Johannesburg, 8 October 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) congratulates the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) on the occasion of its 81^st anniversary.

From its founding at the First World Trade Union Congress held in Paris, France, from 3 to 8 October 1945, the WFTU established itself as a resolutely anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-colonial force within the international trade union movement. It supported the national liberation struggles of workers and peoples across Asia, Africa and Latin America against imperialism and colonial domination. True to its founding principles, the WFTU did not reduce the task of trade unionism to only negotiating the conditions of workers' exploitation within capitalism. It combined the defence of workers' immediate interests with participation in the broader struggle against the capitalist system and the imperialist order that sustains it.

This is one of the reasons why the SACP participated in the marches held in South Africa on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, as part of the struggle for decent work. The SACP has adopted the Decent Work Agenda with a revolutionary elaboration, in pursuit of the right of all to work under conditions of freedom, work and income security, distributional justice, equal treatment at work without regard to race, gender, disability and geographical background, and social dialogue, including through collective bargaining rights and protection.

As part of our social emancipation criteria, working under conditions of freedom means working without any economic exploitation or form of abuse of one person by another. Through its participation in the World Decent Work marches, the SACP reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to the struggle against the economic exploitation of workers and the entrenched inequalities of class and gender that persist in workplaces and across society.

Decent work includes access to productive work for all who are able, including those living with disabilities but are able to work in workplaces and labour processes that integrate their needs. In contradiction, 13.1 million active and discouraged work seekers in South Africa continue to suffer under the unemployment crisis. Over 40 million people in South Africa, including the unemployed and the working poor, live under the upper bound poverty rate, in a population of approximately 64 million people in total. These serious crises reflect the long-term failure of the prevailing capitalist production and neo-liberal policy dominance in a global atmosphere dominated by imperialist forces and corporations from the Global North to the disadvantage of many Global South nations. Inequality is both concentrated within borders, with South Africa the most unequal compared to many countries across the world, but is also articulated globally across borders through the mechanisms of capitalist exploitation of workers and imperialist domination of the Global South by Global North powers.  

The SACP salutes the WFTU for the working-class perspective it has upheld since its founding in analysing the causes, drivers and consequences of unemployment, poverty and inequality within and across borders, and for remaining true to the working-class struggle both in theory and practice even if this has been met with destructive reaction by imperialist forces. The WFTU history has particular significance for the South African working class and the SACP.

For example, the WFTU was an important source of international solidarity for South African workers during the struggle against apartheid and racial capitalism. It supported the developing black trade union movement and participated in establishing the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) – the predecessor of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) – established in 1955 as a militant, non-racial and class-conscious trade union centre aligned with the broader liberation struggle. Following the banning of SACTU in 1960, the WFTU provided an important international platform for its leadership and continued to mobilise workers internationally against apartheid.

South African communists played an important role in this relationship between the WFTU and the South African working class. Comrades Moses Kotane, J.B. Marks, Moses Mabhida, Michael Harmel, Mark Shope, Eric "Stalin" Mtshali, John Nkadimeng and Joe Molokeng were among the leaders and cadres of the Party who worked with the WFTU. Their contribution reflected the inseparable relationship between the organised labour movement and the struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

The SACP recognises the militant, class-conscious trade union movement as one arm of the broader working-class struggle, and the WFTU as the premier international trade union federation leading that arm. While the Party and the trade union movement have distinct organisational roles, they share a fundamental commitment to the political and economic emancipation of the working class. The history of the WFTU and SACTU demonstrates the strength that can be achieved when workplace organisation is connected to political consciousness, mass struggle and international working-class solidarity.

The demands of this year's WFTU International Day of Action speak directly to the contradictions of capitalism and neo-liberalism:

• Humanity has developed productive and technological capacities capable of fulfilling all the needs of the world’s working people, yet these advances remain largely subordinated to private accumulation and monopoly power.
• The WFTU insists that science and technology must instead serve human development, secure dignified work, and support the cause of a shorter working day and a shorter working life.
• Likewise, the vast resources devoted to militarisation and imperialist war must be redirected towards meeting the social needs of working people.

The SACP therefore welcomes the WFTU's continued commitment to international working-class solidarity, anti-imperialism and the struggle for socialism. At a time when workers across the world confront austerity, precarious employment, attacks on labour rights, militarisation and imperialist conflict, the unity and political independence of the working class are indispensable.

The 81^st anniversary of the WFTU is consequently not a mere commemoration of its history but a call to strengthen working-class organisation and international solidarity, to unite immediate struggles with the struggle for a world free from exploitation, oppression and domination.