ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS WILL NEVER SURRENDER, NOR RETREAT!

The Star Newspaper ran an article on Monday, the 16th of September 2013 that said one of the members of Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in Gauteng said with benefit from hindsight, the decision to expel me from the ANC was a bit too harsh and that there should be consideration of talking about it. We respect other people's views and what they say are lessons they learn from history, and we also respect those who have the courage and honour of speaking their minds without any fear of intimidation in the directionless ANC. 

Now, with benefit of our hindsight, our isolation, banishment and expulsion from the ANC was actually a benefit to the struggles of oppressed and exploited majority, the working class and the poor of our nation. Ever since we made the clarion call to all economic freedom fighters which asked a question of WHAT IS TO BE DONE?, millions of ordinary South Africans responded in their numbers to say that we need to pursue the struggle for economic freedom outside the African National Congress. The people of South Africa want real economic freedom and majority know that such cannot be achieved through the current political parties in Parliament and Government. 

Many reasons were provided on why we should pursue the struggle outside the ANC, but the most stark and most convincing reasons are the following: 

1. "The ANC is controlled by white monopoly capital and inherently incapable to pursue the interests of the working class and the poor":

This reason is the most valid and reflected everyday on the decisions of the ANC to isolate and criminalise in its ranks, greater consensus that Mines and other strategic sectors of the economy should be nationalised. A faction that leads the ZANC privately benefits from the status quo and will not do anything to change property relations. At their 53rd National Conference, they have adopted a neo-liberal National Development Plan as part of the Strategy & Tactics Foreword, Resolutions, and Conference Declaration. There is therefore no hope that the now neo-liberal and right-wing ZANC can be changed from within, and anybody who believes so is daydreaming.

2. "The ANC no longer exists, it has been changed into a Zuma African National Congress (ZANC)":

This also is the most valid argument, because in the ZANC, what Zuma wants, Zuma gets. President Zuma is running away from justice through prolonged Court appeals and actions, and the ZANC will support him for that. President Zuma has used R300 million to build a house for himself and for his brother in Nkandla and Kwadakwadunusa, and even before the Public Protector exposes the corruption there, such an act in politically, ethically, morally, and ideologically unjustifiable. Any person who justifies such callous and rapacious looting of public resources does not deserve to lead any organisation, including a burial society.

3. "The struggle for economic emancipation in South Africa needs new energy, exuberance and determined focus not trapped in conservative traditions":

History confirms that all revolutions were led by young people and therefore revolutions are activities of the youth. At the age of 100, the ANC is too old to come with innovative, militant and radical ideas on how to better the conditions of our people, and in anyway, its historical mission of getting few black elites included in white power institutions has been accomplished.

4. "All existing political parties do not represent any radical alternative to neo-liberal and right wing politics":

This is true, because in South Africa's political arena, the political parties compete on the basis of who is more right wing than the other. In a recent debate around the Special Economic Zones Act in the National Assembly, the opposition political parties took platform to justify rightwing economic planning, as an illustration that they fall within the same category with the ZANC.

5. "EFF is the only platform to could fight white supremacy":

This is totally a reflection of reality, which confirms that the best way to undermine white supremacy is to equitably distribute wealth, land and minerals resources amongst all the people of South Africa. EFF will always expose the tentacles of white supremacy, and will educate the nation to break away from white supremacists tendencies and should not submit to continued harassment in all workplaces.

6. "The murderous acts of the ZANC regime should be exposed and removed from political office":

With Marikana massacre, it is now correct to refer to the current regime as a murderous regime, which killed Mineworkers and now refusing them justice and proper settlement. As revolutionaries, we cannot be associated with a murderous regime, which kills defenceless workers in order to protect white capital. To this day, workers have not yet received R12500 salary they died for, and the murderous regime is denying them access to justice, while paying for the Lawyers of the Murderers. Like we said immediately after the pre-meditated massacre in Marikana in August 2012, the ZANC murderous regime will kill again other protestors in South Africa, and will try to justify the killing through Commissions of unbalanced Enquiry.

These are amongst the reasons provided on why EFF had to register as an independent political party, which will use Marxist-Leninist and Fanonian tools of analysis to fight for economic freedom, undermine white supremacy and emancipate the working class from socio-economic bondage. EFF is a working class organisation because it represents the interests of those who do not own the means of production and will, at all times, associate with their struggles.

EFF is also a protest movement, which will agitate, educate and organise the working class and the protest movement to understand that their problems, exploitation, segregation, evictions, denial of services is a direct result of the class alliance that exists between the ruling parties and capital everywhere in South Africa. EFF will always be within protest movements in order to give these movement a clearer ideological and political direction which says that their true emancipation will only come from total overthrow of the political representatives of capital (now the ZANC), and replace them with a Left radical and militant movement which will take no instructions from capital, but will instead expropriate capital.

Now, anyone who does not understand these basic facts will assume that EFF is a product of people who left the ZANC for no valid political and ideological reason. Such a person will reduce EFF into a Julius Malema affair and start to argue that if Julius Malema's case is handled differently, maybe things will change. That is not the case, the struggles EFF has resolved to pursue are real struggles of the people on the ground. That is why there was never difficulty with EFF finding resonance in all corners of South Africa. We speak today; there is no single village, town, township, city, and human settlement which do not have an EFF member, or supporter who are potential voters in the 2014 general elections.

To therefore reduce the EFF to Julius Malema shows lack of political and ideological clarity on the part of those who do so. The delegates who attended the 1st National Assembly on What is to be Done came from all corners of South Africa, and were mandated by their communities, community based organisations, churches, unions, etc to come and say to the leadership core of EFF that we should lead the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime as an independent movement.

We refused to sacrifice political and ideological principle for convenience, even when we were in the ANC. We never apologised and will never apologise for the political principles and issues that led to us being charged. We stood firm and said that they rather take our membership, than for us to be bullied to agree with reactionary forces and principles in the ZANC and international politics. That is how far we were prepared to go, and we are not about to stop anytime soon.

EFF is not obsessed with any other political party, but obsessed with how we should speak to all the people and voters in South Africa to understand that what we currently have is a raw deal, and we need a radical movement to change the status quo. Because the face of our real enemy is those occupying political office on behalf of white monopoly capital, we will without fear, always expose their weaknesses and inherent incapacity to change South Africa for the better. We will expose ZANC, so that the people should always know what we are dealing with.

Exposing ZANC and their inherent weaknesses and incapacity will never divert us from delivering our messages, which are fundamentally contained in the 7 cardinal pillars for economic freedom in our lifetime. What will inform our political, ideological and therefore elections programme in 2014 are the following pillars:

1. Expropriation of South Africa's land without compensation for equal redistribution in use.

2. Nationalisation of mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy, without compensation.

3. Building state and government capacity, which will lead to the abolishment of tenders.

4. Free quality education, healthcare, houses, and sanitation.

5. Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs, including the introduction of minimum wages in order to close the wage gap between the rich and the poor, close the apartheid wage gap and promote rapid career paths for Africans in the workplace.

6. Massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice in the entire continent.

7. Open, accountable, corrupt-free government and society without fear of victimisation by state agencies.

These are our principles and values which are contained in the EFF Founding Manifesto, which all Fighters should know by heart and should be able to explain to each and every South African with great detail. Every Fighter should be a Commissar, Organiser, Agitator for economic freedom. This means that every Fighter should thoroughly understand the Founding manifesto, meaning that they should read it repeatedly and understand the essence of what we stand for as a Movement. 

EFF is a mass Movement of our people, an organisation which will be government of South Africa sooner than many people believe, and its values, character and nature should be moulded with military precision. We are therefore not in any business of elite compromises, relapses, and collaborations. We are determined to fight for economic freedom until victory. This will happen by being amongst the people. We say No Surrender! No retreat! 

Julius Malema is President and Commander in Chief of Economic Freedom Fighters.

This article first appeared in Radical Voice, the online journal of the Economic Freedom Fighters. 

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