The Art of War
An Open Letter to Non-Protesting Students
The last two years have been filled with student protests. Concomitantly, they’ve been filled with students complaining about the protests. I want to talk, for a moment, to those students who have complained. I want to address a handful of myths that people seem to have about the protests and the students taking part in them.
Let me begin by saying this: I was not involved in the protests last year. I was not involved, partly, because I was misinformed and believed many of the myths that I will discuss today.
However, I have been involved in the protests at Stellenbosch University this year. Mostly for the #EndRapeCulture campaign but also in solidarity with the #FeesMustFall movement. I don’t know much about protests at other universities but I don’t imagine they would be a whole lot different than here.
The first, and most important, thing you need to realize is that protesters are people. Normal students, just like you. And when you read what I have to say below, just bear that in mind.
The most important myth I’ll be addressing is the one where non-protesting students say that protesters should “go about it differently” or “not infringe on my rights to study”.
Let’s consider why people protest:
They protest because there is something in their society that they want to change. More importantly, they protest because they are not being heard through conventional channels.
This is important: protest is never a first step, it is a last resort.
If protest is a last resort, then it is done because those who are protesting are not being acknowledged. If we accept this premise, then the rest is self-explanatory: protesters take up public spaces, disrupt tests and block the library because there is no other way of being heard.
If your criticism of protest is that it’s disruptive then the protesters are doing something right. It is the very premise of protest that we need to disrupt the workings of the institution so that we will be listened to. There is no “other way” because all other ways have been exhausted. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be protesting.
So, to those that say: “Fine, they can protest but let other students carry on studying/writing/student-ing in general”. You have missed the fundamental POINT of protest. In an argument, if you are not being heard, you shout. There would be no point to shouting if you were doing it alone in a forest because the person you are arguing with would not hear you. Yes, shouting is bad and we don’t like resorting to it but if the argument is important enough and you have tried everything else, then you have no other option. Protest is shouting in action.
Second: if you think they should “go about it differently”, I would ask a simple question: how would you like them to protest? I know that, at Stellenbosch University, protests have ranged from informal rallies to large-scale marches to non-violent sit-ins. It appears that the non-protesting students are not satisfied with any one of these.
Many of you argued that the violence and destruction of property from last years’ protests is what you were opposed to. The latest protest has been a sit-in. Sit-ins are internationally recognized as a non-violent protest and, yet, criticism still abounds.
If you believe that they should “protest differently”, I would ask you to tell me what form of protest would get you on our side? My instinct says “none”. It is not the violence that you are opposed to; it is the act of protest. And there is a HUGE problem with that.
Because the act of protest is fundamentally democratic. It is an act of purposeful democracy and active citizenship. It is, moreover, my BASIC HUMAN RIGHT.
And I can understand (somewhat) the opposition to WHAT people are protesting for (everyone has the right to their beliefs) or to the violence that often accompanies protest but I cannot understand, nor can I forgive, opposition to the act of protest because I cannot forgive people arguing against me exercising my democratic rights.
Now, on to the protesters themselves.
Doubtless, many of you have seen this image. Doubtless, many of you concluded that the protesting students are violent and unreasonable.
I was there that day. In fact, I was sitting on the contested piece of corrugated iron that you see the students and the Men in Black fighting over.
Many of you, likely, imagine that the students sparked the violence you see here. The truth is, they did not. They had been protesting, peacefully, when the Men In Black (private security, hired by the university) came and broke down the shack that they had constructed. A handful of us sat on the pieces, trying to prevent them from removing it.
The Men In Black proceeded to lift the pieces of corrugated iron, shoving and pushing the students off them. In response, the protesters rallied around the displaced students (some of whom were cut or hit in the process). When the students banded together, the Men In Black charged us, protected by their riot gear. Students retaliated, as one would expect to happen when you are being shoved and beaten by people larger and more protected than you. We could do no harm to them, but a number of us were injured. Especially when the police arrived and, with no warning, set off shock bombs in the middle of the students.
The fact is, protest is not fun. It is not the idealistic picture people paint of singing songs and smoking weed. It is a lot of waiting. And what you’re waiting for is a beating.
In the latest protest — the sit-in at the library — students were more peaceful than ever before.
They simply sat there, waiting for the Rector (#WhereIsWim even?) to come and talk to them.
Until the Men In Black arrived.
What you see in these pictures is students being sprayed with pepper spray, students being locked in the library when they need medical attention and students calling the police to protect them from the security that this university employs.
A number of students were injured, one had seizures and the response by the university was to LOCK THEM INSIDE and not allow them medical attention.
The anger you see in the image alongside is not anger; not exactly. It is terror. It is fear. It is being so accustomed to this fear that you get angry because you know that your friends need help and you are being beaten and abused for simply acting on your democratic rights.
Protest has never been “a way to get out of studying”. At this university, at this stage in history, it is knowing that you will be beaten, shot at, pepper sprayed and villainized. It is deciding that the cause is worth it.
What you need to consider is that these students are being teargassed and beaten and abused for YOUR rights. Lest anyone fail to realize this:
YOU did not pay the proposed fee increase that was successfully protested last year.
I realize, as I type this, that the calm, rational thinking I had hoped to maintain is leaving me. So I will end off with a few final comments.
1). Whether or not you agree with the cause for which students are protesting (and, if you don’t, by all means pay the full proposed tuition fees), you ought to realize that the right to protest is a democratic right, afforded to all citizens of South Africa.
2). Given that these students have the right to protest, and given the conditions under which protest becomes necessary, you ought to understand that disruption is a necessary condition for protest to be successful.
3). Most importantly, I beg of you, begin to see what is happening to the protesters themselves. Their rights are being denied, they are being abused and humiliated and put in real danger. Worse, the people putting them in danger are people hired by this university. And the police will do nothing because, they claim, this is university jurisdiction.
Instead of being outraged at the protests — an act which we must all allow each other in a functioning democracy — be enraged at the violation of human rights that is being enacted against the students.
Please. This abuse, this violence, cannot continue.
