The EFF Student Command is heading to it’s 3^rd National Student Assembly (NSA) that will be held on the 12-14 of July 2019 at the University of Free State, Bloemfontein Campus. It’s a crucial moment for the Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian Student movement, due to the high contestation of who must preside and lead the fastest growing Student Movement in the country post is democratisation stage. NSA is a platform awarded to Students’ Command members to, as an organisation, reflect, engage, contest leadership based on ideas in a manner that will seeks to advance the struggle for the economic freedom in our lifetime embodied in the EFF founding manifesto.

The leadership of Cape Metro ward 41 presented an opportunity through the “Gugs Youth Dialogue” for members of the Economic Freedom Fighters and the community to reflect on June 16 and some of the lessons we can learn, as to try and find solutions for the problems which affect us today. To everyone’s surprise the programme was later collapsed by reactionary elements in the party, particularly within the student cohort. The Gugs Youth Dialogue that had Cde Yoliswa Yako and Cde Naledi Chirwa as speakers on the 16^th of June, in Qabazi Hall, was collapsed over a narrow dispute on the question of Theory and Practice. The incident exposed the growing anti-intellectualism, the lack of understanding of the role of political education, but more importantly the failure by elements in the party to appreciate political education as a tool to harness and sharpen organizational practice. Therefore, I decided to pen a piece with the hope that it shall sharpen contradictions within the party, more especially among students, and members if the EFF Students’ Command.

There is a growing, and possibly even sponsored, prejudice about intellectual thought in the movement, boosted by academia, which assumes that the greatest heights of theoretical achievement are the furthest from practical politics. Nothing could be further from the truth about this statement. It is at best vulgar and a discredited attempt to demonise theory. The question “what is to be done?” is very closely linked with theoretical underpinnings advanced by Marxist method of analysis, in other words, with the corpus of Marxist philosophy.

The most important question that must preoccupy all self-respecting activists of the EFFSC should be, why neither theory nor practice be demonised? In fact, the former and the latter must constantly be in harmony, because there is a dialectical unity between theory and practice, as Karl Marx stated that “Practice without theory is blind and theory without practice is sterile”. A movement or organization that plunges itself blindfolded is not only a danger to its members but can cause catastrophic and tragic mishaps. The impatience, and let it be said, the reactionary behaviour of the elements that collapsed the Gugs Youth Dialogue, is sterile activism of its worst form.

There are two pivotal experience that can enhance an organization and present it with the best chance of making theoretical proper judgements and correct choices.

The first experience is the richness of practicality afforded by the struggle itself; some might refer to this as, lived experience or practical experience. A formation that has members rooted in the battles of the working class, in protest will have to be guided by experiences of the people they serve. Its members will have to painstakingly learn to constantly evaluate the moods of the people, the class, the character of various social forces, the labour movements leaders and nature of the state.  But this kind of experience is never enough on its own if not supplemented by patience with theoretical questions

The second important experience necessary is theoretical experience. This experience gives us a method by which we can interpret the struggle, the moods of the people, the character of various forces, the state and intelligentsia, in other words, it gives us the tools of analyses to best analyse the contradictory nature of our society. In simplifying the link between practice and theory, Lenin was persistent that only a “concrete situation” could be a guide to action.

For this, let’s bring into the fore the Gramscian categories of “traditional” and “organic” intellectuals. It will be the objective of this conceptual framework, to proceed to locate the role of these categories of intellectuals in the struggle for decolonisation and Economic Freedom. For Gramsci, intellectuals “have a responsibility in society to produce knowledge and/or to instil that knowledge into theirs” and “to become organizers of the mass of men in the terrain of production in order to gain

[their]

confidence”. It is safe to say that, intellectuals produce ideas.

The first and most basic task of the EFF’s revolutionary and organic intellectuals, is to march in the vanguard in the struggle for ideological hegemony. They must set a high standard and example not only by attention to and direction of the political work, but by making Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian ideology and school of thought practical both in communities and in our organization, by creating the proper conditions necessary for its study and for the grounding of our members, activists and cadres in the overall Marxist theory.

The leadership that should preside over the EFFSC must itself, take practical interest by undergoing political education training and be in the forefront of suppressing narrow ‘practicalism’, against any manifestation of contempt for theory and ideological work.

Rightly, the conceptual framework posits the question: what are the dominant and ruling ideas in the modern, capitalist world?

Karl and Engels emphatically answer this question, by saying:

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch, the ruling ideas, meaning the class, which is ruling material force of society, it at the same time its ruling intellectual force” therefore, if we were to confront the dominant ideas of the ruling class, we must never retreat in the field of ideas, the battle of the mind and the struggle over the mode of thinking.

If one wants to “know the taste of a pear, one must change the pear by eating it. If one wants to know theory and methods of revolution, one must take part in the revolution.” If one wants to know the revolutionary theory, principles, policies, and politics of the EFF, one must participate in political classes and other political activities as opposed to resorting to narrow politics which leads to ill-discipline behaviour of collapsing spaces which seek to afford opportunity for contestation of ideas through superior logic.

Yesterday, the 16 of June, the Economic Freedom Fighters Students’ Command celebrated its 4th year of existence. Since it was established 2015 in the University of Limpopo at its first National Students Command Assembly under the theme “Building Students’ Power for Economic Freedom”

The idea was to establish an alternative in the student community because student organizations (specifically the PYA) that dominated the student body, politic before the establishment of the EFFSC had become complacent with the struggles of students, and the voice of the masses of students was relegated to the periphery due to their alliances with the governing party (ANC). There was a need to fill in the void, re-centre the call for free decolonised education and push back the neo-liberal agenda in student politics. There was a need for something better, a more radical and militant organisation than what students were subjected to. There was a need for leadership with political clarity and ideologically sound programs towards the attainment of free decolonised education. The Students’ Command was to be the answer.

However, that would not be possible without raising the bar as far as intellectual discourse is concerned. Hence, central to all the resolutions taken, and part of the non-negotiable Founding Principles of the EFFSC was to ‘contribute to the intellectual and ideological discourse in order to further the struggle for economic freedom’.  This is important because all other strategic aims such as to fight for Free Quality Decolonised Education, Insourcing of workers and rallying students behind the banner of economic emancipation as embodied in the EFF Founding Manifesto would not be possible without a clear and cogent ideological argument. The battle of ideas is central and superior logic should reign supreme. Time and again, during the RMF, Insourcing, FMF and other protests, those in front would be confronted by their followers, they will have dissent into the arena of ideas, to justify their positions, and that would be an impossible task in the absence of clear cogent argument. It is unthinkable to imagine the call for Free Decolonised Education, for Rhodes Must Fall, Insourcing of Workers without a political theoretical understanding. Thought was at the centre and a driving force in these moments. Although these moments were infested with populist and regressive tendencies, there was at least conversations and questions student leaders had to answer. It was impossible to persuade students to see the 94′ Moment as a setback without presenting a form of argument, a convincing one. One that had to be couched through superior logic.

However, we have witnessed a de-escalation in terms of the discourse since 2015 until now even with the existence and popular support behind the EFFSC. There is a wide disinterest in ideological discussions and more focus is on SRC elections leading to access to what now people call “borotho”. SRC elections are no longer seen as a tactic and strategy, a means to end, they are seen by those who negate theory, as an end in itself. The absence of political discourse has seen branches degenerating into violence, uncontrollable pursuit of power, the co-option and orientation of recruits into toxic politics. No more are questions asked about what we stand for, and how do we achieve it. Now the questions are, “whose person are you (faction), who must emerge, who is funding who?” No interest in politics of young people at all. We are slowly becoming a ‘protest’ movement without protests, and this is because we harbour and popularize these regressive ‘borotho’ politics.

Truth is, as things changed in the student body politic, the more they remained the same. Things have changed in that the interest for ideological questions has declined and backward elements have taken over.  And a lot has not changed in that all questions that were asked are not yet answered. Free Education has not been realised even though the ANC government has tried to silence us through slogans and stunts, and discussions around colonialism have not even began. In many universities and colleges, workers are still not insourced, in fact exploitation has been insidious. Rape crime is still the order of the day in Universities and in the community, our spaces have not changed much since 2015. This is not to say that no progressive gains have been recorded, but it is to show that no significant, and fundamental changes have taken place. This I argue, is as a result of disinterest in political theory and ideological questions.

Lenin puts it very well, that, “without a revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement”. June 16 is about ideas, it is about ideological conviction. The generation of Steve Bantu Biko, Tsietsi Mashinini, Mapetla Mohapi and others always understood this well, hence they could amass support from their constituency. We need to re-centre our politics as students and young people and that is impossible without emphasis on political theory.  Student politics must always be characterized by learning, through action and action of others (which only happens through political and ideological conversation). The only way to emulate the June 76′ generation and to present ourselves as an alternative is through the politicization of ourselves and our members. We must push back against left wing opportunism and petit-bourgeois sentiments. We must stand firm against reactionary forces. The ideological demobilisation of the student movement, the de-politicisation of the student populace has dire consequences for a protest movement, which must make ideological moves which must at all material times be on the correct side of history.

A revolutionary 4^th Anniversary EFFSC.