SACPWC Message to Treatment action Campaign Provincial Conference 24 and 25 February 2001 at University of the Western Cape

Comrades and friends

Greetings and solidarity from the South African Communist Party of the Western Cape.

The conference taking place here at the University of the Western Cape is of utmost importance and significance in the struggle for the delivery of affordable, accessible and equitable health services in particular for the working class and poor of this Province.

In October 2000, the Central Committee meeting of the Party adopted a resolution that:

• Argues for a human rights based and holistic response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that dynamically links prevention, access to information, awareness, care, support, access to social services, management and access to treatment
• Emphasises the need for dynamic and improved HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention work and services, as this work still remains the main tool we have in making a breakthrough as a country against HIV/AIDS
• Given the country's history, poverty levels and lack of human development, emphasises the need for an approach that dynamically integrates and addresses the linkages between HIV/AIDS, poverty and human development+ADs-
• Supports the struggle for affordable treatment and access to basic and essential life-saving drugs for opportunistic infections and other common HIV/AIDS related infections
• Emphasises that the main barrier to access to affordable drug treatment is the drug companies and the cost of drugs
• Calls on the government and all South Africans to continue with this struggle for access to affordable treatment.
• Questions the role that the media has been playing since the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and particularly in the last period when sections of the media have prioritised getting sensational headlines, contributing to public confusion rather than ensuring a responsible and informed coverage of the epidemic and its impact on society and our responses thereto.

SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE, BUILD IT NOW. UBUDLELA NDAWONYE BULIKAMVA . BAKHE NGOKU .

At a provincial level, the Provincial Executive has agreed to establish an HIV/AIDS campaign committee that will focus on

• Integrating awareness of HIV/AIDS issues in all our work and programmes
• Highlight the struggle against discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS
• Focus and involve members on campaigns for cheap and accessible drugs
• Include a focus on the political economy of HIV/AIDS, poverty and HIV/AIDS and the political economy of access to affordable treatment in political education campaigns of the Party
• Develop and implement an SACP approach and programme on the improvement of the public health system
• Develop and implement an SACP approach to the implementation, and if necessary, review of government policies on HIV/AIDS
• Develop SAP Red Papers on HIV/AIDS
• Ensure that all provincial structures develop partnerships with HIV/AIDS NGOs, focusing our strategic work with the Treatment Action Campaign.

This lengthy message of support to your conference is delivered in the revolutionary spirit of the struggle for a socialist society where all would have free access to all public health services.

Long live the revolutionary spirit of Moses Kotane
Long live the revolutionary spirit of Chris Hani
Long live the revolutionary spirit of Dora Tamana
Long live the revolutionary spirit of Joe Slovo

GWEBS QONDE
PROVINCIAL SECRETARY
22nd February 2001