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The South African Communist Party (SACP) stands in full, militant solidarity with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and all progressive forces participating in the national strike on Monday, 7 October 2024. 

This strike is not just a protest – it is a war cry against the relentless exploitation of workers, the tyranny of capital and its neo-liberal economic and workplace restructuring and policy agenda.

For too long, workers have borne the brunt of the capitalist system’s crisis. While the capitalist bosses grow fat off the sweat of workers’ labour, millions of workers and their families are condemned to poverty, unemployment and starvation wages.

Today, we say ENOUGH!

The blood of the workers is not cheap. Together, let us unite and not allow capitalists to bleed us as the working class dry while they hoard the wealth created by our labour and turn a blind eye to the suffering the working class endures.

As we take to the streets today, we are therefore also honouring the 79th anniversary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), whose founding congress was held in Paris from 3 to 8 October 1945.

The WFTU represents the world’s class-oriented and militant trade union movement, a revolutionary force that has fought tirelessly for the emancipation of workers across the globe.

Today, as we strike, we echo the demands made under the theme of the WFTU’s anniversary: “We Demand Dignified Working and Living Conditions.”

In line with the WFTU’s militant legacy, we demand:

Significant wage increases, while intensifying the struggle to end the system of economic exploitation and its consequent forms of domination and oppression.

Stable, secure and decent work with full rights, ensuring that workers are not subjected to precarious, short-term contracts, with no benefits, that erode their dignity.

Decent hours of work per week: workers should not be slaves to capital, and we demand decent working hours to reflect this without compromising workers’ income.

Health and safety in all workplaces, for no worker should risk their life for the profit margins of the bosses.

Public and universal system of healthcare: in particular, through immediate and decisive National Health Insurance implementation.

Public and universal systems of education and comprehensive social security, including the improvement of the social relief of distress grant and its transformation into a universal basic income grant.

A quality working and living environment: because every worker and their family deserves to live in conditions that uphold their humanity.

These basic human rights, including access to quality healthcare for all, should never be treated as commodities for the highest bidder.

These demands are not mere requests. They are the battle lines drawn between the forces of revolution and the reactionary forces of capital.

The capitalist system has no future for the working class. It is a system that thrives on exploitation, violence and inequality.

Let us build maximum unity, including by forging a popular left front and building a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor. Let us take our fight beyond demands for improvements and against symptoms of its inherent injustice, to intensify the struggle to end the exploitative capitalist system and replace it with the caring, socialist mode of production and just distribution of income from production, including trade.

The SACP supports the demands of the COSATU-led Strike

An end to retrenchments: All sectors must stop retrenching workers under the guise of inclusive economic growth. We demand large-scale employment creation, notably through industrialisation, as well as measures to advance the right of all to work in practice and a reversal of neo-liberal policies, including austerity, that cripple state-owned enterprises, other public entities and public services.

A living wage for all workers: The time for starvation wages is over. We support the demand for a minimum wage that reflects the actual cost of living and dignifies the working class. We will not rest until every worker in this country earns a wage that allows them to live, not just survive.

South Africa’s wealth belongs to its people, not to parasitic capitalists and corrupt tenderpreneurs. We call for transformation of ownership in the mines, banks and other major industries, towards the goals of the Freedom Charter, especially democratic control to ensure that our resources serve the masses and not a handful of billionaires.

A radical overhaul of the public sector: We demand the insourcing of all public sector workers and an end to the privatisation of essential services. The working class cannot endure more suffering at the hands of neo-liberal policies that destroy education, healthcare, transportation and fail to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and bring down the crisis-high levels of unemployment, poverty an inequality.

An end to the scourge of corruption: We will not tolerate the looting of state resources, regardless of who is involved in it. We demand a radical and uncompromising purge of corrupt elements from every level of the state and society and across the entire economy.

This strike is a clarion call to workers everywhere to unite and fight. The SACP calls on all workers, communities and progressive forces to sustain this mobilisation and deepen the working-class struggle with unrelenting determination.

Let it be known: The working class will not be subdued by fear, intimidation, or the false promises of reform.

Victory to the working class! Power to the people!

Forward to socialism!

Issued by the South African Communist Party,