{"id":2225,"date":"2020-06-09T17:33:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T17:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2020-06-09T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T17:34:10","slug":"yesteday-enough-is-enough-by-nicholas-wolpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/?p=2225","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday & Today; Enough is Enough by Nicholas Wolpe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the 16th<\/sup> June we remember,\ncelebrate and pay homage to the SOWETO 1976 generation, who rose up against the\napartheid system and its oppressive ideology, bent on ensuring that the black\nmajority remained \u201cnothing more than drawers\nof water<\/em> and hewers of wood\u201d. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student uprising which was both\nspontaneous and organised is viewed by some as the first signs of a\nre-emergence of internal opposition to the apartheid state following the July\n11th<\/sup> 1963 raid on Liliesleaf and the subsequent Rivonia Trial, where\nNelson Mandela and seven others of the 10 accused of sabotage were sentenced to\nlife imprisonment, which crushed the internal Liberation Movement but did not\nsilence it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students message was clear, \u201cenough is enough\u201d, we\nare no longer going to sit idlly and passively by and accept the racist\npolicies of a government determined to deny the majority of its population  fundamental inalienable human rights to all. Thus,\na tool of the apartheid state to maintain the shackles of poverty and a cheap pool\nof labour was education. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Harold Wolpe argued in his seminal 1972\npaper \u201cCapitalism and cheap labour-power\nin South Africa: From segregation to apartheid\u201d, which redefined and shifted the \ndiscourse and debate around what apartheid was, initially argued apartheid was\nin effect a manifestation of the capitalist class and Capitalism to ensure a pool\nof cheap of labour. Thus, his argument was grounded on the following assumption\nthat underpinning the racially decisive policies of apartheid was an intent and\naim of creating a lumpen proletariat, a mass pool of uneducated cheap labour to\nfeed the needs, wants and desires of capitalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In applying this critique, argument, and framework we\nare able to gain an understanding of what drove the students to rise up. Their\neducation was a reproduction of this ideology and intent. Therefore, to frame\nJune 16th<\/sup> simply as \u201cYouth Day\u201d is unfortunately a misnomer, a\nmisrepresentation of what the uprising was about.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We therefore need to fully appreciate and understand\nthat the uprising was not about the youth but about the systematic and vile\ndetermination of a racist Government to not only force learners to be taught in\nAfrikaans, but simultaneously to ensure they received an inferior education,\nwith the aim of merely perpetuating their inferior and classless  position and status in society.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To assume otherwise is a blight on what the 76 \u201clost\ngeneration\u201d sacrificed in giving up their opportunity to learn and aspirations\nfor the betterment of all for a better, fairer and equitable future, as set out\nand enshrined in our Freedom Charter and particular clause 9, which states <\/em> \u201cThe Doors of Learning and\nCulture Shall be Opened<\/strong>! the government shall discover, develop and\nencourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life; All the\ncultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books,\nideas and contact with other lands; The aim of education shall be to teach the\nyouth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood,\nliberty and peace;\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SOWETO generation message was simple \u201cenough is\nenough\u201d. 44 years later we are hearing the same words and anguish being echoed in\nthe United States. The brutal killing of George Floyd has sparked mass\ndemonstrations throughout the US and other countries and the crying out for an end\nto social injustice systemic racism and brutality towards African Americans.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 76 SOWETO uprising was a\nkey moment as is the 2020 mass demonstrations springing up across the States\nand other countries against systemic social and racail injustices. The message\nthen as now is clear and unambiguous \u201cEnough is Enough\u201d, with the people saying\nthey are no longer going to accept or tolerate the inhumane treatment metered\nout purely because of the colour of their skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we celebrate and mark June\n16th<\/sup>, it affords us here in South Africa the opportunity to stand in\nsolidarity with our fellow brothers and sisters in America, and to speak with\none voice  that \u201c Enough is Enough\u201d that\nwe won\u2019t sit silently by and accept or tolerate the racist discrimination of US\nSociety, which the treatment and behaviour of US Policeman on blacks is merely\nbut a microcosm of this systemic societal manifestation of racism that has seeped\ninto the very DNA, make up and fabric of US Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must not forget that both\nthe SOWETO Uprising and the killing of George Floyd have their antecedents in\nthe systemic manifestation of racism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 16th June we remember, celebrate and pay homage to the SOWETO 1976 generation,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.ipan.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/June-16.jpg?fit=600%2C450","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ipan.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}