Download PDFDear Comrades
We have come to the end of an exciting, challenging and ground-breaking 24th annual Khanya College Winter School themed: Arm yourself with knowledge, and Organise! This has been the most youthful of all our Schools, with 63% of participants being under 38 years old, and almost 60% were women. It has also been a very challenging School. We were excited in expectation to meet you all and we were not disappointed.
For some time Khanya has realised the need to organise youth, especially post school youth, but this is a difficult, an elusive task. Khanya organises youth at school (Tsohang Batjha) but once youth leave school they are difficult to track and organise as they disappear into spaces to find themselves and seek opportunities for further study, work and survival.
In 2014 after much deliberations about the failure of SA’s democracy to its people, the state of the social movements, Khanya’s All College Conference (ACC) agreed on the need to rebuild the social justice movement, the need for a new cadre; and the need for Khanya to also engage in organising.
The ACC agreed that Khanya needs to support (but not interrupt) the primary organisations of the working class. The primary organisations are where working people are being reproduced on a daily basis, and are local initiatives of the working class themselves. The second important aspect of the ACC was the need to organise the working class, and build organisations. The ACC recognised that organising within the working class has declined and that there has been a high turnover of organisations, leadership and members.
The composition of this School reflects the emerging new youthful cadre, drawn from some of the primary organisations that Khanya works with. The youth are ‘born-frees’ and reflect the impact of the government’s neoliberal policies on the working class, poor education, impoverishment and the lack of opportunities. At the same time, the youth reflect the potential to rebuild a new society, their creative talents and their courage. Much work needs to be done through forming study groups and learning how to organisation. Popular organisation and engaging in struggle are the best teachers.
The highlight of the School was the disciplined, silent peaceful demonstration on the crisis of water and our constitutional rights, that was held at Constitution Hill. Youth demonstrated high discipline, walking silently from the House of Movements to Con Hill, carrying their placards. We were united, and felt the power of silence! This was a moving demonstration of the potential for organised, intergenerational and non-violent struggle. This action also highlighted how inaccessible the Con-Court is for working class people, as with entrance for visitors being R180 each, WS participants were not able to enter the Court.
This is a ground-breaking shift in the Winter School, to focus on much needed analytical tools, and to combine this with organising skills and practical organising.
Comrades, we have thoroughly enjoyed the School and the engagements with you. You have also contributed to the hope that we need that another world is possible!
Be sure you report back to your organisations and share the skills and experiences that we have learnt together to strengthen activism and the movement for social justice.
Travel well and know that you are always welcome at Khanya College. We love you.
In solidarity,
Cde Maria
This article was submitted as part of the Imbila Yesu publication produced daily for the duration of the Winter School in 2023 (23-28 July 2023). It appeared in Edition No.4, released on 28 July 2023.You may republish this article, so long as you credit the author and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za ), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
