9 November 2006
The General Secretary of the SACP, Dr Blade Nzimande, will be attending the forthcoming meeting of communist and workers´ parties from all around the world in Lisbon, Portugal. The meeting will be held on 10-12 November 2006. In addition the General Secretary will spend a further two days in Portugal (13 and 14 November 2006) to have extensive discussions with the national leadership and other structures of the Portuguese Communist Party. This visit will be part of the SACP´s renewed efforts towards consolidating and deepening bilateral relations with various communist parties around the globe. The meeting comes after a highly successful visit by the SACP to Cuba to strengthen solidarity and bilateral relations with the Communist Party and the people of Cuba as a whole.
The international meeting of communist and workers parties will focus on the current global situation, dangers posed by US-led imperialism, strategies, tactics and possibilities for leftist advances in the world today, especially in the wake of contemporary developments in Latin America, as well as focus specifically on the question of imperialist strategies and energy issues. This meeting will be attended by about 70 communist parties, including the communist parties of China, Cuba, India, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, as well as the Uruguay Communist Party which is part of a leftist front government recently elected in that country.
This annual international meeting, inaugurated eight years ago, comes at a critical juncture in the international arena. It is taking place against the background of a growing crisis of the militarism of US imperialism, especially the cul-de-sac the US is increasingly finding itself in Iraq, as also confirmed by the results of the US mid-term elections. In addition, US militarism is facing new difficulties in relation to Afghanistan, as well as the nuclear standoff on North Korea and Iran.
The current global situation is also characterized by a growing rejection of neo-liberal policies in many parts of the world, with the severest crisis of the imperialist neo-liberal agenda currently found in Latin America. The continuing leftist advances in this region, the latest being the electoral victory of Cde Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, are an indication that indeed leftist forces are steadily regrouping in many parts of the world since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialism. Gone is the confident imperialist triumphalism of the early 1990s, ‘the end of history´ arrogance.
Clearly neo-liberal policies are increasingly being rejected in many parts of the world as they have failed to deliver on their promise of a post-Cold War dividend for workers and the poor. Instead, the end of the Cold War has seen worsening misery for the poor globally, arising out of privatization of state enterprises, liberalization of economies, and the cutting back of spending on social services as a result of IMF or self imposed tight budget deficits.
The SACP will participate in the meeting guided by its firm belief that capitalism is no solution to the problems facing humanity today and into the future. We will use this platform to raise issues relating to the challenges of peace and development on the African continent, as well as strategies and tactics towards rebuilding a strong left wing movement on the continent. For instance, on the question of energy in Africa, it is significant that in almost all the oil producing countries there has been wars and instability for a long time, and these are still continuing in some of these countries. Daniel Volman of the independent US think tank, African Security Research Project, noted in 2003 that “The possession of oil resources, and the revenues that accrue to governments from the exploitation of this resource, have had a decisive impact on the security and stability of nearly every African country that has significant amounts of oil’.
The SACP will also use the occasion to highlight and lobby for international solidarity with the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, the struggle for self-determination of the peoples of the Western Sahara, and intensified solidarity with Cuba and the Palestinian people.
Issued by:
Malesela Maleka
SACP Spoekesperson
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Cell: 082 226 1802
Email: malesela@sacp.org.za