March 20 Shutdown: Results and Prospects by Sandiso Mbulawa & Lindokuhle Mponco

The March 20th National Shutdown was a historical move in the epoch of post-apartheid South Africa. The National Shutdown demonstrated one thing and one thing only, the power of the EFFSC in the inner workings and organizational lifeblood of the EFF. This demonstration of the EFFSC being a fighting organ not only in the hands of students from working class and peasantry backgrounds, but also the working class and the peasantry in itself is a demonstration of the power of students in the class struggle in South Africa. Our history is filled with such realities; however, the exercise of this article is to assess the overall performance of the Organization and many other organizations that joined the shutdown.

Results

The EFF National Shutdown of March 20th was a shutdown like no other. For the first time in a long time, we saw the might of the South African Police Service (SAPS) on full display. The State reacted to a threat from a grouping of Socialist Organizations (EFF, Land Party, PAC & SAFTU) in a fashion that any bourgeois state would react in. Even when Centrist organizations like UDM, ATM, and ARETA joined, the State refused to tone down the rhetoric of war and violence due to the threat of the regime being overthrown. This panic was caused by the reality of an organized shutdown being a potential spark for an insurrection that could sweep the current regime away with a drop of a hat. The State flexed its bourgeois muscles in defense of bourgeois property and bourgeois law & order. The rhetoric of defending the economy fell flat as many on social media came to the realization that the economy is not even in their hands, and it has tanked. The panic was evident when the DA went on a court interdict spree which also failed to produce the result that they wanted, which was an interdict against the shutdown. 

The result of this panic from both the State, and the bourgeois official opposition party led to an awakening of some sorts from certain sections and layers of the working class. This awakening made them realize that capital was pushing a holy matrimony of the ANC led regime and the DA. This is due to these two parties being the primary agents of capitalism in South Africa. Action SA joined the bandwagon with various other capitalist influencers and commentators. The mainstream media was also in on the attack against shutdown due to most media houses being owned by the ruling capitalist class. The NASPERS owned media outlets were at the forefront of a campaign to render the shutdown useless; however, the working class surprised them. It is predicted by various bourgeois media and research outlets that over 70% of the workforce did not pitch up for work on Monday. This is the largest stay-away post-Apartheid and rendered the economy inactive. Even those that pitched up for work were not productive, and this means that over 80% of the economy was inactive.  Objectively speaking, this is one of the biggest stay-away in South African history and has shown the bosses that workers do not trust the assurances from this bourgeois government led by the ANC. 

Business owners were sending letters left, right and center encouraging workers not to risk their lives. The contradiction of protecting their stock and future profits saw business owners prioritize the workers' lives and their concerns. The mobilization work from the EFF and SAFTU led to one of the biggest police mobilizations, and deployment of SANDF forces post-lockdown. This is evidence that the State saw their life flash right before their eyes when they saw the pre-Shutdown mobilization from the EFF and SAFTU. One thing that was evident throughout the shutdown was that most of the protestors were EFF members. In some parts of the country, the core of the protestors was EFFSC members. This shows the advanced character of the EFFSC and the role it plays in the life of the EFF. The EFFSC proved to be a key component in the machinery of the EFF. This was proof that the EFFSC is one of the motive forces of the protest movement called the EFF. Due to the relatively small nature of the other organizations (besides SAFTU) and their lack of mobilization, we saw the EFF take the bulk of the spotlight. This was because the call came from the EFF and carried through by the EFF till the end. 

The threat of this shutdown even forced the State to suspend loadshedding to appease the masses. Suspending loadshedding didn't assist as the masses continued to soldier on. Small towns like Alice, Lusikisiki, and Qonce felt the might of the EFF in a way they have never felt it before. These small towns were shut down and some felt the impact of the decisive vanguard movement of the working class and the poor post-Apartheid. This shutdown has not only opened the eyes of the masses to the hypocrisy of the ANC government and the bourgeois regime but also positioned the EFF as a fighting organ in the hands of the People.

Prospects

The prospects created by this shutdown are clear for all to see; we are heading towards rolling mass action. This rolling mass action needs to be guided by a Party that can unite all the oppressed layers of society and advance a program that can be the basis of a new society. The EFF's basic program (7 Cardinal Pillars) contains the essence of this new society that we seek to build; however, the basic program is only a plank or rather a bridge to Socialism. The 7 Cardinal Pillars lay the foundation for a Socialist government and order, thus rendering it a Socialist Oriented program rather than a fully-fledged Socialist basic program. The 7 Cardinal Pillars are essentially a radical and revolutionary summary of the Freedom Charter. The prospects of rolling mass action have been laid out by this shutdown. As a result, SANTACO blocked the N2 from Mt. Ayliff to Butterworth in the Eastern Cape. Their shutdown is based on the conditions of the road, high petrol prices and high interest rates. Slowly but surely the economic protests are intersecting with the political protests. The situation is slowly turning, and the masses are rapidly being radicalized with every passing day. 

The prospects of an EFFSC led shutdown based on the demand of Free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education are high. As a result, the EFFSC has announced that on the 28th of March there will be a program of occupying the headquarters of Department of Higher Education & Training. These are the opening shots of revolution, and any revolutionary must take heed. However, for these prospects to materialize the movement must take stock of the failures and weaknesses of the movement. The next step must be to ensure that every branch is politically and legally ready for the shutdown. The step that follows is a clear plan of mobilizing the working class and the peasantry towards this aim of shutting down the country for Free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education in our lifetime. After the success of the Bolshevik Revolution Lenin said the following words, "The important thing is that the ice is broken; the road is open, the way has been shown." Now that the ice has been broken, the road has been opened and the way has been shown; it is time for us to move towards the seizure of power by the masses through a popular seizure of power and liquidation of the ruling classes!

On Reformism, Populism, and Revolutionary Politics in Student Governance by Lindokuhle Mponco

Reformism, Populism, and Revolutionary are the most commonly used terms in the political space in Higher Education institutions. This is being sparked by the increasing tide of reactionary and neoliberal politics in the country, and in particular the sector of Higher Education. These concepts grip our political imagination and reality not only because we are learning about them in lecture halls but because every single day in these institutions is a confrontation of either one of these three tendencies, all varying in their degrees. As a result, these tendencies end up gripping the organs of student power in institutions of higher learning and this also varies depending on the political tide objectively, and the reality on the ground in as far as leadership is concerned (which is a subjective matter). Objectively, we face a very violent system, but the question is do we have a subjective factor that is strong enough to withstand this objective reality? In this article we will answer that question by interrogating these tendencies in our student governance space here in the University of Fort Hare.

On Reformism

The author of this article has written extensively on reformism but has never ventured into the details and the scientific definition of reformism. Reformism is a tendency that seeks to fix the system from within while not fundamentally changing anything. Reformism is the desire to fix things gradually and often in slow strides. Reformism is therefore a tendency that does not seek immediate change but change over a long period of time. It is the essence of the bourgeois system called capitalism. While capitalism rapidly concentrates the wealth and power of the bourgeois class in its hands, it resolves the problems of the peasantry and the working class. slowly. It takes protests, marches, strikes and various other forms of demonstrations to get the system to move. Reformism in the University of Fort Hare is part and parcel of the body politic and is the guiding principle of governance. The system promotes gradual changes that do not fundamentally shift the system but change it over a long period of time. The reality is that the SRC and ISP do not have a lifetime to sort out the issues of students, they have only one year.

As such, reformism makes most of the work the SRC and the ISP does a fool's errand. This in a nutshell means we move 5 steps forward only to move 10 steps backwards. Every regime becomes gradually worse than the other the more time progresses because the system itself is rotting to its death. The current regime is no better than the last one, and so on and so forth. However, the problem is that we have student activists who have no understanding or consciousness that they operate in a reformist system due to the lack of political education and idealist politics that are detached from the materialist conception of society. Reformism does not need to rear its ugly head because it already exists and is the mainstream tendency. Our duty as revolutionaries is to point out the reformist character much like Rosa Luxemburg pointed it out to Bernstein who was in the process of revising Marxism to suit the capitalist system and fit in the confines of bourgeoisdom. Our task is to reject those that seek to convert the revolutionary will of the student populace to fit into the reformist system by highlighting that our fight is not institutional in character, but sectoral in nature and character. Despite the reforms, we must go beyond reform and take the path of revolution. 

The EFFSC espouses such politics and as revolutionaries that do not only belong to the EFFSC we must practically apply this rejection by patiently explaining the conditions of our people through sound ideology and tools of analysis. An example is the crisis of students who lost spaces, yet they accepted offers. The reformist remedy was to increase the quota; however, the system countered by stating that the more they increase the quota, the more they get fined. The reality of reformism is that you have to understand that the system is limited while revolutionary politics tell us that the practical method is to ensure that students are given space, while the institution revises its quota targets and begin the process of infrastructure development (ADD MORE LECTURE VENUES AND RESIDENCES). The second method is for the SRC to mobilize students to demonstrate against DHET and call for the increase of institutional funding and spread this demonstration nationwide. SAUS has not proven to be useful but lobbying them and contesting the space from within is the only viable option.

On Populism

The author recently published an article titled, On Combating Populism to address the rise of populist politics. We have noted that these politics rise up when there is a vacuum and nature does not allow a vacuum. Vacuums often exist in situations where there is an Interim leadership. In 1917 a political vacuum arose when the Tsar was overthrown. However, the establishment of Soviets closed that vacuum and created the reality of dual power. The author has written on creating dual power in the inaugural article of this revolutionary blog and how it can be put into effect. The issue has been the idea gaining mass consciousness. As the author, I firmly believe that the time is near for this idea to reach mass consciousness; however, before it reaches mass consciousness, we have to invest our energies in first understanding what is populism and how it affects student governance. Populism is the ability to appeal to the layman by raising issues in a way that they can relate to. This in the first instance is not a problem, but it becomes a problem because when we further venture into what populism is we realize that populism is the instrument of using the interests of people to not only appeal to them but to accumulate power by promising a pie in the sky without a practical understanding of how to implement such.

An example of a populist decision is when the former President Jacob Zuma announced free education without modalities. NSFAS went on to take advantage of this populist pronouncement by capping it and limiting it to a certain category neglecting the layer of the missing middle and other students that are affected by the exorbitant price of education. This is an example of populism and how it affects governance. A revolutionary has to ensure that students do not fall into the trap of populism due to how students are used by populists for cheap political points. The character of populists is that of the pied piper. The story of the Pied Piper is a story of a musician who led children into a den of death. Populists have been leading students in this institution to the den of death. Populists sell students dreams and once they ascend into power, they tell them that it is impossible. As revolutionary Marxists, we must be at the forefront of ensuring that populists do not have ground by patiently explaining that the current Accommodation crisis is a result of an increase in the number of students who are in the system. We must also explain that the capitalist crisis in South Africa has created a scenario whereby institutions are chronically underfunded by DHET due to austerity. This does not mean that we do not have subjective factors at play. We must also zoom into the tendencies of corruption in the Supply Chain department and Residence Department so that we can resolve the crisis. The minute we elevate the fight to that level, we are able to distill the populists who are sectarian and limited politically.

Populism must be combatted because it operates on deception, lies, and many other distortions to win over the hearts and minds of the students. As revolutionary Marxists, we must straighten the path by exposing the objective and subjective truths of the system. Some of these populists that are making noise in our institution were at the forefront of these reactionary policies that revolutionaries from across the political left spectrum have to reverse in this tenure. 

On Revolutionary Politics

Revolutionary politics are politics that are steeped in the fundamental change of the system, institution or society. Revolutionary politics do not only limit themselves to the confines of the system like Reformist politics. Revolutionary politics are outside of the box politics that seek to destabilize the current system, which is rotten, parasitic and moribund. The reality is that the system is dying a slow and painful death, but it requires hosts to continue surviving. Anyone, whether one is a dialectical thinker or not can deduce and conclude that the capitalist system is parasitic. However, not everyone can come up with the solutions to uproot the parasitic system. Revolutionary politics help us with that task of understanding what is the problem and how do we solve it. Revolutionary politics are not anarchic in nature but are rather dialectically opposed to the status quo which consistently oppress the masses of our people. #FeesMustFall is an example of revolutionary politics at play due to the content, method, and aims it sought to achieve. The revolutionary character of the politics that guided #FeesMustFall led to the State mischaracterizing it into a color revolution when the demands of the movement were opposed to what color revolutions normally stand for. 

Revolutionary politics as espoused by every generation of Socialists starting from Marx down to Chris Hani are seized with changing the order of the day from one point to another. It is Marx who comes to the conclusion that revolution is a scientific phenomenon of development. Engels elaborates on that reality in his classic work Dialectics of Nature. Lenin reminds us about this in his classic work The State and Revolution, while Leon Trotsky does this in his fundamental Marxist theory, the Theory of Permanent Revolution. The science of Revolutionary politics teaches us that we have to tell no lies, mask no failures, and hide nothing from the masses. The science of Revolutionary politics teaches us to ground our path to revolution on the material conditions rather than on the ideal conditions. The reality is that the material conditions are not the ideal conditions. We must then use the material conditions to attain the ideal conditions. Revolutionary politics teaches us to understand that not every tide is revolutionary and not every situation is a revolutionary situation. Revolutionary situations become possible because of the objective conditions, and the consciousness levels of the oppressed masses of our people. 

Once the consciousness levels have swung to a radical position, it becomes an easier task to mobilize for a revolution; however, the leadership of the strata or class or constituency must be ready ideologically and otherwise. In the institution of the University of Fort Hare we are in a reactionary period which is occurring in the midst of an objectively revolutionary situation. A sober minded revolutionary knows that in order for the subjective factor to align with the objective factor there needs to be a revolutionary leadership at the forefront, not a populist or a reformist or even a sectarian leadership. The current voices making noises on Facebook are either sectarian, reformist or populist. We will not judge them by their fruits yet, but we will be forced to judge them should they persist grandstanding and articulating issues like people who have no grasp of the processes and methods of operating in a reformist. A revolutionary, whether Marxist or not, knows that for one to shake a reformist system dual power has to exist. Some of us have been at the forefront of calling for dual power because we know that dual power will give us the upper hand as students waging war against a capitalist management. While most of the noisemakers were relying on the very same system to clamp down on revolutionaries and mass meetings when they were in governance.

What is to be done?

Lenin once said that when the oppressed classes cannot live the old way, the ruling class will not be able to rule in the old way. We are in that scenario not only as the University of Fort Hare but as the sector and the country as a whole. What needs to be done in the interim is an intervention of a Revolutionary Students' Alliance of all Revolutionary Organizations within the institution, and then generally within the sector. The immediate task of this Revolutionary Students' Alliance in our institution is to ensure the following happens:

1. A mass meeting is convened in all campuses.

2. Establish a Popular Revolutionary Students' Forum which will be a counterbalance to the SRC.

3. Push the SRC SG/Coordinator to convene the ISP so that a Secretariat can be elected.

4. Form Revolutionary Students' Committees in every residence as a base for revolutionary activity.

5. Launch a Revolutionary Journal which will be tasked with agitation, persuasion, and mobilizing students behind the idea of Free, quality, well resourced, and decolonized education.

6. Convene a Revolutionary Students' Summit which will consist of delegates from every Revolutionary Organization so that we have a reality of a National Popular Revolutionary Students' Forum.

7. Establish a Fighting Fund which will financially assist students who will be victimized by the system through expulsions, suspensions, and imprisonment.

Once the Revolutionary Students' Alliance does these tasks, this will set the ground for revolutionary swing not just in our institution but across the country.

On Combating Populism by Lindokuhle Mponco

The society we live in has many problems. These problems are a result of the contradictions that emanate from the development of society and humanity. However, since the dawn of the state we have seen a tendency that has not only captured societies, but this tendency has led to chaos and anarchy that lead society to the bottomless pit of poverty, misery, and inequality. We have seen this tendency rise in our institution due to a political vacuum that normally pops up during the tenure of interim structures. In our institution we have seen tendencies of this nature rise, and in their rise, they have been directed to the SRC.

This is not to say the SRC is an innocent organ that is spotless and holy. I have been accused of portraying the SRC as such; however, those who have accused me of such have failed to produce evidence of such. I want to state it clearly that my views are influenced by my commitment to Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian thought and the Party that adheres to this school of thought, the EFF and its student wing, the EFFSC. My studies of this school of thought have taught me the importance of a dialectical analysis when analyzing issues. This is to ensure that the response to these issues is wholositic in its approach, and rooted in practicality. Hence, the understanding of dialectical materialism is important when analyzing this question of Populism.

Populism has gripped our institution due to a lack of political acumen and content. The populist character of the recent attacks against the SRC displays the lack of political acumen and content. To successfully combat this populist tendency one must adhere to the principle of Amilcar Cabral. Amilcar Cabral teaches us to, "Tell no lies, claim no easy victories, and hide nothing from the masses of our people." This is primarily due to the reality of the socio-political terrain of wins and losses. We must be clear that communication lines of the SRC have not been ideal and straightforward. However, the approach of ensuring that the SRC communicates with absolute clarity on issues has been a display of the lack of political sense and reasoning. I must put it on record that the EFFSC has been the only Organisation that has managed to do this for the benefit of students due to the superior logic that is entailed in its approach to problem solving. Like a true vanguard, it has not said things for the sake of riling up the crowd and getting a reaction. It has articulated its posture in the most dialectical but practical way.

The reality is that we need a mass meeting as soon as possible to address certain issues in the immediate, and simultaneously we need to pave the way for the ISP to convene so that we can close the vacuum that seems to exist. The SRC can only be accountable and functional as an organ of the students if political organisations are clear on the problems, and offer practical solutions grounded in a materialist conception of the issues at hand. This understanding of dialectical materialism and the deliberate effort to inculcate this thought across the political space by the Vanguard of Students' and Community struggles, the EFFSC is the first step we must take to combat populism. The consistent use of dialectical materialism in our analysis and the spread of this tool of analysis is the most definite, but long term method we can use to combat populism.

The second step we must take is immediate but transitionary in character. That step was the guiding method of the Bolsheviks in 1917. Lenin encouraged the Party to 'patiently explain the conditions'. Patient explanation requires one to be meticulous and thorough in his/her understanding of issues. The call to disband the SRC and have elections immediately is the first example of a shortsighted approach to the problem. All revolutionaries will agree that we need to sit elections, but the route needs to be practical and clear. The essence of electing an SRC needs to be protected; however, we must make sure that in our protection of this essence we do not use idealist and populist methods. The method of using the SGC to our advantage through a radical interpretation has proven to work before. An example was the fight for adherence to section 5 of the SGC.

Those involved in that struggle will know that we patiently explained the problem, and ensured we did not open loopholes for the management to deviate from the section. This populist attempt is not only loophole ridden but lacks the practical impetus to convince even the most politically underdeveloped activist. This is primarily due to the lack of logic. This lack of logic displays itself in these shapes and forms. These few activists have displayed this illogical populist slogan for all to see. It is not that the essence of what they are calling for is wrong, but the approach to the call the framing of the demand is wrong and illogical. You cannot fix a house that has not been fundamentally damaged by demolishing the building and starting again without the necessary modalities.

The impracticality of this call is not on the basis of the idea in itself but lies in the framing of the idea. The most logical step is to put pressure on the SRC to call a mass meeting. That is where the energies should be directed to so that students can raise their voice and not be used for attempts to elevate some political charlatans to the upper echelons of student governance. Combating populism by patiently explaining the conditions and the next logical step is the immediate method of combating populism. The Kornilov like character of this wave is the exact reason why all revolutionaries should band against this attempt to unnecessarily unseat the SRC. I am not saying that the SRC must not be removed, but much like Trotsky and Lenin in 1917 we must guard the gains of the revolution by combating this tendency before confronting the regime head on. The reality is that this attempt is distracting us from ensuring that we use all the necessary measures to hold them accountable, while taking the fight to management.

Combating populism in our political space is the first thing we ought to do if we are to advance the student movement towards victory. The collapse of student activism can be located to this desire of 15 minutes of fame, only for charlatans to enter office and become an extension of management. We must combat populism by unmasking the lies and distortions of populists. Unmasking these lies is paramount to the fight of combating populism. Populism is centered around distortions and lies. Twisting facts is the centre of populism, and as such we must unmask lies and expose charlatans so that our movement can be cleansed from staff riders and opportunists. Staff riders and opportunists in their nature are populists and it is important for us to isolate this tendency by providing ideological clarity and superior logic!

All r

On Professionalizing the Work of the ISP by Lindokuhle Mponco

                                                                                                                         

The ISP in the University of Fort Hare has been riddled with a lot of technical and administrative issues. This is due to the lack of concern for such matters. As a result, in the year of 2022 we did not have SRC Elections not because of extraordinary circumstances like 2020 (COVID-19) but because of administrative and technical issues. These technical issues have bogged down the structure as an objective whole and has aided in shifting the momentum towards the forces of reaction and counter-revolution. The question of professionalizing the ISP has been a question the author has not tackled before, but in reality, this question goes hand in hand with the question of deepening the role ISP ought to play in the general body politic. If we are serious about reviving student activism, protecting and renewing student governance, and deepening the roots of the struggle for free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education then we need to zoom into the task of professionalizing the work of the ISP.

The need for professionalism

The ISP is a body which consists of societies, political organizations, and SRC in toto (this means including their sub-structures). To convene, coordinate, organize, and represent such a body one needs a Secretariat that will center the question of professionalizing the work of the ISP. This body is largely responsible for the policy and political framework that determines the posture of student activism. If this body is not professional, then student activism will collapse as we have seen in the recent years. This means that our Student Parliament has to be centered on the principle of organizing itself in a much more professional manner. It is no secret that the ISP has been bedeviled by the plague of bogusness. This bogusness has become the character of the ISP with the next Secretariat becoming more bogus than the other despite the subjective reasons one might give. Whether one wants to admit it or not, prior to the Legal Opinion that was offered by the Deputy Registrar: Legal & Governance, Ms. Ntibi Maepa, the ISP was bogus. The fact that the ISP Organizer, Cde. Godfrey Ganya, at the time used this for his own subjective and personal reasons does not negate the ultimate reality that he was also admitting that the legality of the Secretariat he served under was questionable if not outrightly contestable and invalid. However, the politics of the Institution resolved to remove the ISP Organizer who was elected at the time, Cde. Lona Mketsu, and the author of this article who served as ISP Finance Officer.

This back and forth, and the legal wrangling proved one thing and one thing only, the ISP was illegal until the legal opinion which ruled on the correction of the credentials and rerunning the impeachment process. It is necessary to say that this was done as per the recommendation of the legal opinion but because the politics of the Institution did not allow the autonomy of the ISP to be respected, the ruling was dubiously and unconstitutionally overruled in as far as the impeachment was concerned. It is also necessary for us to state that when we objectively look at the legal opinion itself, it was a legal opinion that was unconstitutional but became a necessary measure of resetting the administrative controls of the ISP. I must make it clear that the author of this article, and Cde. Lona Mketsu fought tooth and nail for constitutionalism to be restored. We cannot forget to mention other allies in this struggle like Cde. Aphelele Maliwa, Cde. Sanele Mngambi, Cde. Luyanda Ndlovu, and many other comrades in the Secretariat who fought tooth and nail for the protection of the constitution. We must mention the role Cde. Godfrey Ganya played in ensuring that the rule of capitalists in as far as administrating our elections is eradicated, and the IEC is constituted according to the guidelines of the SGC. However, one reality that the ISP as a body could not escape was the question of professionalism. This lack of professionalism and mistrust led to the ultimate collapse of the Secretariat and ultimately the ISP as a body. The question of professionalism will be the main question that will grip the incoming Secretariat, and it is important that the next Secretariat consists of individuals with institutional memory and revolutionary credentials. These will be important when dealing with the Student Affairs department.

The need for a revolutionary leadership to professionalize ISP.

The main question that has gripped members of the ISP in the years gone by has always been the question of a revolutionary leadership. This question has been simplified to the question of those who have sold out and those who have not sold out yet. The yet is very important because it has never escaped the minds of MPs and various leaders that most leaders go into governance positions claiming to be revolutionary only for them to end up being the opposite. However, it is only last year where we saw the question being posed clearly due to the resurrection of revolutionary politics in the institution, and the rise of a revolutionary bloc within the corridors of the ISP chambers. The resurrection of this question comes in the midst of what one would call a period of reaction which masquerades as a period of renewal. The infighting between Senior managers of this institution has given a certain bloc within the institution impetus and a cover for their aim to suppress student activism. However, this has not gone unnoticed and the challenge this bloc has been having is how to contain this revolutionary element, while protecting their interests and gaining mass support for their program. We must be honest with ourselves that this period of renewal cannot gain the necessary momentum it needs unless it centers itself with the struggle of the masses. The question of a revolutionary leadership comes in at this particular juncture. 

The Decade of Renewal cannot take off if the primary stakeholder (the student) is not involved, and in fact is a target of this renewal campaign. This is no different to Ramaphosa chanting a new dawn only to suppress the working class which is ironically the base of the ANC and the campaign for renewal and unity in the ANC. The same can be said to be true when it comes to the question of the University of Fort Hare. Prof. Buhlungu cannot implement his program of renewal unless the program is centered around students being the primary motive force of this program. The ISP in this regard will play a critical role in ensuring that it mobilizes the student populace behind this program without contradiction because it represents the aspirations of students and workers in the institution. Any anti-Student/anti-Worker method of implementing this program will fail and the Decade of Renewal will be a damp squib. The need for a revolutionary leadership to professionalize the ISP has become unavoidable due to how the ISP has failed to respond to the question of renewal and centering the students in this particular process. Instead, the ISP has become the center of political squabbles because there is no sense of professionalism to guide the work of the ISP. Instead, we have a large contingent of MPs that seek to use the ISP as an access card to Senior managers and resources for their own benefit. A professional ISP will be able to deal with all the revolutionary questions posed to it with an efficiency unparalleled. This efficiency can only be delivered by a revolutionary leadership!

What is to be done?

The EFFSC must begin the process of lobbying all progressive forces towards the position of professionalizing the ISP through identifying the revolutionaries who will be suitable for this task. However, the first task of the EFFSC is to give the upcoming Parliamentary sitting a political posture and sharpen the contestation of ideas for the upcoming sitting. It must draw lessons from the experience of 2021 and 2022 and develop guidelines which will ensure that every cadre is on board and understands the tasks that lay ahead. The EFFSC must begin the task of inducting all its MPs and potential MPs in the understanding of how a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian organization must approach the question of Parliaments because in reality the ISP is a bourgeois parliament due to the capitalist character of the institution, and the system that governs it. The EFFSC must deepen its relationship with all like-minded political organizations and societies with the aim of bringing about a revolutionary outcome. It must also spearhead a mass agitation campaign to agitate and mobilize all the MPs towards this revolutionary position of professionalizing the work of the ISP and ensuring that this is done by a revolutionary leadership. We must continue the fight for a revolutionary parliament even though we understand the limitations of the system.

As revolutionaries that belong to the EFFSC, we must at all material times guard the revolution against tendencies that seek to use the organization as an accumulation tool and begin the campaign of revolutionizing the student activist space. It is our duty as Marxists to ensure that student activism is in the hands of students, and that our struggle is linked to that of the working class, and ultimately the broader struggle against capitalism.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

On Shutdowns in a post-COVID-19 Higher Education Sector by Lindokuhle Mponco

Shutdowns have always been tactically used to put pressure on institutional management to submit to the demands of the students or at least reach a halfway point of compromise. However, post-COVID-19 these shutdowns have had little to no effect in the broader scale of the struggle. These shutdowns have instead become an arena for the management to identify all the reactionaries, counterrevolutionaries, and potential sellouts and scabs to use so that they can purge all of those who are problematic to the system. In this article we will analyze the role played by shutdowns in our history of the struggle for free, quality, well-resourced and decolonized education. We will then analyze the status quo and the effectiveness of shutdowns. We will then conclude on what is to be done to advance the revolutionary struggle for free, quality well-resourced and decolonized education.

Historical Role of Shutdowns

Shutdowns have been a known feature in the struggle for a Socialist society in South Africa. In the sector of Higher Education shutdowns are the lifeblood of the movement. The first shutdown to ever shock the system at a grand scale was the 1972 shutdown which started in the University of the North (University of Limpopo) and spread across the sector. This led to the expulsion of Cde. Onkgopotse Tiro who was the catalyst of the shutdown due to his scathing critique of the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which was the basis of the education system for black people from primary school to the tertiary sector. Prior to that, shutdowns were limited to campuses and not nationally tied to one banner which unifies all the oppressed layers of the student populace. We must thank the advent of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), and the existence of South African Students' Organization (SASO) for such a development in our political space in the Higher Education sector. This was intensified in the 1980s with the existence of COSAS and many other students' organizations which became the bedrock of the struggle not only in the Higher Education sector but also in the Basic Education sector. 

The 1990s proved to be an era of instability and transition due to the political nature of the period. The CODESA process gave that character to every space where transition was required immediately. This process led to a lull while institutions that were administrated by the Bantu Education Act of 1953 continued with the struggle due to the historical disadvantage and the reactionary character of the institutional management. The author of this article must make it clear that all institutional managements in their nature have a reactionary element, however, during this period most tended to be progressive even though we must stress that history offered them no other alternative but to be progressive. It is in the 2000s and ultimately in 2010s that we begin to see shutdowns regain momentum and become the centerpiece of our struggle in this sector. The #FeesMustFall movement became the enabler of this situation. The South African Union of Students (SAUS) took advantage of this and became the unifying platform for all these struggles even though eventually reformism caught up with the Union. There are many reasons for SAUS taking the reformist turn, and those reasons can be simplified to one thing and one thing only, politics of the stomach. In the 2020s, the last attempt was halted by COVID-19 and the reformist character of the leadership in the former whites-only institutions. This reality of COVID-19 gave the management breathing space to beef up security and develop measures of infiltrating the revolution. Engels taught us in his classic work The Origin of the State, Family, & Property that the security sector is nothing but a group of armed men who exist to defend capitalist property. Lenin emphasizes this in his classic work The State & Revolution and even goes further to state that there is nothing revolutionary about the workers who are working in the security sector (police and private security). Lenin then ventures to even call them sellouts. SAUS also played a role by selling out the struggle for a temporary peace which is now up in flames. One thing we can see is that shutdowns have been used for pressuring the system at a national level to reform or die. However, the strength of these shutdowns has been sapped by the constant selling out and reformist character of the national unions, NUSAS during apartheid and SAUS after apartheid.

Status Quo

As we speak, Wits University (University of Witwatersrand) is having a shutdown due to accommodation issues and exclusion. These are issues that have been constantly plaguing the historically disadvantaged institutions from the 1930s till now. We know for a fact that Nelson Mandela was expelled at the University of Fort Hare for leading an accommodation strike and an SRC elections boycott. Today, we see that accommodation issues are not only limited to the University of Fort Hare or Walter Sisulu University but have also spread to the bourgeois institutions which is why the media has cast the spotlight on the recent Wits shutdown, while reducing the march in the University of Fort Hare to a march calling for a tavern without mentioning that the march was sparked by the murder and rape of two students coming back from a night out. This is the clear case of the media batting for the class interests of those that control their cameras and pens, the Bourgeoisie! The lack of unity between institutions emanates from the class differences between these two layers of institutions even though it is plain to see that the issues that are raised are sectoral in character. The deep penetration of the capitalist class in the sector has led to such issues being sectoral in character.

This deep penetration of the capitalist class was intensified during the tenure of Thabo Mbeki as President, and Naledi Pandor as Minister of Education. The outsourcing of many components within the sector has led to a crisis of shortage due to how a capitalist prices their buildings. The era of landlords being the determinants of policy in as far as accommodation and accreditation is upon us. It is not going to fade out anytime soon due to the ever-increasing austerity measures of the government of the day. We must make it clear that the blunt Blade Nzimande and his spawn Buti Manamela have played a critical role in ensuring that the capitalist class sink in their claws deeper than ever. It is under the tenure of Blade Nzimande as Minister of Higher Education where we have seen the most reactionary and counter-revolutionary policy positions in the history of the sector post-1994. It is under his tenure where we have seen many institutions go under administration and institutional governance collapsing. It is under his tenure where we have seen the white-supremacist cabal fight back against decolonization and transformation in the sector. He has been a mere by-stander and implementor of capitalist policies without criticism even though he serves as the National Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP). We must then take the recent protests by the PYA-led SRC at Wits with a pinch of salt because these components of PYA are in an alliance with the ruling Party which is implementing these same policies that they find themselves protesting against.

Our status quo is that of a Minister who has put the sector under permanent austerity and is at the forefront of ensuring that our sector is the exact copy of the Bantu Education system. This cannot be distanced from the general outlook of the ANC and the tripartite alliance due to how the other components of the tripartite alliance have been meekly critical of the ANC. This meek criticism has been extended to other components of the alliance, and as such we are not surprised when we see SASCO being the epitome of this reformist behavior. SASCO is the center of selloutism in the sector of Higher Education and represents the character of the ANC in the student space. When students see SASCO, they must know they see the mirror image of the ANC. They are fundamentally playing the same role that the ANC plays in the mainstream political arena. The attack on revolutionary politics in our institutions of Higher Education has been led by SASCO and they continue playing the role of being the reliable spies of institutional management. 

What is to be done?

Our role as revolutionaries of the EFFSC is to firstly politicize our members and cadres to a point whereby selloutism will be a nonfactor in the movement. The second step in our journey is to intensify the call for a National Students' Revolutionary Summit which will look at unifying all the revolutionary organizations within the sector to form a National Students' Revolutionary Alliance which will not only fight for the demands of free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education but also center the question of liquidating capitalism through revolutionary means in our lifetime. It is clear that capitalism is at the center of the problems we face in the Higher Education Sector and as such we must not hesitate to mobilize ourselves to the realization of a socialist order. As revolutionaries of the EFFSC we must jealously guard the movement from tendencies that we condemn SASCO for. We must isolate all sellouts within our ranks whether they are found in the CSCT, PSCT, BSCT, BSTT or even amongst our groundforces. The movement must not be silent in the midst of this chaos, a national response is needed for such instances. 

Our understanding of Marxism teaches us that when the more developed institutions move towards a revolutionary posture, we must connect the struggle with the developing institutions to unify the struggle under one banner. Secondly, we must connect the struggle with that of the working class to ensure that the momentum is maintained to ensure that the demands are realized. We have seen such developments in the University of Western Cape (UWC) shutdown, and the Wits shutdown. Those developments must be commended; however, we must not stop there. The demands of our struggle must reflect the unity between workers and students. The struggle for free, quality, well-resourced, and decolonized education is a working-class struggle much like the call for a living wage and labor receiving the profits of what they produce is a students' struggle. The slogan of the 4th CSCT clearly states that community wars are student wars. We must not be rhetorical in our implementation of that slogan but rather be pragmatic in our implementation.