South African Communist Party

International Workers’ Day 2025 statement, 1 May 2025

Unite against neo-liberalism and all its agendas, including austerity. Unite against imperialism. Fight for socialism!

SACP salutes progressive trade unions for action against austerity

First and foremost, the SACP salutes the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) for its principled and courageous stand against austerity. In particular, we commend Sadtu for its resounding success in leading the national protest march against austerity on Wednesday, 23 April 2025. This bold action, directed at the National Treasury and the departments of basic and higher education and training, highlighted the destructive effects of persistent budget cuts on public education and public services more broadly.

The SACP further commends Sadtu for aligning the march with the global call to “Go Public! Fund Education”.

Through the march, Sadtu made an important contribution in raising the banner of the working-class struggle against the neo-liberal agenda, which includes privatisation and commoditisation in, and of, education.

By also demanding action against corruption, illicit financial flows and corporate tax evasion, Sadtu has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to a just, democratic and well-funded people’s education. This is integral to the broader class struggle to advance the revolutionary content of the National Democratic Revolution and deepen and defend the advance to socialism.

Equally important, the SACP salutes all affiliates of Cosatu and other progressive trade unions that have consistently resisted the neo-liberal restructuring of workers, the workplace, production and public services across all spheres of the government.

The struggles led by unions such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union, the South African Municipal Workers Union, the South African Medical Association Trade Union, and the organised unemployed medical doctors, to name but a few, form an essential part of the broader political and economic struggle of the working class. These are struggles against the brutal austerity measures imposed under a capitalist, neo-liberal agenda that prioritises profit over people.

On this International Workers’ Day, the SACP salutes the workers of our country and the world, mineworkers, metalworkers, manufacturing workers, farmworkers, transport workers, food and catering workers, clothing and textile workers, among others, and their progressive trade unions. We honour the militant culture of the working class and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the struggle for socialism – the only lasting solution to capitalist exploitation, inequality, unemployment, poverty and uneven development.

When the government attacks workers’ rights and hard-won gains, the working class must respond with revolutionary resolve

Since 1994, South African workers have made major strides through decades of relentless struggle. The legal recognition of trade unions regardless of race in the Constitution and labour legislation, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act establishing a minimum floor of rights and benefits, the right to collective bargaining and the resulting improvements in working and living conditions, the national minimum wage, and other progressive labour changes were not handed to workers – they were won through fierce struggle. These victories were forged in the heat of progressive workers’ battles stretching back to the 1920s against racial segregation and merciless super-exploitation. They marked a decisive break from the racist and sexist capitalist industrial relations regime that devastated the oppressed black majority above all.

However, since the 1996 class project – marked by the reformist agenda that imposed neo-liberal policies like GEAR – capital and its agents have worked tirelessly to roll back workers’ hard-won gains, pushing anti-worker restructuring, share of workers’ income down, outsourcing, privatisation and austerity. This is a direct assault on the working class. Neo-liberalism primarily serves capital – not the people as a whole. We must organise, mobilise and fight back with militant unity to defend and advance every inch of ground we have won!

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union has shown the way through its recent Constitutional Court victory overturning legislation that prohibits municipal workers from serving as office bearers in political organisations of their choice. This is our message on this score: When the government of the day behaves like the colonial and apartheid regimes – attacking workers’ rights – the working class must confront that government with the same revolutionary resolve, regardless of which party or coalition of parties stands at its helm.

The reversal of VAT increases: a working-class victory

The marches we have held with Cosatu and Saftu against the planned increase of Value-Added Tax (VAT) are part of the broader struggle against neo-liberalism and its policy of austerity. Regressive tax decisions that hit the workers and poor disproportionately, while shielding the rich and wealthy, are a key weapon in the arsenal of neo-liberal policies. These decisions protect the capitalist bosses from contributing even a fraction of the surplus value they extract via profits – through the exploitation of labour, the looting of natural resources and the privatisation or outsourcing of public services.

It was under the neo-liberal policy regime that corporate income tax was slashed. This effectively handed over more wealth to the capitalist bosses. These tax breaks, paired with austerity, have deepened inequality. Today, South Africa ranks as the most unequal country in the world out of more than 130 countries. This is no accident – it is the direct outcome of a system designed to benefit a few at the expense of the majority.

The reversal of the planned VAT increases was a major working-class victory. The National Treasury was forced to withdraw its initial proposal of a 2-percentage point increase, and subsequent 0.5-percentage point increases. This victory did not fall from the sky. It was not a gift from above. It was a concession forced by united and militant struggle from below – by workers, civic movements, the youth, students and the poor.

But let us be vigilant: the struggle against neo-liberal policies continues

Comrades, let us be clear. The National Treasury may attempt to turn this victory into a pyrrhic one – one whose costs undermine its very value for the victorious forces. Already, the Treasury has stated that because VAT will not increase, it will cut back “cushioning” measures and “revisit” other expenditure decisions. This is nothing more than a threat of punishment against the working class.

In reality, austerity is an attack on the working class. It involves cutting budgets and undermining developmental programmes, with a negative impact, above all else, on the workers and poor. These budget cuts, in turn, fuel economic stagnation. Then the same stagnation is used as an excuse to justify even more budget cuts. This vicious cycle is the logic of neo-liberal austerity.

We must intensify the struggle against all forms of austerity and neo-liberalism. We must struggle for a macro-economic policy that puts the people before profit. We reiterate the call for:

• A wealth tax and more progressive taxation
• Reversal of at least the last corporate tax cut
• Adequately supported industrial policy to stop de-industrialisation and rebuild manufacturing
• Clamping down on illicit financial flows and profit shifting
• Decisive action against corruption
• Public property rights, including public and social ownership of key means of production
• Turnaround of state-owned enterprises to thrive
• Growth of the public economy

From producer state to tender state: the cost of neo-liberal restructuring

The destruction of public entities like Eskom is not only the result of corruption and state capture. It is also the product of deliberate neo-liberal restructuring. Eskom was hollowed out through the neo-liberal policies of outsourcing and privatisation. The logic of “structural reform” at Eskom is to decommission public power stations and hand the function of energy production over to private capital. This is part of a broader capitalist assault on the state. From a producer state, we are being pushed into a tender or procurer state – serving the interests of private capital under the guise of “efficiency” or “cost reduction”.

The same trend is happening in rail, water infrastructure and other strategic infrastructure network sectors. These are being prised open for capitalist competition and profit-making, at the expense of public development. Meanwhile, austerity continues to erode the state’s developmental capacity. Across government departments, vacancies go unfilled, workers are overburdened and posts are frozen. All of this is done in the name of “fiscal consolidation” and “building a capable state”. In truth, it is a capitalist agenda in class terms.

Unemployment is a structural crisis – driven by capitalism

In mining, manufacturing, tourism, logistics, ICT and more, capitalist bosses carry out retrenchments in pursuit of profit maximisation. They are not concerned with employment – they are concerned with cutting the workforces to produce more output with fewer workers and maximise profits. This is why unemployment has remained stubbornly high since 1996, and why it has worsened under the neo-liberal economic framework since then.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, for instance, South Africa’s official unemployment rate was 31.9 per cent, affecting 8 million active work seekers. The expanded unemployment rate – which includes discouraged work seekers – stood at 41.9 per cent, affecting 12.3 million active and discouraged work seekers combined. Long-term unemployment has also worsened, rising from 65.9 per cent in 2014 to 77.7 per cent in 2024. This is a structural crisis.

The weight of unemployment, poverty and inequality still reflects the racial and gender legacy of apartheid and colonialism. Africans, with women as the majority – are the worst affected. Coloured people follow. When we talk about sky-rocketing youth unemployment, it is these national populations that suffer the most.

Build a socialist movement of the workers and poor

The solution does not lie in hoping that the agents of capitalism will deliver any fundamental change. We must build working-class power to bring about fundamental change. The SACP has adopted two connected resolutions:

1. To forge a popular left front movement as a broad platform of working-class struggle

1. To build a powerful, socialist movement of the workers and poor

These are not abstract slogans. They are practical responses to the deepening capitalist crisis. They are about uniting organised and unorganised workers, progressive trade unions, community movements, youth, students, women and all the exploited and marginalised.

The SACP calls on organised workers to strengthen efforts to organise unorganised workers. Let us unite in the popular left front movement at all levels.

Beyond that, let all socialist revolutionaries and class-conscious workers unite to build a mass socialist movement to challenge capitalist rule.

A working-class contestation of power: towards 2026

The SACP has resolved to contest the 2026 local government elections – not for narrow party-political reasons, but as a working-class contestation of power. This is a direct response to the crisis of working-class representation. For years, decisions about the economy and society have been taken without consultation with the working class. This must end.

We are not seeking to elevate individuals into the political elite. We are seeking to advance a programme of democratic power rooted in the interests of the workers and poor to win the battle of democracy as a single class. We call on Cosatu and all its affiliates, and on all other progressive worker organisations, to unite with us in this historic mission.

International solidarity against imperialism and supremacism

We extend a call to the global working-class movement. Let us unite against the resurgent supremacism in the United States, led by Donald Trump and the imperialist regime he represents. We will not allow any foreign power to dictate to us or undermine our hard-won democratic sovereignty.

We stand with the oppressed people of the world in their struggles against imperialism and domestic autocracies. Let us defend our victories, build on them and press forward towards new gains.

Let us fight for socialism

Comrades, we must go beyond capitalism. While temporary improvements in working conditions matter, they are always under threat from the capitalist agenda. The capitalist system is the primary driver of working-class misery.

Let us unite. Let us fight. Let us intensify the struggle for socialism – a system based on equality, dignity, democracy and human needs, not private greed.

Forward to socialism!
Forward to working-class unity!
Forward to a people-centred economy!
Forward to victory!

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Issued by the South African Communist Party

Founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa.

Media, Communications & Information Department | MCID