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Abolition Journal Issue 1 Abolition Journal Issue 1 Alexandre Publia, “South African Students’ Questions: Remake the University, or Restructure Society?,” Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics, no. 1 (2018): 135-164. Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics ISSN 2642-9268 (Online) | ISSN 2642-925X (Print) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. abolitionjournal.org | @AbolitionJ | facebook.com/abolitionjournal | commonnotions.org SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS’ QUESTION REMAKE THE UNIVERSITY, OR RESTRUCTURE SOCIETY? Alexandre Publia (pseudonym) A WOMAN HOLDS UP A PROTEST SIGN READING “1976?” DURING SOUTH AFRICA’S 2015 OCTOBER FEES MUST FALL PROTESTS. MEDIA CREDIT: IMRAAN CHRISTIAN AND RHODES MUST FALL. 135 ABOLITION From South Africa to India,1 Hong Kong to Chile,2 Canada to the United Kingdom,3 and California to Missouri and beyond,4 student protests worldwide are at a crossroads. In October 2015, South African students led the “Fees Must Fall” protests, which culminated in a weeks-long national shutdown that halted ap- proximately 10 percent tuition increases.5 These were the largest protests since the 1976 Soweto Student Uprisings.6 University students led thousands in a march on the national capitol.7 In the Western Cape, students took over fagship universi- ties, such as University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University (SU).8 They even attempted to shut down Cape Town International airport.9 Nearly a year later, students continue to protest and demand more than free education.10 They endure despite widespread suppression of protests, through expulsions and trumped-up 1. Basani Baloyi and Gllad Isaacs, “South Africa’s ‘Fees Must Fall’ Protests Are About More Than Tuition Costs,” CNN, October 28, 2015, available at cnn.com; David Matthews, “Student Protests Trigger U-Turn in India over Scholarships,” October 27, 2015, available at timeshighereducation.com. 2. Chleu Luu and Vivian Kam, “Hong Kong Student Leaders Spared Jail for Pro- Democracy Street Protests,” CNN, August 15, 2016, available at cnn.com; Eva Vergara, “Chile Students Protest Corruption, Demand Education Reform,” April 16, 2015, available at salon.com. 3. Rachel Lau, “Montreal Students March Against Austerity,” November 5, 2015, avail- able at globalnews.ca; Laura Hughes and Nicola Harley, “Students Clash with Police During Protest in Central London over University Fees,” The Telegraph, November 4, 2015, available at telegraph.co.uk. 4. Sam Sanders, “California College Students Walk Out of Class to Protest Tuition Hikes,” November 24, 2014, available at npr.org; Alia Wong and Adrienne Green, “Campus Politics: A Cheat Sheet,” April 4, 2016, The Atlantic, available at theatlantic.com. 5. Normitsu Onishi, “South Africa Freezes Tuition Fees After Student Protests,” The New York Times, October 23, 2015, available at nytimes.com. 6. “The June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising,” May 21, 2013, available at sahistory.org.za. 7. Bogani Nkosi, “#FeesMustFall Takes Fight to Union Buildings,” Mail & Guardian, October 23, 2015, available at mg.co.za. 8. Babalwa Quma, “UCT Students Occupy Bremner Building,” October 19, 2015, available at livemag.co.za; Nicolette Dirk, “Activists Removed as Protest Spreads to CPUT,” October 21, 2015, available at iol.co.za. 9. Zenzile Khoisan, “UWC Students, Cops Clash Near Airport,” October 24, 2015, available at iol.co.za. 10. Ahmed Essop, “Decolonisation Debate Is a Chance to Rethink the Role of Universities,” August 16, 2016, available at theconversation.com. 136 A JOURNAL OF INSURGENT POLITICS MAP SHOWING CITIES ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA WHERE UNIVERSITIES WERE ENTIRELY SHUT DOWN BY FEES MUST FALL PROTESTS (MEDIA CREDIT: P. KIM BUI) charges.11 Assaults and property damage occurred from confronta- tions with security forces.12 Many security personnel were private contractors.13 South Africa’s university students have asked the critical question that underlies all student-led and education-fo- cused protests, and that Californians and students across the United States must also ask ourselves: How far must we go? Must we focus on the more achievable, shorter-term project of trans- forming our schools? Or, must we focus on the more ambitious, longer-term project of remaking our societies? The Rhodes Must Fall collective (RMF), which is overwhelm- ingly led by marginalized, Black university students, has demanded more than institutional “transformation.” Instead, they have con- sistently demanded total “decolonization”: a radical abolition and reimagination of entire social structures. RMF has refused shallow reforms to fundamentally colonial, Eurocentric, and anti-Black in- stitutions. They have repeatedly called out universities’ corporate lip service and empty promises over twenty years of negligible 11. Jane Duncan, “#FeesMustFall: A Question of Human Rights Violations,” Mail & Guardian, November 9, 2015, available at mg.co.za. 12. Geofrey York, “South African Tuition Protests Turn Violent as Police Use Stun Grenades on Students,” The Globe and Mail, October 21, 2015, available at theglobeandmail.com. 13. Masa Kekana and Ziyanda Ngcobo, “HRC Asked to Investigate Brutality by UJ Security Guards,” Eyewitness News, November 9, 2015, available at ewn.co.za. 137 ABOLITION change.14 They have highlighted the connections of universities to military-industrial complexes, and attacked the way that universi- ties and Global North frms remain dependent upon the exploita- tion of Black labor. RMF’s radical demands and their strategy of aiming beyond academia has led the way in raising consciousness about South Africa’s and other postcolonies’ negligible social and economic transformations. By addressing neoliberalization and cor- poratization of universities in a frame of colonial violence against Black and LGBTQ+ bodies, students have raised larger questions of neoliberal governance by white-owned, global capital. RMF has consistently alleged that, in the current neocolo- nial/neoliberal system, wealthy, elected, multiracial elites have simply replaced the former, unelected, all-white, apartheid-era elites. Both pre- and post-apartheid governments are beholden to white-owned, global capital. Because of, and not in spite of, such radical, ambitious claims, RMF inspired South African students to demand more, protest longer, include more stakeholders, and ultimately achieve more of their goals. In doing so, they have highlighted the global predicament of neoliberalism and so-called postcolonialism, and they have signifcantly changed the conver- sations around not only education but also around public services, racism, democracy, and social movements. Other university stu- dents, like those in California and across the United States, have much to learn from RMF. FROM “RHODES MUST FALL” TO “FEES MUST FALL” TO “THE DEATH OF A DREAM” How, and how much, has RMF succeeded? While students have in- disputably changed the conversation and won short-term victories, more than a year of direct actions, demonstrations, and occupations have endured increasing suppression. By the time of October’s Fees Must Fall, most of South Africa’s universities had been primed by RMF for larger protests that would move beyond the confnes of the universities and into the communities and towns around them. By 2015, South African students were exasperated by slow and 14. Karen MacGregor, “Higher Education in the 20th Year of Democracy,” April 27, 2014, available at universityworldnews.com. 138 A JOURNAL OF INSURGENT POLITICS exploitative university bureaucracies, as well as by elected but unre- sponsive Student Representative Councils (SRCs). RMF formed in March 2015 when marginalized students led protests with a clear, immediate demand: removal of a statue to Cecil Rhodes from the center of UCT’s campus.15 RMF’s success with the statue, and their proudly radical and transgressive tactics, in- spired and directly contributed to a renewal of other student protest groups.16 In April, Open Stellenbosch (OS) emerged.17 OS was led by students at the even more unequal and segregated Stellenbosch University (SU), located near Cape Town in Stellenbosch—the his- toric “cradle of apartheid.”18 OS demanded major reforms to actual- ly address endemic institutional racism, beginning with all classes being available in English, not Afrikaans.19 RMF PROTESTERS BLOCK A UCT ENTRANCE WITH A BANNER FEATURING AN IMAGE OF A MURDERED MARIKANA MINER WITH STRIKE LEADER MGCINENI “MAMBUSH” NOKI.” (MEDIA CREDIT: EYEWITNESS NEWS AND RHODES MUST FALL) 15. “UCT Rhodes Must Fall Mission Statement,” March 22, 2015, available at uncen- soredvoice.blogspot.com. 16. Ra’eesa Pather, “Rhodes Must Fall: The Movement after the Statue,” The Daily Vox, April 21, 2015, available at thedailyvox.co.za. 17. Open Stellenbosch. “Statement Following Demonstration Who Belongs Here?” April 15, 2015, accessed September 10, 2016, available at facebook.com. 18. “The Ivory Tower Is Too White,” The Economist, December 5, 2015, available at economist.com. 19. Open Stellenbosch Collective, “Op-Ed: Open Stellenbosch—Tackling Language and Exclusion at Stellenbosch University,” Daily Maverick, April 28, 2015, available at dailymaverick.co.za. 139 ABOLITION In July, the Marikana Commission Report exonerated all gov- ernment ofcials, exacerbating national tensions.20 In August, as the school year resumed, RMF seized the moment and escalated dramatically through evocative demonstrations about persistent anti-Blackness, evidenced by the Marikana Massacre.21 RMF high- lighted negligible gains for Black
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