SACP MAY DAY STATEMENT

28 April 2000

On Monday, 01 May 2000, international workers' day, several leaders of the SACP will address workers' rallies against job losses in various parts of the country as detailed below all rallies will start at 09h00.

The SACP statement for May Day 2000 is below the details of the rallies.

• Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary – FNB stadium, Johannesburg
• Jeremy Cronin, SACP Deputy General Secretary – Khayelitsha Arena, Cape Town
• Charles Nqakula, SACP National Chairperson – Curries Fountain stadium, Durban
• Phillip Dexter and Ncumisa Kondlo, SACP Central Committee members – Great Centenary Hall, Port Elizabeth

• Godfrey Oliphant, SACP Central Committee member – Zuka Baloyi Stadium, Welkom
  
  SACP MESSAGE – on job losses, affordable HIV/AIDS treatment, consolidating democracy and rolling back the capitalist market.

May Day 2000 – Qina msebenzi, uzonqoba!
Deepen the power and unity of the working class!

The ANC, together with the people, defeated apartheid. Since 1994, the ANC government has started to change South Africa for the better.

But the bosses do no want more and faster change. The bosses put pressure on our government to change its policies for their own benefit. They are an un-elected minority controlling the economy.

We must push ahead, speed up change and address problems facing us as the working class and the poor. There is still racism,
violence against women, lack of decent and affordable housing, job losses and unemployment because the bosses still control the economy. An ANC government is only a first step. The struggle is not over. Any gains we make will be reversed because
capitalism remains in our country.

We have five big challenges:

• The challenge to end poverty and win a better life for all;
• Stopping job losses, creating new jobs and transforming the economy in favour of the working class and the poor;
• Beating HIV/AIDS and winning affordable treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS;
• Consolidating our democracy in favour of the working class and the poor;
  and
• Laying the foundation for socialism through building the SACP.

We should actively build international worker solidarity and action as our contribution to a better world and as an important component of winning our local struggles. This is why South African workers must take up struggles for democracy and working class power in Africa and Southern Africa. Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Lesotho are important as we have close cultural and historic links with these countries. Our own struggles will be undermined if we do not support struggles for democracy and working class power in these countries. We must also add our voice to struggles for social, economic and environmental justice across the world. We face all these challenges in the context of mass mobilisation and struggles by the working class in defence of jobs and for job creation. This is an opportunity to ask questions about building people’s power and working class power in South African society.

Crush poverty - create jobs. Fight for a better life for all

Ukuhlupheka (poverty) is so common. 57% of South Africans live in poverty without enough income, water, electricity, food and access to education and jobs. The majority of the poor are African and women.

Job losses contribute to poverty. A job loss means being thrown into hunger, disease and ignorance. Job losses affect women more than any group in society.

The basis of racism in our country is capitalist inequalities. It is black workers who are hardest hit by joblessness and unemployment. We cannot really talk of defeating racism in our country unless we defend the black working class and the poor.

The fundamental cause of job losses is capitalism. Capitalism maximises profits at the expense of a living wage for workers.

The May 10 general strike is part of overdue struggles which must be turned into a generalised and class conscious offensive against capitalism itself. None of the COSATU demands have been sufficiently addressed. Workers have no other option but to use their mass power to support their demands. The SACP fully supports the May 10 general strike.

The SACP rejects accusations that struggles by workers are disruptive to our economy. Massive unemployment and poverty disrupts family life and deprives workers of a tolerable life. It is not the May 10 general strike by workers that is disruptive, but the ongoing investment strike by the bosses in this country. Retrenchments and hunger weaken the capacity of the working class to participate in the transformation of our economy.

We want a job-creating economy led by an active national democratic state, which intervenes in the economy. The national democratic state, we seek to build, can and must create jobs. The SACP will work to achieve the following: -

• The implementation of the resolutions of the 1998 Jobs Summit
• Changing the Labour Relations Act to make it compulsory for employers to negotiate retrenchments and explore other options with workers in full.
• Increasing severance pay from one week of service per year to one month for every year worked - this will make retrenchments more difficult and workers will get more for their years of service.
• A national democratic state that creates jobs through public works programmes (for housing, water provision, maintenance and building of roads and literacy eradication) and government led industrial strategy (to help struggling industries to survive and develop new industries for job creation and meeting people’s needs).
• Keeping state owned corporations like ESKOM, TRANSNET and TELKOM in the hands of the people - this would allow the national democratic state to use them to grow the economy, create jobs and meet the needs of the people for electricity, public transport and communication.
• Reviewing government’s economic policy in order to create jobs, boost public investments by government, discipline local private capital, use the country’s budget and to transform the economy.
• Giving unemployed workers a basic monthly income grant to boost local economies and help our people to meet their basic needs.
  

Beat HIV/AIDS - Fight for affordable treatment

There are more than 3,5 million people in South Africa living with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS will have a serious impact on families, communities, the working class and the poor, the economy, the public health system and social services.

HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence. People living with HIV/AIDS can live long, healthy and productive lives. HIV/AIDS and related diseases (such as TB, flu and diarrhea) can be treated and managed. But many people and even nurses and doctors do not know enough about care, support and treatment for HIV/AIDS.

Most workers and poor people cannot afford HIV/AIDS medicines. Medicines are very expensive in South Africa. How do drug companies justify making big profits in South Africa while we face a big public health disaster? Drug companies have a responsibility to sell medicines at affordable prices.

The SACP says - Put people before profits! Put health before profits! The government, workers and unions must act now for affordable HIV/AIDS treatment! Support openness and tolerance of people living with HIV/AIDS!

Deepen, advance and consolidate democracy in favour of the working class and the poor

Through the 1994 and 1999 elections, the working class established democracy in our country. The bosses did not win democracy for us. Democracy in South Africa has always been based on a strong working class that did not hesitate to advance its class interests.

But we have to go beyond formal democracy. For the SACP, democracy is not just about elections and a democratic parliament. The majority is still dominated by the bosses, an un-elected minority. We must advance, deepen and consolidate working class interests in all aspects of society – in politics, the economy and culture.

The struggles of the working class and the poor are in the deepest interests of South Africa’s democracy. These struggles are the foundation for strengthening our democracy and government. This is why the ANC (as a people ’s organisation and government), COSATU (as the workers’ shield) and the SACP (as the leading political party of the working class) must be part of these struggles against job losses and poverty. All of us must stop this job loss bloodbath.

Workers, members of the ANC, COSATU, SANCO and the SACP let us go to every village, location, township, informal settlement, town and workplace and build progressive and revolutionary ANC, SANCO, Community Policing Forums, Local Development Forums and other community organisations. The ANC, SANCO and community organisations are our tools and organs to build people’s power.

Build people’s power and socialism now!

Socialism means the radical deepening and extension of democracy into all spheres of society. This, inevitably, will carry us into conflict with the capitalist class. This is why we need a strong and revolutionary SACP to fight for socialism.

We want to build the capacity for socialism, momentum towards socialism and elements of socialism here and now! In practice, building socialism now means the following:

• Rolling back the market 
• basic needs such as health care, education, housing, the environment, culture and information must be available to our people without the bosses’ market and unaffordable prices.
• Socialising the ownership function

• We must build a strong and expanded public sector. We must build co-operatives to transform local economies along collective lines. Workers must take more control of social capital and the workplace through provident funds and workplace forums.

Build and join the SACP!

As the leading political force of the South African working class, the SACP calls on all workers and the poor to build and join its residential, industrial and work-place branches and units. Workers need a strong SACP and the SACP needs revolutionary workers to fight for socialism.

On this day, May Day, an international workers’ day we, the South African Communist Party extend our revolutionary hand to the working class, the rural poor and oppressed peoples of the whole world in our commons struggle against capitalism and globalisation. Our campaign against job losses and for job creation in South Africa is part and parcel of the general fight against joblessness, hunger, disease and poverty across the world. It is a fight for a better life for all, a fight for socialism, throughout the world.

Defend jobs! Crush poverty! Put people before profits!
Build people’s power! Build Socialism Now! Build the SACP!
Workers of the World Unite!

Contact the SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY

Media, Information and Publicity Officer - Mazibuko K. Jara - 083 651 0271
Email - sacp1@wn.apc.org
Head office – 011 339 3621

• Eastern Cape – 043 643 4288
• Free State – 051 447 3386
• Gauteng – 011 331 9617
• KwaZulu Natal – 031 301 3806
• Mpumalanga – 013 656 2054
• Northern Cape – 053 831 1639
• Northern Province – 015 291 3672
• North West – 018 462 9445
• Western Cape – 021 448 7908