Imperialism, war, assassination and global domination: SACP

The South African Communist Party on imperialism, the war on Iran, BRICS, Lebanon, Cuba and Venezuela.

South African Communist Party

14th Plenary Session of the 15th Congress Central Committee Statement - Excerpt related to the international situation.

(For the full statement: South African CP, 14th Plenary Session of the 15th Congress Central Committee Statement )

27–29 March 2026, COSATU House, Braamfontein, Johannesburg

Rebuild working-class power, defend sovereignty, advance socialism

The South African Communist Party (SACP) convened its 14th Plenary Session at a moment defined by deep systemic capitalist economic crisis, intensifying class contradictions, and the violent reconfiguration of global capitalism. This is not a cyclical downturn but a structural crisis of capitalism itself, expressed through imperialist war, ecological destruction, economic stagnation, and the ruthless super-exploitation of the working class. These global realities are felt directly here at home in our economy, in our communities and in the daily struggles of our people through the inflationary impact of the daily necessities raising the price of food, transport and energy.

The Central Committee reaffirmed that this crisis presents both grave dangers and historic revolutionary possibilities and that we must consciously seize this moment through militant organisation and mobilisation, ideological clarity, and decisive and clear working-class leadership.

Imperialism, war, assassination and global domination

Wars and instability are not accidents either; they are calculated expressions of how the current global system operates. Militarism, sanctions and economic pressure are tools deployed to control countries and their resources. The working class and the poor are the ones who pay the price of war through destruction of their livelihoods, poverty and unemployment. Peace requires sovereignty, and sovereignty requires development and vice versa. Countries of the Global South must work together to build their economies, strengthen productive capacity, strengthen their security and defence capacities and reduce dependence on other countries, especially the erstwhile colonisers.

At the same time, the world is changing; we are part of the changes. We are witnessing the emergence of a more multipolar global order from the current unilateral disorder. Countries such as the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, India, Brazil and South Africa in BRICS and BRICS Plus, with many others, are playing a growing role in shaping the new international order and possibilities.

The Central Committee condemns in the strongest terms the intensification and escalation of imperialist wars, including the intensifying US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We denounce the assassination of senior Iranian leadership, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alongside his family members and senior political, military and government officials, including the Minister of Intelligence, and school infrastructure in a targeted strike. Critical infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, homes, hospitals and entire communities has been destroyed. More worrying, even attacks on nuclear plants have been carried out, posing a grave danger to organic life itself on a long-term basis. The deliberate targeting of civilians and ecological systems constitutes a grave crime under international law.

These acts constitute state terrorism, a flagrant violation of international law, and are a direct assault on national sovereignty and territorial integrity, in violation of the UN Charter, Article Two. This aggression, alongside the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the intensified new offensive war of occupation and destruction of Lebanon since the beginning of March 2026, shows apartheid Zionist Israel has crossed all the red lines of international law, decency and neighbourliness. The working masses and religious fraternity must understand that this is not a biblical Israel but a state that was established on a foundation of dispossession and blood. Some want to portray this as a religious war, which is a fallacy. It is high time that all peace-loving countries and progressive forces isolate the US administration under Donald Trump, who enjoys blowing his own trumpet.

On the other hand, the new measures on the economic blockade of Cuba, especially the oil blockade, reflect not only a desperate US imperialist system attempting to reassert control through violence but also an arrogant display of unilateralism of a system refusing the collapse of its hegemony in its desperate efforts to recolonise the world, as they implied at the recent Munich Security Conference in Germany. The Central Committee calls for people all over the world, especially on the African continent and the Global South, to pledge their unwavering solidarity with socialist Cuba and send any form of aid possible, such as non-perishable goods and solar energy equipment, to mitigate this unprecedented US action. We will be part of the May Day brigade to Cuba this year and call on the youth to join this solidarity brigade.

The Central Committee further reaffirms unwavering solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the current period of deep imperialist destabilisation, aggression and interference in its domestic affairs. We express our deep solidarity with the abducted constitutionally and democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro Moros and First Combatant Cilia Flores. We wish them more strength as they face trial in the US and call for their immediate unconditional release.

The Central Committee calls for the immediate end to imperialist wars and assassinations, global mobilisation against US-led militarism, and defence of all nations asserting sovereignty, including South Africa, and appreciates the recent ANC-led march for the defence of national sovereignty and independence. We also call for intensified Global South coordination and acceleration of the de-dollarisation of their economies to avoid undue influences and intimidation of government and political leaders by Western financial institutions used politically by the US mob of the political class.