FEES MUST FALL! CAPITALISM MUST
FALL!!
Dear comrades,
The Education Rights Campaign
(ERC) pledges its solidarity for the struggle of University students in South
Africa against a steep rise in registration, tuition
and accommodation fees ranging from 8% to 12%. We look forward to your speedy
victory.
Over the past few days,
news of the struggle of students in South Africa has inspired many students and
youth in Nigeria. The confidence and bravery is something to be emulated by all
students and workers everywhere.
The ERC is the Nigerian
equivalent of the Socialist Youth Movement (SYM) in South Africa. Like the SYM
is the campaign of the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP), the ERC is the
students and youth campaign of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) here in
Nigeria. The ERC campaigns against neo-liberal education policies which aim to
corporatize universities and make education the preserve of the few rich.
The struggle in South
Africa is occurring against a background of the capitalist global economic
crisis and particularly the neo-liberal policies of the African National
Congress (ANC) government which has ensured the intense exploitation of the
working class and massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Today,
South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world with just two
people having as much wealth as the bottom 50 per cent of the population. 54
percent of South Africans live in poverty.
While the government wants to increase the burden of
financing public education on the working class and poor population, there is
35 trillion is sitting in corporate cash balances. This is in addition to the
R80bn a year that is being lost through illegal money flows, R700bn estimated
to have been lost to corruption and the 8 trillion is sitting with the Public
Investment Corporation.
Here in Nigeria, public
education faces essentially the same challenge as in
South Africa. In a country whose national minimum wage is a paltry N18, 000 (1,
200 Rand), fees in public Universities in Nigeria can be as high as N93, 000
(6, 200 Rand) or more.
We hope
that your example will help encourage students here and across Africa to
struggle both against fees and for increased spending on public education at
all levels. According to the World Bank, 62 percent of the population of
sub-Saharan Africa, more than 600 million young people, is below the age of 25
and this is expected to increase by 2020. If governments across Africa continue
to favour neo-liberal capitalist policies that takes public education as
business, the chances are that fewer and
fewer number of young people will have any opportunity at all of quality
education. According to UNESCO, 22 million of the 69 million eligible
adolescents in the world that did not attend secondary school in 2011 lived in
sub-Saharan Africa. As we struggle, it is essential we begin to draw the
relevant conclusions as to what kind of struggle is needed to permanently
defeat neo-liberal education policies and build a just and democratic society
that provides opportunities for the youth to flourish.
The ERC supports the rejection of the 6 per cent increase
suggested by the South African government. We condemn police brutality and
shall campaign for students and working people in Nigeria to embark on
solidarity actions which shall include picketing of South African embassies and
business interests to express our solidarity with our South African brothers
and sisters.
We support the demands advanced by the Workers and Socialist
Party (WASP) and the Socialist Youth Movement (SYM) for:
(1) 0% increases in registration, tuition, accommodation and foreign student
fees
(2) Scrap all student debt to tertiary education institutions and to NSFAS
(3) The immediate release of all results withheld for non-payment of fees
(4) End outsourcing – re-employ all workers on a minimum wage of 12 500 month
(5) An end to the corporatization of tertiary education institutions
(6) Establish committees of struggle to unite students , youth and working
class communities
(7) Free education now
(8) Free all arrested protesters and drop all charges. For respect of the
right to protest
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator
(07033697259) National
Secretary
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