DPRK Foreign Minister Interviewed by TASS Foreign News Editor

Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong gave the following answers to the questions put by the foreign news editor of TASS Tuesday as regards the DPRK's stand to cope with the situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula:
   
The U.S. extremely hostile policy and nuclear threat to the DPRK have been the root cause of escalating tensions on the peninsula and compelling the latter to bolster up its nuclear deterrence.
   
The U.S. has posed a nuclear threat to the DPRK since long before the latter's access to nuclear weapons and adopted it as its policy to mount a preemptive nuclear attack and staged ceaseless nuclear war drills to put it into practice.
   
It attempted to mount a nuclear attack on the DPRK already in the past Korean war. Since the 1950s, it has threatened and blackmailed the DPRK by shipping huge nuclear weapons into south Korea.
   
The Bush administration listed the DPRK as "part of the axis of evil" and target of its preemptive nuclear attack. This policy remains unchanged till now.
   
This is clearly evidenced by the fact that the Obama administration excluded the DPRK from the list of the countries for non-use of nuclear weapons in April, 2010 and declared a preemptive attack on the DPRK while staging joint military drills with huge nuclear strike means involved in south Korea.
   
The U.S. is now staging nuclear attack drills against the DPRK by amassing all its strategic nuclear strike means in south Korea and in its vicinity. No country in the world has been exposed to such serious and potential nuclear threat as what Pyongyang is now experiencing.
   
It is quite natural for the DPRK to counter the U.S. nuclear weapons in kind.
   
As the U.S. has worked hard to stifle the DPRK with nuclear weapons, the latter was compelled to have access to nukes to protect the sovereignty and vital right of the nation to cope with it.
   
The U.S. is the arch criminal who pushed the DPRK to have access to nuclear weapons. The decades-long U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail have prompted the DPRK to do so.
   
The only way to cope with the constant nuclear threat and war provocations of the U.S., the world's only user of nuclear weapons and biggest nuclear weapons state, is to achieve the equilibrium of strength by bolstering up nuclear armed force.
   
The DPRK has tremendous military muscle capable of fighting any type of war desired by the U.S.
   
It opened to public real miniaturized and light nuclear warheads to be mounted on ballistic rockets and showed the capability of the atmospheric re-entry of inter-continental ballistic rocket.
   
The DPRK will further strengthen the state defence capacity with the nuclear force as its pivot to cope with the reckless hostile moves of the U.S. and its undisguised nuclear threat.
   
In the future, the development speed of the DPRK's nuclear force will depend on how the U.S. will behave and how its viewpoint on the former will change.
   
The U.S. is now busy with madcap largest-ever Key Resolve and Foal Eagle 16 joint military maneuvers targeting the DPRK across south Korea despite its repeated warnings.
   
The war rehearsals in which hundreds of thousands of armed forces and various nuclear strategic means are involved are now under way under the simulated conditions involving nuclear preemptive attack on the DPRK and "beheading operation" aiming at a the supreme headquarters and "regime change," in particular.
   
The U.S. unhesitatingly declared that the joint military drills were aimed to finally examine the feasibility of a war of aggression against the north, thus completely discarding the deceptive and shameless cloak of "annual and defensive ones" though they have been billed outwardly so far.
   
The situation of the Korean peninsula is driven to the brink of war as the U.S. is making a preemptive attack an established fact while staging actual maneuvers under the simulated conditions of all kinds of surprise attack against the DPRK.
   
It has become quite obvious that the DPRK can never remain a passive onlooker to the imminent U.S. threat of aggression.
   
The DPRK has shifted all the military counteraction modes to preemptive attack ones to cope with the U.S. nuclear war hysteria and declared the will to mount a decisive preemptive nuclear attack.
   
In a word, the Korean peninsula is standing at the crossroads of a thermonuclear war and peace.
   
The extremely tense situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula is something unprecedented and the whole world including your country is closely watching it with great concern and uneasiness.
   
In order to prevent the vicious cycle of ever-escalating tension on the peninsula, defuse the danger of war and ensure peace and security, one should not just watch phenomena in sight but properly judge their root cause and take measures for rooting out them, to begin with.
   
All the countries desirous of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the region should watch with vigilance the moves of the U.S. regarding the DPRK as its primary target of attack after shifting the strategic pivot for world domination to the Asia-Pacific region and make due efforts to prevent them.

Korean Women Will Turn Out to Devotedly Defend Leader: Women's Union

Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) -- All the women of the DPRK will fully demonstrate the heroic spirit and stamina of the Korean women in the final battle for wiping out the U.S. imperialist aggressors that have imposed all kinds of misfortune and sufferings on the Korean nation century after century and are bringing the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the inviolable 3 000-ri land and Park Geun Hye, traitor to the nation kowtowing to them.
   
A spokeswoman for the Central Committee of the Democratic Women's Union of Korea said this in a statement Tuesday.
   
Saying that hearts of all the women in the DPRK are burning with towering indignation and strong resolution to take revenge upon the U.S. imperialists and the Park Geun Hye group which dared do harm to the supreme headquarters of the Korean revolution, the statement went on:
   
All the women in the DPRK are waiting for only the order for a final battle for reunifying the country to liberate the southern half of Korea. They are ready to join the service personnel and other people in the battle by carrying forward the noble spirit of devotedly safeguarding the leader displayed by women guerillas who devotedly defended the headquarters of the revolution with arms during the hard-fought anti-Japanese struggle and by those women soldiers who became human bombs and bullets to protect the safety of the Supreme Command during the hard-fought Fatherland Liberation War.
   
All the women in south Korea should never tolerate the reckless frenzy of the Park Geun Hye group to make innocent south Koreans fall victim to a nuclear war.
   
If they do not want their off-springs to be hurled into a nuclear war and if they want a peaceful and happy life of themselves and their families, they should start the action for punishing nuclear war maniacs.

“END THE SANCTIONS AGAINST DPRK”

Mwandawiro Mghanga
Saturday, March 19, 2016, 9:38
Beijing

[The 4th Media Editor’s note: The following solidarity message is sent to The 4th Media from Mr. Mwandawiro Mghanga, Chairperson of Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP). The original title of the message was “SDP DEMANDS THE END OF SANCTIONS AGAINST DPRK”.]

The United Nations through the instigation of the US and its allies inluding Japan and South Korea have imposed brutal and unjust sanctions against the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) austensibly for violating international agreements concerning nuclear weapons.

Yet it is not the DPRK that is creating a threat to peace in the Korean Peninsular and the world, but THE US which has aways militarily threatened the DPRK with annihilation.

The DPRK not only has a right to develop and own nuclear weapons as long as the US and other nations also develop and own the weapons of mass destruction, but it has also clearly stated that its nuclear weapons are in the Korean peninsular only to deter an American attack which has remained the threat to the peace and security of the region since it was defeated militarily by the revolutionary army of Korea Peoples Army (KPA) under the legendary leader of Korea and world socialism, comrade Kim Il Sung.

As Christopher Black, a prominent international lawyer based in Toronto, Canada, argues, “The fact that the Rassian and Chinese have joined the US in this instead of calling for sanctions against the US for its threats against the DPRK and its new military exercises which are a clear and present danger to the DPRK is shameful. If the Russians and Chinese are sincere why don’t they insist that the US draw down its forces there so the DPRK feels less threatened and take steps to guarantee the security of the DPRK? They do not explain their actions but their actions make them collaborators with the US against the DPRK.”

The SDP in exercise of its socialist internationalist obligation condemns in no uncertain terms the unjustified sanctions against DPRK instigated by imperialism and legalised by the United Nations that is many times used to impose the will of imperialism and big powers.

We are aware that the US has never stopped its cold and hot war against DPRK that through one of the greatest patriotic, heroic and revolutionary anti-colonial and anti-imperialist national liberation armed struggles succeeded in winning true independence in the northern half of Korea.

When it invaded North Korea, US imperialism like Japanese colonialism earlier, suffered one of the most humiliating military defeats it will never forget in its reactionary history.

We also know that the US and its allies hate DPRK with a venom for refusing to be a puppet of imperialism like South Korea and for asserting its right to determine its own destiny along Juche socialism.

Dirty false propaganda war is wedged against DPRK for refusing the capitalist and neo-colonial path of slavery, under-development and exploitation of person by person and instead choosing the path of development for freedom and humanity, socialism.

We in Kenya and Africa struggling against capitalism and imperialism and for nations and societies without exploitation of person by person will not accept to be cheated by imperialists who have always been part and parcel of the root causes of Africa’s problems.

Neither will we accept to be fooled by imperialist propaganda disseminated everyday by the Western media aimed at shaping our world view in line with imperialism.

For imperialism is not and has never been a friend of Africa but its enemy. African patriots and revolutionaries will never allow imperialism to tell us who our friends are. We know who our friends are.

And North Korea has always been Africa’s true friend. When the whole of the African continent was under Western colonialism, Korea under the revolutionary leadership of comrade Kim Il Sung was fighting Japanese colonialism and showing solidarity with Africa at the same time.

After it drove away Japanese colonialism and US imperialism, DPRK in the name of socialist internationalism increased its moral, military and other material support to African countries in their struggle for liberation from colonialism, imperialism and apartheid.

Immediately after independence from colonialism in the 1960s, thousands of Africans, including Kenyans, received free higher, technical and specialised education in the DPRK.

DPRK not only offered arms, finance and other material solidarity to Namibia, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique in the war against apartheid and imperialism, but it also actually sent internationalist revolutionaries in Africa to fight side by side with Africans for Africa.

DPRK fought with Egypt and Africa during the 1967 war against the brutal Zionist regime of Israel supported by Western countries.

Today DPRK is together with African countries in the demand for a new just international order.

In this DPRK is blamed by imperialism and imperialist puppet regimes in the world for being in the forefront and showing by its own example that a new just international order cannot be but anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, it must be socialist.

DPRK is in fact an example to be followed by all people and nations struggling for freedom, independence and for societies, nations and world without exploitation and oppression of person by person and nation by nation.

DPRK is a world symbol or resistance to the reactionary capitalist and imperialist ideologies and systems that exists in order for a few people, families and nations to continue to exploit, oppress, enslave and plunder the majority of human beings and to threaten the very existence of the earth.

But most of all DPRK is regarded to be the greatest enemy of imperialism, particularly the US, for being a true independent country politically, culturally, economically, ideologically, militarily and a nuclear power capable of defending her independence from any foreign military invasion.

Unlike the US and its allies, DPRK has never used its military power to invade, dominate and destroy other countries and to plunder their natural resources.

Also neither, unlike the US and its imperialist allies, has DPRK ever initiated and sponsored terrorism and terrorist organisations anywhere in the world.

And yes, if the West and other countries including Zionist Israel has nuclear weapons, why not DPRK?

We the SDP demand that all countries in the world must not develop or possess weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons.

Only then can there be legitimate justification for imposing sanctions against DPRK, or any other nations at that, for possessing nuclear weapons today.

Finally, SDP demands that the Kenyan and African governments condemn the unjustified sanctions against DPRK and further demand for the immediate and unconditional end of the sanctions.

Long Live DPRK!

Long live anti-imperialist solidarity!

Long live socialism!

Mwandawiro Mghanga, Monday, 14 March 2016

Five Years into Libyan Disaster

Sham ‘unity’ regime creates further divisions in North African state

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

A half decade after the United States led destabilization and bombing of Libya, the attempts by imperialism to establish a stable neo-colonial dominated regime has not materialized.

On March 19, 2011, the Pentagon and other NATO forces began the aerial bombardment of the once most prosperous nation-state in Africa. After seven months of air strikes and support for an imperialist-directed ground operation by proxy rebel militias, thousands laid dead while millions were displaced amid the ruins of hundreds of development projects and government institutions.

Leaders of the U.S., Britain, France, Italy and other western countries in cooperation with their allies in Africa and the Middle East lauded the Libyan war as a success story for the remaking of the region where rebel forces would do the dirty work of international capitalism. Hillary Clinton, the-then Secretary of State under the first administration of U.S. President Barack Obama laughed at the lynching of former Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi saying “we came, we saw, he died.”

Libya is at present one of the most poor and unstable states on the continent having become a source of instability throughout the large sections of Africa and the Middle East. The once lucrative oil industry which supplied resources for the building of hefty national budget surpluses has all but failed with substantial sections of extraction locations and refineries destroyed in fighting between various rival groups backed by various western-allied governments including Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Under Gaddafi Libya enjoyed widespread recognition and respect among African Union member-states. The transition from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union in 2002 was based upon the Sirte Declaration drafted by OAU affiliates in 1999.

Many of the ideas embodied in the Sirte Declaration and the subsequent founding documents of the AU attempted to address the need for greater African unity within the realms of economic, political, telecommunications, technical and military spheres. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the former leader of Ghana during 1951-1966, and a co-founder of the OAU in 1963, had called for a union government of Africa as the best method to fight the dominance of imperialism.

The Gaddafi government had taken up this idea fostering cooperation and coordination across the African continent. Obviously these political activities alarmed the West prompting the destabilization and consequent overthrow of the Libyan state which remains in shambles.

“Unity” Regime Remains Elusive

Recent developments surrounding the attempt to install a new so-called “unity government” has prompted the declaration of a “state of emergency” by the Tripoli-based faction which drove out a rival group now based in the eastern city of Tobruk.

According to the website medafricatimes.com, “The reasons for the declaration were not officially stated but there are reports that the arrival of some members of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli provoked it. Deputy prime ministers-designate Ahmed Maetig, Fathi Majberi and Abdelsalam Kajman and Mohamed Ammari, the Minister for Specialized Councils Affairs are said to be already in Tripoli ahead of prime minister-designate Fayez Serraj’s arrival in the next few days. The four members of the GNA are reportedly at the Palm City residential compound which is expected to host the Presidency headquarters. They will serve as the advance team ahead of Serraj’s arrival.” (March 25)

Nonetheless, numerous analysts view the imposition of the GNA as only bringing about more chaos and instability. Indicative of this was the inability of UN envoy to Libya, German diplomat Martin Kobler, to land his aircraft in Tripoli.

Kobler said in a Twitter post on March 23 that “Again had to cancel flight to Tripoli… UN must have the right to fly (to) Tripoli.” The GNA has not been formally accepted and authorized by either of the rival regimes. However, the GNA announced in March that it was assuming control on the basis of a petition signed by a narrow majority of Libya’s so-called “lawmakers.”

The plan for a coalition junta is designed to pave the way for a large-scale 6,000-person Pentagon and NATO-led intervention force under the rubric of the United Nations and brokered by Martin Kobler.

Having lost faith in the local militias and political surrogates to provide any semblance of stability in Libya, the U.S. and other NATO states are aiming at sending in a conventional military force to impose the desired neo-colonial dominated regime that would ensure compliance with the foreign policy imperatives of Washington, London, Paris and Brussels.

In an article published by the military intelligence website Stratfor Enterprises, LLC (stratfor.com), it notes “Western forces may soon intervene in Libya, which has been bitterly divided since the down fall of former leader Moammar Gadhafi. Two governments have been created, one in the west and one in the east, and neither recognized the legitimacy of the other. This is particularly problematic since Western intervention is contingent on a viable, singular Libyan government.” (March 21)

This publication stresses that the putative success of the United Nations engineered GNA could be dependent upon the Misrata militia which helps to prop-up the General National Congress regime that has taken over the capital of Tripoli. The militia gained a reputation during the war of regime-change in 2011 as being one of the most violent and racist in the campaign to overthrow the Jamahiriya system under Gaddafi.

On March 21, Stratfor emphasized that: “Over the past few days, several senior members of the Misratan militia have publicly supported the unity government, calling on the head of Libya’s Tripoli-based government to resign and cede power to the GNA’s proposed prime minister, Faiz Serraj. The Misratan militia’s move comes as the group ramps up its cooperation with the West. Within the past few months, the militia has benefited from training by U.S. and British special operations forces, and its support for the new government will play an important role in the GNA’s success. Other militias in western Libya have joined the Misratan militia in backing the unity government as well.”

Regional Ally of U.S. Reveals Imperialist Regional Plans

Jordanian King Abdullah in a January briefing before the U.S. Senate confirmed the role of Britain in Libya through its Special Air Services (SAS). A leaked memorandum from the meeting with the Senators revealed several aspects of western foreign policy within the regions of Africa and the Middle East saying:

–“The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ‘believes in a radical Islamic solution to the problems in the region’ and the ‘fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy, and Turkey keeps getting a slap on the hand, but they get off the hook.’

–“Intelligence agencies want to keep terrorist websites ‘open so they can use them to track extremists’ and Google had told the Jordanian monarch ‘they have 500 people working on this.’

–“Israel ‘looks the other way’ at the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra on its border with Syria because ‘they regard them as an opposition to Hezbollah.’

–“Jordan is looking at al-Shabaab because no one was really looking at the issue, and we cannot separate this issue, and the need to look at all the hotspots in the map. We have a rapid deployment force that will stand with the British and Kenya and is ready to go over the border [into Somalia].”(Randeep Ramesh, March 25)

Libya has become a pariah throughout the regions of North and West Africa due to the lawless atmosphere characterized by human trafficking, the harboring of extremist groups bent on destruction, an ongoing economic crisis exemplified by serious damage to the oil industry and the growing presence of U.S. and British special forces and intelligence personnel.

Struggles In Michigan Expose Failure Of Ruling Class Policies

From massive tax foreclosures, water shut-offs and failed school governance plans to the poisoning of residents in Flint, the political bankruptcy of bank-led policies are laid bare

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and other community-based organizations held a demonstration outside the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office on March 23 demanding a moratorium on the scheduled 30,000 tax foreclosures set for March 31.

During 2015, a similar campaign was waged that won a halt to tax foreclosures for approximately 70 days allowing residents of Wayne County to make arrangements to pay their obligations. This postponement of the foreclosures last year by the Treasurer’s Office only provides a temporary measure to ease the flow of the inevitable dislocation of tens of thousands more people around and outside the city.

Just one week prior to the protest, a delegation of activists from Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Detroit Eviction Defense, Russell Woods Neighborhood Association, Charlevoix Village Association, residents of Rosedale Park, Woodbridge and others, met with acting Treasurer Eric Sabree to call for a halt to the massive foreclosures which will drive more African American, Latino and working class people out of the city and county of Wayne.

Sabree and his staff said they could not declare a moratorium since it was against state laws and that they had no alternative except to foreclose on occupied homes. He pointed to the numerous programs available to assist homeowners short of a total halt to the seizures.

Pat Driscoll of Detroit Eviction Defense pointed out that during the previous decade there were instances of former Treasurer Raymond Wojtowiczremoving thousands of homes from the foreclosures roles. Erroll Jennings of Russell Woods on the city’s west side, brought deed abstracts from his family home documenting property tax moratoriums imposed in the mid-1930s.

At the March 23 demonstration outside the Treasurer’s Office, several of the participants were themselves victims of the housing crisis. Jennette Shannon of Detroit Eviction Defense has faced down over twenty eviction attempts by the courts where she has fought to keep her own fraudulent land contract purchased home on the northwest side.

With the large scale foreclosures of homes, small businesses, churches and lots in the city, so-called “investors and developers” are given priority for purchasing over those seeking to redeem their homes. These real estate scavengers have bought thousands of structures and vacant land in the city resulting in many cases of them reselling these homes without paying back property taxes and other liens.

Consequently, when working class people buy these houses through land contracts they are often swindled out of their homes and hard earned money. Within months they are often sent eviction notices for non-payment of taxes including water bills that are placed on the delinquent notices.

Shannon said outside the Treasurer’s Office that “I received 400 delinquent water bills for commercial accounts. My backyard was mortgaged for $300,000 after the home was divided into two separate parcels without my knowledge.”

One major reason why people are buying homes on land contracts is because the banks are not writing mortgages in the city. In 2015, there were less than 400 mortgages issued for the entire city of nearly 700,000 people.

Nonetheless, after the homes are seized by the County, thousands wind up being taken over by the Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) which is the largest property owners in the city. A Detroit Blight Removal Task Force is chaired by Dan Gilbert, the owner of Quicken Loans, one of the major players in the current crisis of forced removals and privatization.

After occupied foreclosed as well as abandoned homes and businesses are identified for seizure by the Blight Task Force, they are taken over by the DLBA. Every month hundreds of homes are taken over through the Wayne County Circuit Court which is overseen by Judge Robert E. Colombo, Jr.

Financial Interests to Blame for Housing Problems

Moreover, what cannot be overlooked is the underlying causes of the housing crisis in Detroit and Wayne county, and that is the central role of the banks through the initiation of predatory loans schemes during the 1990s and early 2000s, which resulted in tens of thousands of evictions and the further deterioration of the neighborhoods across the city and its suburbs.

Political officials, either not understanding the magnitude of the crisis or unwilling to confront the perpetrators repeatedly refused to impose a moratorium on the actions of the banks through the declaration of a state of emergency based on the concrete conditions facing the municipalities.

The failure of local governmental entities to stand up to the banks, and the successive Democratic and Republican governors and legislatures in Lansing, has worsened the continuing crises of community desolation and disinvestment. Michigan was the only state to lose population in the last census period of 2000-2010, further weakening municipalities and school systems.

Schools and Municipal Services Collapsing in Michigan Crisis

These same bank-led policies constitute the basis of the Detroit Public Schools debacle, where new legislation is in the works to further disenfranchise local people. The corporate media never mentions that effective control of the DPS has been the official policy of the state since 1999 under the-then Governor John Engler.

After over five years of direct state administration, a board was elected in 2005 which was still heavily corporate dominated. By 2009, yet another emergency manager was appointed who was only accountable to the governor, then Democrat Jennifer Granholm.

When Engler took over the DPS in 1999 the system had a $93 million surplus along with a voter approved $1.5 billion in bond funding designated for school improvement. Under emergency management the system is on the verge of bankruptcy with a reported $3.5 billion debt.

Conditions are so deplorable that teachers have engaged in wildcat strikes demanding better working conditions. Buildings have been neglected under this form of administration where mole, water leaks, lack of heating and other problems are not addressed.

Part of the new state legislative plan places significant control of the DPS under Mike Duggan, the first white corporate-installed mayor in four decades. Many Detroit educators believe this is just another scheme to siphon public money allocated for schools into the coffers of private interests.

Richard Clay, a former Detroit Public Schools teacher said during the March 23 demonstration at the Treasurer’s Office, that “the present plan is designed to finish off the system for good.”

Also the water crises in both Flint and Detroit stem from a privatized governance model that endangers hundreds of thousands through massive shut-offs and the poisoning of residents.

Emergency management functionaries in Detroit during the bankruptcy proceeding acknowledged that the massive water shut-offs were part of the restructuring of the city.

Although a two month moratorium was declared on water shut-offs after pressure was exerted through mass and legal actions led by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition during July 2014, a task force established by the Duggan administration and the City Council has rejected any form of an “affordability plan” for recipients of both the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Great Lakes Regional Water Authority.

These developments in Michigan illustrate clearly the disastrous consequences of corporate rule over municipalities and state structures. Other states around the U.S. are suffering similar problems that are manifested through school closings, teacher lay-offs, privatization of public services, the evictions of working class and poor residents, escalating police and judicial repression, environmental degradation, burgeoning poverty, etc.

Only the redistribution of wealth stolen from city residents can begin to ameliorate the problems of declining schools, neighborhoods and municipal services. A mass movement led by workers, residents, students and youth is the only alternative to worsening austerity under corporate control.

Pan-African Journal: Special Worldwide Radio Broadcast for Sun. March 27, 2016--Hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe

Listen to this special edition of the Pan-African Journal hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

To hear this program just click on the website below:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/panafricanjournal/2016/03/27/pan-african-journal-special-worldwide-radio-broadcast

We will feature our regular PANW reports with dispatches on the efforts by the Zimbabwe government to address the food crisis inside this Southern African state; in the West African state of Cameroon there is a burgeoning debate over whether President Paul Biya should stand for elections to serve another term of office; the King of Jordan has claimed that fighters from Al-Shabaab are streaming into the North African state of Libya;  and finally a memorial service has been held for Nigerian Marxist scholar Eskor Toyo in Rivers State.

In the second and third hours we conclude our monthlong focus on International Women's History through examinations of Billie Holiday, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm.

Pan-African Journal: Worldwide Radio Broadcast for Sat. March 26, 2016--Hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe

Listen to this edition of the Pan-African Journal hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

To hear the podcast of this program just click on the website below:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/panafricanjournal/2016/03/26/pan-african-journal-worldwide-radio-broadcast

We feature our regular PANW report with dispatches on the United States President Barack Obama's visit to the revolutionary Caribbean island-nation of Cuba; the European Union migrant crisis has taken on a new dimension with the attempt to halt movement from North Africa and the Middle East to Greece; the Pentagon has announced a plan for the escalation of troop presence in Iraq; and one of the rival regimes occupying the capital of Libya has delcared a state of emergency amid reports that the so-called "unity government" had entered Tripoli in order to assume control of the neo-colonial junta.

In the second hour we look at the history of the Cuban Revolution in the aftermath of the state visit by Obama to the country, the first for a U.S. president since 1928.

The final hour examines the life and contributions of African American woman singer Ruby Elzy of Mississippi.

35 Foreign Firms Submit Indigenization Plans to Zimbabwe Government

March 29, 2016
Business Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

At least 35 foreign-owned companies have submitted plans on how they intend to localise their shareholding in terms of the indigenisation law, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority has said. Under the new indigenisation framework, which came into effect in January this year, foreign-owned companies are required to submit their proposals through ZIA. ZIA chief executive Mr Richard Mbaiwa said last week the authority has handled only 35 applications.

“Since we were given the mandate to handle the applications, we received 35 proposals,” said Mr Mbaiwa. Government set March 31 as the deadline for submitting proposals on indigenisation compliance. All companies that fail to comply by March 31 will have their operational licenses cancelled following a directive issued by the Cabinet last week to line ministers to start enforcing the law.

Last week, Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao said Cabinet unanimously passed a resolution directing that from April 1 2016 all line ministries should proceed to issue orders to licensing authorities to cancel licenses of non-compliant business within their respective sectors of the economy.

“Cabinet has directed that on April 1, 2016, all line ministers invoke Section 5 of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33) Act against all non-compliant businesses in their sectors Invoking of Section 5 of the Act is purely a technical process which shall come into effect by pure operation of the law,” said Minister Zhuwao.

Under the process, line ministers shall issue orders to licensing authorities to cancel licences of non-compliant businesses.

Minister Zhuwao said Cabinet had also directed that all line ministries must make available to the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) a full and comprehensive list of all companies that are licensed to operate within their sectors within a week from March 22, 2016 for the purposes of verifying their indigenous status.


‘Zim has enough maize seed for 2016-17 season’

March 29, 2016
Elita Chikwati
Agriculture Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

ZIMBABWE will have enough maize seed for the 2016/ 17 farming season despite the drought that affected the bulk of the crop planted this season, a senior Government official has said. Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Permanent Secretary Mr Ringson Chitsiko said this at a recent multi-sector consultative meeting. He said the country was expecting 42 000 tonnes of maize seed, which is enough for the next farming season.

“A projected 42 000 tonnes of maize seed is expected this season, which is in line with the national requirement despite the prevailing drought. “There are huge stocks of fertilisers held by the local fertiliser industry,” he said.

Mr Chitsiko said there was need to mobilise resources to support farmers during the 2016-17 cropping season following two consecutive poor seasons. He said there was also need to enhance irrigation development in view of limitations highlighted by the past two farming seasons.

Mr Chitsiko said Government is working on the Zimbabwe-Brazil irrigation programmes where 67 projects are expected to be completed within four months and the installation expected to cost $2 million.

“With regards to the ongoing Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) projects, a total of 12 projects with a total of 10 000 hectares can be completed within a period of six months at a total cost of $4,4 million.

“Under the PSIP Drought Emergency Projects, a total of 15 projects with total of 500 hectares can be completed within a period of six months at a total of $1 100 000 to finance the rehabilitation. “The smallholder irrigation programme is being implemented in collaboration with FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation).

“The target is to commission 550 ha by June and 1 200 hectares by December 2016,” he said. Mr Chitsiko raised concern over the limited resources to kick-start and expand the current emergency response efforts.

The 2015-16 summer cropping season was affected by drought and a decline of 49 percent was recorded in maize production while tobacco production also fell by 20 per- cent. Agriculture experts have called for a shift from relying on rain-fed agriculture to irrigation.

Zimbabwe, Japan Sign Economic Deals

March 29, 2016
Zimbabwe Herald

President Mugabe shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following a signing ceremony at the latter’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan yesterday. - Picture by Presidential Photographer Joseph Nyadzayo.

Felex Share in TOKYO, Japan

JAPAN and Zimbabwe yesterday sealed vital economic agreements with the Asian giant’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe immediately making an undertaking to fund local road infrastructure development. Speaking after meeting President Mugabe at his offices here yesterday, PM Abe said by signing the agreements, the two leaders were committing themselves to a “guide post for co-operation in broader areas going forward”. “More specifically, we will render our co-operation for the improvement and development of road infrastructure in Zimbabwe’s north-south corridor,” he said.

“It is a great pleasure for me that I state our further cooperation after our last year’s grant aid ($15 million), the first of its kind in 15 years. Japan established diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe in 1980, the year of independence of Zimbabwe, a country with abundant resources and great nature, and has built friendly relationship ever since.”

Zimbabwean Ambassador to Japan Titus Abu-Basutu and Japanese ambassador in the country Mr Yoshi Hiraishi also signed agreements made on the “grant aid cooperation on socio-economic development plan”.

PM Abe, who described President Mugabe as a “revered doyen”, said his country would also chip in and assist Zimbabwe in dealing with the effects of the El Nino-induced drought that has left more than four million people in need of food aid.

The cooperation agreements strengthen the Government’s Look East Policy as Zimbabwe is also implementing various deals sealed with China in the past two years. The deals cover key economic enablers identified under Zim-Asset, the country’s economic blueprint.

PM Abe also enlisted the services of President Mugabe in his country’s preparation for the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD) IV to be held in Kenya in August. “We will have a close consultation with Zimbabwe on how we can assist to best respond to the local needs to counter severe food shortages that have resulted from drought,” he said.

“While TICAD IV is going to be held for the first time in Africa, President Mugabe graciously agreed to attend the meeting to ensure the conference (is a) success. At the meeting, while gaining the cooperation of the President himself, I am determined to support strongly the African Development Agenda (2063) through demonstrating a concrete contribution distinctive of Japan such as high level of technology and human resource development while engaging the business community and civil society.”

President Mugabe said Zimbabwe’s doors were open to investment and special conditions would be granted to investors in special economic zones.

He said: “Special conditions are also extended in our special economic zones and Japanese business people are invited to take advantage of this. It is true that enduring relations are cemented by robust exchanges of goods and services. On the investment front, I am inviting Japanese companies to invest heavily in Zimbabwe, which carries the promise of handsome returns for the investor. We have abundant opportunities for investors and they should look forward to a mutually rewarding relationship with us.”

President Mugabe said the bilateral engagement he had with PM Abe was “comprehensive, forward looking and fruitful” as it focused on economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. “I also briefed him on opportunities for cooperation and business in Zimbabwe’s health, education, mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. We also had time to review regional and global developments and share information of mutual interest,” he said.

He said while Zimbabwe was a beneficiary of humanitarian aid from Japan, time had come for the two countries to enhance their relationship with projects that enrich both parties. President Mugabe said the country needed food aid to deal with El Nino-induced drought and that it had already made an appeal to the international community.

“Currently Zimbabwe, in fact, the Southern African region, is suffering the effects of an El Nino drought,” he said. “My Government has taken the appeal for drought relief to the international community including Japan and I am confident that as Japan has always done, it will come to our aid.”

Earlier on, President Mugabe paid a State call on their Majesties the Emperor of Japan, Akihito and Empress Michiko. The President was accompanied by the First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe, during the event which was held at the Imperial Palace.

President Mugabe also had closed door meetings with representatives of four companies that have plans to invest in Zimbabwe.


‘Let’s all reform UN Security Council’

March 29, 2016
Felex Share in TOKYO, Japan

Global efforts need to be redoubled if countries are to overcome Western countries’ resistance to reform and democratise the United Nations Security Council, President Mugabe has said. The President made the remarks while addressing journalists after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe here yesterday. The Japanese Premier also said there was need to modify and level the playing field at the world body’s Security Council, which is dominated by the five countries with permanent seats. These are China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The five also have veto powers.

Said President Mugabe: “Zimbabwe and Japan concur on the need to reform the Security Council. It is my sincere hope that global efforts will be redoubled to achieve a more inclusive and full democratic United Nations Security Council. Currently, the pace is rather slow and we hope that members of the UN will work together to speed up this necessary adjustment.”

President Mugabe has made repeated calls for the modification of the Security Council saying other countries had been made “dwarfs” while the five countries, popularly known as the “Big Five” dominate the most powerful UN arm. In January, he threatened to pull out of the organisation if the West, principally Britain and the United States, continued to block efforts to democratise the organ.

On the other hand, Japan is part of the Group Four (G4) countries together with Germany, India and Brazil, nations which have mutually supported each other’s bids for permanent seats in the Security Council for them to possess veto powers which enable them to prevent the adoption of any “substantive” draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft.

G4 countries have proposed reforms in the UN Security Council to include an additional six permanent seats, four going to them and two to African countries. President Mugabe said there was also need to ensure resolutions of the UN General Assembly — the policy making and representative organ — were respected.

“During our deliberations (with PM Abe) we highlighted the importance of the UN General Assembly which at present is the only true representative body in our organisation,” he said. “While we work towards the reform of the Security Council, we will do well to ensure that the voice of the General Assembly is respected and its resolutions are complied with by all.”

PM Abe, who has for long sought African support to land a seat in the Security Council, said adjustments were needed in the organ that is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. “We acknowledged and reaffirm the challenge that we are facing in international fora in particular the need to reform the UN Security Council,” he said.

“President Mugabe is the great leader and doyen of Africa and I would like to promote the Security Council reforms collaborating close with him.” The Security Council is responsible for approving new members to the United Nations and approving any changes to its Charter.

It is also responsible for establishing peacekeeping operations, international sanctions and authorising military action through its resolutions.

US to Fund Multi-million-dollar Tunisia Border Surveillance

Tunisian security forces check vehicles near the customs post at the Ras Jedir border crossing with Libya, south of the town of Ben Guerdane, on March 22, 2016 after it was reopened after a two-week closure (AFP)

AFP, Tunis
Saturday, 26 March 2016

The United States has agreed to fund a multi-million-dollar project to install an electronic security surveillance system on Tunisia's border with strife-torn Libya, the US embassy said Friday.

In a statement, the diplomatic mission said that the US was disbursing the first installment of the $24.9 million project to strengthen security along the frontier.

The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) awarded the contract to American construction group BTP and consulting and engineering firm AECOM, a diplomatic source told AFP.

According to the embassy, the project involves the installation of an integrated surveillance system using sensors and regular security equipment.

The project includes training Tunisian forces to use the system, the statement added, without giving a start or completion date.

Tunisia has built a 200-kilometre (125-mile) barrier that stretches about half the length of its border with Libya in an attempt to prevent militants from infiltrating.

A series of deadly attacks by ISIS on foreign holidaymakers last year, which have dealt a devastating blow to the country's tourism industry, are believed to have been planned from Libya.

Last Update: Saturday, 26 March 2016 KSA 08:30 - GMT 05:30


In Tunisia, Ban welcomes country's democratic progress

28 March 2016 – While in Tunisia's capital today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the country's democratic progress while reaffirming the United Nations' support to its citizens and Government.

“[World Bank President] Kim and I are here to show our support to Tunisia, where progress towards stability and prosperity are advancing despite significant economic and security challenges,” the UN chief told reporters at a press conference in Tunis.

“We've just met with his excellency President Beji Caid Essebsi. I congratulated him for the democratic progress made in Tunisia. I also lauded his efforts to reduce social and economic inequalities. I assured him that the United Nations supports Tunisia's citizens and Government at a time when the country is in transition,” he added.

Mr. Ban noted that unemployment, especially among youth, is one of the biggest challenges affecting Tunisia. “I am impatient to hear young people tell me in person about their fears and the kind of help or support they need,” indicated the UN chief, who will be attending a national conference on employment tomorrow, organized by the Tunisian Prime Minister.

“The United Nations I ready to continue its collaboration with the Government of Tunisia to build on programmes that creates jobs and reduce inequalities,” he stressed.

In addition to meeting the President, Mr. Ban and Mr. Kim are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Habib Essid, as well as the President of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, Mohamed Ennaceur. Talks are expected to focus on concrete proposals to generate economic results that benefit the Tunisian population, especially relating to job creation and economic support.

At the press conference, the Secretary-General also expressed the global community's concern about the terrorist attacks that recently targeted Tunisia.

“The United Nations recognizes the impact of the situation in Libya on Tunisia, in particular on its economy and security. We are working towards a political solution in Libya. This remains the only way to end the crisis and to stabilize both the country and the region,” he concluded.

Egyptian Officer Convicted of Torture, Murder Sees Sentence Reduced to 3 Years

Sayed Belal.

Ayat Al Tawy, El-Sayed Gamal El-Din
Monday 28 Mar 2016
Ahram Online

Police officer Osama El-Kounayassi was previously sentenced to 15 years in jail for torturing to death detained suspect Sayed Belal

An Alexandria court sentenced on Sunday a police officer to three years in prison for torturing Salafist Sayed Belal to death, a ruling that marks a significant reduction in the officer’s previous prison sentence.

Osama El-Kounayassi of the notorious state security investigations department was sentenced in April 2013 to 15 years in prison on charges including torture leading to death after the officer attempted to extract confessions from Belal, whom police accused of helping to plot a 2011 suicide bombing at a Coptic Christian church in the port city of Alexandria.

El-Kounayassi won a retrial on appeal, and the most recent verdict may also be appealed in front of Egypt’s Court of Cassation.

El-Kounayassi has been out of prison since May 2015, when he was released after spending the maximum allowed time in detention while his second retrial was still ongoing.

He had previously been convicted in absentia in this case and was handed a life sentence, but was automatically granted a retrial upon turning himself in.

The first retrial resulted in the 15-year sentence, which he successfully appealed.

He is the last defendant in this case, which sparked public outrage over police brutality shortly before the 2011 revolution.

Four otherpolice officersof the now disbanded state security department were eventually acquitted in the case after initially receiving sentences of life in prison.

The charges against the defendants included "murder, unlawful detention, torture to extract confessions, and indecent assault," lawyers had said.

Belal, one of seven victims in this case, was arrested along with other suspects after a bombing on 1 January 2011 killed 21 worshippers at a church in Alexandria.

Dozens of Islamists were arrested following the New Year's attack.

Police brutality was among the main grievances that galvanised public anger and led to the popular revolt that ousted long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

The death of Khaled Said, also from Alexandria, who was tortured to death by two police officers in June 2010, became a rallying call for the uprising.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/198069.aspx

Cypriot Authorities Continue Negotiations With Hijacker of EgyptAir Plane in Larnaca 

Ahram Online
Tuesday 29 Mar 2016

All passengers, except 4 non-Egyptians, disembark hijacked plane at Larnaca; President Sisi has called his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades to discuss the crisis

11:00am Reuters reports that more passengers are seen disembarking the hijacked plane. Earlier in the day, Egypt's aviation ministry had said that all passengers were allowed to disembark except for four non-Egyptians and the plane's crew.

The plane was carrying 81 passengers and had a 15-person crew plus one security officer.

10:50am EgyptAir flight 181 crew refuses to leave hijacked plane before the release of all remaining passengers, according to CBC Extra Egyptian TV channel.

10:45am Sky News Arabia reported that the hijacker is an Egyptian professor of veterinary medicine at Alexandria University and he holds US citizenship.

10:40am Cyprus broadcasting (CYBC) reported that the hijacker may have personal motives and that he has an ex-wife in Cyprus, according to Reuters.

10:30am Cyprus state TV said the hijacker was demanding asylum in the Mediterranean Island. The hijacker asked for a translator to relay his demands to the authorities, it added.

10:20am President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has called his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades to discuss the crisis.

10:15am Egypt's prime minister Sherif Ismail asked the civil aviation minister to open investigation into the hijacking of flight 181 and security measures at Borg El-Arab airport in Alexandria where the hijacked plane originated, CBC extra TV channel reported.

The Egyptian aviation ministry had earlier announced thatall passengers aboard the hijacked EgyptAir flight, which was forced to land in Larnaca, Cyprus on Tuesday morning have been allowed to disembark the flight except for four non-Egyptians and the plane's crew.

"Negotiations with the kidnapper result in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners," a second statement from EgyptAir said.

Earlier on Tuesday, a passenger on the EgyptAir local flight 181, which was heading from Alexandria to Cairo, threatened to detonate an explosives belt, forcing the captain to divert the flight to Larnaca airport in Cyprus.

The Egyptian state TV aired a picture of the hijacker aboard the plane identifying him as Ibrahim Samaha without reporting on his nationality.

The aviation ministry had said that Cypriot officials negotiated with the hijacker.

Cypriot anti-terrorism units have been deployed at Larnaca airport to deal with the crisis.

The ministry identified the hijacked plane as airbus 320, flight 181 saying it had 81 passengers on board at the time of the incident.

The hijacker(s) contacted the control tower at 8:30 am (0530 GMT) and the plane was given permission to land at 8:50 am, the Cypriot police had said according to AFP.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/198148.aspx


Egypt's Sisi Calls Cypriot President to Discuss Hijacked Plane Standoff

Ahram Online
Tuesday 29 Mar 2016

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to discuss the latest developments of the hijacked EgyptAir flight, Egypt's state TV says.

El-Sisi has stressed that Egypt is concerned for the safety and security of all passengers of the hijacked plane, state TV quoted him as saying.

A hijacker early on Tuesday diverted an EgyptAir flight, headed from Alexandria to Cairo, to Larnaca, Cyprus. The airline later said all passengers on board were released except four non-Egyptian passengers and the crew.

Egyptian state TV aired a picture of the hijacker aboard the plane, identifying him as Ibrahem Samaha, without reporting his nationality.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/198157.aspx

EgyptAir Jet Hijacked, Diverted to Larnaca, Cyprus

by ALASTAIR JAMIESON, CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, CHARLENE GUBASH and RAM BAGHDADI

A hijacker claiming to have an explosive belt diverted a passenger jet and was holding 11 people hostage Tuesday over what appeared to be a "personal" matter involving a woman, authorities said.

EgyptAir Flight MS181 was en route from the Egyptian city of Alexandria to Cairo when one of the people aboard ordered the plane to land in Cyprus, according to the airline.

The Airbus A320 carrying 81 passengers and five crew members landed in the port city of Larnaca and negotiations got underway, EgyptAir said.

Egypt's Aviation Ministry later said all but four foreigners and seven crew members had been released. The nationalities of the captives were not immediately clear.

Negotiations with the kidnapped result in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners.

The passenger list included eight Americans, two Belgians, four Dutch, and one national each from France, Italy and Syria, according to the ministry.

A high-level source close to the operation said the hijacking's motive seemed to be about a "personal" matter involving a woman.

The hijacker requested he be allowed to speak to someone — a Cypriot woman who appeared to be his ex-wife — and negotiators are discussing that prospect with him, the source added.

Footage from the scene showed the released passengers slowly disembarking from the plane, bags in hand.

Earlier, the hijacker offered to release women and children if police moved away from the aircraft, the Mediterranean island nation's former EU commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said on Twitter.

The incident put the security of Egypt's airports back under scrutiny less than a year after a Russian passenger jet crashed after taking off from the country's Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the Metrojet plane and the tragedy raised questions about how any potential explosives may have made it on board and whether there were security failings on Egypt's end.

EgyptAir's last hijacking was 30 years ago when an Athens to Cairo flight was seized by terrorists and diverted to Malta. When negotiations failed, Egyptian troops stormed the aircraft but the hijackers fought back with hand grenades. Sixty of the 90 passengers were killed.

Boston to Launch Archaeological Dig at Home of Malcolm X

Malcolm Little moved to Roxbury as teen in 1941

7:28 AM EDT Mar 28, 2016

BOSTON —Archaeological digs in Boston often hunt for clues to the city's colonial or Native American past.

On Tuesday the city will launch a probe into a more recent patch of history at the former home of civil rights leader Malcolm X in the city's Roxbury neighborhood.

Born Malcolm Little, he moved into the house at 72 Dale St. in 1941 as a teenager.

His time in Boston was difficult, but transformative.

He was sent to the state prison in Charlestown in 1946 on a burglary charge. It was there he was introduced to the teachers of the Nation of Islam.

The City Archaeology Lab will sift through the yard during the two-week dig with the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, members of the activist's family and local residents.

SACP: "Unite the People`s Camp and Isolate the Enemy"

21 March 2016

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Eastern Cape convened its ordinary Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) meeting from 18 - 20 March 2016 at Port Elizabeth. The PEC meeting was convened for the leadership of the party to assess the state of our party in the province, organisationally, politically and ideologically and the conditions confronting the working class here at home and abroad.

The PEC meeting considered and adopted comprehensive political and organisational reports, both these reports served as the guide to the meeting in dealing with the organisational and world outlook using the Marxist-Leninist tools of analysis.

The PEC meeting was convened after a successful alliance summit in the province. The meeting appreciated the summit and committed to work with our allies in implementing the resolutions of the summit, including attending to the identified hotspots and strengthening the alliance. The alliance summit committed all of us in the alliance, that we will spare no effort in fighting corporate capture of our structures and factionalism which appeared to have engulf pockets our organisations and found a way of cross pollinating between our organisations thus even creating what appears to be an alliance of factions.

Remembering Chris Hani

In the coming month, we will commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the cowardice assassination of the late SACP General Secretary; African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee member & the Chief of Staff of the people's army, Umkhonto Wesizwe, Cde Chris Thembisile Hani. Cde Chris Hani fearlessly led the fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa in the front line. He spent his life serving the people of our country and their organisations.

As the SACP in the Eastern Cape we join millions of peace loving South Africans in rejecting the parole of the murderer of Cde Chris Hani. We view this as an insult and provocation to the people of South Africa whom Cde Chris Hani has sacrificed his life for their liberation.

We are of the firm view that the truth behind the killing of Chris Hani should be revealed, the first step towards amnesty should be remorse. Whilst we respect the profound principle of the rule of law, we also note that the judicial system in our country is not yet transformed and oriented in the spirit and letter of our country`s constitution. Our judicial system still has a long way to go to internalise and practically give effect to the world renowned values and principles contained especially in the Bill of Rights.

International

As the bourgeoisie mode of production continues to face systemic challenges throughout the globe, it is the working class that bears the burden. The capitalist crisis has made the bourgeoisie to be more aggressive hence the US imperialist invasion of many countries in the name of human rights whilst in essence they want regime change for them to have puppet governments so that they can easily steal with resources.

We re-affirm our solidarity with the people of Palestine who are suffering under the oppression by the apartheid Israel. The oppression of the people of Palestine is the crime against humanity and should be defeated through international solidarity amongst other things. We will continue to lead and participate in campaigns to highlight the plight of the people of Palestine.

The PEC members led a successful picket at Greenacres, Port Elizabeth in pledging solidarity with the people of Palestine and raising awareness on the plight of Palestinians. The party in the province will continue to organise campaigns in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

National

The PEC raised its concerns on the growing corporate capture by the aggressive parasitic bourgeoisie. The corporate capture arrests the capacity of our movement to attend to its strategic objectives. It is therefore imperative for the movement to decisively deal with this phenomenon and work restore the confidence of the people to their glorious movement. We know that there are many business cartels that have captured some pockets of the organisation in our province as well. It is important for the movement and the alliance, as led by the ANC, to take categorical steps to terminate poisonous relationships such as corporate state capture and its twin evil, rent-seeking. It is important for all of us in the movement to "unite the people's camp and isolate the enemy" within and outside the movement.

It is in this context that we appreciate the courageous action taken by Cde Mcebisi Jonas, Deputy Minister of Finance, to come out openly without fear or favour and confirmed on Wednesday 16 March that members of the Gupta family offered him the position of Finance Minister to replace the then Minister of Finance Comrade Nhlanhla Nene. We urge all other comrade who may have similar experiences to come out in the open and defend our movement against corporate capture by aggressive parasitic bourgeoisie.

We reiterate the call by our Central Committee of a fully-fledged Judicial Commission of Enquiry and broad spectrum investigation into the phenomenon and activities of corporate state capture. The investigation must go to the root of the problem and also reveal how offers made by private individuals in violation of the values of our movement and democracy find their way into effect. Proper and thoroughgoing investigations will go a long way in positioning our developing democracy to deal with the problem of corporate state capture and safeguard our democratic national sovereignty, which, if compromised, will result in catastrophic failures.
Provincial.

The meeting expressed its concern on the return of more than half a billion rands of the infrastructure grant allocated to the Provincial Department of Education. The money has been returned for the benefit of other provinces despite the schooling infrastructure backlog in the province. We are more concerned to learn that the money was returned voluntarily as revealed by the Director General of the province, yet you have provincial government leadership acting surprised and asking society questions instead of providing leadership.

We are calling upon the Premier of the Province, Phumulo Masualle to assess the performance of the current infrastructure delivery model in the province as led by the Department of Public Works. The current infrastructure delivery model is centralised at the Department of Public Works and other line departments being the clients. The accountability on infrastructure delivery is not centralised in line with the centralised infrastructure delivery model but scattered across the departments.

We are therefore calling for the line departments to be allowed to focus on their core mandate and not be busy with infrastructure. We are of the firm view that there should be a unit responsible for the delivery of infrastructure in the province; that will help in proper coordination of the infrastructure delivery.

Elections

We reaffirm our principled support for the overwhelming victory of our long standing ally, the African National Congress in the forthcoming Local Government Elections. We have already set up election structure to coordinate our elections work.

We will attend to the hotspots areas in line with the resolutions of the recently held provincial alliance summit. The alliance summit resolved to jointly attend to the regions where there are reports about challenges of non-functionality of the Alliance. This ought to be fast-tracked as in the PEC some of our districts were still reporting manipulation of election processes, use of money, anti-communist tendencies, purging of genuine members of the movement which all lead to no-functionality of the alliance in the respective regions.

Issued by the SACP Eastern Cape.

Contact:
Siyabonga Mdodi
SACP Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: +2783 358 8070
Office: +2740 635 1042/46
Facebook: SACP Eastern Cape
Twitter: @SACPECmedia

Declaration of the Joint SACP-YCL Gauteng Province Meeting

21 March 2016

The SACP Gauteng Province held a joint meeting with its youth wing, the Young Communist League of SA (YCL) on Sunday, 20th March 2016 in Johannesburg. The meeting was convened to analyse and reflect on the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as a direct route to socialism, the state of the organisation and a programme of action (P.O.A).

The meeting received a keynote address from the 13th National Congress Central Committee (CC) member, Comrade Madala Masuku.

The meeting was a resounding success and cemented the unity of the SACP and YCL as the basis of unity of the entire Alliance in Gauteng. It adopted a set of resolutions to defend, deepen and advance the NDR including the following:

Corporate capture of the state by Gupta and other class forces

We noted renewed and desperate attempts by the Gupta "dynasty" and other bourgeois class forces to capture and conquer the democratic state, especially the executive arm of the state classically to act as "a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie".

We agreed that attempts to sway the modern state to serve the exclusive interests of monopoly capital is certainly historic and does not apply exclusively to the Gupta family. The meeting further agreed that this tendency applies also to various fractions of the capitalist class with disproportionate influence on the state at the expense the interests of the working class and the poor. The lumpen Gupta dynasty with oligarchic tendencies epitomises and personifies this tendency in its renewed form.

The meeting strongly condemned the Guptarisation of the executive arm of the state. This refers to a tendency of using extremely backward, primitive and lumpen methods of capital accumulation such as blackmail, fear and intimidation of members of the executive arm of the state to pursue its narrow class interests.

The meeting resolved to mobilise the working class to dislodge the danger of corporate money and disproportionate corporate influence on our public representatives, the bureaucracy and entire state machinery, thus reducing the state organs to mere servants of the Guptas and the bourgeoisie.

It resolved to reaffirm the working class bias of the ANC, its government and the state as opposed to a Gupta distortion of the historic character of the ANC.

The meeting further resolved that in memory of Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo and Solomon Mahlangu, the working class and all class conscious forces must fight attempts by the Gupta family to re-create state organs in the image of their class interests.

In this regard, the meeting dismissed the opportunistic and slanderous remarks by our pathetic apologists that a fight against the Gupta is an "isolationist fight" focussed "exclusively and narrowly" against the Guptas, with the real dangers of legitimising other fractions of the bourgeoisie class who use various methods for the same ends as Guptas.

The meeting therefore resolved to confront "Guptarisation" as a direct fight against the rest of monopoly capital to corrupt and conquer the state using primitive and backward methods of accumulation.

The meeting noted that "Guptayites, especially the so-called "Premier League" will be muted to protect their privileges and benefits that fall as mere crumps from the table of the super profits and patronage of this dynasty.

The meeting resolved to request the African National Congress (ANC) as the leader of the Alliance in our province to urgently convene the PEC meeting of all Alliance partners.

The meeting strongly believe that the unity of the Alliance in Gauteng (comparatively speaking), is well positioned to reaffirm the revolutionary character of the ANC as the broad movement of the historically oppressed people in general, and the working class in particular.

Such a meeting should be convened as a matter of extreme urgency to discuss the most appropriate, prompt and decisive action to be directed against the Gupta dynasty. This will seek to defend the unity of the movement, the state and the democratic government.

The meeting warned that unless "Guptarisation" is directly confronted to "back-off and hands off", it contains inherent dangers of the self-destruction and common ruin of the revolutionary movement of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Ruth First, Lillian Ngoyi, Mam Bertha and many others.

The meeting understood that if the ANC led Alliance unity degenerates and disintegrate into oblivion, the Guptas will get even richer, smiling not only to the bank but to Dubai, their final place of destiny, where they are allegedly constructing a new $2 billion office.

The meeting agreed not to pre-empt the outcomes of the Alliance meeting and not to engage the Alliance through public statements.

Gupta Corporate Capture of the Democratic Alliance

The meeting noted that the phenomena of Gupta capture of the state extended to the DA controlled Western Cape government through election funding graciously donated to the DA. This is clearly contained in the letter signed by DA leader Helen Zille dated 25 May 2009. It is clear in the letter that the financial contribution has impacted positively on the DA and its attitude towards the "Gupta dynasty". The letter states that:

"Your financial contribution helped us to achieve our three key objectives in the recent election: keeping the ANC below a two-thirds majority, significantly consolidating our position as the official opposition in Parliament, and winning an outright majority in the Western Cape."

Exxaro Corporate capture of the EFF

The meeting further noted that the anti-Gupta ranting of the EFF are merely the effects of the EFF co-opted to fight factional battles of one bourgeoisie against another faction that provide desperately needed funding for its activities.

It is a well known fact that the EFF has received funding and donations from Exxaro dating back to the flight that was used by Malema to Kwazulu-Natal. It is also an irrefutable fact that Exxaro lost a 40 year coal supply contract with Eskom.

The contract was terminated following the placing of Gencore's Optimum mine operation under liquidation. This mine was then acquired by a Gupta owned company known as Tegela. This matter constitutes the core of the grievance of the EFF against the "Gupta dynasty".

This further provides proof and clarity on the desperate calls of the EFF for state bail-out of bankrupt mining companies but falsely disguised as nationalization of mines, a call that was since abandoned, buried and forgotten by the neo-fascist EFF.

March against the release of Janusz Waluz on parole

The meeting noted that Judge Nicoline Janse van Niewenhuizen has on Wednesday, 9th March 2016, in the Gauteng High Court controversially ruled that the cold blooded murderer of comrade Chris Hani, our General Secretary, will be released on parole within 14 days.

Following consideration of court days, the meeting noted that Janusz Waluz may in terms of the controversial decision of the Judge, be released on the 1st April 2016. It resolved that this will be a sad day for our country and democracy as well articulated by comrade Limpho Hani, the wife of comrade Chris Hani.

The meeting resolved to work with the Alliance to mobilise the working class, the revolutionary people to render this day decided by the Judge as the real "April Fool's Day", to ensure that Janusz Waluz is not released.

The meeting appreciated the fact that the SACP has already consulted the Alliance to stage a provincial protest action to support the appeal by Minister Masutha. The protest will also be directed against subjective remarks by the Judge as a direct result of her potential conflict of interest in the matter and for Janusz Waluz to remain in prison until he discloses and tells the whole truth.

The meeting resolved that the protest march will take place on the 1st April 2016, 10h00, converging and proceeding from Kgoshi Mampuru Prison in the City of Tshwane, and then proceed for an Alliance Rally at Church Square Rally to be addressed by alliance leaders.

10th April, Chris Hani Month

The meeting resolved to mobilise the working class to attend the annual commemoration of the death of comrade Chris Hani at the grave side in Oupa Phasha District, City of Ekurhuleni.

The meeting noted that this event is very critical considering the desperate attempts to free Janusz Waluz by the same Judge who presided over his first court appearance whilst serving in the Boksburg Magistrate Court.

This Judge made extremely subjective and unnecessary remarks that clearly demonstrate her desperate attempts for Waluz to walk free without disclosing the truth. It is therefore critical that the working class must attend the event and defend the living legacy of comrade Chris Hani.

The meeting resolved to convene the Provincial Ideological and Political Commission on Sunday, 23rd April 10h00, on the Chris Hani Lecture as part of the SACP's Red Weekend.

Workers Month

The SACP noted that in the context of our country, the Chris Hani month is a prelude to the historic May Day rallies convened by Cosatu. The SACP will mobilise the working class to attend this revolutionary event of the workers. We call on workers not to treat May Day as a holiday, but as a day to remember the heroic and revolutionary struggles of the workers consistent with proletarian internationalism.

The meeting applauded the unity of Cosatu cemented in its last National Congress. We celebrate the fact that workers decided to remain in the revolutionary alliance, and rejected attempts to alienate and separate them from the overwhelming majority of the historically oppressed people, peasants and communists.

The meeting reaffirmed the SACP's historic and scientific observation that forces that were aligned to the Vavi-Jim faction were all along meant to split Cosatu and deliver it to the bourgeoisie in the Automotive sector. The bourgeoisie in this sector were desperate for a weakened NUMSA to restructure the production belt following the world economic crisis.

These desperate attempts at weakening NUMSA to serve the interests of the automotive bourgeoisie follows the same template of AMCU, which attacked and weakened NUM by promising workers R12 500,00, which was a ploy to deliver workers on the silver plate for massive retrenchments, an opportunity that the mining monopoly capital desperately sought to restructure production.

The meeting noted that this tendency towards class collaboration by forces co-opted by monopoly capital is again rearing its ugly head, this time in campuses targeting Nehawu. The meeting noted that workers on campuses are being fed the same poison under the false guise of fighting outsourcing. We also note similar divisive tendencies in SAMWU and SATAWU to mention but a few.

The meeting strongly condemned this populist and dangerous demagogues acting on the same divisive AMCU/NUMSA template which delivered workers for a slaughter by management, with workers now faced with the threat of massive retrenchments on campuses. Workers are being retrenched currently in campuses such as UNISA and TUT following signed agreements on outsourcing.

Just like AMCU, this bourgeois collaborators and persecutors of workers will be nowhere to be found when workers face massive retrenchments.

We call on COSATU to expose these tendencies and educate workers on the ground about the dangers of these populists, demagogues, splitters and reactionary elements that use "revolutionary sounding phraseology" to mislead workers.

The meeting also noted the dangers of the emergence of the "trade union" bourgeoisie, accumulating from business trade unionism, which is at the core of divisions within the ranks of the revolutionary trade union movement.

The Capitalist morality of "dog eat dog" is now rampant within the ranks of the trade union movement as a result of trade union investment companies. Regrettably, the biggest losers are workers, set up against each other by this marauding forces of business trade unionism serving the interests of big monopoly capital at the expense of the workers.

The meeting agreed that this is yet another form of corporate capture of the trade union movement through lumpen, backward and extremely primitive methods of accumulation and the fight over surplus value of the workers.

The meeting applauded COSATU for a principled fight against the capture of surplus value of the workers through the so-called tax law amendments by the parasitic bourgeoisie and monopoly capital.

The meeting encouraged workers to explore and creatively apply worker control and other democratic practices and principles to ensure that workers and perhaps not necessarily Office Bearers are deployed to trade union investments, as a way to manage this clearly problematic phenomenon dividing workers.

The SACP will educate workers about these realities through its dynamic and popular Qina/Tia Mosomi Campaign, a campaign seeking to cement worker unity through ideological and political work.

Developments on campuses and the youth month

The meeting noted the forthcoming anniversary of the June Month, and mandated the YCL to adopt a detailed but practical, affordable and realistic programme of action premised on the need to mobilise and interact with the working class youth during this revolutionary period.

The meeting resolved that the YCL should also include in such a progamme a visit to campuses to interact with the youth on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, and to strengthen and support the successful Right to Learn Campaign. This should be done in line with the YCL's Bua Thursday programme.

Such content should appreciate the fact that higher education transformation is now strengthened and consolidated by the creation of the Ministry and Department of Higher Education, a development that marked a qualitative rupture following historic calls made by the revolutionary student movement especially in the mid-1990's.

The meeting appreciated the fact that the historic call for the creation of the Ministry and Department of Higher Education was based on a correct and scientific application of a Marxist-Leninist theory and practice about the role of state power in any serious revolution.

The meeting mandated the YCL to ensure that revolutionary students are empowered to find the dialectic connection to use state power creatively to decisively assert their Right to Learn.

The YCL was mandated to assess whether anarchy, torture of buildings, violence, racism, reckless and unnecessary plunging students into arrests, physical/bodily harm and many other similar reactionary activities do not constitute renewed neo-fascist threats to dilute and marginalise their Right to Learn.

The meeting reaffirmed the Right to Learn as the basis for the intellectual development of the youth to fight the capitalist system and serve the working class from a position of intellectual strength. Denying students their Right to Learn through reactionary campaigns, boasted by right-wing and conservative campus management can only further perpetuate and subject the working class youth to Verwoedian supremacy.

The meeting congratulated the ANC government for creating a Ministry and Department of Higher Education and the progress it has thus far made to propel and drive higher education transformation.

The meeting reaffirmed its principled commitment to ensure that this Ministry and Department are here to stay deep into the future as a critical building block for the development of productive forces in line with scientific theory and practice.

The meeting supported the Campaign for Free Higher Education as the basis to further transform and alleviate the living conditions of the working class student especially the devastating inconveniences of preregistration, student accommodation, transport, stationery, books and all the necessary supporting material for proper learning and teaching.

2016 Local Government Election Campaign

The meeting congratulated and applauded the working class and revolutionary people for the successful weekend of voter registration. The SACP will intensify mobilisation of the working class and the people as a whole through the Red Brigade of SACP branch volunteers, to mobilise the working class for a decisive ANC victory.

The meeting also resolved to intensify the Qina/Tia Mosomi Election Campaign that focuses on the mobilisation of the workers in industrial heartlands of our province

It reaffirmed our principled conviction that the ANC election campaign must focus and rest on the strength and revolutionary character of the working class as the class that can lead the other strata and revolutionary people.

Issued by
Issued by the SACP Gauteng province
Contact:

Jacob Mamabolo - SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 082 884 1868

Alex Mdakane - YCLSA Gauteng Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 078 526 8663

Lucian Segami - SACP Gauteng Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: +2779 5220 098
Twitter: GPSACP
Facebook Page: SACP Gauteng Province