NUMSA CONGRATULATES SACP DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY JEREMY CRONIN FOR BEING CONFERRED WITH HONORARY DOCTORATE BY FORT HARE UNIVERSITY
10 May 2011
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) congratulates the South African Communist Party (SACP) Deputy General Secretary Cde Jeremy Cronin for being conferred and bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate by Fort Hare University.
Cde Cronin is one most revered Marxist intellectuals to be produced by the ANC-led Alliance in the mould of Moses Kotane, Harry Gwala, Joe Slovo, Govan Mbeki, Ruth First and Mzala Nxumalo just to mention a few. His infinitive and razor-sharp contribution to Marxist thoughts and progressive ideas is immeasurable and surpasses that of his generation. He remains one of the most schooled Marxist thinkers and a symbol of hope for the workers and the poor in their fight against the barbaric and immoral Capitalist system in the battle of ideas.
The conferring and bestowment of an Honorary Doctorate to Cde Cronin by Fort Hare University is a victory in our battle cry for the people's education for people's power. This calls on the ANC government and Minister of Higher Education and Training in particular to accelerate higher education transformation by freeing it from the dominant ideas of the ruling class. It's a sad indictment that in the past 17 years of our democracy, institutions of higher learning continue reproducing people as commodities to be cheaply bought and exploited by the owning class.
The ideas that define or personify Cde Cronin as embraced by the ANC and the vanguard party of the working class, the SACP, should be dominant in our institutions of higher learning in order to produce a new man and Cadre. The institutions of higher education as strategic sites of power cannot be allowed to retain and reproduce class divisions in our society. They must be activist centres of knowledge production and reproduction geared towards reversing the tyranny of the markets in favour of the working class.
Statement issued by Castro Ngobese, NUMSA National Spokesperson, May 10 2011
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