The current spate of violence plaguing our schools that left learners and teachers seriously and often fatally injured, has shocked the entire nation. Frantic responses have emerged to stem the tide of this devastatingly destructive phenomenon. One teacher union – “The Educators Union of South Africa (EUSA)” –  called for teachers to be armed at schools. The Education department called for greater parental involvement and according to the Gauteng Member of Executive Council for education, we need a police presence at schools.

In APDUSA we condemn in the strongest terms all forms of violence against both learners and teachers. Given the current crisis of school violence, we urge for greatest caution against knee-jerk reactions, especially those offering counter-posing violent  solutions, as these can lead to even greater problems with more casualties. The Capitalist state and its hangers-on want us to believe that the problems lie within gang sub-cultures and even the parents who fail to impart proper moral values to their children. Whilst on the surface this appears to be the case, a deeper analysis reveals something much more sinister.

It is quite interesting that most of the violence happen at schools in working class areas. These are heavily under-resourced communities who bear the brunt of a socio-economic system that deprive them of jobs, proper housing, proper municipal amenities, proper health care and a proper educational system, amongst other socio-economic calamities. Most of these communities have to eke out a living under the most depraved conditions of poverty and squalor. In sheer desperation, they become susceptible to the social ills that have come to shock us so much. The fact remains that schools are not islands on their own but part of broader communities. As such, schools will reflect the general culture prevalent in their communities with maybe an odd exception here or there. If that community culture is one of deprivation and violence, chances are highly likely that its schools will follow suit.

We as the working class do not have the luxury to theorise about the best solutions to the problem. We experience the violence first-hand at all our schools, coupled with extreme gang violence in the community. This is worsened by large scale unemployment, school drop-outs and inevitably, substance abuse as the most likely recourse for coping with the atrocities of daily survival. In this toxic environment, drug and human trafficking thrive and spill over into schools which serve as market places for both these devious underworld industries. We are unequivocally opposed to the perpetrators of these vile acts of destruction in our communities. We do however not confine these perpetrators to the gang and broader criminal elements, but want to implicate emphatically all those who advance and benefitted from the socio-economic system that made South Africa the most unequal country in the world today! We blame the capitalists who oppress and exploit the poor working class in their quest to generate super profits. It is their system which denies our poor communities basic human rights and opportunities to develop fully as decent human beings. Our people are subjected daily to the worst kind of structural violence brought about by poverty in all its vile forms. For example, millions of tons of food are dumped annually to keep prices artificially high while the majority of poor people suffer untold misery and starvation. The same lack of concern is demonstrated for other social development endeavours affecting poor working communities. The capitalists do not say a word about this!

Only when we radically change society from only benefitting the few to one serving the interest of its labouring majority, shall we as the working class, know genuine peace and progress at schools. Until then, the struggle continues!