Adam Haupt, The Con
The rise of
the #FeesMustFall movement in South Africa has revealed key fault lines. I
would like to offer two arguments here. The first is that the use of police
brutality against peaceful protesters on campuses undermines citizens’ rights
to free speech. The second is that the corporatisation of public institutions
produces the same negative effects on the public sphere as state repression of
dissent. Public institutions’ mandate to preserve an information commons is
undermined by an economic system that places a low premium on public spending.
Universities are thrown at the mercy of the market and, effectively, cost
barriers to education are introduced. It is in this way that any talk of a
national democratic revolution is reduced to empty rhetoric.
