ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS 100 DAYS: Aluta Continua

Commander in Chief, Julius Malema

Monday, the 4th of November 2013 marked exactly 100 days since the National Assembly on What is to be Done in Soweto adopted a resolution to make Economic Freedom Fighters an independent, revolutionary, radical and militant Left emancipation Movement which should contest political power. The National Assembly on What is to be Done was unequivocal that the essence of our approach to South African, African and world political situation.

The EFF's qualitative and quantitative growth over the first 100 days tell a story that in our 12th month of existence, our movement would have grown bigger and better than organisations that have existed for more than 100 years. This will be consequent of many factors, but the following are essential:

• Ideological and Political clarity on what needs to be done.
• Fearlessness, courage and dedication.
• Selflessness and appreciation that the struggle is about the people not individual progress.
• Consistency in application of principle.
• Love for one another: there people should be able to identify that we are EFF because we love each other.

In 100 days we as Fighters for economic freedom are treated as though we have been around for a 100 years. People see the impact we have made and there is no corner of the country in South Africa that EFF is not known. We are a subject for debate and conversations from the townships, newsrooms and taverns. We are honoured and very proud to be part of the leadership collective of EFF and we are proud that we have given hope to people who wanted to commit suicide and changed them into visionaries and hopeful citizens.

We are now a Movement that is fighting for real political power, and a formation whose ultimate aim will be to capture the State, and transform the economy for the benefit of all South Africans. Whoever says the current regime will economically emancipate the people of South Africa from political bondage is not being honest. Whoever says the existing opposition political parties in South Africa's Parliaments and Governments will emancipate South Africa from economic bondage is also not honest, because all these organisations represent neo-liberal and rightwing political agenda that is reproducing the imbalances of the past.

We are not saying this because we are obsessed with leadership positions, and we are not saying this because we believe we have a divine right to lead. On many occasions, we offered to leave organisational positions with the aim of leading the struggle from the ground and because those in authority are scared of what we represent, they could not stand by what we said. We continue to say today that EFF is a product of the struggles of the people of South Africa, and not a platform to pursue narrow political ambitions. our political programme is about emancipation of the people of South Africa and the entire African continent.

There is no doubt that the struggles waged by political liberation fighters in South Africa and the African continent is worth celebrating, but the reality proven by thorough observation of political realities and developments in the African continent and elsewhere, is that liberation movements are not capable of resolving the massive economic inequalities they inherit from their colonial past. All countries in the African continent that have realised political emancipation have proven that the movements that have taken them from political and social subjugation are not able to take the struggle forward. 

More often than not, the inability of liberation movements to economically emancipate humanity was ideologically and politically predicted by great revolutionaries and ideologues like Vladimir Lenin, who in 1920 said, "A certain understanding has emerged between the bourgeoisie of the exploiting countries and that of the colonies, so that very often, even perhaps in most cases, the bourgeoisie of the oppressed countries, although they also support national movements, nevertheless fight against all revolutionary movements and revolutionary classes with a certain degree of understanding and agreement with the imperialist bourgeoisie, that is to say together with it" (Lenin, 1920). 

This Leninist observation is correct was said by Frantz Fanon who in 1960 in the THE PITFALLS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS said, "the national middle class which takes over power at the end of the colonial regime is an under-developed middle class. It has practically no economic power, and in any case it is in no way commensurate (or equal) with the bourgeoisie (or capitalists) of the mother country which it hopes replace. In its woeful narcissism (or selfishness) the national middle class is easily convinced that it can adventurously replace the middle class of the mother country. But that same independence which literally drives it into a corner will give rise within its ranks to catastrophic reactions, and will oblige it send out frenzied (or hyperactive) appeals for help to the former mother countries" (Fanon, 1960).

Frantz Fanon in the same article quoted above says, "The objective of nationalist parties as from a certain given period is, we have seen, strictly national. They mobilize the people with slogans of independence, and for the rest leave it to future events. When such parties are questioned on the economic programme of the state that they are clamouring for, or on the nature of the regime which they propose to install, they are incapable of replying, because, precisely, they are completely ignorant of the economy of their own country" (Fanon, 1960). 

These correct analyses and many others from revolutionary intellectuals inform and dictate the political and ideological programme of Economic Freedom Fighters. Attempts to radicalise and turn the former liberation Movement in South Africa have dismally failed and it is totally not true that the former liberation Movement will ever develop consciousness and political determination than which it has thus far developed. The outcomes of Conference after Conference and Policy after Policy takes the former liberation Movements to the same conclusions, that imperialist domination cannot be defeated.

How do you explain that 20 years after democracy, the current government still cannot acknowledge that deepening levels of poverty, inequalities and unemployment are a result of the fact that the people do not have land and do not have access to economic natural resources? How do you explain the adoption of the National Development Plan Vision 2030 which does not say anything about property relations, 20 years after democracy?

Our immediate task as Fighters, Commissars and Organisers of EFF include exposing the widely held view in South Africa that our policies are good, and only implementation should be perfected. This is not true, because

• The policies that protect white supremacy through protection of their economic interests cannot be good.
• Policies that promote neo-liberalism and blind following of the dictates of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) cannot be good policies.
• Policies that keep an absolute majority of our people under starvation and structural unemployment cannot be good.
• Policies that deny young entrepreneurs access to enterprise finance without sureties, which most do not have, cannot be good.
• Policies that keep workers wages in the mining sector, farms, factories, the police, the soldiers, teachers, doctors, nurses, private security, petrol attendants low cannot be good.

While South Africa has one of the highest levels of unemployment in the world, it also boasts the highest levels of underemployment. The conditions and wages which Mineworkers, Farm workers, Private Security Guards, Domestic Workers, Construction Workers work under and for are just unreasonable. How do you explain that Mineworkers in Marikana and elsewhere in South Africa live and stay in informal settlements with no electricity, no running water, no sanitation, no schools, no playgrounds, no healthcare facilities while they work under the most difficult conditions. 

How do you explain that Mineworkers are paid as little as R4000 per month while they work under life-threatening conditions? Private Security Guards work under difficult conditions, and get paid as little as R1500 per month, while they sacrifice their lives to protect the lives of mostly white people and communities. Construction workers risk their lives and health building bridges, skyscrapers, tunnels, dams, houses, and many other critical infrastructure, but they do not have formal employment, and are paid through envelopes with no surety that they will have the job tomorrow. Many other workers are in bigger problems because they are employed, and end up with debts, blacklisted and even killed by Mashonisa for monies they cannot pay back.

As Economic Freedom Fighters, we should speak about the low conditions of workers, employed and unemployed. Our call, whether during elections, or not during elections, or in parliament or government should demand respectable and fair minimum wages for all workers. Mineworkers should in honour of the workers massacred by the Zuma government in Marikana be paid a minimum of R12500 and provided with proper Human Settlement spaces with proper sanitation and schools. Farm workers, private security guards, construction workers, public servants should be paid decent salaries and given proper services to live quality livelihoods. 

In 2013, less than 8% of South Africa's land has been redistributed. The indications are that, by 2014, we will still not have exceeded 8% land redistribution, which will be 20 years since the democratic dispensation. If we continue with this trend and pace of 8% transfer every 20 years, it means we would have redistributed only 40% of land in 100 years. In other words, in 100 years time, the inequalities between black people and white people will still remain, and this will automatically lead to continued racism and economic subjugation of blacks by white people, like it happened under apartheid.

This generation of Economic Freedom Fighters should never agree to such, because in 100 years' time, all of us here will no longer be alive and our children and grandchildren will say we sold-out because they will still be living under white economic domination, more than 100 years after political independence and freedom. The struggle for land reform and transfer of land is long overdue and should be speeded up to avoid the conflicts that characterise many post-independence African states, nations and countries. We refuse to continue living like we are in a colony.

The only solution available to us now is expropriation without compensation; because we carry an obligation to do so, and should use every means at our disposal to take back our land. We cannot continue to function like we are under colonial domination. We are not immediately thinking of a violent or military overthrow of government, which is often the most possible route to revolutionary reconstitution of society. We will however not agree to violent suppression of our democratic right to offer the people of South Africa a real alternative. 

We need to deal away with Tenders and contracts that are avoidable. This will obviously require an increased capacity, strong, corrupt-free and effective State and Public Service. For a successful Developmental State, an inspired, skilled, and well compensated public service is required. The State should also build internal capacity to construct and maintain infrastructure such as roads, railway, dams, etc. and basic services such as schools, houses, hospitals and recreational facilities. The State's dependence on tenders has massive political implications and often reduces the quality of work provided because of corruption and corruptibility of the whole tendering system.

The development and growth of the South African economy should be linked dynamically to the development of the African continent, because we should never think that we can sustainably develop in isolation. South Africa should play a clearly defined developmental role in the African economy and contribute to its growth and stability. South Africa should not merely be the gateway to the African economy by developed and developing economies; it should itself play a leading role in investing in the African continent.

We have to take up the struggles of all immigrants in South Africa, whether they are here legally or illegally. The manner in which immigrants from Africa are treated by the Police, Government and our Communities is less than desirable. Many of these immigrants are denied medical care, discriminated and even by the Police, refused basic human services, and even refused burial rights in our cemeteries. How sub-human can we ever be when we even deny our African brothers and sisters burial rights in South Africa, because transportation of their loved ones back to their countries is very expensive and unaffordable? We need to take a firm stance on the protection of the rights of immigrants. Certain basic rights cannot be denied to any human being who is in South Africa, whether they are in possession of some documents or not. 

All these aspirations will require a disciplined, dedicated, determined, focused, fearless, and forward-looking genre of cadres who are committed to economic emancipation of South Africa and the African continent. It will not be an easy route to be Activists and cadres of EFF because those with political power will do everything in their power to isolate, bastardise, banish, retrench, persecute, politically prosecute, tarnish and even kill Economic Freedom Fighters. If these people can kill their own members because of Tenders and control of State resources, they have potential to kill the real alternative, which will take away their ill-gotten wealth and access to resources. 

We are however not scared and our unity, fearlessness, and dedication should inspire the whole generation to fight for what rightfully belongs to all South Africans. We will and have to share in South Africa's wealth. We need to be organised, and need to be disciplined. Discipline in the EFF is essential and not a by the way issue, but an important weapon in the struggle for economic emancipation. Discipline means that all Fighters should do what is expected of them by the organisation.

Our mission as EFF is to now continue speaking to each and every person in South Africa, every citizen, every voter, including our children, grandparents, parents, relatives, neighbours, fellow churchgoers, workers, street sweepers, and speak ourselves everyday about Economic Freedom Fighters, a giant movement which should and will emancipate South Africa from institutionalised starvation, structural unemployment, political directionlessness and mediocrity, institutionalised corruption, and hopelessness of the youth. When elections arrive in 2014, EFF should have spoken to and convinced each and every voter that now is the time for economic freedom.

We need to go to every corner of South Africa, village to village, township to township, suburb to suburb, kraal to kraal, city to city, and everywhere where there is human life to speak and preach the message for economic freedom in our lifetime. We need to use all modes of transport to get to where we should preach the message of transport. We will use bicycles, donkey-carts, cars, lorries, trucks, buses, trains, planes, helicopters, ships, boats and all forms of transport spreading the word for economic emancipation in our lifetime. 

In this mission, we are under no illusion that spies, information peddlers, careerists, attention-seekers, and detractors will join us. Our obligation as Economic Freedom Fighters is to convert all these into real Fighters for economic freedom in our lifetime. We will not turn away any member who comes to identify with the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime, and will not force any member to join our movement. We will on a day to day preach the word for economic freedom in our lifetime, because the emancipation of South Africa will lead to the emancipation of the whole African continent.

The wind for political liberation blew from the North to the South, and the wind for economic emancipation should blow from the South to the North. This wind should gain momentum in our lifetime and South Africa will be an inspiration to many other African countries to reclaim their wealth and economies from colonial and neo-colonial Masters. We are the generation of Economic Freedom Fighters. Our Movement will live forever to inspire many generations after us that we all can share and benefit from the land's wealth. 

In the next 100 Days, we should quadruple our efforts so that when we celebrate 200 days of the EFF, we have 4 times the members we have now, we have 4 times or the number of offices we have today and we have touched millions of South Africans. That way, we will know that victory is certain! No surrender! No retreat!

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

This article first appeared in Radical Voice, the online journal of the EFF.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter