The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) held its Annual
Summer School from 21 to 29 December 2018 in the Mpumalanga Province, South
Africa. The school was held under the theme “Maximum Defiance in the Maximum
Number of Sites”. It was attended by delegates from Swaziland and South Africa.
Delegates were particularly drawn from all the four commissions in which the
CPS is organising: Workers; Peasants; Women; Youth and Students.
The school also received support and input from
fraternal organisations, which included the South African Communist Party
(SACP), the National Health, Education and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), the
Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA), South African National Civic
Organisations (SANCO) and the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ).
The
need for revolutionaries to study philosophy
The school emphasised the need for revolutionaries to
study philosophy. A study of philosophy
helped greatly on the analysis of the Swazi terrain, including its society, and
the whole world. Through the dedicated study of philosophy, delegates were able
to comprehend that the history of Swaziland, just like the history of other
societies, is a history of class struggles, bar the primitive stage of human
society. Those who still fail to realise the reality of a class struggle that
has been ongoing in Swaziland and instead see Swaziland as the last “true”
African cultural village have, along with this failure, failed to notice the
oppression of the people by the tinkhundla regime.
The method of Marx and Engels, the materialist
conception of history, remains the most advanced approach through which
revolutionaries study the world. It is not merely the understanding of Swazi
society that is important. Rather, the point is to change that society, as Karl
Marx remarked some 174 years ago. As such, the task of Communist Party cadres is
not merely to get an understanding of the type of oppression that the people
are undergoing in Swaziland. They have been called by history to stop this
oppression by mobilising the masses for maximum defiance against the absolute
monarch, for its overthrow and the preparations for the construction of a democratic
republic towards socialism.
The
economic system of Swaziland
In Swaziland the dominant mode of production and
exchange is capitalism. There are feudalist elements, however, which remain
strong. A majority of the people of Swaziland have to present themselves to be
exploited in capitalist industries and in return receive meagre wages enough
for them to return to work for further exploitation. The capitalists also rely
on the absolute monarch to force the people back to work when they go on strike
and thus help keep wages very low.
The monarch doubles as feudal lord and capitalist. Mswati
holds capitalist interests in many companies while at the same time controls
the land and the people as a feudal lord. This absolute monarch, the last in
sub-Saharan Africa, has already ruined the businesses of many of his capitalist
partners by applying feudal principles in their businesses: the demand for free
shares; demand for donations to the monarch as a sign of endorsement and
respect; demand for loans to the monarch which are never paid, etc.
The monarch controls vast tracts of the land as a
feudal lord, and in administering the land has deployed chiefs in the
communities. Both the feudal lord and the chiefs have the power to evict the
people or grab some parts of their land as and when they wish. They also force
the people to provide tribute labour to the monarch and the chiefs. The people
of Swaziland do not own the land. About 77 percent of the people of Swaziland
reside in the rural areas as peasants, although a large number of them also have
to present themselves to capitalists for the exploitation of their labour
power. Hence the worker-peasant alliance in the fight against the tinkhundla
regime is one of the key requisites for the success of the revolution in the
special conditions of Swaziland.
Mass
mobilisation towards insurrection
The task of ensuring maximum defiance in the maximum
number of sites involves the mobilisation of the motive forces of our struggle
in the conditions of Swaziland; the workers and peasants. The duty to mobilise
women, youth and students is an inevitable one in this regard.
It is within the working class and rural folk that we
find the close to 70 percent who, due to the tinkhundla system, have been
forced to survive on less than US$2 a day. These are the people who will
benefit the most with the advent of freedom.
CPS cadres have the duty to do practical work in the
conscientisation of the oppressed masses in their various categories. This is
not conscientisation for its sake, but to build and strengthen a revolutionary
mass capable of rising up and overthrowing the ruling tinkhundla regime. Our cadres
return to their various communities ready to implement lessons learned in order
to ensure that the CPS is successful in the revolution’s strategic objectives.
Understanding
strategy and tactics in the Swazi revolution
A detailed and clear strategy and tactics, guided by
the most advanced revolutionary theory, helped delegates to comprehend that the
revolution’s strategic objectives – the overthrow of the tinkhundla regime, the
building of a democratic republic towards socialism – cannot be betrayed.
As material conditions change, tactical manoeuvres or tactical
flexibility will be important as we fight against the enemy of the people. The
school understands too well that these tactical manoeuvres are carried out
without changing the strategy of the Party. Cadres of the CPS were able to
realise the necessity of an intense study of materialist dialectics in order to
understand this aspect.
Tribute
to the workers of Swaziland: A call for deepened unity
The school paid special tribute to the workers of
Swaziland for standing up for their rights, marching through the streets of the
country, notwithstanding extreme violence from the regime’s security forces.
Party cadres volunteered to take up the duty to strengthen the unity of workers
organised under the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). Undertaking
this task involves organising the unorganised and getting more unions to
affiliate into TUCOSWA.
Workers of Swaziland have vowed to shut down the
tinkhundla regime in 2019 as they fight for their demands. The school thus
engaged on a clear and detailed strike strategy, but looked beyond the planned
workers’ strikes in 2019. This is expected to filter through in the 2016-2020 CPS
Programme of Action.
Upholding
internationalism as a critical characteristic of the CPS
The CPS is an internationalist organisation. The
school saw the need to engage in practical activities in isolating Mswati, both
locally and internationally. Through its campaigns, the CPS aims to starve the
monarch, while at the same time isolating the monarch locally and internationally.
There must be no comfortable space for the monarch.
The CPS will strengthen the cultural boycott campaign
in order to profile the Swazi revolution. The Party understands, of course,
that this campaign has been chiefly led by the Swaziland Solidarity Network
(SSN) since the year 2011. The CPS has thus been directed by the school to
engage with the SSN and other relevant organisations and individuals for the
intensification of the cultural boycott campaign. The Annual National
Conference of the Party will thus take an opportunity to deliberate further on
the implementation of this campaign.
While the school understood the need to mobilise
solidarity for the Swazi revolution, delegates also stressed the need for the
CPS to play a larger role in mobilising the masses of Swaziland to give
solidarity to other oppressed people. The CPS is thus enjoined to convene a
summit inside Swaziland on the question of Palestine during the Israeli
Apartheid Week in 2019.
Reviving
and strengthening Party campaigns
Since its launch on 9 April 2011, the CPS has sought
to carry out practical work in raising the demands of the oppressed. This has essentially
been through campaigns. The CPS has been running five campaigns: Break the
Chains Campaign; Land for Food Campaign; Not Another Cent for Mswati; Signature
Campaign; Red October Campaign. Through these campaigns, the CPS aims to expose
the Mswati regime, mobilise the masses in the maximum number of sites, leading
to a mass insurrection. To intensify the long standing campaign for the unbanning
of political parties, the CPS will mobilise for and revive the April 12
movement. The goal is, as per our theme, to intensify and broaden mass defiance
of the regime during the whole month of April every year. The role of workers
as led by TUCOSWA, women, peasants, youth and students will be critical in this
regard.
The School also saw the urgent need for the CPS to
play a more practical role in the revival of the Swaziland Association of
Students (SAS), which organises in primary and high schools. Strengthening the
Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), which organises in tertiary
institutions, is an integral part in the revival of SAS. Delegates to the
school also took an opportunity to congratulate the newly elected national leadership
of SNUS, under the leadership of its president, Comrade Mlamuli Gumedze, for
their election. The regime has intensified its attacks on the union and the student
movement as a whole, because it wants to suppress the voice of the youth and
students. The fight for free, quality and relevant education is at the heart of
the strategy of the CPS.
The
struggle continues!
Issued
by the Communist Party of Swaziland
Contact:
Kenneth
Kunene
General
Secretary
+27
72 594 3971
Or
Njabulo
Dlamini
International
Organiser
Mobile:
+2687 603 9844
Email:
cpswa.org@gmail.com
Facebook:
Communist Party Of Swaziland – CPS
Twitter:
@CPSwaziland
No comments:
Post a Comment