A call for intensified action to end Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara and build an African continental popular left movement

Wednesday, 11 September 2024: - The South African Communist Party (SACP) stands firmly with the Saharawi people in their just struggle for fundamental rights, including self-determination, democratic national sovereignty, and other essential freedoms. We vehemently condemn the imperialist regime of France for its unlawful recognition of Morocco's so-called sovereignty over the Saharawi people.

By persisting in its imperialist-backed occupation of Western Sahara and plundering the resources of the Saharawi people, Morocco is flagrantly violating their right to self-determination and nationhood. This occupation breaches both international law and the African Union’s Constitutive Act, particularly the principle that African countries must respect each other’s territorial borders. Western Sahara was never part of Morocco; the latter is engaging in colonial occupation of the former.

The United Nations’ Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara and the African Union must expedite the referendum on the self-determination of the Saharawi people.

Building on the activities held on 6 September 2024 in various countries in solidarity with the Saharawi people, we call upon the working class across Africa and worldwide, along with all progressive organisations, to intensify and strengthen their support for the complete liberation of the Saharawi people and the entirety of their land, Western Sahara.

In the same vein, the SACP unequivocally condemns France’s ongoing neo-colonial domination and exploitation of the African countries it once colonised and others. We salute the revolutionary actions taken by the leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal to shatter the yoke of French neo-colonial and imperialist exploitation and domination.

France is not acting alone in this provocation but is doing so as part of the reactionary imperialist collective west.

The SACP calls on all African leftist organisations to join forces in the African Left Networking Forum to build a continental popular left movement in defence of the continent against neo-colonial and imperialist machinations, subversion, exploitation, and domination by former colonial and other Western imperialist powers, including France.

Statement issued by the SACP, 11 September 2024