Swaziland : CPS perturbed by Msanti regime’s intransigence on Worker issues

Kenneth Kunene,General Secretary, 21 June 2012

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) calls on all supporters of the struggle for freedom in Swaziland to condemn the efforts of the Mswati regime to crush the right of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) to strike for better pay and conditions.
We call on trade unions and federations, governments and civil society everywhere to expose and denounce this and the other anti-trade union actions of the Mswati dictatorship.

Fearful of the spontaneous protest that his anti-trade union tactics would provoke, Mswati has resorted to cover of night for his ‘industrial court’ to rule illegal the strike planned by SNAT.
Last Sunday the court issued a similar ruling against the Swaziland Electricity Supply Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (SESMAWU).
Weeks ago, SNAT had warned the regime of its plan to strike, officially notifying it of the action in early June after balloting its members.
The regime manoeuvred to ensure that the industrial court would issue its ruling against the strike shortly after midnight today, just hours before the strike was due to start.

In doing so it has cast the strike action as illegal and granted itself impunity to put down violently any possible action by SNAT members and supporters, as happened when SESMAWU members ignored the regime’s ban on its strike earlier this week.
The regime is desperate to put an end to all trade union opposition in the country.

It knows full well that the unions have a far broader agenda than workers’ basic bread and butter issues, and that they are key to the struggle for democracy and the complete end to Mswati’s rule.
Having weakened much of the middle-class sections of the pro-democracy movement through infiltration, fostering venality and positing notions of ‘dialogue’, the regime is now concentrating on smashing the trade union movement.
Mswati and his absurd government have worked over time to cripple the functioning of the newly formed Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), to which both SNAT and SESMAWU are affiliated.

It did so by ruling TUCOSWA illegal and setting up in its place – in front of the ILO in Geneva – a ridiculous paper federation, the so-called Swaziland Workers Economic Empowerment Union.
As we have seen in recent weeks, the regime is increasingly prone to shooting and murdering its opponents or anyone, including school children,who gets in its way.

The regime is especially fearful of calls, issued by TUCOSWA, the CPS and many others, to boycott Mswati’s sham national elections next year. It is terrified that the international community will condemn the farcical nature of these tinkhundla elections.
We reiterate our call to boycott and disrupt the elections and campaign loudly and visibly against them.

We also draw attention to the equally undemocratic ‘municipal elections’ in Swaziland from 9-31 July, and call on all Swazis of voting age to boycott them.
The international community, particularly those aspects of it engaged with the Mswati regime –the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the Commonwealth – must wake up to the terrible oppression imposed by the Mswati regime on the Swazi people.

Lack of democracy is accompanied by increasingly severe poverty, disease and degradation, which are being deliberately imposed on the Swazi people in order to keep the Mswati dictatorship in power.
How many more of our people must die before Swaziland’s neighbours and the rest of the world take notice and act ?
The CPS reiterates its
support for the working people and the poor of our country in their struggle against the daily oppression of the Mswati autocracy. We are working with and among you for democracy, jobs, food, health, education and freedom.

Down with the Mswati dictatorship !

Viva democracy and freedom for Swaziland !

Viva working class power !

Viva socialism !