University students across New York will march to the South African consulate in solidarity with the #FeesMustFall movement.
No one is condoning the violent protests but the fact that the international community are standing in solidarity is incredibly powerful and begs the question… if education is the most powerful tool that can change the world, then why are the people that need it most being left behind?
The group – consisting of students and citizens both from South Africa and America – says it plans to march to the SA consulate general to deliver an open letter to the ambassador, Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu, to be passed on to the South African executive cabinet and President Jacob Zuma.
The group stated that they stand in solidarity with protesting students and workers because they believe that their struggles are just and righteous and their demands are both possible and necessary.
“We wish to condemn the militarisation of university campuses and persecution of protesters including the gratuitous violence of private security and police who have been responsible for attacking students and workers with rubber bullets, water cannons and other often lethal forms of crowd control.
We also condemn the arrest of protesters and the suspension and expulsion of students from the university.”
In line with the movements’ demands, they called for a free decolonised education now. This means that:
- All primary, secondary and tertiary education is paid for by the state through taxation on the rich. Higher education plays a crucial role in achieving a just and egalitarian society. University fees are exclusionary and perpetuate the extreme economic and social inequalities that continue to be present in South Africa. #FeesMustFall is a movement that demands a fee-free education as an essential a building block to a better society.
- The university is transformed from a colonial and capitalist institution into an educational space that is liberatory and foregrounds struggles against racism, patriarchy and capitalism. It would go well beyond the removal of colonial symbols of oppression to provide a curriculum that is centred on the work of Blacks, workers, women, LGBTI+ and others who have been consistently marginalised from the educational cannon.
- The structure of the university is democratised so that all students and workers (including faculty) have a say over the running of the university – especially the running of the classroom.
- Workers are treated with dignity and respect. This not only means that outsourcing is banned and that they receive a living wage, but also that workers are embraced socially and intellectually as members of the university community.
- Police and other forms of social control are banned from university campuses.
The march goes from Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan to the South African Consulate General on 333 E 38th Street, and takes place from 3:30pm – 6pm local time on October 19.
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