The Communist Party of Swaziland fully supports the protest march to the US embassy demanding that the autocrat Mswati be returned from the US, where he is currently at the UN, to face the music in his crisis-ridden country.
The protest is being led by the teachers’ union SNAT and has been joined by students and others.
Swaziland is in meltdown. It is increasingly clear that the regime cannot hold onto power indefinitely. Its grip is already slipping. More and more workers are ready to act against the autocracy and to make it unworkable.
We have seen this is in the case with the electricity workers, who have cut off the power to the police HQ, ostensibly because of a massive unpaid bill (E12 million), but in reality out of frustration with the police’s increasingly brutal behaviour towards protestors and strikers.
SNAT is currently at the forefront of action opposing the policies of the Mswati regime, and is gearing up for a nationwide strike, due to start 23 November.
This strike was postponed by a court ruling, the purpose of which seems to have been to allow the regime plenty of time to do all it can to circumvent the impact of the strike.
This interim period is being put to good use by SNAT, in petitioning government and intensifying union activity at branch and regional level. Preparation for the strike is intensive.
The regime will use scab labour to try to break the strike, in particular because it will take place at exam time – something the union has been forced into due to the court ruling.
The CPS fully supports SNAT’s rising tempo of defiance and protest. It underscores the critical importance of organised labour – the organised working class – being in the forefront of the class struggle in Swaziland to overthrow the monarchic autocracy and the feudal-capitalist system in general.
The undemocratic elections held last week were a massive flop for the regime, reflecting people’s increasing impatience with the autocracy.
Our people understand that there is NO POINT in having elections in which political parties are banned from taking part – other than for giving the idiot Mswati the pretence of a popular mandate (the AU and SADC still seem to think that they should assess this process as if it were a serious exercise).
The Mswati autocracy is on its last legs. Let’s do everything we can to hasten its demise.
