Communist Party of Swaziland is participating in the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties

The Communist Party of Swaziland today joined 90 political parties in the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties. The Meeting this year is held in Athens Greece. It will end with the celebration of the Centenary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on Sunday 25 November 2018.

The International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties this year is guided by the theme “The contemporary working class and its alliance. The tasks of its political vanguard – the Communist and Worker’s Parties – in the struggle against exploitation and imperialist wars, for the rights of the workers and of the peoples, for peace, for socialism”.

Our Party is represented in the Meeting by our International Organiser, Comrade Njabulo Dlamini. He will present the message of our Party to the Meeting.

Comrade Njabulo Dlamini (green top), the International Organiser of the Communist Party of Swaziland, at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, held in Athens, Greece. He is flanked by delegates from the Communist Party of China (right) and from the Workers Party of Korea (left) 

The Communist Party of Swaziland extends solidarity to the people of Venezuela who are engaged in a fight against USA-led sanctions. We also call for the end of the illegal economic embargo against Cuba. We will also make our contribution in support of the people of Western Sahara who are still colonised by Morocco. We support the people of Palestine in their gallant fight against the occupation of their territory by Zionist Israel. The Communist Party of Swaziland also supports all efforts for the reunification of Korea, a process which should be led by the Korean USA.

Finally, we will actively participate in all collective efforts for the freedom of all African peoples, including the fight for African sovereignty.

Issued by the Communist Party of Swaziland

See below more pictures from the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

Alert on Swaziland - Comrade Maxwell Myeni’s case resumes at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court tomorrow

The trial of Comrade Maxwell ‘Zondiyinkundla’ Myeni resumes tomorrow, Tuesday 20 November 2018, at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court at 09h00. He was taken hostage by the notorious royal police at his home in Lavumisa on the night of Sunday 26 August 2018. He was later charged for wrestling with a gun-wielding policeman, Raphael Sikheshekheshe Maseko, on 24 August during a teachers’ peaceful protest action. Armed royal police officers had intended to mow down peacefully protesting teachers that day in Manzini.

Comrade Maxwell has been out on bail since 28 August 2018.

His arrest followed the splashing of over E1 billion (about US$70 million) by Mswati to celebrate his 50^th birthday in April 2018 whilst almost 70 percent of the people of Swaziland languished in abject poverty.

The Communist Party of Swaziland calls upon all workers to cram the Manzini Magistrate’s Court and show support to him and defend the right of workers and the people of Swaziland to protest.

The arrest of Comrade Maxwell, a leader in the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, was a desperate attempt by the Mswati regime to crush the spirit of high resolve and militancy among the workers of Swaziland. The regime erroneously believed that workers would tone down their defiance campaign and acquiesce to the order “from the throne” that sought to ban all public gatherings in a bid to force the nation to partake in the sham tinkhundla elections. By that time Mswati had already unleashed terror on 24 August 2018 against peacefully protesting teachers as he gave a ‘shoot to kill order’ that resulted in the severe injury of Comrade William “Ma-Willies” Dlamini, a teacher at Salesian High School in Manzini, who was shot by a live bullet.

It has been revealed that the regime has been able to deploy some rats within the trade union movement to pressure Comrade Maxwell to offer an unconditional apology to the dictator Mswati and offer him cattle to show remorse for his heroic acts of preventing bloodshed. In all truth, this is not a case against Comrade Maxwell only. It is also, and in the main, a case against all workers of Swaziland. It is an attack on the people’s rights to freedom of association, assembly and movement. Therefore, the idea that he has to apologise for participating in the 24 august 2018 protest action that demanded a cost of living adjustment is not only aimed at subduing workers’ militancy, but also to isolate him.

But Comrade Maxwell remains unwavering. The same applies to many workers. It was through the undying spirit of defiance and resistance displayed by the thousands of workers of Swaziland that forced the regime to grant him bail. The regime is afraid of the workers’ potential. It will employ all tricks in its dictatorial book to dampen their spirit, even to the level of using agents it has planted within the trade union movement.

The Communist Party of Swaziland calls upon all workers of Swaziland to rally behind Comrade Maxwell at this trying moment. We also call for international solidarity with the struggles of workers in Swaziland. It is only through massive support that the leader will be absolved from the six trumped-up charges against him by the autocratic Mswati regime.

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

Invitation of union leaders to a meeting without agenda by Mswati’s prime minister an attempt to fool and pacify workers

In a bid to pacify workers, Mswati’s new prime minister, Ambrose Dlamini, has invited leaders of public sector unions for “just a greeting” today, Friday 9 November 2018. Other than this greeting session, the meeting has no agenda. It follows the same fashion as the hated royal-kraal meetings which are convened by Mswati without any agenda or any serious intention to resolve the problems of the people. Everything about the prime minister’s intentions is shrouded in secrecy and speculation.

This has all the hallmarks of the regime’s evil attempts to weaken workers’ struggles by, first, separating workers from the leaders, and, secondly, attempting to coerce or buy the leaders into some secretive pact(s) which workers would not be aware of and on which they would not have been consulted. The regime’s objective is to make union leaders see some reasonableness that Mswati’s government is unable to accede to workers’ demands, and thus influence the leaders to convince workers into naively believing that the government cares about their plight. If this becomes successful, the workers will be frustrated and unconditionally return to work. In the end, none of the demands raised by workers would have been met. They would be postponed indefinitely.

Workers waged militant struggles against the Mswati regime this year, 2018, raising concrete demands, including a 6.55 percent cost of living adjustment, the end of the arbitrary colonial style evictions that have been happening in Swaziland, and many others. Substantially, Mswati feels threated by the resoluteness of the workers and is now playing a divide-and-rule game.

It is therefore of extreme importance that union leaders carefully consider this open invitation by Mswati’s puppet and be united on how to approach the matter. By this “just to greet” meeting, the regime is attempting to deceitfully impose its own agenda on workers. The leaders have no choice but to show a united force, but revolutionary unity. Since it appears that they will be attending the fake meeting, they have to remember the interests of the rank and file workforce and impose a workers’ agenda in that meeting. The meeting should be forced to transform, there and then, into a real workers’ meeting, no longer merely a peaceful tea and biscuits session, which serves the regime’s interests.

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) will continue to support the struggles of workers in all their facets. Specifically, the CPS will continue its campaign of mobilising workers from the shop floor, engaging them on the Swaziland revolution. Our 2018-1019 Red October campaign is focused on maximum mobilisation in the maximum number of sites against the Mswati regime. Workers are naturally a part of this campaign of the Communist Party.

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

Dictator Mswati shows who is in charge by detaining a journalist for sticking to good journalism principles

The first big thing that Swaziland’s absolute monarch decided to do shortly after his discredited tinkhundla elections was to detain a journalist. Yesterday, Wednesday 7 November 2018, the royal Swaziland police's Organised Crime Unit detained seasoned journalist Musa Ndlangamandla in Mbabane, accusing him of aligning himself with organisations that call for democracy. They harassed, intimidated and threatened him, and are already preparing documents for his prosecution.

This notorious police gang, also known as “Tingculungculu”, accused Ndlangamandla of having engaged in acts of collaboration with the democratic movement in 2011, when he was the Chief Editor of the Swazi Observer newspaper. That was before he slipped out of the country to preserve his life after word got out that Mswati wanted his head delivered in a bowl, simply for covering news related to Swaziland’s progressive forces. That year his office at the Swazi Observer premises was raided by this police unit.

When the Organised Crime Unit was introduced in 2009, after the enactment of the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008, the then police commissioner declared that the unit would deal with the “growing phenomenon of organised syndicated crime and terrorism.” It is now a fact accepted by all that the Mswati regime regards all efforts aimed at the democratisation of Swaziland as nothing but terrorist acts, thus automatically falling within these categories. Hence Ndlangamandla’s good journalism ethics are categorised by the Mswati autocracy as serious enough to attract the attention of a specialised police unit like the Tingculungculu, as terrorist acts.

This is not the first time the Mswati regime has clamped down on journalists. In 2014, the Mswati regime arrested and convicted The Nation magazine editor, Bheki Makhubu, together with human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko, for being critical of the system. In February this year, members of Mswati’s Correctional Services (prison warders) attacked a journalist when he took photographs of them travelling on the backs of overcrowded vehicles. In September this year, police assaulted a journalist and demanded he delete photographs he took of them attacking and shooting at striking textile workers. In a report titled “Assessment of Media Development in Swaziland”, seven in ten journalists interviewed by UNESCO in Swaziland said they had faced attempts from politicians or advertisers to interfere with what they were writing.

The detaining of journalist Musa Ndlangamandla should therefore be openly condemned by all democracy loving people across the globe.

This should also be a wake-up call to those who were slumbering under the illusion that things would be different under Mswati’s newly appointed prime minister. Swaziland remains undemocratic. It is still ruled by a dictator, sub-Saharan Africa’s last remaining absolute monarch. The tinkhundla system is nothing but a dictatorship of the monarch. The 2018 tinkhundla elections were nothing but a sham, a wasteful game by Mswati, for his benefit. Those elections, as previous ones, resulted in a puppet parliament for the dictator to implement his anti-people decisions.

The journey towards freedom of the media in Swaziland must at one and the same time be linked with the journey towards democracy. There can never a free media in Swaziland as long as the tinkhundla system prevails. Mswati tightly controls the media and punishes journalists and media houses for publishing anything seen as critical of the royal family and his government.

The regime must be overthrown! For this to happen, the people must unite and isolate the absolute monarch!

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

Swaziland teachers show resilient spirit despite decree by Mswati’s court that teachers’ strike action be postponed

Thousands of teachers affiliated to the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) held an Extra Ordinary Meeting at the SNAT Centre in Manzini on Wednesday 26 September 2018. This followed an illogical court judgment which decreed that the legal teachers’ strike action which was supposed to start on 25 September 2018 should be postponed to 23 November 2018.

Teachers of Swaziland have been engaged in resilient protests against the Mswati autocracy since 24 August 2018. This peaceful protest also followed a night vigil on 23 August 2018. The teachers demand a 6.5 percent cost of living adjustment, known as COLA. Despite the peaceful protests, teachers were met with massive brutality from the royal police who often shot at the workers with live bullets.

Teachers’ resolution

In their Extra Ordinary Meeting on Wednesday 26 September 2018, teachers resolved to engage in various organisational activities on a daily basis since Mswati’s government has denied them the legal strikes. The activities, among others include:

1.    Delivery of petitions in the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Service, Ministry of Health and other government ministries;

2.    Branch and regional activities, including Vuselas;

3.    Branch meetings (report backs) until the date which was set by Mswati’s judge for the strike (23 November 2018) is reached.

But before the date of 23 November 2018 is reached, teachers declared in no uncertain terms that they will not participate in all school examination processes (from setting of examination papers, monitoring of learners and marking of scripts). Teachers declared that anyone who shall participate in these processes, be they police or soldiers, shall meet the wrath of the angry teachers.

Teachers’ action continues today

On the morning of Thursday 27 September 2018, teachers will send a petition to the United States Embassy in Mbabane to demand that the United States deports Mswati back to Swaziland to address the issues, of which he is the main cause. Mswati is currently in the United States to participate in the United Nations General Assembly.

How the Mswati autocracy operates

Swaziland, which was renamed “Eswatini” by absolute monarch Mswati on his 50^th birthday in April 2018, is ruled by the tinkhundla system which is nothing but a royal dictatorship. This system was introduced after the monarch abrogated the 1968 constitution and bestowed all executive, legislative and judicial powers upon the monarch, thereby creating an absolute monarch which would from then rule by decree.

The tinkhundla system has been the direct cause of the impoverishment of the people of Swaziland. The people are barred from criticising the monarch or the monarch’s government. Close to 70 percent of the people of Swaziland survive on less that US2$ a day. Despite this deepening poverty, Mswati splashed about E1 billion (about US$70 million) in April this year to throw a lavish birthday party for himself. The court judgment which arbitrarily postponed the teachers’ strike should therefore be seen in this light.

Following below are pictures and video clip from the SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting.

One section of teachers as soon in the morning at the start of the meeting SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

The tent was too small to accommodate the multitudes of teachers who attended the meeting - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

Another large section of the teachers outside who could not find space inside the large tent - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

Another section of teachers during the meeting - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

One other large section of teachers who had to find space outside as they could not find space in the large tent - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

As soon as the meeting ended, teachers burst in revolutionary songs (see video below as well) - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

Teachers then invaded the streets of the city of Manzini after their meeting, to give signs of things to come - SNAT Extra Ordinary Meeting

Communist Party of Swaziland commends worker militancy during national protest action declared by TUCOSWA, condemns police brutality

Tuesday 18 September 2018, marked the beginning of a rolling national protest action called by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA). TUCOSWA is an umbrella body for the various unions organising in different sectors of Swaziland.

The protests took place in four different cities and towns from the four respective regions of Swaziland – Mbabane (the capital city of Swaziland in the Hhohho region), Manzini (the most populous city of Swaziland, under Manzini region), Nhlangano (in the Shiselweni region, south of Swaziland) and Siteki (in the Lubombo region, east of Swaziland).

Thousands filled the streets of Manzini City on Tuesday 18 September 2018 in a nationwide march called by TUCOSWA against the Mswati regime to call for salary increment and better working conditions

An estimated one hundred thousand (100 000) workers marched on the streets of Swaziland during the national protest action. By 16h00, Tuesday 18 September 2018, the confirmed number of workers who were injured either after receiving rubber bullet shots or after heavy assault by police batons stood at ten (10). This occurred in the march that was in Manzini.

A worker lies unconscious after attacks from the police of Swaziland during a peaceful march for salary increment and better working conditions. This was in Manzini.

One of the first victims of police brutality in Manzini. She was rushed to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini.

This worker was attacked by numerous police with batons in Manzini.

The Communist Party of Swaziland congratulates the workers, including their federation, TUCOSWA, for these historic marches. We view the attacks on the workers by Mswati’s police in Manzini as a clear sign of the brutality of the Mswati regime. Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is desperate to keep the people of Swaziland suppressed, especially during the era of tinkhundla elections. The tinkhundla’s secondary elections are scheduled for Friday 21 September 2018. These sham elections are undemocratic and Mswati is trying to force the people to participate in them. Desperate to intimidate workers, he unleashed his police on unarmed peacefully marching workers in Manzini.

Early in the morning as workers were convening for the begging of the march

As the numbers started growing, the police realised that they could not contain this mass of militant and determined workers. They then started reinforcing and adding numbers on their side.

But the workers are undeterred. TUCOSWA has already issued an official communication that the marches will continue on Wednesday 19 September 2018.

Thousands in Siteki also came out to protest against the Mswati regim eon 18 September 2018

The Communist Party of Swaziland will continue to be part of the workers and contribute in whatever meaningful way possible.

The future belongs to the workers!

Democracy YES! Tinkhundla elections NO!

Below is the moment when Mswati's police attacked an unarmed worker in Manzini on Tuesday 18 September 2018.

Public Address: Message of the Communist Party of Swaziland to the World Federation of Democratic Youth Summit

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) is honoured on the special invitation to join delegates to the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), the world's youth assembly of radical and militant agitated socialist-oriented generation, taking place in Harare, Zimbabwe on 12 to 16 September 2018.

This Summit takes place when the world imperialist forces presiding over a crisis ridden capitalist system continue to intensity their fight against the working class people all over the world. Meanwhile, bourgeois propagandists keep feeling workers with fake hopes that capitalism can be renewed. Working class gains made over centuries are under attack from the capitalists and their propagandists.

At the World Federation of Democratic Youth Summit. From left; Donald from Congo Brazzaville, Njabulo Dlamini the International Organiser of the Communist Party of Swaziland, Malinkovich Sergey from Russia, Mluleki Dlelanga the National Secretary of YCLSA, Sadik Bachir from Western Sahara.

The people of Swaziland are resisting an imposed rule by the Mswati autocracy which enjoys support from imperialist and sub imperialist forces of the World. Mswati and his regime remains the immediate enemy of the majority suffering people of Swaziland who have no basic rights and freedoms, such as the right to freedom of association, assembly, and movement.

It is in this period that the autocratic regime in Swaziland is using fake elections to manipulate the people in order to give the dictatorship's evil and inhuman practices some appearance of legitimacy from some sections of the world who may sometimes ignorantly accept that legitimacy. The reason is simple; to deny the struggling people of Swaziland the most needed support and solidarity from the people of the world.

The people of Swaziland are up against the dictatorship which uses state organised violence to suppress the cry for freedom.

The Communist Party of Swaziland, together with the workers of Swaziland, working class and progressive formations in Swaziland, is all out to expose the monarchical dictatorship and advance the struggle of the oppressed and exploited people in our country.

The Communist Party of Swaziland holds, after concrete analysis of concrete conditions in Swaziland, the Southern African region, the African continent and the world, that the Mswati autocracy must be overturned and a new democratic order be established. If that order has to succeed in reversing the ruins of the autocracy it has to be a socialist democracy with mass power from below, from the people, and thereby build a people-owned democracy.

We continue to mobilise the people of the world, including Swazis from inside Swaziland and in the diaspora, to intensify the fight against the Mswati autocracy, expose its mess and advance the aspirations of the oppressed people. We join the world in supporting the struggles for peace and a healthy environment. Our support to the struggling people of Palestine, Western Sahara, Kurdistan and elsewhere in the world for a world free from wars and diseases will continue

Long live WFDY!

Long live Solidarity!

Viva Democracy!

Viva Socialism!

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