JOHANNESBURG, OCCUPIED AZANIA––It’s been 40 years since the June 16, 1976 Soweto student uprisings that led to more than 700 students being killed, which subsequently caused a national shutdown until the apartheid government surrendered power to the neocolonial African National Congress of Nelson Mandela.
It was the killing of the more than 700 students, shouting, “Down with Bantu Education,” that led to the uprising in the entire country according to Steve Biko.
June 16th is a public holiday in honor of those fearless students that raised up against the nationalist government in power and influenced the Africans in Occupied Azania to fight the system until the revolution was defeated systemically in 1994.
The students said, “No more Xhosa, Zulu or Swati tribe,” which was the theory to divide us given by the white settlers, the students came together against a common enemy: white power.
They took it to the streets and fought the white government. When the government saw that it was doomed, it started the process of diversion of the struggle.
With only bricks and stones, the students faced the first line of defense of the State, the police and soldiers. The killing of the students was not a deterrence to fighting the apartheid government. Instead, it diminished the element of fear in the minds of African people to fight the system.
During that period 1976 there was no useful leadership to lead the African masses and the Political parties were banned.
Only the leaders of Black Consciousness Movement and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) remained on the ground (which are recognized as the two legitimate Liberation Movement with the ANC) that helped the students to define who they are fighting and cause the crisis that led to the ANC getting into power.
In 2015 the students are on the motion again. Can the 2016 #FeesMustFall generation do it? If so who is going to be with the students in the struggle and wintheir support?
In October 2015, thousands of students took to the streets of Azania to burn down the higher education institutions which is rightfully ours.
The 2015 students are saying no more ANC, EFF DA or PAC because today we are divided into political parties, whereas the 70’s students were divided by tribalism.
They protested the increase in tuition fees, charging to the parliament building just like the 70’s students did.
The students are demanding free education
The students are bright. They know what they want and once they want something ,they really want it.
They wanted to tell the government what they want, but no one wanted to meet them in 2015, instead they set the police to shoot them. Now the minister of higher education has called for a summit on January 14, 2016 to discuss free education, but the students are not invited.
Students are up in arms against the system again. Anyone now, who attacks or criticizes the students by calling them hooligans, saying that the students are lost and that there will be no free education, would have done the same to the 70’s students.
This time around, the students will have the African People’s Socialist Party and the whole African Socialist International for direction and leadership.
The African Socialist International (ASI) front in Azania will have to recruit members and make people aware of the “African Must Unite” tour with Chairman Omali Yeshitela in the spring of 2016.
Members of the ASI have to be involved and win the students to the Black Revolution because there is still no representation, and there are a lot of forces trying to hijack the #FeesMustFall struggle, even in the ruling party.
The ruling party has accused the students of attacking the ANC revolution, which they are not part of. They even charged the students with treason in the early days of the #FeesMustFall protests.
In the 1970’s the students had the PAC and the Black Consciousness leaders on the ground such as Steve Biko, who was killed the following year as a result of the beginning of the upheaval in 1976.
In 2016 the students must have the ASI on the ground, we should be the force that is very involved in the #FeesMustFall struggle.
Speaking as a young African in Azania, do we have the same fearless students who will carry a fellow student who has been shot and injured by the police, like the photo above?
Mbuyisane Makhubo carried Hector Peterson, a young student shot in the street of Soweto by the first line of defense of the State, the police.
The blood of the students in 1976 is what started the process of revolution in Azania. They fought with stones in 1970’s. In 2016, we still have to fight with stones against armed forces of the State.
Anyone who attacks the students of the #FeesMustFall struggle would have attacked the 1970’s students, and are against the African struggle for the total liberation and a United Africa.
African Must Unite Tour 2016!
BUILD THE ASI!
UHURU!
