and strengthen the police and army; and a bill to ban "any group whose aim is to resort to force or whose conduct tends to disturb order or public safety".
BRUTALITY In January alone 176,000 school students took to the streets of Belgian cities -according to the government itself. On 17 January there were nation-wide demonstrations demanding withdrawal of the bill to do away with exemption from call-up, and democratic rights in the army. On 24 January mounted police with drawn sabres charged a demonstration of 4,000 in Brussels, inflicting many injuries - an act of brutality which brought the repressive intentions of the bourgeoisie home to many sections of the population. On 31 January, contingents of demonstrators, 15,000 in all, descended on Brussels from all over the country, and marched through the streets behind the protection of a strong stewarding force, demanding the withdrawal of both repressive bills. The local mobilising committees which sprung up in the course of this activity have now joined to form a "National High School Front", which held a conference of 400 Flemish and French-speaking delegates on 10 February. is now engaged in a fortnight's campaign to bring home the meaning of the schools' movement to the rest of the population, and warn against the government's likely manoeuvres over the coercive measures.
ADVANCE The developments of January and February mark a great advance for Belgian youth. There is a strong basis for an ongoing movement: in Belgium the school leaving age is 18, and by contrast with Britain, the overwhelming majority of the age-group involved is therefore of working class origin - an important factor in the repercussions the schools upsurge is having in the working class movement. A number of trade union George Cunvin reports on IEGE VERSITE SUDARITE above: school students protest against new laws branches have passed resolutions supporting the aims of the school students - and coaches bringing contingents to the 30 January demonstration were even supplied with free fuel by striking petrol workers.
What the schools movement has done is to initiate an open mass struggle against the repressive legislation as a whole, advancing from the initial protest against the conscription clauses to demand the withdrawal of union leaders can be arbitrarily banned;
can be detained for 180 days without trial;
or "endorsed out" of the area where they are active.
Africans are expressly prohibited from strike action by Section 18 of the Bantu Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act, which states that "no employee or other person shall instigate a strike or incite any employee or other person to take part in a strike or the continuation of a strike."
Strikes are defined to cover stoppages, go-slows, refusal to work and so on. The law lays down severe penalties, and African strikers can also fall foul of the Suppression of Communism Act and the Sabotage Act, infringement of which can bring life imprisonment or the death penalty. It is against this sombre background that the Durban strikes must be viewed. The very fact that they took place at all, that at one stage over 100,000 workers were involved and that they did bring some gain, however meagre, will have a tremendous effect on the morale of the workers. For the first time in a decade, the viciously exploited black wage slaves of South Africa have flexed their muscles and felt their giant strength. This time they have managed to wring only miserable concessions from the white boss class, but they have started out on the road which will inevitably lead to their final emancipation. comrades of the Ligue Revolutionnaire des Travailleurs (Belgian section of the F.I.) were best able to take up the issue of the bill banning groups "tending to disturb order or public safety", a clear measure of repression against the revolutionary left and therefore the workers" movement. If the Belgian bourgeoisie persists in its measures of repression, it will now encounter stronger and more united resistance than in the first confrontation of the January days.
RANK AND FILE DEFENCE COMMITTEE