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. . Matter in Motion through Space and Time ... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: SolidNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 12:59 PM Subject: South African CP, SACP Statement for May Day http://www.solidnet.org News, documents and calls for action from communist and workers' parties. The items are the responsibility of the authors. Join the mailing list: info/subscribe/unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] . ===================================================================================== South African CP, SACP Statement for May Day --------------------------------------------------- From: RedNet, Mon, 29 Apr 2002 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] , www.sacp.org.za ====================================================================================== 29 April 2002 SACP STATEMENT FOR MAY DAY The South African Communist Party (SACP) salutes all poor and working people of South Africa and the world. Our slogan Workers of the World Unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains has never been this relevant in the light of deepening global imperialism, and unceasing intense attacks on the working class globally through neo-liberal restructuring: retrenchments, casualisation, outsourcing, labour market flexibility and privatisation of basic services. Our own democratic breakthrough in 1994 coincided with the high-point of imperialist, neo-liberal triumphalism. But in the space of eight years, the international situation has seen a massive failure of this idea to deliver on its promises. The almost total financial collapse of Argentina, as well as the growing gap between rich and poor nations, as well as within nations marks a singular failure of neo-liberal prescriptions and a blow to this arrogant triumphalism. There is a growing global movement of developing countries, the working people and progressive elements in all parts of the globe whose voice is starting to make an impact. We need to contribute in strengthening these forces. For the SACP the time is ripe now to take forward this struggle by developing a common international platform of action with other progressive forces in the world, including common days of action around specific issues: demonstrations against financial speculation, privatisation of basic services and unemployment, as we have seen Italian workers doing recently. In the wake of September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States we have seen the growing belligerence and arrogance of the United States. Whilst as the SACP we continue to condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of 11 September, but we are also strongly opposed to unilateral aggression by the United States outside of a common global struggles against terrorism and a global struggle to fight poverty, under the auspices of the United Nations. Palestine We are also celebrating this May Day against the background of some of the worst attacks on the Palestinian people by the military machine of the Israeli apartheid state. What Ariel Sharon is doing against the Palestinian people is almost tantamount to genocide and is an expression of the fact that the Israeli aggression is by all accounts state terrorism. The recent attacks, including the massacres in Jenin calls for the world to condemn Sharon as a war criminal and treat him accordingly. The United States must also be firmly held accountable for this state terrorism as it is unconditionally support Sharon, whilst claiming to be a mediator at the same time. The actions of the US in this regard, including the attack on Afghanistan, support for the failed Venezuelan coup, shows the extent to which we have an American administration that is a threat to world peace. As the South African Communist Party we call upon all South African workers to join in their numbers in the current mass demonstrations organised and led by the Alliance in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We also call upon all South African trade unions to use all their international platform, relations and gatherings they attend, to firmly raise the issue of the Palestinian people and call for pressure on the Israeli apartheid state and the United States. The people of Palestine must be free, and our own freedom will be incomplete for as long as the Palestinian people are not free. Cuba, the DRC and Swaziland It is also important to use this May Day to express our continuing solidarity with the Cuban people and call for the lifting of the US blockade against Cuba. As the SACP we also welcome progress being made towards peace on our continent, particularly the signing of a peace agreement in Angola, as well as progress being made in the DRC. With regards to the DRC we call upon President Kabila to work earnestly towards an all-inclusive peace agreement, rather than a fragmented peace deal with sections of the Congolese people. This will not bring about a lasting settlement. On this international day of the working people we also call upon the Swazi monarchy to release Mario Masuku, the President of Pudemo, and genuinely embark on a path of democratization in that country. South African working class must never rest until Swaziland becomes a democracy and we must continue to deepen our solidarity with the democratic forces in Swaziland. We also dare not forget that colonialism has not been entirely removed in our continent for as long as the Western Sahara people do not have their own independent state. Important recent national developments HIV/AIDS The SACP fully welcomes the recent cabinet statement on HIV/AIDS. This statement underlined a comprehensive approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including prevention, awareness, education, treatment and care. This statement provides a basis for all of us as a country to now work together in confronting this pandemic instead of tearing each other apart. The working class needs to take a lead in this regard and ensure that we lead and unite the mass of our people behind this programme. In addition we need to intensify our struggle for cheaper medicines and drugs all round, in order to ensure that the health of our people is not held at ransom by capitalist patent rights. We need to intensify the struggle for the right to produce generic drugs in order to be able to deal with the many diseases afflicting poor countries, most of which have been wiped out from the rest of the world. We are also meeting at the end of the ANC focus month on health. It is very clearly that despite progress in building of clinics and free health care for certain categories of our people, the public health system in our country are still in crisis. We need to focus our attention on building a strong and efficient public health system. In particular workers should make sure that they serve in hospital boards as part of this effort to build a strong public health system. The moral regeneration movement Our government, led by the Deputy President Jacob Zuma, launched the moral regeneration movement. As the SACP we believe that this is a very important initiatives. Much as this movement must involve all sections of our society, including the religious community, the question of moral renewal in our country is not merely a religious or faith issue. It is a struggle to rebuild the moral fibre of our society. We should seek to promote values of solidarity, collectivity, sharing and care. We must fight against greed, individualism and competition. A struggle for moral renewal in our country is simultaneously a struggle against poverty, and the root cause of poverty is capitalism and exploitation. The working class must link this struggle to the struggles against all forms of inequality in our society. We must lead in fighting gender inequality, and that there can be no moral renewal unless our women are fully emancipated. We need to fight against corruption, and against women and child abuse. Rise in food prices and poverty eradication The recent and continuing rise in food prices erodes workers' earnings and threatening to worsen the poverty situation in our country. The bulk of rural South Africa is sustained by urban remittances from workers' salaries. It is for this reason that the SACP calls for serious consideration to be given to zero-rating of some of the basic foodstuffs as a cushion against the worst forms of poverty. The question of food prices and rise in poverty should also be related to the question of a comprehensive social security programme. We welcome the fact that the Minister of Social Development, Cde. Zola Skweyiya, has commissioned a study to look into this issue. We await the outcome eagerly, as the question of comprehensive social security for our people is of utmost importance. From our experiences during the Chris Hani Memorial Health Trail of 10 April 2002, it is also clear that we need a national health insurance scheme to ensure that our people have access to health care. According to figures available to us only 7 million South Africans are on medical aid schemes. The SACP also calls upon South African workers, particularly from the organized sections of the working class, to use their organizational experience to build co-operatives and a co-operative movement as an important instrument in poverty alleviation and promoting alternative forms of economic ownership. A lot of government funds for poverty alleviation are still not spent. Building co-ops can go a long way in ensuring that these funds are spent for their intended purposes poverty eradication. An immediate campaign that we also need to take up urgently is that outlined in the President's state-of-the-nation address. We need to embark on a campaign to ensure that all those who qualify for state social grants are registered so that they could access these. If need be let us embark on a huge door-to-door campaign to achieve this objective. It is a reality that a number of pensioners, the disabled, orphans, etc, who are supposed to be registered and receiving these grants are not registered. This is an important campaign that the trade union movement in particular should throw its full weight behind. The Alliance Summit The importance of the recent alliance summit lies in the fact that for the first time after a long time the alliance committed itself to a joint discussion with the aim on reaching consensus on a growth and development strategy for our country. This will lay the basis for a growth and development summit to be convened later in the year. In addition this Summit agreed on a number of key areas that we need to tackle collectively and seek to find consensus. These included strategies to promote and mobilize domestic investment, tackling unemployment, building co-operatives, and improving the overall efficiency in the economy generally. These have created a better climate within which we can tackle our differences within a forward looking and consensus driven approach. The ANC-led Alliance has consolidated critical elements of democracy and it enjoys mass support among the majority of South Africans. This period is characterised, too, by a creative examination across most sectors of society of the challenge to pool the country's resources, both public and private, in the effort to grow our economy at a faster pace and further improve the material conditions of the country's citizens. The possibility of decisive movement forward is also reflected in the fact that South Africans are increasingly joining hands to affirm our democratic constitutional order and to find ways in which they can make a contribution to national reconstruction and development. The financial sector campaign and summit We are pleased to say that the Financial Sector Summit will be held at the end of this month (31 May). Negotiations have already started at NEDLAC. We think this is an important development in our banks+IBk- campaign. However our campaign does not end or depend on NEDLAC. We will have to continue to mobilize our people to ensure that we take this campaign forward. The SACP wishes to use this May Day to condemn the delaying tactics of business at NEDLAC negotiations, it is imperative that the Financial Sector in our country is transformed without any delay. If needs be the SACP will not hesitate to increase pressure on this sector by flexing the muscle of the people. The SACP however wishes to use this occasion to call upon the trade union movement as a whole in our country to start a mass campaign to demand a say over where and how workers+IBk- pension and provident funds are invested in this country. It is our considered opinion that these funds, both in the public and private sectors, are still invested without the say of the workers and controlled by institutions that workers have no control over. This must change and come to an end. This mass campaign will further inject urgency on the need for the transformation of the financial sector, including the banks and insurance industry, to begin to serve the developmental needs of our country. Keep the working class mobilised The most important message is that keep the working class mobilised. The working class must continue to mobilise around issues closer to the working people and the poor. At no stage should workers and the working class as a whole be demobilised. The only condition to take forward our struggle for socialism is through a mobilised working class, conscious of its responsibility that without its leadership of society, society can only degenerate into capitalist barbarism and the defeat of our revolution. CONTACT Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara) Department of Media, Information and Publicity - South African Communist Party Tel - 011 339 3621 - Fax - 011 339 4244 Cell - 083 651 0271 *End* --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
