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The South African Communist Party Gauteng Province launched its Great October Socialist Revolution centenary programme by holding a successful memorial lecture on Sunday afternoon (26 February, 2017) at Cosatu House in Johannesburg.

The memorial lecture was attended by about 400 delegates from our branches and was addressed by the 13th National Congress Central Committee member, comrade Charles Setsubi and comrade Tebogo Phadu, Provincial Executive Committee member.

The memorial lecture focused on the earlier Russian February Revolution that overthrew the Tsarist rule, thus laying a solid basis and momentum for the historic triumph of the 1917 October revolution. Following the victory and triumph of the revolution, the Soviet Union was installed as the first true workers’ government until its collapse in 1989.

In memory of the best traditions, historic and profound positive impact of the October revolution across the globe, the SACP annually holds the Red October Campaign rallies and mass activities across the country.

As part of the centenary celebrations we will every month, leading to our annual 2017 Red October Campaign national opening rally to be held in our province, hold a memorial lecture to be attended by at least 500 delegates from our branches.

We will identify the relevant topic that links with the SACP programme of Action to draw lessons and experiences to consolidate, defend and advance the second radical phase of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

We believe that the monthly memorial lectures will also play a key role to draw lessons and experiences for the internal SACP debate on State and Popular power as we approach our 14th National Congress to be held in July this year in our province.

We further believe that the centenary celebration also lays the basis for the SACP’s centenary in 2021. In this regard, we are deeply convinced that understanding the history of the Soviet Union provides one of the best ways of understanding the history of the SACP, NDR and the Alliance.

We remain deeply inspired by the profound scholarly contribution made by our former General Secretary, comrade Joe Slovo, through his remarkable and persuasive pamphlet, Has Socialism Failed, following the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union.

We firmly believe that the history, lessons and experiences of the former Soviet Union government are valuable and critical for building socialism in our country. Such lessons and experiences offer a practical and concrete experience to build socialism based on our concrete local conditions without the mistakes committed by the former Soviet Union government.

Issued by SACP