CP of Swaziland: Africa remains trapped in neo-colonial chains

Africa Day is celebrated every year on May 25 to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to bring together newly independent African states under the banner of continental unity and anti-colonial solidarity. The Communist Party of Swaziland issued a statement to commemorate May 25, a day that “emerges from the long and heroic struggles of African people against colonial domination.” 

The statement details how imperialist powers continue to weaken African nations through a range of tactics, including debt slavery, military interventions, economic sanctions, regime-change operations, puppet governments, control of resources, cultural domination, and endless wars engineered for profit and strategic control.

Declaring that “Africa remains trapped under the heavy chains of neo-colonialism,” the CP of Swaziland views Africa Day not merely as a ceremonial celebration, but as a day of political reflection, revolutionary commitment and militant organisation. Since political independence without economic liberation remains meaningless, the party maintains that under capitalism and imperialism, Africa can never achieve genuine freedom.

The Communist Party attacks Swaziland’s tinkhundla autocratic regime as “one of the clearest instruments through which imperialist interests are protected” through the suppression of democratic rights, attacks on workers and students, corruption, unemployment and poverty. Therefore, the statement reiterates that the struggle for democracy in Swaziland is inseparable from the broader struggle for African liberation and socialism.

Rejecting dependency on former colonial masters and foreign capital, the CP of Swaziland outlines an alternative future of Africa based on:

• The total political and economic liberation of African people.
• Genuine continental unity based on Pan-Africanism and socialism.
• Industrialisation under public ownership.
• Land redistribution and agrarian transformation.
• The control of natural resources by the people.
• Free, critical, scientific and decolonised education.
• The empowerment of workers, peasants, women and youth.
• Revolutionary international solidarity.
• The defeat of imperialism, Zionism and neo-colonialism.

Photo: https://www.peoplesworld.org/