22 December 2013
The SACP takes this opportunity to wish all South Africans, particularly the workers and poor of our country, a peaceful rest as 2013 comes to an end and gives way to the New Year, 2014. Without workers` labour the production of goods and services will grind to a halt and the economy will evaporate into thin air.
The year 2013 has seen a number of national and international developments.
Our alliance lost one of its outstanding true revolutionaries, comrade Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, who was laid to rest on 15 December, a day before the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the people`s liberation army - Umkhonto we Sizwe, of which he was the first Commander in Chief.
The SACP will honour the legacy of this gallant revolutionary, Tata Madiba, who always insisted that he was part of a collective and his contribution in our struggle should not be elevated above or seen outside that collective - our national liberation movement as led by African National Congress (ANC). In honour of Tata Madiba, the SACP will continue and intensify its work to build and defend the unity of our alliance as the most suited and strategically relevant organisational formation of our people to advance, defend and complete the national democratic revolution and thus achieve the vision of the Freedom Charter.
The SACP held a successful Red October Campaign 2013 launched on 6 October. The campaign was preceded by a successful Financial Sector Coalition Campaign Summit held in March. The aim of our Red October Campaign 2013 was to lay a new basis for the intensification of our programme to achieve the transformation of, and making the financial sector, including banks serve the people. Until we have achieved this, the objectives of the Red October Campaign 2013 will continue under our Financial Sector Campaign. This includes intensifying the struggle against reckless lending practices that plunge many of our people into a debt trap.
Through our Financial Sector Campaign, launched in early 2000s, the SACP has ensured that millions of our people especially the poor who were unbanked could now be banked, under Mzansi Account. The other achievements of the campaign include the National Credit Act and the National Credit Regulator. It is through our Financial Sector Campaign that we are pioneering an amnesty and removal of the people from, and who are listed by credit bureaux. This is now at an advanced stage and the SACP would like to see the delisting implemented with immediate effect.
The SACP this year celebrated its 92nd founding anniversary in July. We are now almost 7 years to our founding centenary in 2021. Throughout its history the SACP has contributed immensely in the struggle for freedom in our country. The Party`s contribution is unmatched in many ways. The SACP not only built our liberation alliance but also its independent formations, including the progressive trade union movement.
The progressive trade union movement as led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has come across internal challenges which affect its unity. As the SACP we believe that Cosatu has sufficient capacity to overcome any challenges it comes across, and therefore that its internal mechanisms, processes and procedures must be respected. However, the SACP will not fold its arms and leave its ally Cosatu alone.
Consistent with its long standing historical contribution in building working class organisation on the basis of a revolutionary programme, the SACP`s commitment to building the progressive trade union movement remains unwavering. We will therefore continue to engage and work together with Cosatu to build the federation, inclusive of its affiliates, and to defend its unity. There can be no challenges that are more important than the unity of Cosatu. An attack on Cosatu, its unity and organising principles is an attack on the SACP and the alliance, and therefore a call to the alliance to act together in unison.
The ANC, SACP and the alliance have endured a series of endless attacks from hostile ideological and political tendencies. One of these tendencies labelled our formations and the 1994 breakthrough as a sell-out. In contrast, it is this revolutionary alliance heading our national liberation movement that defeated apartheid and put in place our present democratic transition in 1994. It is because of this alliance that South Africa is today a better place than it was 19 years ago. There is however a lot that still needs to be done to reverse the damage caused to our society by 3 centuries and 42 years between 1652 and 1994 when colonial and apartheid oppression based on capitalist exploitation were imposed from outside and internally on our people.
Millions of our people now have access to human and labour rights, shelter, clean water and sanitation, electricity, education at all levels, HIV treatment, social security and welfare, to mention but a few. The SACP welcomes these advances, which under no circumstances can amount to a sell-out and be classified as worse than apartheid.
The SACP shall unapologetically and without doubt go all out to campaign for the ANC as the leading political formation of our alliance and liberation movement in the forthcoming elections in 2014; we will confront all forms of opposition against our revolutionary alliance and its independent formations, regardless of who their advocates and agents are. This will be part of our tribute to the memory of Tata Madiba, who remained a loyal cadre of the ANC to the end.
For and with the working class and the poor, the SACP will also continue to press for policy changes, as we believe that there are particular policies such as GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) which were adopted in the post-1994 period but were not helpful. Our efforts will include ensuring that our areas of concern and reservations with regards to the National Development Plan are addressed as resolved by the Alliance Summit that took place in August/September 2013.
Internationally, for the 22nd consecutive year on 29 October, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba. The SACP reiterates its call to the United States government to lift its illegal embargo on Cuba, to stop interfering in the right of other societies to determine their own policy direction and developmental choices. We also reiterate our call to the United States government to release the Cuban Five, who are unjustly imprisoned in the United States.
The SACP reiterates its support for the people of Cuba and calls on the working class throughout the world to intensify solidarity action against the injustices perpetrated against the Cuban people and many others the world over by the United States and its imperialist allies and puppet regimes.
The year 2013 has seen several coups and attempted coups in our continent. The situation in Swaziland remains almost unchanged with the last absolute monarchy in the continent exercising dictatorship. The people of Western Sahara remain colonised and their country occupied by foreign states. In the Middle East, the people of Palestine continue to face apartheid brutality and their land occupied and stolen day light by Israel. In Syria the people faced an imperialist backed and sponsored violence and invasion with support to terrorist groupings which have caused a civil war. These oppression, domination and exploitation must come to an end.
The SACP is calling on all workers of the world, to unite! Without unity, imperialist forces and oppressive regimes will not be defeated.
The struggle continues!
Issued by SACP
Alex Mashilo - Spokesperson
Mobile: 082 9200 308
Email: alexmashilo.sacp@gmail.com