*YCL remembers Joe Slovo* *Monday 5 January 2009*
Today, 06 January 2009, marks the 14th anniversary of the passing away of Cde Joe Slovo, former General Secretary of the SACP, a former Chief of Staff of uMkhonto weSizwe, a former member of the YCL and a leading Communist cadre who served in both the NWC and NEC of the ANC. The YCL remembers this paragon of our struggles for national liberation and socialism. We are this year commemorating and celebrating Cde Slovo's life in the midst of the forthcoming national and provincial elections, which accords the people of South Africa an opportunity to renew the mandate of the ANC led government to accelerate service delivery for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of our people including the working class and the poor youth. These national and provincial elections propel us to entrust the new leadership of the ANC led Alliance with the responsibility of building a developmental state, rooted amongst the mass of the people of our country, consistent with the ideals and vision of Cde Joe Slovo. We commemorate his death against a background of an interesting year ahead of us as the YCL specifically, and the working class and the poor youth of our country generally. The YCL, in the wake of our 2006 National Congress resolution, will rechannel our energies and efforts, in order to ensure that ANC President Jacob Zuma becomes the undisputed President of the Republic of South Africa. There can be no better tribute to Cde Joe Slovo than to ensure that the ANC led Alliance wins the national and provincial elections with a decisive 75% vote. His commitment to working class struggles and his selfless character will guide us throughout our radical and militant campaign as we garner the youth vote for the ANC led Alliance. His selfless deeds will be with us as we take forward our Right to Learn campaign named after him and as we consolidate all our campaigns on HIV/AIDS, Free Sanitary Towels, Jobs for Youth Campaign and building of Youth Co-operatives for sustainable livelihoods. It will be his revolutionary morale and commitment that will drive us as we consolidate Vision 2010 – our Programme of Action! Together with our allies, we will deepen our campaign to access to education for all, jobs for the youth and the many ills that threaten to erode a better life for the youth and the ordinary people. Cde Slovo's life and work was exemplary in advancing basic demands for our people. In honour of the immense contribution and role he played in the struggle, the YCL will persuade government and the Ministry of Education to make sure that NSFAS [National Students Financial Aid Scheme] finance all academically deserving students especially the poor who are denied finance by barbaric capitalist institutions in the absence of free, quality and compulsory education for all. In our ongoing class struggle and our efforts of building a caring society we will be guided by his deep hatred of Capitalism which prioritizes the logic of the capitalist market over the basic needs and demands of our people. * * *Forward to the Joe Slovo Right to Learn Campaign* The YCLSA together with the components of the Education Alliance, namely ANC YL, SADTU, COSAS and SASCO we will intensify our Joe Slovo Right to Learn Campaign as part of making sure that the doors of learning and teaching are being opened for all. The focus of our campaign this year will be on the following fundamental and strategic issues; 1. The delivery of basic learning materials on time in mainly working class schools. 2. The challenge of classroom overcrowding which is still a reality in most working class schools which contributes negatively to the provision of quality education for all. There is therefore a need to address teacher: pupil ratio to 1:35. 3. The mobilization of all stakeholders – teachers, learners, parents and the Department - to come together and commit themselves to improving the quality of education. 4. Continuation of our fight against school violence as a prerequisite for quality public education. 5. The closure of shebeens that are located next to schools remain one of our major priorities for 2009, and we will approach this action with more vigour. A detailed programme will be unveiled before the re-opening of public schools. Issued by YCL Contact: *Castro Ngobese* *National Spokesperson – 082 567 3557* --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
