Tag: congress

PRESS BRIEFING:

Announcement of First Congress of the Socialist Party

Dear ladies and gentlemen from the press, welcome to this media briefing. We are here to make a very important pronouncement pertaining the growth of the Socialist Party.
As you may still remember, the Socialist Party was formally registered on the 16th of October, 2017 – after a protracted waiting period of over a year! The registration was officially announced to the Zambian public a month later, i.e. on the 17th of November of the same year. Consequently, the Party was successfully launched on the 31st of March, 2018 at Kingfisher Lodge in Lusaka’s Jesmondine area.
The launch of the Socialist Party was marked with a highly antagonistic attitude from government. You may recall that some of the comrades who had turned up to offer solidarity to the Party were treated to animosity by the Zambian state. For example, the Cuban ambassador was sent out of the country in highly questionable and undiplomatic circumstances. Other external visitors were denied entry into the country at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport.
Ladies and gentlemen, this animosity has not stopped. We continue to work under a hositile political environment. The more the current regime fails to deliver on its promises to the masses of our people,the harder the repression on opposition political parties. We, therefore, continously suffer harrasment, intimidation, verbal abuse and all forms of injustice. The country has become a dictatorship of the tiny ruling clique.
The Socialist Party has, however, proceeded with its mobilization programme and activities – despite the hostile political environment. Against all odds, we are resolved, more than ever before to stay the course until victory is assured. We shall not abandon our collective resolve to defeat capitalism and its political puppets in Zambia and our homeland, Africa.
For us, socialism is not a slogan of convenience. It is not for seeking relevance and prominence. Socialism is to us a practical deed to lift those lagging behind in the rat race of life under capitalism.
Ladies and gentlemen and dear comrades, capitalism as we all know is a system of inequalities. It is a system where the labour of the majority creates wealth for the minority. This phenomenon must be challenged and challenged decisively.
Our primary mandate, therefore, is to protect and advance the interests of the working masses. Our task is to entrench socialist values in the broad masses of our people and build a society where justice, equity and peace are guaranteed.
Today, we would like to announce that the Socialist Party, in its measured quest to demonstrate how working class democracy works, as opposed to the abject failure in this regard of the petty bourgeois parties in the country, will be holding its first national congress in Lusaka starting this Friday, September 27, 2019 here at the Dream Valley Resort.
The Congress comes barely 18 months after the Party’s launch and has invited over 500 delegates from all the 10 provinces across the country.
The Zambian workers’ collectively will finally render their voices to how they want their Party to move toward its revolutionary objective henceforth.
The congress is the highest decision making organ of the Party where resolutions will be made on a number of issues – including administration of the party, review of the constitution, structures of the party, leadership, the formation of a women’s league, the Youth League, international solidarity, participation in elections and resource mobilisation.
Ladies and gentlemen and dear comrades, a Congress of this nature and magnitude would not have been possible without the immense collective effort of our members. It is the members that have invested time, financial and material resources required for the congress. Our members have been and will remain our greatest asset in the growth of the Party.
The Zambian workers will this Friday, send a resounding message to all and sundry that the revolutionary journey they have embarked upon, will be driven by them and the victorious outcome will be by themselves and for themselves, never the capitalists.
They will shout loudly that ENOUGH is ENOUGH and that Nothing For Us Without Us. They will define the future they want to see for themselves and not to allow other classes to wage that struggle against capitalism for them.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to thank you, members of the press and your respective media houses, for the support and faith demonstrated towards the workers struggles through the Socialist Party.
We would have loved that you stay throughout the congress but this is an intraparty meeting without much participation from the outsiders. However, let me take this opportunity to invite you to the official opening of our congress on Friday from 09:00 – 11:00 hrs. We further extend an invitation to you to the closing ceremony on Sunday at 12:00 hours.

Thank you very much.

Aluta! Continua!