Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party launched in South Africa
Rafael Stedile
10 Apr 2019
Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party launched in South Africa
Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party launched in South Africa

Over a thousand gathered in Johannesburg to attend the Launch Congress of the party which seeks to build socialism in South Africa

“We are serious about the Revolution.”

 “Equality, work and land” is the slogan of the new radical political party in South Africa that seeks to revolutionize South African politics and contest elections this coming May. The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) held its launch congress from April 4-6 in Johannesburg, South Africa with attendance from over a thousand of the party’s militants and cadre from distinct provinces from across the country, as well as international guests from countries such as Zambia, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Morocco, and Nepal.

The Congress was dedicated to “Fieldmore” Mapeto Baldwin Langa, a member of NUMSA, who passed in August 2018. Fieldmore was a lifelong communist and internationalist, when he was just 17 he joined uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress during the anti-apartheid struggle. Fieldmore was forced into exile and on his return to South Africa in 1994, he became a key activist and intellectual in NUMSA and was central to the union’s political education program.

“Today we commit ourselves to the long and winding road of class struggle.”

The party stated in its dedication: “With the revolutionary spirit of Fieldmore Mapeto alive in us all, today we commit ourselves to the long and winding road of class struggle as we launch the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. We openly declare for all the world to know that we as Socialists are committed to building the organization of a revolutionary working class.A class aware of its own interests. A class that will overthrow the capitalist parasites. A working class that will seize power for the project of building Socialism, in which no human will be exploited by another.”

During the three days of work, delegates heard from different members of the Interim Working Committee of the Party such as the convenor of the SRWP, Irvin Jim. In his address, Jim remarked on the path that brought them where they are today and why the creation of this party today in South Africa is so essential.

Delegates were reminded that in 2012, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), sparked by the atrocities of the Marikana Massacre, began to chart a new course in South African politics. NUMSA left the African National Congress (ANC)-Led Alliance and embarked on a process to form an independent trade union federation as well as a Workers’ Party.

“We openly declare for all the world to know that we as Socialists are committed to building the organization of a revolutionary working class.”

In 2017, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) was officially launched with over 700,000 members and in April 2018 they held one of the largest national strikes in South Africa’s recent history demanding just labor laws and an increase to the national minimum wage.

In 2018, the goal of creating a workers’ party was also fulfilled. The party was officially registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa in September and in December 2018, the first national meeting of the newly formed SRWP in Johannesburg South Africa on December 14 and 15.

On the second day of work, the delegates split up into different commissions to work on the different issues of the political platform including (education, health, housing, work, etc.), as well the different founding documents of the party.

The SRWP will emerge from this Launch Congress with a political platform, a constitution, a manifesto debated on and defined by its grassroots, as well as elected authorities of the party. They plan to contest the upcoming elections and are certain that the South African working class is ready for a party that promises to upturn the current capitalist systemthat has made so many South Africans suffer.

NUMSA President Andrew Chirwa addressed the Congress and stated: “This is not a party for reform. This is a party for communists. We are serious about the Revolution. We are a party for SOCIALISM and nothing else.”

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

This article previously appeared in Peoples Dispatch.

South Africa

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

BAR Book Forum: Maano Ramutsindela, Frank Matose, and Tafadzwa Mushonga’s Book, “The Violence of Conservation in Africa”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Maano Ramutsindela, Frank Matose, and Tafadzwa Mushonga’s Book, “The Violence of Conservation in Africa”
14 September 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Economic Freedom Fighters Statement on the Death of Queen Elizabeth
Sinawo Thambo, Leigh-Ann Mathys, Sixolise Gcilishe
Economic Freedom Fighters Statement on the Death of Queen Elizabeth
14 September 2022
The brutal history of British imperialism should not be forgotten in the wake of the Queen's death.
Manufacturing Consent: How the United States Has Penetrated South African Media
Ajit Singh, Roscoe Palm
Manufacturing Consent: How the United States Has Penetrated South African Media
17 August 2022
The CIA has played a role in controlling South African media from the days of apartheid to the present.
South Africa’s Energy Crisis Escalates
Brian Kamanzi
South Africa’s Energy Crisis Escalates
27 July 2022
Behind rolling power cuts loom deep-seated socioeconomic issues worsened by the rich countries of the world.
The Soweto Uprising’s Unfinished Business
Mark P. Fancher
The Soweto Uprising’s Unfinished Business
15 June 2022
Worldwide outrage over the killing of Soweto youth protesting on June 16, 1976 was a turning point in South African history.
Marking Workers’ Day in Dispiriting Times
New Frame
Marking Workers’ Day in Dispiriting Times
03 May 2022
Previously in South Africa, millions of people were mobilised in the hope of a better future on May Day.
Devastation in Durban
New Frame
Devastation in Durban
26 April 2022
The floods that have wreaked havoc in the shacklands of Durban, South Africa are another searing indictment of the social abandonment of the ma
MANIFESTO: The 1959 Pan Africanist Manifesto
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
MANIFESTO: The 1959 Pan Africanist Manifesto
26 January 2022
The Pan African Congress of Azania’s 1959 Manifesto provides a radical blueprint for African self-determination.
Looking for space for General Baker Institute, 2016 - Photo: Roy Singham
Roy Singham
On the Road from Detroit to South Africa: Black Radical Internationalist Traditions
23 November 2021
Roy Singham reminisces about his work with the late General Gordon Baker, Jr.
 F.W. deKlerk: Requiem for a Racist Murderer
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
F.W. de Klerk: Requiem for a Racist Murderer
17 November 2021
F.W. de Klerk was the last apartheid president of South Africa.

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 27, 2023
    27 Jan 2023
    Police killings increase, Nicaragua, and Cuba in Africa
  • Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Record Number of Police Killings in 2022
    27 Jan 2023
    Samuel Sinyangwe is founder of the Mapping Police Violence Project.
  • Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Observations of Nicaragua's Revolutionary Process
    27 Jan 2023
    Erica Caines is publisher of the website Hood Communist. She is also co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas team.
  • Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return - Part 1
    27 Jan 2023
    Isaac Saney is a Cuba and Black studies specialist and historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the author of the recently published book Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s…
  • The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    The State Repression of U.S. Settler Colonialism in The South: BAP ATLANTA STATEMENT
    25 Jan 2023
    The plan for an Atlanta police training facility known as "Cop City" is the latest phase of state repression in that region. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us