Understanding the CPS and its role in the struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism

2019 CPS Summer School

Day 2 summary – Saturday 21 December 2019

Understanding the CPS and its role in the struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) holds its 2019 Summer School under the theme “Democracy Now” (20 – 29 December 2019). The School began on a high note, remembering on one of its most committed cadres, the late Comrade Njabulo “Njefire” Dlamini, who died in May this year. Delegates enjoined themselves to intensify the struggle in his memory and for the future of all humanity.

On the school’s first plenary session, 21 December 2019, we captured the CPS theme, “Democracy Now”, as well as the aims and objectives of the school. We further unpacked the basis of our struggle and the structures and programmes of the CPS.

Purpose of the School

The CPS Summer School aims to impart political consciousness into delegates and empower them to consciously lead the revolution. We follow the tried and tested theory that was crafted by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, now popularly known as Marxism-Leninism.

The School unpacked the role of revolutionaries in the armed struggle. The armed struggle falls on no one else except revolutionaries. Our society is an abnormal one due to tinkhundla rule. Only a revolution will ever solve the problems engulfing Swaziland.

We should know our objectives. Revolutionaries need to understand the struggle comes with sacrifice and a clearly defined vision. They must also know the nature of the society we live in and comprehend the sacrifices to be made in order to uplift society into a revolutionary mass. The situation in the country proves that the objectives are working to our advantage. Swaziland’s population has been on a negative growth for some time. People are dying due to the system’s worsening healthcare system. Therefore, every action by the regime must be interrogated.

The country is struggling over wages, scholarships, a collapsed healthcare system and other key sectors. Swaziland has political thugs without revolutionary direction, therefore the CPS should pick up arms and intensify the revolution so as to achieve “DEMOCRACY NOW!”

The world is looking to the CPS for direction on the Swaziland question and the workers of the world are ready to support the oppressed people of Swaziland by all means necessary.

The basis of our struggle

The CPS Summer School unpacked the meaning of the CPS slogan, “Freedom, Democracy and Socialism.” The School clarified the contents of our freedom and democracy, as well as the meaning of socialism. The slogan thus summarises the basis of our struggle.

The School envisages that there will be a time in future where there will be no hunger, poverty, homelessness, inequality, standing army, prisons and a police force. To understand this point, a thorough analysis of the history of our society was unpacked. To answer these above questions, we need to trace the history of our struggle, how it has developed and how it has linked to different regions, countries, continent, and the universe. We must prove with scientific evidence, the possibility of equality in the struggle. We need to study how humans produce their means of existence because society has been broken by inequalities caused and reinforced by capitalism. We also need to study the historical development production as well as productive forces and production relations.

Our study of history, however, does not follow the traditional “emakhandzambili – bemdzabu – emafikamuva” narrative of the tinkhundla system. Instead, we use the materialist conception of history and dialectics, also known as Marxism-Leninism, as a scientific guide to action.

Production, and its study thereof, including its historical development, constitutes an important aspect if we are to concretely study society. Human beings are the product of their own production. Those who do not study the development of productive forces as well as production relations will continuously fail to understand the essence of the struggle of the people of Swaziland. It is largely for this reason that many of the organisations in engaged in the democratisation struggle in Swaziland constantly make the wrong call that thy want to have a dialogue with the oppressive monarchy.

Socialism is more democratic than capitalism. Capitalism is a society where the minority decides for the majority. The owners of the means of production, the bourgeoisie exploit the majority, the workers, and expropriate the largest chunk of the fruits of production while the workers only offer their labour power in return for little payment which is enough for them to return to work the next day. Socialism, on the other hand, is a society where, for the first time since the breakup of society into classes, the majority democratically decide for society as a whole. History continues to prove that a country led a Communist Party has a better quality of life than its previous bourgeois or any other type of class society that has existed in the past.

CPS structures and programmes

Constitutionally, the Communist Party of Swaziland has 8 structures. Since the Party is still on a building phase, it still organises largely in commissions.

The CPS has:

1.    Central Committee. Its powers include directing the work of the CPS, determining all questions of policy, and issuing binding instructions and directives to all levels of the CPS, subject to the National Congress of the Party.

2.    The commissions of the CPS are: Workers’ Commission; Women Commission; Peasants Commission; Youth and Students Commission. The CPS has to work with the masses to in order to strengthen its commissions. Commissions are led and guided by the CC.

Programmes

·         Strategic program

·         Transitional program

·         Program of action

Pillars of the Programme of Action: BUILDING and STRENGTHENING OUR FORCES (Building and strengthening the CPS, the broad pro-democracy movement and working class formations, such as trade unions, youth, women and peasant organisations)

B. WEAKENING AND DEPLETING THE POWER OF MSWATI REGIME (weakening and depleting the power of the Mswati regime politically, economically and psychologically)

C. WINNING OVER SUPPORT AND ALLIES FOR THE REVOLUTION (Building solidarity with the struggle in Swaziland within the Swazi population and in other countries and the international arena).

Democracy Now!