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The Communist Party of Swaziland held its 3rd annual national conference

D 23 avril 2014     H 12:17     A CPS     C 0 messages


The Communist Party of Swaziland held its 3rd annual national conference over the Easter holiday, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa.

The conference was attended by delegates from inside Swaziland and based in South Africa.

The conference reviewed the work of the CPS since its creation in 2011. It is the only political formation promoting a socialist solution to the crisis blighting Swaziland due to the oppressive capitalist-feudal system. The CPS has provided a consistent socialist analysis of the situation in Swaziland, and needs to increase this input to the broad movement effort to bring about democracy and put an end to the monarchic autocracy.

Despite superficial rifts in the pro-democracy movement, in objective terms there is a commitment to unity to bring about democracy. The basis for boosting the movement’s mobilising powers needs strengthening and should be a focus of all pro-democracy forces.

The call for unbanning of all political formations and parties, for an end to all press censorship and for free and fair elections paving the way to a new democratic dispensation that wholly displaces the monarchy and the Mswati mafia is one that is hardly contentious among the pro-democracy movement. The basis for sound unity exist, we only have to make use of it by strengthening our organisational capacity.

The CPS will strengthen its campaign work for the unbanning of political parties, and make this a priority issue over the next 12 months.

Within this terrain of campaign struggle and more generally, the major task of the CPS is to mobilise the working class and the poor in both urban and rural settings in Swaziland. Only the full involvement of the majority of Swazis will enable our own national democratic revolution to proceed. This mobilisation is the biggest challenge that the CPS faces.

The national conference also found that the general silence of the international community, including countries of the SADC region, on the situation in Swaziland gives much comfort to Mswati. The CPS believes that far greater pressure must be put on the international community to take strong positions against the Mswati dictatorship. The pro-democracy movement must work together on this. In particular, the Swaziland Solidarity Network has the potential to act on this imperative. But the CPS itself will also increase its international work and contacts to this end.

In the immediate period the CPS will focus on :

1. Organising the many students who have crossed to SA in search for education to join the campaign for unbanning of political parties.

2. Highlighting the connection between the Mswati autocratic rule and the expropriation of Swaziland’s wealth and resources.

3. Organizing communities to demand for the unbanning of political parties.

4. Organizing community meetings to discuss political and socio economic issues.

5. Engaging with workers and forces of the pro-democracy movement including trade unions and other civic society formations to organise in protest in demand for the unbanning of political parties and press freedom.

6. Ending the persecution and detention (imprisonment) of political activists, human rights activists, trade union leaders, journalists, and community activists including those illegally sentenced.

The CPS conference also elected a new Central Committee and decided on the distribution of positions and delegation of responsibilities.