SACP Gauteng Province takes its Red October Campaign to Soweto

17 October 2011

The SACP Gauteng Province held a Special Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) meeting on Sunday 16th October 2011 to finalise its Red October programme. The campaign for 2011 will focus on building working class power in our communities by taking up the following campaigns:

• People`s education through people`s power;
• Land and food for all;
• Building a people`s economy: through cooperative and cooperative banks` movement;
• Building a rural motive force: by establishing and consolidating a strong rural women`s movement;
• Fight against corruption.

The Red October Campaign in Gauteng Province will unfold as follows:

The main event will be in Soweto on Sunday, 30th October 2011 through a public meeting with the community and various Gauteng and Soweto education stakeholders. We will use the meeting to launch an ongoing campaign to restore the quality of public education in Gauteng. We have already received briefings from the Gauteng Department of Education as well as the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) on the state of education in the Soweto area. We shall be working with all the stake holders to promote quality teaching and learning in our schools whilst also ensuring that the Resolutions of the April 2011 Soweto Education Summit are fully implemented.

The main event will be augmented by the following activities:

• Red October Lecture on the 20th October 2011 at 16h00 in Greater Tshwane;
• Campaign for building strong cooperative movement that will lead to the building of a Corporative Bank/State Bank. This event will be held on the 4th November 2011 in Devon, Sedibeng. Our Sedibeng District will also take up a campaign on land issues in Midvaal;
• Land and Food for all campaign in November in Duduza Township, Ekurhuleni.

Finally, the PEC would like to extend its best wishes to the class of 2011 (Grade 12) as they start with their examinations. We also support the call by the Young Communist League (YCL) for Grade 12 results not to be published in newspapers because of high levels of distress even suicide rate associated with this practice. As a matter of principle, results in any institution should be handled with confidentiality because it`s a matter between the institution and the affected student. The only purpose that the current practice serves is to maximise the profits of media bosses and we call upon the Department of Basic Education to heed to this reasonable call.

For further information, contact:
Acting Provincial Secretary: Jacob Mamabolo (082 884 1868)
Provincial Spokesperson: Pat Ntsobi (072 671 4258)