the restof the black population.
permanently settied in the cities and places where they can be allowed to hold political or social rights.
16 June 1976 is a day no South African, black orwhite, will forget in a hurry. It started with a peaceful protest by Soweto students against the compulsory introduction of Afrikaans In schools. It ended, thanka to police repression, with many injured and dead.
As the weeks advanced the students' struggle begas to involve black workers, a dously successful stay athomse strikes. Above all the strikes demonstrated the emorisous The victory of the MPLA and the defeat of the South African forces in Angola contri Pacou to tais Lantauc growin in sais coolr Sence. This should be viewed against a backound of rising strike rates amongst black wich. the 1973 Naa snkes bene ca ecially noteworthy, the increasing forma Son of black trade unions, and the growth in The assault on the apartheid system, which wen far beyond the initial issue of education wi ven real fire ty this combination o BLACK WORKERS But i became clear that by contimaily calling wayaways, withour tangible results, the students ran the risk of demoralising the the support offered by the workers dwindled; the brutalising conditions of apartheid had strugale thrown up werea great step forward.
However, these struggles in no way seriously BEERE BICSECILE DUC MASSERESAS capacity for repression was in no way THIS WEEK marks the first anniversary of the outbreak of a struggle which shook South African racism to its very foundations. Beginning among the students of the black township of Soweto, the movement of revolt rapidly enveloped the whole country, drawing in hundreds of thousands of black workers, and spreading to the 'coloured' people of Cape Town, whom the regime has always tried to insulate from movements of resistance among This upsurge capped off five yoars of sleady growth of organised resistance by the black working class and deepending resentment by urban youth at the erosion of their few remaining rights. It reflocied, at one level, the very development of South African capitalism, whose profits are sucked out of the labour of an ever-growing black working class, with no atlachment to the impoverished rural homelands', which the regime insists are the only On another level, this discontent was fired into action by the deleats imposed on white racism and its imperialist backers in neighbouring Whereas prior to Soweto there was some opportunity to conduct a limited politica died away the racist regime began systematically to clear the ground of political oppo vanced militants from the potical scene this Increased repression bas had far deeper CHICLIS The black working class in South Africa is a class in formation. It is not as yet a class fo Iseif. The most pressing and immedate tas is surely to develop this awareness, and one of the most important ways of daing it is through the development of black trade unions. If this is no longer a possibility in the present period, one in which black unem ployment 13 aDoroschine IWO maDoos ang mate repression is increasing, then what This inability on the part of the blaci ockentoora une and the ability to set o derable effect on the form the tational structares has con shipe the black workers are seen as irrelevant to the struggle, and the inevitable ultra leftist practice fows from this error. In the place of the working class another sociological catestadents.
For many militants the only conclusion to bedrawn from all chisis that political struggle.
Is impossible sn soum Atra, aod trac tas struggle must he shified on to a military plane. Whereas the African National ConMozambique and Angola.
the Soweto movement - but notto defeat it.
adjoining lownships.
begunat Soweto.
The racists threw up a ring of repressive fire around thair privileges killing hundreds of youth, imprisoning dozens of others, and driving hundreds more from their communities into exile. They managed to check Its sources and inspirations continue to live, and the movement has already lound new expressions: the vigorous movement against the altempled rent rises in Soweto, and, marking the anniversary of the struggle in their own way, the movement against the collaborationist puppet Urban Bantu Councils now spreading through Soweto and White racist rule is today under seige as never belore in the 'front-lines" of Zimbabwe and Namibia. Butitis also lacing & full-scale revolt in its very heartiand - South Alrica. Only when the workers of South Africa have finally dealt the blow that will eradicale the oppression of white racism and the exploitation of racial capitalism will they consider concluded the task South Africa should not be seen in a vacuum The sinuacion in Zimbabwe. toc development of international solidarity and the struggle in Namibin all weaken the ability levelot repression. Ar present the situation in Zimbabwe is key. A successfal ourcome to The recent attempted coup in matic in many respects, wi doing very litile to clarily thing The most recent, by Preside coup's perpetrators were ultr up a 'Chinese-style regime'. 1 relation lo reality that It must purely forconsumption in Mos athor. former Enterior Minist Nito Alves, was widely knowa to to promisence MPLA's humer of the ultro Oo balnnce, it would seem tha there were lew real politicu Missions snoived in the boul artemps. le was tbe work of a carefully assembled JOSIATE ATIL Inside the MPLA, and its mass
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