The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) joins the entire
working class of the world to observe International Women’s Day. International
Women’s Day remains as important today as it was when it was first organised in
1909 by the Socialist Party of America, officially marked a public holiday in
the Soviet Union soon after the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution and
recognised by the United Nations in 1975.
All these events followed a
solution by the First International Conference of Socialist Women, held in
Sturtgart in 1907. The Conference resolved to declare 8 March the International Day of Working Women, and
to mark it every year as the day of international solidarity among the female
proletariat in their struggle for equal economic and political rights.
The CPS pays tribute to the many women revolutionaries
who have waged the struggle for freedom in Swaziland. So many of these women, largely
unknown and unacknowledged, have resolutely rejected the tinkhundla system and made
huge sacrifices in the struggle for freedom for all.
Swaziland’s tinkhundla regime continues to be a hotbed
of patriarchy. Inherently patriarchal, the regime continues to oppress women, violating
its own constitution, while at one and the same time deceiving the world of its
seriousness to uplift women. As such, in this context, working class and rural
women are the worst victims of tinkhundla rule.
Tinkhundla’s unapologetic patriarchal approach
manifested itself markedly during the sham tinkhundla elections in 2018. While the
CPS has made clear calls for the rejection of tinkhundla elections, the Mswati regime’s
suppression of women every time these elections take place cannot escape
condemnation.
In a clear attempt to disempower as many women as
possible during the 2018 tinkhundla elections, women candidates were made to
kneel when presenting their election manifestos while their male counterparts
could easily make theirs while standing. The rhetoric that the regime was
serious about the rights of women was easily discredited by these acts of
suppression.
Every tinkhundla elections period results in the
killing of women and children for ritual purposes. Some people in Swaziland still
hold on to the regime’s misguided belief that women’s private parts bring about
success, whether in business or any endeavour such as elections. In this fierce
competition for positions in the money train known as parliament, women and
children become the most immediate victims. It has become clear to many people
of Swaziland that if the tinkhundla system is allowed to prevail a day longer
then the ritual murder of women and children will not stop.
The violence that women continue to endure must be
condemned. Studies continue to show that, in Swaziland, one in
three girls experience sexual violence before they reach the age of 18. The regime
normalised early and forced marriage, including marital rape. This culture of
violence against women manifested itself when Mswati’s parliament took about
ten years to pass the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, partly
because the regime was against clauses in the Bill which banned incest,
unlawful stalking, abduction and flashing.
Patriarchy must be tackled head-on wherever and
whenever it manifests itself, not least in the respective institutions of the tinkhundla
system and places of employment. As the people of Swaziland wage their struggle
for freedom, it is also important that they fight this scourge within their own
ranks. The struggle for freedom from tinkhundla rule is also a struggle against
patriarchy in general. All formations within the progressive camp must deepen
the struggle for the eradication of all backward tendencies, including patent
and latent acts of women suppression within these formations. Male chauvinism
must find no sympathy within the progressive movement!
The CPS calls upon all working class and rural women
to unite and wage a relentless struggle against the tinkhundla regime, for
freedom, democracy and socialism. The current tinkhundla system is incapable of
offering a concrete route towards the total emancipation of women. These
struggles must lead to the maximum mass defiance of the regime in the maximum number
of sites.
Only with the end of the oppression and exploitation
of one by one another will there be true freedom for all, women included. Under
the current concrete conditions of Swaziland, the first phase must necessarily
involve the struggle to overthrow the absolute monarch and building a people’s
democratic republic through which the foundations of socialism will be built.
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
Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us. I hope u will share some more information with us.
ReplyDeleteled dance floor for parties