The mass media in Britain has not devoted so much space to the world-wide student revolt in recent months. However, it would be a big mistake to think it is in decline. On the contrary, in the past few weeks a series of countries has seen deeper struggles: in Argentina the biggest general strike for a decade is sparked off, Ivory Coast's university is closed, all over Latin America students spearhead demonstrations against Rockefeller, Holland shaken by the sit-in at Amsterdam, etc., etc.
We should never forget the lessons of France: there small vanguard groups set into motion a student struggle which in turn stimulated the biggest general strike in French history. Our fellow-thinkers in France, because of their role in the student struggle, because of the attention they gave to the need to struggle for a Leninist organisation, and their strength of ideas, have moved from being a typical "groupuscule" (with the typical "groupuscule's" social composition) to a 2,000 strong national organisation (30% of whose members are industrial workers).
In Britain the student struggle is only in its initial stage as yet. So far it has been mainly a case of the militants seeking ways of expediting the process of radicalisation. However, our attitude towards the student movement and its potential is based upon a sociological analysis. There are profound trends which create the conditions which favour the rise of student militancy and MASS STUDENT ACTION.
But there are signs of a new phenomenon in the student field. In several towns recently students from teachers training colleges demonstrated because of their poor job prospects. These were not student militants anxious for a confrontation - they were ordinary students who regard teaching as a vocation and who had been led to believe that their future was assured.
The ECONOMIST of May 31st noted that "the huge expansion in colleges of education has meant that an extra 14,000 teachers above the number needed to replace those retiring are now available each year..."
Parallel processes will take place in the technological colleges, hardest hit of all by the Government's cuts. The arts colleges are already beginning to ferment. All of this is reflected in the change in the policies of the National Union of Students (that is not to have any illusions in that corporate body).
Thus it is reasonable to assume that we are due for our student revolt too; its form may vary, it may be a little longer coming BUT the processes of neo-capitalism grind on; only a workers revolution will bring them to a halt. Revolutionaries must be prepared to intervene in the student struggle to give it a thorough-going socialist orientation and to make sure that it materially assists the construction of a revolutionary vanguard.