TMG Digital | 02 May, 2016 08:19
A South African Communist Party supporter. File photo.
Image by: Kevin Coombs/ REUTERS
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in a May Day message on Sunday called for the acceleration of a second radical phase of the national democratic revolution.
"Let us unite our movement‚ let us close ranks‚ let us defeat the strategic agenda of imperialism and monopoly capital. Let us consolidate and accelerate a second radical phase of the NDR‚" it said.
It called for unity not just for the coming local government elections‚ but "on the basis of a strategic programme and active organisation and mobilisation focused on the needs and aspirations of the workers and poor of South Africa".
"To do that‚ we must say NO to the politics of money. NO to the politics of factions. NO to the politics of gate-keepers. NO to the politics of personal ambition and opportunism‚" it stated.
"For as long as we are fighting our own isolated battles we will remain on the defensive. Let us combine worker power on the shop floor‚ with popular power in our communities‚ in our townships and rural villages‚ with democratic state power. Together‚ let us go on to the offensive to drive a second radical phase of the national democratic revolution‚" the party added.
At the heart of the struggle was the task of rolling back the monopoly power of big capital that was stifling the economy‚ siphoning off vast profits‚ casualising and retrenching workers‚ and over-charging citizens‚ the SACP said. "That is why we fully support Government's announcement‚ made by cde Ebrahim Patel in the Department of Economic Development budget‚ that we will now criminalise corporate collusion.
"Through the Competition Commission‚ government has exposed collusion in bread pricing‚ collusion in plastics products‚ and massive collusion in the construction sector in the run-up to the 2010 Fifa World Cup. This has resulted in large fines being imposed on many capitalist corporations‚" the SACP said.
But not a single corporate manager‚ not a single CEO‚ not a single director had gone to jail for this day-light robbery‚ it averred.
"If you steal a loaf of bread - you risk going to jail. If you steal bread from the mouths of millions of hungry children through over-pricing - you will be rewarded with share-options and a company bonus. That must now come to an end. With the criminalising of collusion‚ individual colluding managers and bosses must be sent to jail‚" the SACP added.