Unions representing workers and academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) on February 16 — after eight days of militant strike action and demonstrations — agreed to suspend industrial action following a 7% wage offer from management. However for many strikers, who were joined by students and people from the informal settlement on university land, the action was about more than economic demands.
Most days, thousands have marched under the banners of education for all, decent working conditions and academic freedom. One of the university's five campuses was occupied by heavily armed police. The strike specifically targeted the exclusion of poor students from the university, the super-exploitation of workers and contract academic staff, attempts to evict shack dwellers living on the campus, the exclusion of unions from decision-making structures, and attempts by the university management to intimidate staff supporting radical social movements — in particular the banning of radical academic Ashwin Desai from campus. The strike also opposed the subordination of research agendas to the demands of big business, the World Bank and donor agencies.
Vice-chancellor Malegepuru Makgoba unilaterally banned Desai from the university, fearing that he would lead protests against corporatisation. The banning led to protests from the respected Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa, radical intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, Antonio Negri and Naomi Klein, and an international campaign for academic freedom. A number of academic associations in Africa are contemplating a boycott of UKZN. Makgoba's response has been to accuse Chomsky of "dementia" and to claim that academics organising against corporatisation are "lazy". Makgoba works closely with the World Bank and he even invited the bank onto campus to design a "staff retention policy" — in other words the World Bank will decide who gets hired and fired and under what conditions.
During the strike Makgoba refused to meet with union representatives. Heads of department, now called "line managers", were instructed to inform on strikers and ban marches on campus. Most department heads openly defied the instruction to inform. Thousands marched in defiance of the ban on marching. A ban by Makgoba's spin-doctor Dasarath Chetty on staff speaking to the media was overturned after a direct challenge by Jimi Adesina, a highly respected progressive Nigerian academic.
Strikers demanded the resignation of Makgoba, his management committee and the university council, which is stacked with the corporate elite.
[Based on a report on Indymedia South Africa <http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 22, 2006.
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