Radical Students Politics and Ideological approach

First draft

Ashley Nyiko Mabasa

The birth of new ideas in South African politics with the emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters Students Command and Fallist. I had to acknowledge the fact that students’ movement in South Africa had been inactive and failed to appeal to mass student base of South Africa. The birth of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) produced the league-pad of the students’ movement so-called the EFF-students Command (EFFSC). The EFF students command was formed in 2015 June 16, during the week of commemorating South Africa’s student uprising, the generation of 1976. We do not need a rocket scientist to realise that the culture of students’ politics has changed and changed with organically emergence of fallists and Student Command with three different strength of ideologies informed by students’ material condition: (a) Black Radical Feminism (b) Marxism-Leninism (c) Black radical thought/Black Consciousness or post-colonial theories.

The formation of the EFFSC by the EFF was mere because they want to integrate their politics in the student politics and chiefly because EFF leaders have a historical connection with the students’ politics. The president of the EFF Julius Malema served as the President of Congress of South African Students (COSAS) while Floyd Shivambu served in National Executive Committee (NEC) of South Africa Students Congress (SASCO) and President of the University of Witwatersrand in 2004/2005. Therefore, the formation of the EFFSC was a moral obligation for leaders of the EFF to integrate EFF central to students’ politics.

The EFFSC rose as a phoenix in the turbulence and rose from the vacuum of the students’ politics. Aftermath, of the EFFSC, automatically produced the shape of the students’ movement and a location of ideology in cultural politics. With no doubt, EFFSC catered cultural politics format which rendered—students’ politics radically and militancy guided by an ideology of black nationalism consciousness. The EFF as the organisation using a theoretical framework of black radical thought. By cultural politics—the term culture using Raymond William conception its mean “the signifying system through which necessarily a social order communicated, reproduced, experienced and explored.

As a consequence, EFFSC black radical thought ideology with a veneer of post-colonial theory. They problematized using of Marxism-Leninism theory without Frantz Fanon of a post-colonial theory of the national consciousness, and violence. The contention of using the lenses of the black radical thought was to counter-charge SASCO ideological position and relevance. This appeared on a basis that SASCO is a Marxist-Leninist organisation whereas EFFSCO is a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian organisation.

Correspondingly, ideological conflicts and factions within the student movements in South Africa are not new, it draws from the 1970s. The formation of the South Africa Students Organisation (SASO) in 1968 as a students’ representing black populace of the university students by the intellectuals such as Stev Biko, Barney Pityan and H. Nengwekhulu. This organisation its germination comes from the breakaway from NUSAS (National Union of South Africa Students). Black students regarded NUSAS as a liberal organisation with reformists approach toward the racist regime with a divided camp of whites and black students.

It was clear that SASO’s ideological foundation was black consciousness. The black consciousness as was contextualised by the SASO as the way of life and the way of living.^[1] The black consciousness ideology posed as the psychological and physical emancipation of a black people. This movement was influenced by the writings of Africans and Americans leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, James Cone, Albert Cleage, and Walter Rodney. In an attempt to dignify the spirit of black people and to disconnect psychological aspirations from white supremacy and racial institutional power and replace them with black pride. In which Biko clearly declared that:

“What black consciousness seeks to do is to produce at the output—end of the process real black people, who do not regard themselves as appendages to white society. Some will charge that we are racist but these people are using exactly the values we reject. We do not have the power to subjugate anyone. Racism does not only imply exclusion of one race by another—it always presupposes that exclusion is for purposes of subjugation. Blacks have had enough experience as objects of racism not to wish to turn the tables.”^[2]

The SASO resurrected new cultural-political in South African politics central to the oppressive and fascist regime. However, SASO ideology straddled to make a link with the class struggle and race. This was proven by the Achie Mafeje in his critiqued the 1976 students uprising by arguing that black consciousness was a vacuous nationalist.^[3] Nationalism is long-standing ideology which was used to associate black people’s oppression with their race as black people. Therefore, its necessity was to mobile black under the nationalist movement such as the ANC.

On 19 October 1977, most of the students’ movement under the black consciousness ideological umbrella were banned, that subsequently lead to a banning of its leaders, detained and the exodus of its members to exile. Looking this in term of ideological conflict, SASOs did not appear to be the only students’ representative organisation which was embodied in a radical and militant black consciousness ideology. To fill the void of black consciousness and black politics in South Africa which was caused by the banning of the black consciousness movement, such as AZAPO was launched in May 1978 and declared itself as the black political organisation bearing authentic black consciousness that operates beyond the black awareness ‘into the class struggle.’

In contrast, the AZAPO’s launching of the National Forum (NF) in June 1983. The formation of the NF was a response to a government constitutional reforms. The NF policy resolutions were conjectural to AZAPO. Both of the organisations highlighted in their manifesto that:

“Our struggle for national liberation is directed against the system of racial capitalism. Which holds the people of Azania in bondage for the benefit of the small minority of white capitalists and the reactionary section of black middle class…Apartheid will be eradicated with the system of racial capitalism.”

An ideological standpoint of AZAPO and NF explicitly gave South Africans the remedy of class analysis. AZAPO and NF identified the roots of the problems in South Africa as the racialized capitalism. Whereby black people are political oppressed and economical exploited. This debate can be traced to the University of Dar-es-Saalam in 1978, Tanzania in the conceptual of nationalist or class situation.

The situation of nationalism and class struggle is that South Africa is a purely a capitalism state and sub-imperial region. It has been argued by Shamyurira in the University of Dar-es-Saalam that South Africa’s capitalistic system was dependent on European and America for technology and capital in order to fulfil the industrialisation.^[4] Because the white regime used black cheap labour to maintain industries such in the mines and agriculture.  This is the reason; the apartheid should be viewed as a class oppression to black people. In order words, capitalism catapulted racism in our society as the face of accumulation through the low production cost and capitalists’ system in a particular phase of its accumulation required the subordinate race in determining the access to the means of production.

In the aftermath of 1951 Bantu Authority Act which cemented the influx of black people in the mining and agricultural industry. By that time, South Africa labour relation and social forces, in general, were out of touch with the class-consciousness. Merely because of the demonization of the Marxist tradition in South Africa and the banning of the communist literature and Communist Party. This resulted into development of the class contradiction within the workers and the vacuum of a communist party. Because there is no party to maintain class contradiction there was a wave of workers protest in the 1970s. For example, the manifestation of the 1976 social unrest, Soweto and Langa uprising as Shamyurira (1978) argued that:

“The Soweto and Langa uprisings in June 1976 were only the visible tip of a fully-fledged struggle between the white bourgeoisie and the black working class in South Africa—a class struggle in a classical sense of the concept. The young students who burned down their schools and the workers who refused to go to work represent advanced elements of the proletarian class that has been developing in South Africa for many years.” ^[5]

The black consciousness ideology made a turning point when the AZAPO was formed. Its turning point was that of viewing oppression and struggle to liberation by their attempt to transform black consciousness into class consciousness. This was made with an attempt of shaping a solid political strategy based on the class interest and its role started to be centred on the role of the workers. In other words, the AZAPO understood their oppression as central to the class struggle and materialism—that black person are oppressed because they are viewed subordinate race of economic machinery of accumulation by a white nation.

The germ of black consciousness society

The germ of the black consciousness and its ideal society derive from a political and economic strategy of black communalism. In fact, the black consciousness intellectuals viewed the linkage between the politics of white supremacy and the capitalism mode of production. The white domination cemented by the Afrikaner nationalism—which was comprised of the four aspects: religious quality of Afrikaner nationalism, the analogy of the national security state, race and class, and ethnic mobilisation. Afrikaner nationalism was built within the capitalism mode of production.

In the late 1930s, the National Party mobilised most of the young Afrikaner intellectuals to advance the Afrikaner nationalism and to nurture the Afrikaner national consciousness. This happened through the Broederbond which was an Afrikaner ideology bearing a sense of identity and historical basis. In shaping Afrikaner ideology, the Afrikaner cultural and business elites initiated an ethnic mobilisation through Volkapitalisme. In that way, Volkapitalisme was an economic strategy by the Afrikaner government and business aimed at salvaging about 300 000 Afrikaner from the poverty and to transform the economy mode of production to fits its ethnic nature of Afrikaner.^[6]

Black consciousness ideal society tends to counter Afrikaner nationalism and build the society with an economic and political system which sought to modify the elements of the capitalism and significantly challenge white domination in the economic and profession spectrum. Therefore, the black consciousness sees black communalism as the strategy that can cater a change in South Africa’s economic system, this goes with the redistribution of wealth and resources in a land. Leatt, Kneifel and Nurnberger have argued that:

“In economic term, black communalism is said to be rooted in tradition African culture. The continent has always been characterised by ‘an indigenous socialism’: in this respect, one can point to the absence of private land-ownership in Africa, the egalitarian nature of traditional society, and the network of reciprocal relations and obligations based on an extended kinship system”^[7]

Black communalism simple means the economic policy which is aimed at building the economic bloc for the black people within the capitalism mode of relation. In terms of the economic mode of production, the policy document published by Black People Convention (BPC) in 1971 they contended that in order to escape the ideological dilemma of choosing the economic mode of production between capitalism and socialism/communism—they ought to quest for socialism as an ostensible expression of the black communalism.

In ideal terms, the black communalism as a political goal and economic strategy which aimed at opening the society, grounded in the democratic system of universal suffrage regardless of race, religion and nationalism. In this process, the black communalism does not exclude whites from the political activities, however, black people must be the race taking lead in term of political leadership. By the token, the economic strata black communalism it is based on the indigenous socialism: and this seek to end the private ownership of the land in Africa, the egalitarian nature of doing things, its advocate for the balance between the private and public ownership, and regard the state as the vehicle which is meant to planning and controlling economic development, and mandate the state from strict control of the private ownership.

Political ideas as practical means

Given the historical ideology conflict with South Africa political movements. Especially the formation of SASO inculcated black politics with a new imagination and new cultural politics through black consciousness. Therefore, today the formation of the EFF and culmination of the formation of its student’s wing EFFSCO resulted into changing of South African politics.

Marx and Engels first alluded to ideological class domination when they noted in The German Ideology (1845) that “the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class”. The reality is that the EFFSC emerged in the era where students politics was only central to elitists student movements, lack of revolutionary ideas and the students representatives bodies such as Student Representative Council which act as the machinery of political upward mobility in which most of the students leading the SRC develop political interest of leading political movement ahead of students politics and had been highly bureaucratised since it is the student representative body of students tend to lack ideological position regardless of the student movement that occupy the office and lastly its tend to handle the contradictions between the university management and the students. By virtue of sitting in the council meeting and participate in the decision-making that results in a decentralisation of students’ power into round-table elites and technocrats.

However, does not dismissive the activism of SASCO the premises of high learning. Moreover, SASCO managed to handle the contradiction within the students and the ruling party. But its lack of radicalism and cultural politics led to their superseding of their ideological consistence by the EFFSC. Such as fighting for Free education without political practical means and challenging the institutional power of the state and lack of interest in fighting for the university workers such as outsources working services. Putting this in another way, South Africa’s economic system derive from the Washington Consensus of liberalism project the lessening of the public owned entities, privatisation and open of the market. Therefore, in 1996 South Africa adopted the liberal macroeconomic strategy Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR). This culminated precarious results for workers of South Africa because they started to be employed through sub-contract and outsourcing of their labour service.

The EFFSC gave birth to new radical ideas derived from postcolonial and African theories to a new understanding of the social ills that countercharged SASCO’s understand of the students’ social ills using the tool of analysis of Marxism-Leninism. However, SASCO lacked to shape the culture of politics and their body politics emerged it is not as attractive as the EFFSC particularly in the English neo-liberal universities. By this, the EFF drives discourse without being in the locus of the SRC. For explain the University of Pretoria issue of Afrikaner language, the EFFSC appeared to be as radical and their understanding of the variety of the issues in relation to moral transformative agenda.

The way of doing things: structural format

The reality is that it is difficult to differentiate between the ANC Youth League and the EFFSC the way of doing things. It is indisputable that the ANCYL produced the launch-pad of the EFFSC. Merely because most of the EFF leaders descend from the ANCYL, therefore, their descendent with the body politics of the ANCYL. The way the leadership of the ANCYL elected in the 28^th National Congress and EFF policy format it is quite the same. As consequence, the way of doing things in the EFFSC seemed to be the same as the ANCYL.

In political terms, the EFFSC only changed their structural names of doing things merely to be extricable from the ANCYL. Here is the way the ANCYL and the EFFSC leadership structure and the way of doing things:

The ANCYL	The EFFSC
Annual General Meeting =(Voting) Branch Executive Committee (BEC)	Branch Students Assembly=(Voting) Branch Executive Command
Regional General Congress=(Voting) Regional Executive Committee (REC)	There is no regional leadership
Provincial General Congress=(Voting) Provincial Executive Committee (PEC)	There is no Provincial leadership
National General Congress=(Voting) National Executive Committee (NEC)	National General Assembly=(Voting) National Students Command
National Executive Members=(Voting) National Working Committee (NWC)	National Executive Command=(Voting) National Working Command

 

The ANCYL and the EFFSC structure format appeared to be similar and the role of this structural format is to continue wining support and exist in every corner of the society. For example, the ANCYL branch its duty is to mobilise and strengthen support of the of the ANC in the universities and in the communities. Whereas the EFFSC does not exist in the communities, only exist in the institutions of the high learning. Therefore, the role of the EFFSC is to conscientize university students toward their end goal of the economic freedom which is embedded in their seven non-negotiable cardinal pillars which was stipulated in their manifesto (2014: 58) it proclaimed that:

1. First is the expropriation of South Africa’s land without compensation for equal redistribution in use.

 

1. Is the Nationalisations of mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy.
2. The Building State and government capacity, which will lead to the abolishment of Tenders.

1. Free quality education, healthcare, houses, and sanitation.
2. Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs including the introduction of minimum wages.

1. Massive development of the African economy and advocating a move from reconciliation to justice in the entire continent.

1. Open, accountable, corrupt-free government and society without fear of victimisation by State police.

 

 

The EFF manifesto show the turning point with regard to pragmatically politics in South Africa. However, drawing from the EFF ‘seven non-negotiable cardinal pillars’, it is important however to critically show the reductionists’ argument on a race and class debate. In other words, South African capitalism had an opportunistic relationship with racist ‘political domination’.^[8] For instance, the apartheid regime was based on racial laws and cheap dispensable labour. Wolpe has succinctly contended that South African capitalism nourished on the pre-capitalist mode of production, ‘which serves as a source of cheap labour’.^[9] Putting this in the contemporary context of South Africa and the EFF’s views of oppression, the EFF made a concession that it will completely obliterate the neo-liberal anti-black mode of production as well as the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and they further emphasized the importance of dealing with the material conditions such as land redistribution, access to basic services and to change the apartheid racial structure as strategy for transforming the society.^[10]

 

[1] Contending ideologies in South Africa by James Leatt, Theo Kneifel and Klaus Nurnberg:  1986

[2] This was quoted in: Contending ideologies in South Africa by James Leatt, Theo Kneifel and Klaus Nurnberg:  1986 p108.

[3] The Aftermath of Soweto, 1978 by Achie Mafeje

[4] Shamyurira, Nathan: Liberation Movement in South Africa, 1978

[5] Ibi

[6] Contending ideologies in South Africa by James Leatt, Theo Kneifel and Klaus Nurnberg:  1986

[7] Ibi p110

[8] Lipton M, The apartheid and Capitalism: 1985

[9] Wolpe H, Cheap labour Thesis 19

[10] Shivambu, 2014: 76.