**** *NUMSA SUPPORTS CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS’ STRUGGLES AGAINST COMMODIFICATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION*
*20 January 2011* The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) in the Western Cape supports the ongoing class struggles against the hiking of tuition fees and commodification of higher education by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology oligarchy. These struggles by the CPUT students’ under the leadership of the class orientated and conscious South African Students’ Congress (SASCO) should not be de-linked from broader class struggles waged by working class youth of Chile against the commodification of basic needs, such as education by the ruling class in Chile and imperialist countries like Great Britain and United States. As NUMSA in the Western Cape, we call for the immediate government intervention in relation to the regulation and determination of fees in higher education and Further Education and Training Colleges. We firmly believe that these unjustifiable and exorbitant hiking of fees by a White racist cartel running our institutions of higher learning is an impediment to government’s efforts at providing education for the poor. In the absence of free, quality public education in the country, regulation and determination of fees should be the exclusive and sole responsibility of government, as opposed to a cartel of unelected few. We call on the Cape Peninsula University of Technology oligarchy to reverse the hiking of tuition fees taking into consideration that the majority of these striking students are coming from working class and poor households of Gugulethu, Makhaza and Khayelitsha. NUMSA fully supports the Cape Peninsula University of Technology students in their struggles against the commodification of education through exorbitant fees, poor accommodation and academic exclusions. We call on these students led by SASCO to protest until their demands are met by management. For as long as institutions of higher learning remain the exclusive clubs for the children of the rich, working class students have no choice but to intensify the struggle through protests! Contact: *Fred Peterson, Regional Secretary – 083 561 1356* *Or * *Castro Ngobese, National Spokesperson – 083 627 5197* -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
