The CECC brings together a broad range of parents’ initiatives, social movements, NGOs and members of civil society opposed to the opening of schools in the context of rising infections in South Africa. The campaign of the CECC to close schools unitil safe and effective learning can take place is underpinned by a national petition, mobilisation, awareness raising, civil disobedience and community consultation. The aim of CECC is to canvass the support of parents and citizens, in the interests of learners, educators and of combating and eradicating coronavirus in South Africa. In the founding statement we not only call for schools to be closed, but equally important we set out our basic proposal of how to safe-guard our learners and educators from the coronavirus, and also secure the future of our learners’ education. We also call for a transition to a new education system to begin now. A list of organisations that endorse the founding statement of CECC and its campaign of mass mobilisation follows:
Bishop Lavis Action Community
Originally formed to resist the devastating gang violence which killed 17 people over a period of three weeks during July 2017, BLAC continuously and consistently took up the struggles of our poor working class community to build a fighting movement, able to resist, organise and mobilise our people. We achieved all of this without any significant funding.
Our members, our strongest asset, remain volunteers in service of cour community.
#Save Our Children Facebook Group
We are concerned parents and allies opposed to the planned reopening of schools in S.A. for the 2020 academic year. The plan to send our children back to school while the pandemic is spreading may very well result in our children potentially becoming infected.
Many children are malnourished and have underlying medical conditions which place them at risk of infection.
Gauteng Concerned Parents Forum
Gauteng Concerned Parents Forum is a newly formed forum of parents in Gauteng who are organising and mobilising against the re-opening of schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fight Inequality Alliance
Recognising the need for a working-class centred movement to addressing inequality, the Fight Inequality Alliance South Africa (FIA SA) was initiated in 2019 through several consultations and strategy workshops with movements, communities and NGOs. The workshops began democratising and shaping the process of building the alliance.
The movements represent a range of sectors, including mining-affected communities, informal traders, unemployed people, community movements, farmworkers and women’s movements.
COVID-19 Working Class Campaign
The CWCC was formed at the very beginning of the pandemic in South Africa, and it brought together a range of social movements and NGOs that have been doing movement building work within the working class over many years. The movements and the NGOs were brought together by the realisation that COVID-19 is more than a health crisis – it is a crisis of the whole system of neoliberal capitalism. The CWCC is dedicated to defending the working class and building movements in the context of COVID-19. The members of the Campaign are:
- Khanya College
- International Labour Research and Information Group
- General Industries Workers Union of South Africa
- African Reclaimers Organisation
- Casual Workers Advice Office
- Gauteng Community Health Care Forum
- Simunye Workers Forum
- Keep Left