29 JULY 2001
SACP Successfully Celebrates 80 Years of Unbroken Struggle for Liberation, People's Power and Socialism
This weekend saw the successful celebration of 80 years of existence of the communist party in South Africa. The main events were in Rustenburg, Durban and Cape Town. In Rusternburg, the rally was held in Pela Village where Charles Nqakula from the SACP and Terror Lekota from the ANC were joined by many other dignitaries representing various political organisations across the country, Botswana, Western Sahara and Palestine. In Durban, the event was held at the Te huis stadium where the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Blade Nzimande and the Deputy President Jacob Zuma laid a wreath at the graves of the late Communist party leaders, Johannes Nkosi and Monty Naicker. Communist parties of Cuba, China and the Russian Federation also addressed the Durban event. In Cape Town, the Deputy General Secretary of the Communist Party, Jeremy Cronin, unveiled the SACP Plague at the founding building of the Party, which was followed by a National SACP Veteran's Dinner. At the dinner, Comrades Brian Bunting and Billy Nair were honoured as the first recipients of the Moses Kotane award.
These celebrations were not only about SACP's history,precisely because of its rich historical tradition and its active engagement in the present, the SACP is truly a party of the future, declared the SACP 80th anniversary statement. Capitalism has no solution for the problems facing humanity. Indeed, Capitalism is integrally at the root of most of these problems today, Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary, told the Durban Rally.
We are a party of the 21st century because Socialism is just, rational and sustainable. It is the only hope for the great majority of the world population. For the SACP, Socialism is not just a vision for the future, it is the future which has to be struggled for here and now. It is in this context that the SACP struggles with and in leadership of the working class and its struggle against the Neo-Liberal restructuring of our economy. It is only the working class, which can take forward our current gains and defeat Capitalism. It is only a mobilised and conscious working class which can defeat Capitalism and usher our country into Socialism. Our opponents today are disappointed that the SACP has grown from strength to strength and that the working class is increasing its challenge to capitalism. Having predicted the imminent demise of the SACP, for the past decade and more, they are now hypocritically advising us to do all sorts of things including cutting our alliance with the ANC and COSATU. They were wrong in their predictions and they are wrong in the advice.
The SACP pledges to spare no effort in strengthening the working and its struggle and thus ensuring that the working class interests are interests of society as a whole in the cause of fighting for Socialism in our country and the world. These we will do together with the people, the ANC, COSATU, and other organisations of the people.
Mazibuko K. Jara
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Cell: 083 651 0271
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org