Let me start of by stating that the statement made by the Chairperson of the NYDA are at worst unacceptable and at best regrettable, provided the reports are true. The statements issued by the mentioned organizations and most responses to this thread challenge the capacity in which the comments were made as well as the merits of the comments. It is rather unfortunate that fully cognisant of that mischievous agenda of South African media that the sensationalist headline that ushered in these report, that sort to marry the alleged comments made by the national chairperson to that of the DA, did not raise an eyebrow. I sincerely doubt if all those that released volley after volley of statements ever bothered to call and engage the Chairperson, who is deployed by us, to understand firstly the validity and secondly the context under which the statement was made.
It is also unnecessary for the ANCYL to issue out a statement on the comments made by Andile Lungisa, before affording him an opportunity to clarify his position to the leadership and to South Africans at large. Assuming that his comments are true, the National Chairperson cannot be decreed as an "unconscious reactionary". Let us, resisting dogma and name calling try to engage the merits of his comments (provided they are true) and perhaps use this as an opportunity to start a debate on the rights of teachers (a small professional class of workers who provide an invaluable service to our people) to associate, organize, bargain and regrettably embark on industrial action often at the detriment of millions working class boy and girl children. As communists, we must guard against narrow often reactionary workerism and syndicalism, wherein the interests of workers supersede those of the working class. As an example, trade unions including teacher unions, while they existed in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, they never enjoyed right to embark on industrial action. The Chairperson, must do the right thing and call a media briefing to clarify his position. That said, let a thousand flowers bloom. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: [email protected] Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:42:19 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Statements have been issued flowing from SASCO, Cosatu, Sadtu & YCLSA disapproving utterances made publicly by the chairperson of the NYDA comrade Andile Lungisa in his scathing attack of the teacher unions for some of the challenges that Basic Education is faced with. What I find amiss & disturbing is that my other organization the ANCYL, a role player in the terrain of education, an organization which also declared itself as a "vanguard of the working-class" fails to defend the organized working-class in the form of teachers when the latter is under attack . So the silence of the ANCYL in this regard may only be interpreted as approving & sharing the reactionary views as expressed by its deployee comrade Andile. I remain!! Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -- 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] . -- 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] .
