school students

On Monday the government announced a 50% increase in university budgets over the next five years and also vowed to spend 11M on student housing.

There were walk outs in at least 15 cities and there were a number of incidents, with 20 teenagers arrested. In Middelburg 500 pupils occupied a crossroads, after which they clashed with police with batons.

Word about the demonstrations - against the official 1,040 hours of lessons a year - was spread using MSN and email.

Today will be a return to struggle, or in some cases a beginning. The first blockade of Paris VIII began today at 7am. Many universities will be holding AGs this week to decide whether to continue the movement, which up until now has continued to grow.

A situationist-influenced text decribing how a protest by Soweto school students in 1976 spread and became a country-wide revolt - involving mass workers' strikes and violent confrontations that shook the foundations of white South Africa. Written as a collaboration between an American and two South Africans, the text also deals with the rise and fall of the Black Consciousness Movement.

Originally published in August 1979