SACP Condemns the US’ Joe Biden Administration for Attacking Syria

2 March 2021

The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the Joe Biden administration of the United States for attacking Syria on Thursday, 25 February 2021. The attack resulted in numerous casualties. The situation in Syria, and other international situations, must be resolved by peaceful and democratic means, and within the bounds of multilateralism. The SACP denounces the United States’ continued imperialist aggression and unilateralism.

As we traverse the devastating human, social and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the SACP calls on all progressive people in the US and across the world to demand that the Biden administration must stop attacking other countries. The ongoing US war-crimes, including the latest missile strikes on Syria must end.

On Friday, 26 February 2021 Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed that the recently elected Biden administration gave Russia a mere four to five minutes warning before launching its attack on Syria. The world needs peace, sustainable development, justice, and equality, not war. The attack comes at a time when many across the world still hoped that the Biden administration would be different and play a positive role in building a global anti-war culture. 

Biden follows the track-record of George Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump in placing profits before people. Instead of ushering in an era of peace and development, his administration, after only a few weeks in power, is already war mongering, continuing the US imperialist aggression not only in the Middle East but also in other parts of the world, including Latin America. In Iraq, the people legitimately want illegal US troops that occupy their country to leave.

There is no justification for the US to conduct missile strikes in Syria, or anywhere else globally.

Furthermore, continued US occupation of Northern Syria and the ongoing merciless theft of Syrian oil remain unacceptable.

For equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines as global public goods, against Covid-19 vaccine nationalism and injustice  

The SACP calls for the lifting of patents on Covid-19 vaccines to allow Global South countries that can develop productive capacity to manufacture the vaccines themselves to protect the supreme right to life.

Multinational pharmaceutical corporations from the United States and Western Europe dominate the research and development of Covid-19 vaccines. Some of those countries use their imperialist financial muscles to pursue Covid-19 vaccine nationalism, including through hoarding, making the vaccines inaccessible and unaffordable for many Global South countries, thus depriving the majority of Global South populations of vaccination. Some Western European countries and the US have bought more Covid-19 vaccine doses than they need for their entire populations. These countries represent just 14 per cent of the world’s total population, yet they control over 53 per cent of vaccine candidates considered to fall in the category of promising Covid-19 vaccines.

According to a study by Oxfam Internal, titled ‘Everyone Deserves a Fair Shot Against Covid-19’, if the hoarding of Covid-19 vaccines persists 70 low and lower-middle middle income countries will only have capacity to vaccinate one in ten people against Covid-19 in 2021.    

Preliminary data shows that Global South countries are ripped off for the little that they can access. The US and European Union countries pay less for certain vaccines. The SACP strongly condemns discriminatory pricing and price gouging on Covid-19 vaccines and calls for equitable access.   

To win the war against the Covid-19 pandemic vaccines must be accessible everywhere across the world as global public goods.

Solidarity with Sheila Chisirimunhu in Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean people were shocked in December 2020 when the news broke of the imprisonment of Sheila Chisirimunhu, a 53-year-old primary school teacher, for peacefully demonstrating for payment of her salary which the Zimbabwe government had signed a written contract to pay. The SACP expresses its message of solidarity with Sheila, who has been released on bail awaiting appeal. Without solidarity, Sheila may return to prison for her just struggle. 

The SACP has been and continues to be very clear that governments cannot renege on wage agreements, or the payment of what is due to public servants, whether here in South Africa or in any other countries. This is one reason the SACP has thrown its weight behind the South African public servants’ just campaign for the government to honour its wage adjustment agreement it has entered with their unions.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA

Dr Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo

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