SACP South African Communist Party 2014 End-of-Year and 2015 New Year statement For immediate release, 29 December 2014 Workers Unite! To all workers of our country who are on an annual shut down, leave or any form of closure or production downtime during this festive season, the SACP wishes you a well-deserved break. The SACP says resting is a revolutionary activity, and provides an opportunity to revitalise for the struggles that lie ahead. The SACP says enjoy your deserved rest to the fullest! To all workers who are on essential services, among others defence and state security, public safety and security, healthcare, electricity, etc., the SACP says let us step up the spirit of service to the people! Let us put to the front the principle of Batho Pele (People First)! Together with all workers across the economy who are on duty due to reasonable conditions, all workers who are on a recess, and all other workers who are facing capitalist exploitation and various forms of abuses by the bosses at work, let us prepare to intensify the battle to achieve better working conditions, including all decent work principles. To all those who live from their own labour outside of “formal employment”, and to the unemployed, the SACP says let us close ranks and unite with all other workers! The cause of our sufferings, class inequality and exploitation, unemployment and poverty, is one and the same – the capitalist system. Together let us link our struggles! Let us fight for our most immediate interests, those of a living wage, a decent social wage and an end to labour brokers. But equally important let us defend the enforcement of the rights we have won through progressive labour legislation in the wake of our 1994 democratic breakthrough. The real fruits of our battles as the working class lie not only in the immediate achievements from our day-to-day struggles but in expanding our disciplined and principled unity and cohesion; the real fruits of our struggle lie, in the struggle to complete our National Democratic Revolution and advance to socialism! That is why as the SACP we unequivocally reiterate our call to all workers across the economy to build a united, militant and progressive trade union federation – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) – that is both independent and part of our liberation movement and Alliance! As the working class let us together build maximum unity both at work through a strong trade union organisation that serves workers’ interests under the leadership of Cosatu and in the community through our revolutionary mass movement, the ANC and through the vanguard Party for socialism, the SACP. This Alliance, inclusive of Cosatu, is the best organised front to take forward our struggle for complete liberation and full social emancipation! The SACP strongly condemns all activities aimed at dividing and weakening Cosatu and our Alliance. A divided Cosatu that fights amongst itself can only serve the agenda of the bosses and therefore the current multi-pronged offensive to divide Cosatu should be called what it is – a counter-revolutionary agenda. The SACP says workers unite: “You have nothing to lose but your chains!” Let us intensify our democratic transition and struggle for socialism! In the unfolding period, the key task facing us as the working class is to shift the democratic transformation of our society on to a second, more radical phase of our transition. This will deepen the consolidation of the National Democratic Revolution as the most direct route to socialism! This must address the increasingly overwhelming material and cultural needs of our people! It must address the class, race and gender inequalities, unemployment and poverty! The root cause of these three interrelated effects lies in capitalist private ownership and control not only of the means but the proceeds of production. The second, more radical phase of our transition must be characterised by a more radical transformation of our economy. For the SACP this means the struggle to roll back the capitalist market in advancing our developmental goals. This task lies at the heart of our radical economic and social transformation programme, based on progressively advancing socialised and public forms of ownership and control in the economy. Several important struggles must continue and intensify along this revolutionary direction. The SACP will continue to develop its vanguard role in the struggle to attain the strategic objectives of this struggle, including on the following fronts: The transformation of the financial sector to serve the people This requires the complete overhaul of the architecture of the financial sector in our country. This must entail de-monopolisation of the banking sector as well as its diversification to build a large co-operative and state banking sector. Diversification of the banking sector is critical for purposes of access to affordable credit for workers and poor for productive use and not the dangerous phenomenon of consumerism which only benefits the capitalist class. The struggle for the transformation of the financial sector must also include an intensified fight against omashonisa (loan sharks) and reckless lending practices. The SACP reiterates the call that in 2015 the second financial sector summit must be convened under the auspices of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Expand and raise the levels of production! Productive work, work and work! In order to expand work and absorb the millions of the unemployed in productive activity, South Africa must use its mineral resource and industrial bases to manufacture finished products locally. This must expand our productive base, which must be diversified. The SACP, working together with our allies, commits to intensify the struggle for accelerated industrialisation through, amongst other things, struggling for public and private financial resources to be increasingly diverted towards the productive sector of our economy. Raise the levels of education and develop vocational skills More attention must be paid on raising the education levels and developing the vocational skills of our entire workforce including employed workers. However, increased focus must be placed on the youth and the unemployed. Instead of only being trained to look for jobs the content of teaching and learning must be transformed to develop the capacity of our workforce to take and lead own initiatives such as co-operatives. This must be complemented through enhanced state support including capacity building and incubation. Some elements to build on in this regard are emerging. These need to be augmented, strengthened, developed further and vigorously pursued. The year of our fifth successive general election victory The SACP wishes to take this opportunity, once more, to thank our people, the majority, the workers and poor of our country, for the confidence they have shown in the ANC through their vote in May of this year. The Nigerian building collapse The year 2014 will go down in history as the year of the deadly disaster of a Nigerian building collapse in which a total of 116 people including 81 South Africans died. The SACP once more expresses its deepest condolences to all the families affected independently of all nationality. The investigation into the cause of the collapse needs to be accelerated. And decisive action must be taken against those responsible for this disaster. Cuba: Solidarity forever! On 28 October 2014 the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the 23rd consecutive time, condemning the United States of America’s decades-long economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. In the 193 Member-States General Assembly, 188 voted for the resolution, while the United States and Israel, as in previous years, voted against it. Pacific island states Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau abstained. The release on 17 December 2014 of the remaining three of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero who were unjustly incarcerated in the United States, is warmly welcomed by the SACP. The SACP rejoices with the families and the people of Cuba for this important victory over imperialism. The SACP further welcomes efforts to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, and reiterates its call to the United States to lift its illegal embargo against Cuba unconditionally and with immediate effect! The SACP condemns any persisting efforts by the United States to undermine the national sovereignty of Cuba and to meddle in its internal affairs. As the SACP we are further calling upon the United States government to shut down its operations in Guantanamo Bay, which is being used to commit some of the most despicable violations of human rights! Solidarity with the Palestinian people This year Israel embarked on its genocidal routine against the people of Palestine, all for their land and resources, and against their national self-determination. According to the United Nations, between 8 July and 27 August 2014, 2 104 Palestinians in Gaza were killed. This includes 1 462 civilians, of whom 495 were children and 253 women. They were indiscriminately killed by Israel through bombardment from air, sea and land. The SACP condemns this cold-blooded apartheid barbarism in the strongest terms possible. The SACP reiterates its call for the immediate evacuation by Israel of all occupied Palestinian territories. As the SACP we support the implementation of the two states solution based on a viable and sovereign Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, but we deeply concerned, as each day Israel is making this goal impossible. To all South Africans the SACP says a happy New Year! Released by the SACP, 29 December 2014 Contact: Alex Mashilo –Spokesperson Mobile: 082 9200 308 Office: 011 339 3621/2 Twitter: @2SACP Website: sacp.org.za
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 10:34:39 +0000
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