2 June 2000
Delivered on behalf of the South African Communist Party by SACP General Secretary, Blade Nzimande
Comrade Chairperson, the National Secretary, the Leadership of the Swedish Left Party, fellow international guests and delegates, it is a pleasure for me to get this opportunity to briefly address your important Congress this year. On behalf of the Central Committee and the entire membership of the South African Communist Party, I bring warm and fraternal greetings to your Congress.
The contribution of the Swedish progressive forces and the Swedish people as a whole, in particular your party, in the struggle against the apartheid regime, is something that the South African people still treasure and will never forget. It is for this re ason that I would not be amiss that the feelings of warmth and fraternal greetings expressed by our Party here would also be those of our allies, the ANC and COSATU, the broad democratic movement in South Africa, and the overwhelming majority of our people .
Your Congress comes at a very important moment for left-wing forces globally. We are closing this millennium with renewed signs of a revival of left-wing forces after about a decade of uncertainty in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is a growing message that is beginning to resurface again in the world that much as the distorted form of socialism in Eastern European countries might have collapsed, but capitalism continues to be the biggest failure of this century.
Poverty in the world is deepening, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and the gulf between the North and the South has become so wide that it can truly be called a crisis for humanity. In short, capitalism is no solution to the problems fac ing humanity. There is growing understanding that poverty and inequality are NOT side effects of contemporary capitalist globalisation, but are its essential conditions for its reproduction.
Our continent – Africa - represents the single highest concentration of poverty in the world today. One expression of this is the rampant increase in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, illiteracy and starvation levels. Therefore change and development is urgent and it cannot be business as usual. This poses anew the old challenge of the left forces in the world, the mobilisation of the working people and the poor to challenge capitalism in both its national and globalised form, principally the North-South wealth gap.
There is a growing common platform for the left that is beginning to take shape. Ours is to build on this as a basis for common international action and solidarity. Firstly, the single most important challenge is that of uniting left-wing forces globally, in the North and the South, to struggle for the eradication of poverty. Our planet has enough wealth to eradicate poverty in the world today, wipe out illiteracy and together fight effectively against the HIV/AIDs pandemic, but this wealth is concentrated only in the hands of a tiny minority. For instance transnational drug companies are holding the developing world at ransom on the question of cheaper and accessible drugs. One cannot overemphasise the importance of North-South solidarity around the eradica tion of poverty, to challenge the destructive policies of the IMF and World Bank, the greed of transnational corporations and seek more humane development policies.
Secondly, a related challenge is that of defending and extending the public sector as the major vehicle for addressing the needs of the poor. One major feature of capitalist globalisation world-wide is that it has targeted the state – whether it be the wel fare state or the post-colonial African state – by eroding its capacity to lead a developmental process beneficial to the working people and the poor. Privatisation and liberalisation of economies are only serving to deepen unemployment and poverty world-w ide. Therefore the struggle for the retention and development of publicly controlled resources is another key left-wing platform for international solidarity today. We cannot allow meeting the basic needs of the working people and the poor to be subjected to the vicissitudes of the global casino economy.
Thirdly, as your chairperson, Cde Gudrun Schyman, correctly pointed out in opening this Congress, the struggle for transformation of gender relations and protection of our environment are other key platforms for global socialist struggles today. The libera tion of women and the prevention of the destruction of the environment by transnational corporations require urgent and focused attention.
There is enough emerging consensus around these issues, ours is to consolidate this consensus through focused international struggles and solidarity. We hope your Congress will focus on these issues and make its contribution on deepening international work ing class solidarity.
With these words we do indeed wish you a successful Congress and look forward to looking and engaging with your resolutions.
Amandla!
Blade Nzimande
SACP General Secretary