On 20 May police and security forces in Mauritius used batons and tear-gas to beat up a peaceful demonstration of 15,000 high-school students who were In Port-Louis itself another 10,000 students had assembled waiting for the marchers. The demonstration was the high point in a series of strikes launched by students in most or une important coneges of the country.
The demands of the students were wide-ranging. They were protesting against the deplorable conditions in all the colleges-lack of laboratory equipment. inadequately stocked libraries, and staff shortages. They were also demanding an end to discrimination against students attending rural colleges, tree secondary education, more democracy in the colleges, and a radical reform of the nature of the Mauritian government. It is yet another indication of the inability of Ramgoolam's neo-colonial regime to rue without me use or torce student-led movement, the first of its kind in the history of the island, took place in open defiance of the state of emergency prevailing at the moment.
More importantly, the strikes represent the most important form of popular opposition to emerge since 1971 when the massive strikes of Mauritian workers led by the reformist MMM were defeated. The MMM, in fact, seems to have played no role in the strikes: one of its leaders is reported to have denounced the students as. "irresponsible'. undertaken by the students point to the crucial role Mauritian youth will be called to play in the harder struggles in the coming period. They thus represent an did not feel it necessary to take such special measures.
The real reason for the State's crackdown is its desire to behead the left wing and working class opposition in this key industrial region, where the militancy of the working class is re inforced by the long-standing national grievances of the oppressed Basque people against the fascist State.
This is clear from the scope of The initiatives the operation the regime has carried out, In the first six weeks of the state of emergency some 2,000 suspected political oppositionists-including excuse: even after the ETA assa trivial acts. 'INTERROGATION' permanently disfigured after his interrogation.
The one area of Britain which will almost certainly return a substantial 'no' vote when the results of the EEC referendum are announced is Scotland. The reasons for this are not hard to find. Since the decline in the traditional industrial bases red week