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BLACK FIRST LAND FIRST: THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOCIALIST BLACK CENTERED EDUCATION CONTINUES |
| BLF applauds those who continue to play their part in the student struggle for Free Education, recognising the courageous work done in 2015, including the continual planning over what was meant to be a “festive period”. The principled position taken by the #FeesMustFall movement who rejects the idea of “Business as Normal, in an Abnormal Society”, is exemplary and speaks to the desire for black liberation from an anti-black, white-supremacist society. |
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APPLYING SANKOFA WISDOM WE LOOK BACK AND LEARN FROM KEY MOMENTS IN THE 2015 #FEESMUSTFALL STRUGGLE: |
| Unprincipled Unity is No Unity at All! – At the beginning of the #FeesMustFall struggle, BLF warned that an unprincipled unity with ANC via PYA, SASCO and other affiliates is no unity. Later, the #FeesMustFall movement was hijacked by the ANC, where they tried to dilute the radical politics of the movement, which saw it splintering and in need of rebuilding.
Why call unity with ANC aligned organisations unprincipled? Because it is the ANC that makes laws that exclude blacks, it’s ANC laws that legalise outsourcing and it’s the ANC government that killed workers in Marikana. We call on #FeesMustFall to take a principled Black First position, recognising that the decolonisation project must essentially be rooted in Black Struggle. Furthermore, we warn against the liberalising of the movement, which is a product of unprincipled unity. |
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CONCERNING VIOLENCE – |
| We live in a violent state that sees black people as animals. The brutality by police on the UWC, TUT and CPUT students, when these notably black students refused to continue as if the struggle for liberation could simply be postponed, showed us the disdain for black life. Worse still, when these students defended themselves by using anti-black structures to counter institutionalised racism, they were rendered barbaric. We must be clear that violence is the only end toward social change, and to condemn the use of violence for liberation is to be anti-black. Impossible to have a Decolonised Institution in a Colonised Country – All institutions form part of society and has the purpose of serving the ends of society. These colonial institutions of learning thus serve only to promote an anti-black society and to groom black people to be machine operators of an anti-black system that safeguards land theft. We ask, what is education without land? Frantz Fanon says –
“For a colonized people the most essential value, because it’s the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.” |
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WHAT IS TO BE DONE? |
| The struggle for Free Socialist Black Centred Education must be rooted in the quest to take back the land.
We must continue to use the program of #FeesMustFall to build principled black unity that prepares us for the liberation of the black majority. We recognise that Black History has deployed us into these anti-black institutions to move the black struggle toward liberation. While participating in an anti-black educational system, our analysis of oppression must assist us in the fight for liberation. We must continue the struggle to End Outsourcing Now! – we reject the slave wages paid to our parents, the postponement of insourcing, and the continual refusal to allow worker rights. We must continue to demand that our parents earn a Living Wage, enjoy the full benefits at the institutions they work in, and are seen as co-leaders with the students of the institutions they make up. Without students and workers there will be no institution. We are the institution, we must decide its future! The Worker and Student Alliance is thus imperative. There is only one black struggle! We are principally united Black First. The struggle for #FeesMustFall and the struggle to #EndOutourcingNow is a struggle for liberation, and exists in the context of reclaiming the land that was stolen, the land that brings justice! BLF recognises that the utterances of Chris Hart and Penny Sparrow have far reaching ideological implications for the consolidation of the white power structure to further its anti-black project in all aspects of the black condition including education and most importantly land. To this end – BLF maintains its demand for the “criminalisation of racism with the provision that blacks can’t be racist” and urges that the rallying call for #FeesMustFall incorporates the complete liquidation of racism. |
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“NO BUSINESS AS NORMAL, IN AN ABNORMAL SOCIETY” |
| 1) Free Registration – No student should pay for education and all unemployed persons should register to learn 2) Free Education – No student should pay for education, including all human requirements to participate in education (housing, food etc) 3) End Outsourcing Now – In-source all workers, pay living wage with full employee benefits 4) Criminalise racism with provision that “Blacks can’t be racist” 5) Shut down all campus’ nationwide – No campus should be allowed to function if they refuse Free Socialist Black Centred Education and to Insource Workers, paying them a Living Wage, extending full employee benefits and recognising Students and Workers as the highest decision makers. 6) Occupy institutions of governance – Parliament of South Africa, Union Buildings as well as Lethuli House 7) Shutdown SONA – 7pm, Thursday, 11 February 2016 |
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LET’S TAKE BACK THE LAND FOR FREE SOCIALIST BLACK CENTERED EDUCATION! |
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BLF CONTACT DETAILS Black First Land First Mail: [email protected] Zanele Lwana Cell: +27 79 486 9087 Mail: [email protected] Lindsay Maasdorp Cell: +27 79 915 2957 Mail: [email protected]
Face book page: Black First Land First Twitter: @black1stland1st Blog: www.black1stland1st.wordpress.com |