11/08/2020
Zimbabwe Communist Party Statement
HEROES’ DAY 2020
10th AUGUST 2020
Today, Heroes’ Day, 40 years after Independence, older people who, one way or another, took part in the Independence struggle, shake their heads with disbelief as they remember the hardships that they endured during the struggle and the hopes and aspirations they had for a better future which have step by step been eaten away by the corruption and incompetence of the leadership of the party we now call ZANU(PF).
If those who died during the struggle could rise from their graves could see, dotted around the landscape of our beloved country, the mansions and palaces which have replaced the ‘big houses’ of the Rhodesians who went before — what would they think?
If they looked for new power stations to generate more power for a growing population and an expanding industrial base — where would they find them?
If they went to the tap in Harare or Bulawayo and were told that the water could not be drunk without boiling — what would be their reaction?
If they could see all the closed-down factories — how would they react?
If they looked for their relatives and found that they were either living in Zimbabwe in poverty or had left the country to look for survival — what then?
And if they heard the stories of Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina, mini-Gukurahundi and the arrests of teachers, doctors and nurses fighting for a living wage. The stories of women and men abducted and abused, hospitalised and the word given out that they had “beaten themselves up” and that they were “agents of a foreign regime change agenda”, what would they not imagine was going on?
Would they not think, “Here we have people just as cruel as the Rhodesians, but without their ability to organise the economy?
Comrades! Let us not forget the workers and peasants who resisted the Rhodesian invasion of 1890 and in the following years fought to preserve their land, organised trade unions and launched the massive strike of 1948 and in 1957 launched the liberation struggle under the banner of the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC).
Let us not forget the memory of the Grandfather of Zimbabwe, Benjamin Burombo, who together with others launched the General Strike and then went on to fight colonial land invasions.
Let us remember too, the President of the Railway African Workers’ Union, Joshua M.N. Nkomo who was chosen to become President of the SRANC and became Father of Zimbabwe and those who united workers and peasants for national liberation. We here give a special mention to Joseph Msika and J.Z. Moyo from Bulawayo and James Chikerema and George Nyandoro from Salisbury, the founders of our national liberation struggle.
We particularly want to pay homage to the first 6 cadres who in 1959, under the leadership of Mark Nziramasanga, went for military training in Ghana where they were welcomed by the great Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumnah.
Comrades, there were many who came after, some of whose names are well-known, others recorded only in the history books and others still completely unknown except, perhaps to their families and friends. We pay our respects to all who fought and the many that died in the struggle.
But during this period in which workers are under attack from a vicious state machine under the control of serial looters, we want to assert that our liberation struggle was started and maintained by the workers and peasants of Zimbabwe and not the ‘chefs’ who have arrogantly taken control of the fruits of our collective struggle.
We ask our police, army and Central Intelligence Organisation one question:
Is your job to protect Zimbabwe and its people? Or is your job to protect a handful of looters who have ruined the country?
If we truly want to honour our heroes let us;
HOLD HIGH THE RED FLAG STAINED WITH THE BLOOD OF OUR MARTYRS !!
Let us gather round the symbol of the workers and peasants:
SANDO NE JEKE !!
ISANDO LE SIKELA !!
Let us together:
COMPLETE THE LIBERATION OF Zimbabwe!
