Address delivered 26th August 2023 at the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC-A) National Conference held in Durban on 25-27 August 2023
Revolutionary Greetings Comrades in Struggle,
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party stands in uncompromising support of the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania on the opening day, of this important process, your Annual National Conference. We are honored to continue to work with the PAC, in this ongoing struggle for Pan-Africanism and against capitalism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, and the continued legacy of Apartheid.
The A-APRP was present when the PAC and AZAPO signed their historic declaration of cooperation. This was an important occasion. It has led to the recent formation of the Azanian Liberation Front (ALF) and its call on other Africanist organizations to join. These collaborations will advance the struggle of Africans here and set a tone that will reverberate across Africa and its diaspora. The A-APRP will be active in working with the PAC in advancing these efforts across Africa and the diaspora. Pan-Africanists must work together to see the “Fall of RSA, and the rise of Azania”, the elimination of settler colonialism, and the return of our land to its rightful owners.
The PAC and the ALF clearly stand heads above other political efforts in their commitment to the people, in their commitment to Pan-Africanism and in their commitment to revolution. The PAC recognizes that the suffering of our people in Azania is directly linked to the theft of our land and its resources. The timid call for some form of land expropriation by the government is not what the people want or need. We want justice. We want the people to take back our land. This means revolutionaries must lead the people to RECLAIM OUR STOLEN LAND AND ITS RESOURCES. WE ARE RECLAIMING WHAT IS JUSTLY OURS.
Today and tomorrow, you have a serious task to fulfil. The task is not just to provide direction to the PAC, but to provide direction to the masses in Azania. The remains of Apartheid have teamed with neo-colonialism to not only continue in the exploitation of Africans, but to use the sophistications of social democracy and electoral participation to hide the realities of the continued exploitation of capitalism. They come to blame other Africans (our brothers and sisters from other African countries) for the lack of jobs, and to blame the most victimized, our youth, for not creating their own jobs. We lack jobs because capitalists prefer to pocket the profits of our labor instead of using these monies to hire more people, provide better wages and deliver services to our communities (safe water and sanitation, proper education, electricity when needed, roads without potholes). Capitalism will never meet the needs of the people.
The past 20 years has brought us the ANC billionaires such as Cyril, Motsepe, and Sexwale. While they live in opulence, the people suffer. During this past 20 years the gap between the wealthy and the masses as only increased. Capitalism must fall, South Africa must fall; Azania must rise, Pan-Africanism must rise, Socialism must rise.
The A-APRP realizes the solution to these various forms of oppression is one unified socialist Africa. This requires that we first return the land across the whole of Africa to its rightful owners, African people. We strongly support the PAC’s continued stand on the return of land here in occupied Azania.
What do we mean by socialism? We must understand it to explain it to our people. It must be the basis for recruiting and building the Azanian Liberation Front (ALF). Our liberation can only come with socialism. Socialism requires revolutionary political forces to take control, revolutionary parties like the PAC and revolutionary fronts like ALF! Revolutionary forces seek to dismantle the private ownership structure of capitalism. In a socialist society, the people own the means of production and distribution. The banks, the platinum, gold and coal mines, the farms and factories are all owned by the people and their communities. The profits from these operations don’t go to a few wealthy owners. The profits are controlled and used by the people and their communities to improve the lives of the people.
Today, imperialism uses sanctions and the threat of sanctions to maintain it’s capitalist system. In 1960, when the Cuban people, led by Fidel Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba, took control of their resources, the US immediately instituted crippling sanctions, sanctions that remain 63 years later. When Zimbabwe escalated its land reclamation taking back land and distributing it to over 300,000 families, the UK, EU, and US immediately reacted with an onslaught of sanctions causing billions of dollars in economic damage. With the mere mention of “land expropriation” in occupied Azania, we see the neo-colonial media and business community recoil with the claim that any such action will lead to economic disaster. This is a not to subtle threat of sanctions! Revolutionary organizations across the world must come together and expose the oppressive realities of unprincipled, unilateral sanctions. Zimbabwe’s campaign against sanctions has led to SADC (Southern African Development Community) proclaiming 25th October as “Anti-sanctions day”. The A-APRP is working with ALF, NNLC (Ngwane National Liberatory Congress), BAP (Black Alliance for Peace) and others across Africa and the diaspora to actively education and organize our people to work toward ending these imperialist sanctions. This is a road necessary in our journey toward socialism and Pan-Africanism.
We salute the hard work of our PAC comrades in making their national conference a success.
Forward to One Unified Socialist Africa!
John Trimble, Central Committee member with the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP)
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