1 May 2021
The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) joins the workers of the world in celebrating International Workers’ Day, calls for principled unity of workers in the fight against capitalism and imperialism, for a socialist world. The crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is not only the deepening of the capitalist crisis, but it also exposed the fact that capitalism has no solution to the social life of the workers and entire working-class people. The crisis is worse with tinkhundla capitalism as our situation is dire and needs urgent action. The fight against Covid-19 must thus be undertaken as part of the struggle against capitalism and imperialism.
Workers in Swaziland continue languishing under
absolute monarchy rule. The Covid-19 preventive measures have been adapted to
the iron fist rule with no intention to control the pandemic but for the dictatorship’s
survival. The monarchy continues to siphon public resources while the workers
and poor languish in deepening poverty. Workers must use Workers’ Day to
reflect on this situation in order to wage a relentless and decisive fight for freedom
and democracy. The unity of workers is sacrosanct in this regard. The Mswati
autocracy relies on disunity in order to rule over the masses, and it is this
unity which will ultimately lead to the fall of the regime.
Communist Party cadres continue to work the ground, in every workplace, in line with the Party’s programme to unify the working class. To wage a decisive fight against the oppressor, workers must organise into unions, strengthen their unions organisationally and ideologically. In addition, for a stronger trade union movement, the various unions must unite under the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). However, worker unity must be principled, grounded in the most advanced revolutionary theory, Marxism-Leninism. Unprincipled cooperation, often formed by the exchange of monies through corrupt means, can never lead to true unity. This type of cooperation is the kind which the CPS will continue to fight against. Workers must also resolutely fight and defeat this tendency.
The Mswati autocracy does not engage with the workers of our country passively. The autocracy plants its own stooges and recruits some leaders who are already within the trade union movement who will be the regime’s fighters and spokespersons. These are the impostors who use corrupt means to hold on to leadership positions, work tooth and nail to weaken and liquidate unions, and sabotage the growth and unity of TUCOSWA by either pulling unions out of the federation or campaigning against political education. The CPS continues to unapologetically fight against these machinations and, consequently, has endured waves of attacks from the counter-revolutionaries.
The only weapon to defend trade unions against these tendencies is to work for and abide by the principles of Worker’s Control and trade union democracy to unions. The trade union is the only school for working-class democracy. Democracy must reign in trade union life, not bureaucracy, not careerism and not opportunism. The CPS will continue to promote these values as we increase our work in the trade union movement of building strong unions through shop floor mobilisation and strong relations with unions.
The CPS reiterates its call for all efforts to be directed towards the Democracy Now campaign, a campaign for the urgent overthrow of the Mswati autocracy. The freedom of the people can no longer be delayed. Workers, women, peasants, youth and students, must unite in a decisive fight for freedom and democracy
No to trade union bureaucracy – Yes to Trade
Union Democracy!
ISSUED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWAZILAND
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