Clenched fist salute- the ‘right way’ and how ‘they’ do it (29 October 2016)

In the Star article that is posted I leave the court after sentencing in 1975 with my fist in the air. But that, according to Robben Island veteran from PE, the late Henry Fazzie is not how ‘we’ do it. In the mid 1980s I was at a UDF National Working Committee meeting in Koinonia in Bezuidenhout valley when Fazzie instructed us about how ‘they’ raise their hands and how ‘we’ do it. What Fazzie explained is that in the 1950s the initial ANC salute was with the fist in the air. It was then, on the 1980s and now, just above or at the level of the shoulders as a clenched fist, without the thumbs up. ‘They’ meaning the PAC ( Fazzie making it look a little ridiculous) hold their hands open and up high above their heads. Another way that is wrong is how ‘they’ meaning the Black Consciousness Movement do it, with their fists held high (as I do in the photograph).
So for those who want to know the orthodoxy, this is it as far as I know. How I do it in the photograph was not how a good comrade should be doing it, so mend your ways if you are not doing it correctly!
In studying the origins of the clenched fist I found that it was associated with Communists from decades back as well as sometimes with fascists. Netaji (Dear leader) Subhas Chandra Bose, who took up arms against the British, after breaking with the Indian Congress is also pictured in some photographs with a clenched fist.

Inside Apartheid’s prison: an experience that haunts for a lifetime (The Conversation, 23 October 2016)

https://theconversation.com/inside-apartheids-prison-an-experience-that-haunts-for-a-lifetime-64989

What is revolutionary, what is militant and what is plain criminal? (14 october 2016)

Today it is reported that Max Price, VC of UCT was assaulted after meeting with some students. A couple of days back students set fire to a building at CPUT with guards locked inside.
There are repeated references to the current student protests as being revolutionary or militant and that earlier generations ought to learn from what they are doing, because they are a new generation, making their own decisions and their own history.
I do believe that the new generation has to find their own paths in the problems they confront, while older generations should not expect their own experience to guide the youth of today. But humility should not preclude us from naming what they are doing as criminality where it entails wanton destruction of buildings and resources that are needed by the poor, assaults or attempted murder of individuals, whether they are VCs, guards or anyone else. There is nothing militant or revolutionary about that. These are criminal acts and it is time that the more mature students and staff who support them should name things for what they are.