quote:

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Socialism remains relevant more than ever. The brutality of capitalism meted against humanity on a daily basis cries for a humane social order....Comrades and friends ... We are in the middle of the biggest wave of worker struggles since the 1980s and 1990s. Workers are on the march. Workers patience is running thin. They have witnessed 13 years of bosses lining their pockets and enjoying this longest period of economic growth in our country. They demand that benefits of the economy be shared amongst all who have created the wealth. ....

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The COSATU leader drew attention to "the urgent necessity of mobilizing society around an alternative development path, in a broad front, on the same scale as when we mobilized to defeat apartheid".

quote:

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I will continue to argue that our central challenge is to defeat the agenda
of the 1996 class project and to ensure that the ANC retains its key
character as a left-wing liberation movement that leads all classes for a
radical transformation, informed by the perspectives of the Morogoro
conference. We should also build the confidence and power of the working
class and its organised formation to take the battle forward. That also
requires us to wage struggles at all fronts to defeat the agenda of the
capitalists.

Our task is to build a counter-hegemonic bloc to the agenda of monopoly
capital. This should be translated into a challenge to the dominant
discourse and the fight for policy shifts in areas of fiscal and monetary
policy, social development and employment and industrial strategies. ...

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COSATU Gen Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also noted

quote:

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Secondly we need to build the unity of the liberation movement around the
Freedom Charter vision.

We too, both the SACP and COSATU, need to be more aggressive in advancing
and popularising our policy alternatives. If one relied on certain media
commentators for one's analysis, one could easily come to the conclusion we
are just empty vessels without substance.

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We Canadians could learn a thing or two from our South African brothers and sisters.

As Vavi noted, "class-consciousness is built and deepened in the course of
struggles and not through bookish learning alone."

COSATU leader speaks to the SACP

[ 14 July 2007: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]