6 July 2001
Introduction
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is deeply honoured for the invitation to attend and say a few words at this 27th Convention of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Our attendance here is important in deepening the long-standing solidarity and bilateral relations between our two Parties. Our two countries share a similar experience of racism and racial oppression, and therefore a common struggle against the demon of racism and its capitalist foundations. It is no coincidence that the first ever United Nations' World Conference Against Racism will be held in our country, and this is evidence of the extent to which the struggle against apartheid inspired millions of people across the world to fight against the demon of racism, and this Conference is both a tribute and a challenge to our common experiences and struggles against slavery, colonialism and racism.
The SACP, our allies, the ANC and Cosatu, and indeed the entire people of South Africa shall never forget and will indeed be fore ver indebted to the contribution that the CPUSA played in the international struggle to isolate and destroy the inhumane and criminal system of apartheid in our country. Our victory over the apartheid regime is therefore also your victory. Even more important is the urgent need to rebuild international solidarity between working class parties and other progressive forces worldwide. It is for this reason that I bring warm and revolutionary greetings from the Central Committee and the entire membership of the SACP.
A growing challenge to neo-liberalism and imperialist globalisation
We are strongly of the view that the role of your Party in international struggles of the working people and indeed domestically in the US itself is a very important one. No matter what difficulties you might be facing now given the global and domestic balance of forces we are convinced that you are the party of the future, the party of progress. This is simply based on the fact that neo-liberal restructuring globally is indeed faced with increasing resistance from ordinary people and progressive forces in the world. A system that is subjecting the majority of humanity to poverty, disease, ignorance and environmental degradation cannot be sustainable.
We are also now witnessing the fact that the neo-liberal triumphalism of the beginning of the 1990s is waning as the reality of global inequalities become more apparent and cannot be swept under the carpet. For instance 80 more countries are poorer at the end of the 1990s than they were at the beginning of the 1990s. About half the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. Furthermore, according to a report released in June 2000 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO World Labour Report -Income Security and Social Protection in a Changing World), globalisation has led to job losses and increasing poverty for people in developing countries. The report also states the following:
Those who had declared the fall of the Soviet Union as the end of history are being rudely awakened to the fact that the collapse of the Eastern bloc socialist experiment was indeed not the end of history, but the beginning of a new chapter in human history. The struggles in Seattle, Prague, London and many other struggles worldwide by ordinary people against poverty and exploitation are indeed a reflection of this renewed human effort to intensify the struggles against global injustice and the evils of capitalism. It is a struggle that comes from those who are concerned with the profit-driven destruction of our environment, and from those who are deeply concerned about the casino "free market" values pervading every domain of our lives. It is a struggle increasingly expressed by democratic governments in the South alarmed that despite all the promises about the new globalisation "free-way", more jobs are being lost and basic services becoming increasingly in accessible to the poor.
A big challenge therefore to all communist and working class forces is how to effectively engage and give organised working class expression, direction and leadership over these struggles waged by ordinary people in the streets of the major capitals of the world. It is a task that I hope your Convention will reflect upon as one of the urgent and most important challenges facing communist and other progressive forces in the world today. The message from these struggles is simple: capitalism is no solutions to problems facing humanity today. Our task is to ensure that we effectively insert a socialist agenda, as socialism is the only rational and humane alternative to capitalist barbarism. Most importantly these struggles pose a challenge that were turn to the communist basics: to consistently take up issues affecting ordinary people, the need to forge alliances with progressive mass formations, the rebuilding of a militant labour movement and forge international solidarity through concrete action.
Another important development we need to strengthen and build upon is that of the gradual regrouping of communist and workers' parties across the world , as expressed by, amongst other things, the important initiative of a series of the Athens' meetings and the growing electoral support for many communist parties in the former Eastern Bloc countries. This is a positive sign that communist forces are now gradually overcoming the initial hesitancy and uncertainties that characterised the early 1990's in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The major challenge of the day: The need for an international left platform of action and solidarity
As the SACP we are convinced that these developments mark the opening of new spaces for intensified actions against capitalist globalisation and to deepen the struggle for a just world order. It is time now for concrete action to consolidate this resistance. We should use this historic moment of the dawning of a new decade and century as an opportunity to take forward these struggles, including the elimination of gender and racially based inequalities. In particular, the struggle to eradicate poverty on the African continent, in order to make this century truly a century of the African working people and the poor, a century of socialism.
In the light of all this the SACP is firmly of the view that the three most important challenges and immediate platform for international socialist and progressive action include the following:
The fight for affordable medicines for developing countries, focusing on HIV/AIDS drugs and the broader fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and related diseases. The recent victory against pharmaceuticals in South Africa, not least due to international action and pressure in this regard, is something we need to build upon and pile pressure on multinational pharmaceutical companies to respond to the declining health standards in the world. It is only working class and poor people who can take this struggle furthest, as they are the ones who bear most of the brunt of disease in the world today. Many curable and preventable diseases (such as Malaria, TB, diarrhea, polio, etc.) have led to the premature deaths of millions across the world. This reality is of course not unrelated to the first point, that of scaling back social services and the privatisation of the most essential services needed by the overwhelming majority of the people in the world today.
Indeed we need to intensify our protest actions at every major meeting of the IMF, WTO, the World Bank, as part of this mobilisation and creating a common purpose of action for a just world order.
We are indeed confident that your convention will touch upon some of these issues, thus making a contribution towards the development of common strategies and tactics in rebuilding effective international solidarity.
With these words we wish you very successful and fruitful deliberations at this Convention.