10 Jaunuary 2002
Delivered by SACP Central Committee Member, Judy Mulqueeny, Stockholm
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is deeply honoured for the invitation to attend and say a few words at this Congress of the Swedish Left Party. This honour is important in deepening the long-standing solidarity and bilateral relations between our two Parties and peoples.
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 people of Sweden played in the international struggle to isolate and destroy the inhumane and criminal system of apartheid in our country.
We are strongly of the view that the role of your Party in international struggles of the working people and indeed in Europe itself is a very important one. 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.
The neo-liberal triumphalism we witnessed at the beginning of the 1990s is waning as the reality of global inequalities become more apparent and cannot be swept under the carpet. 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), a quarter of the world's population of 6 billion lives on less than 1% a day. The same report also states that during the past six years the world's poor have increased by 200 million. 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.
Women are the worst affected by all these developments which increase the burden of unpaid labour done by women mainly. Despite massive gains made by millions of women worldwide, we are witnessing deepening gender inequalities underpinned by the reality of capitalist globalisation. It is clear that the engine of the capitalist world economy remains working class, rural, peri-urban and poor women from the countries of the South.
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, Genoa, Sydney 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.
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. 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 address is the growing arrogance and dominance of US imperialism as witnessed in the recent bombardment of Afghanistan and the potential reversal of democratic rights in the US and Europe under the guise of fighting terrorism. As communists, we condemn terrorism, the killing of innocent civilians and the ghastly terrorist attack on the US on September 11. However, as communists we fight terrorism in all its forms military, economic, social, political and otherwise and in its inter-relation to world capitalism. One of the worst forms of terrorism in current period is the occupation, repression and oppression of the people of Palestine by the apartheid Zionist Israeli state. Fighting terrorism must also mean supporting the legitimate and just struggle of the people of Palestine and fighting for a just and equal world order which advances the interests of poor people.
As the SACP we are convinced that all these developments referred to above 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.
We are indeed confident that your Congress will deliberate on some of these issues, thus making a contribution towards the development of common strategies and tactics in rebuilding effective international solidarity.
With these words, on behalf of the Central Committee and the entire membership of the SACP I bring you warm and revolutionary communist greetings and wish you a very successful and fruitful Congress.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel - 27 11 339-3621/2
Fax - 27 11 339-4244
Email - sacp1@wn.apc.org