by Martin Jansen

The Students Lead…. Again

The student protest movement that unfolded over the past two weeks signals the beginning of the end for the ANC regime. Strangely reminiscent of the 1976 student uprisings that followed three years after the Durban strikes of 1973, 2015’s students’ protest movement follows three years after the Marikana massacre and the state’s smashing of the Lonmin mineworkers’ strike. While the students’ victory of no fee increases for 2016 will not overcome their major problem of eradicating the high costs of accessing tertiary education, it still represents a major victory and achievement for students and the entire working class movement. By directing their demands towards national government and building a non-sectarian national movement, the students demonstrated tremendous political clarity and tenacity. The rest of the working class has taken notice and has drawn this lesson. Soon we are likely to see local communities that have engaged in hundreds of militant local struggles around “service delivery” for more than a decade, seeking unity with each other and building a national movement similar to the UDF of the 1980’s. The real mass working class united front is on the horizon to challenge our rulers. Even the complacent urban middle class has been shaken out of its post-Apartheid comfort and slumber by the student protests with the state’s brutal response and sudden caving-in to their demands.