. Another facet is that EFFSC can't take decisions of a significant nature in the general politics of society without agreeing with the EFF. This is where the autonomy ends, hence the term relative autonomy.
Therefore, the EFFSC is beholden to the EFF, and its autonomy hangs on the existence of the EFF. Without the EFF there is no EFFSC, and that means the EFF is the alpha and omega of the EFFSC. Like a parent to a child, such is the relationship of the EFF and the EFFSC. One can't exist without the other even though the other can exist without the other even though the capacity will be reduced.
c) The need to popularize the politics of the EFF & the EFFSC in the sector
The sector of Higher Education like any other space is a space of the contestation of ideas between the antagonistic classes in society. We must be cognizant of the fact that education is a very key component of maintaining the capitalist order. Antonio Gramsci once wrote, "Culture is a privilege, education is a privilege and we do not want it to be so." Due to the reality of education being the center of ensuring the cultural hegemony of the capitalist system. It is very important for the EFFSC to first popularize the politics of the EFF which seeks to unite the struggle of the students with those of the oppressed classes which include the working class, and the peasantry. Cardinal Pillar 1 clearly states that we must expropriate the land without compensation for equal redistribution in use. In an EFF-led state the land will be expropriated to ensure we build more residences, campuses, and new institutions of Higher Learning, while ensuring that land is also economically productive. It is very important for us to not just only look at these cardinal pillars as abstractions but rather as concrete ideas that can be realized and linked with the sector.
Cardinal Pillar 2 clearly calls for the nationalization of mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy without compensation. When the mines, banks, and other strategic sectors are nationalized, the surplus generated from those economic ventures will be used to ensure our education is well resourced in terms of equipment, facilities, and allowances. When the state owns these strategic means and have them under democratic workers' control it will be much easier to redirect the surplus value to the workers and developing the sector of Higher Education further. Cardinal Pillar 3 calls for the building of state capacity, which will lead to the abolishment of tenders. When state capacity is built, jobs will be available for graduates, and we will have a more professional civil service which will deliver services without discrimination and prejudice. Even the public institutions will be developed through increased research capacity due to the state funding and capacitating public institutions of Higher Learning.
Cardinal Pillar 4 calls for free education, healthcare, houses, and sanitation to ensure that all have education, healthcare, housing, and sanitation. We must begin to link these demands with the call for campus clinics, and proper residences with proper sanitation that many students in South Africa and Africa are not afforded. It is this cardinal pillar that we ought to fight for directly in our campuses due to how we derive existence from this cardinal pillar. This doesn't mean we must neglect other cardinal pillars because most of the campaigns and activities around ensuring that these demands are met require us to move out of our campuses and start connecting our struggle with that of the community, hence the slogan Student Wars are Community Wars. Cardinal Pillar 5 speaks of massive protected industrial development to create millions of jobs. It further goes on to raise the demand for the introduction of minimum wages which will close the gap between rich and poor. t\This is another means of eradicating a class-based society as per the dictates of the science of Marxism-Leninism-Fanonism.
Cardinal Pillar 5 can be linked to our struggle due to how a socialist education system will be a conveyor built of the most skilled professionals and workers who will participate in the process of massive industrialization. It is precisely why we must understand the cardinal pillars from that perspective. Cardinal Pillar 6 links to our struggle due to how the development of the African economy creates the prospect of opening doors of opportunities in other spaces of this gigantic continent, especially if one attains quality education. Marx and Engels clearly understood that the worker has no borders due to how a worker will migrate to another part of the world for a better wage. Once the African economy is developed or even in the process of developing into an industrialized economy, the movement of workers across the continent will be necessary to ensure maximum employment of all the factors of production. All of these cardinal pillars cannot stand the test of time if Cardinal pillar 7 is not realized. We cannot have an industrialized continent without an open and transparent government that doesn't use law enforcement agencies to settle political scores.
However, we must not be naive in the realization of this cardinal pillar as this pillar requires us to redefine the role of the state post-socialist revolution. Once the State is in the hands of the oppressed classes, it is logical that the State will be used to settle political scores of the oppressed classes against the oppressor classes. This means that in the early years of the revolutionary government the State will use law enforcement agencies to ensure revolutionary justice is the norm, and to settle the political question of the dominance of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. These cardinal pillars ought to be popularized in our campuses, offices, and various spaces of interaction and ultimately be linked to the seven non-negotiable founding principles of the EFFSC. These principles cannot be taught without understanding the cardinal pillars. This is why this document primarily emphasizes the 7 Cardinal Pillars due to how understanding these pillars will be necessary to understand the dialectical connection between them and the 7 Non-Negotiable Founding Principles of the EFFSC.
Popularizing the Non-Negotiable Founding Principles of the EFFSC is an immediate task of the EFFSC in the country, particularly in the Eastern Cape. This is due to the Eastern Cape being an ANC stronghold which is plagued by corruption, poverty, misery, ignorance, and economic backwardness. All of these characteristics of the Eastern Cape province requires the EFFSC to be a fighting organ of the oppressed masses against the prevailing regime, and the system they implement which is capitalism. The Non-Negotiable Founding Principles of the EFFSC are steeped in ensuring that the revolutionary student understands the subjective struggle, and afterwards be able to link it with the objective struggle. The subjective struggle in this context is the fight for free, quality, well resourced, and decolonized education in our lifetime. The objective struggle on the other hand is the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime, and these struggles can only be achieved through the realization of Socialism in our lifetime. Socialism will not appear through reform and electoralism, but through sheer struggle against the Capitalist order and that requires us to take the path of revolution. It is only a revolution that will resolve the class contradictions and the malaise of the contemporary African capitalist society, and the world at large.
The Non-Negotiable Founding Principles are as follows:
(1) Mobilizing students behind the struggle for economic freedom,
embodied in the EFF Founding Manifesto.
(2) Pursuit of radical higher education transformation with the aim
towards free, quality education.
(3) Championing the interests of students and all workers in institutions
of higher learning.
(4) Building a dynamic relationship between students and
community struggles and campaigns.
(5) Participating in progressive international campaigns and
programs.
(6) Promoting academic and research excellence and progress.
(7) Contributing to intellectual and ideological discourse in a manner
that seeks to promote the struggle for economic freedom.
Once we popularize these principles, the power of the oppressed classes will be inescapable just like the power of the oppressor classes is inescapable in this current epoch. Once we popularize these politics it is only then that students will realize that the SRC is not an end in itself but a means to an end. It is only then that students will realize the need to create their own organs of power which are not under the auspices of institutional management. It is only then we will appreciate the need for dual power in order for us to radically transform the Higher Education sector, and the society we live in. Once dual power is a reality, we are just simply one push away from overthrowing the current education regime of capitalists and replace it with a regime of socialist education. This cannot be achieved without the overthrowal of the capitalist order, and it is imperative for us as Fighters to ensure that we understand this fact.
d) Conclusion
Chinese Marxist Deng Xiaoping clearly states that the role of a Marxist is to search for the truth in the available facts. We cannot construct a revolutionary program if we are not armed with the truth. We cannot build a revolutionary organization without the truth, and ultimately the work of the Party cannot be carried out without the truth. It is this truth that should guide us in our quest to conquer state and economic power and this requires us to make the revolution permanent as Marx said in the Congress of the Communist League in 1850. Marx said this to make sure that all revolutionaries are aware that our struggle is intersectional and international due to how the primary contradiction of class determines the ideas and implementation thereof in as far as gender, race, and ethnicity is concerned. To give this document justice, it is only fair for us to provide the quote, and it reads as follows, "While the democratic petty bourgeois want to bring the revolution to an end as quickly as possible, achieving at most the aims already mentioned, it is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent until all the more or less propertied classes have been driven from their ruling positions, until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far – not only in one country but in all the leading countries of the world – that competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases and at least the decisive forces of production are concentrated in the hands of the workers"
A Luta Continua Contra Capitalismo!
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