74 years ago today, the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) was born at the historic town of
Saltpond in the Central Region of Ghana. The birth of this dynamic movement was midwifed by the
progressive youth gathered in the Central Youth Organisation (CYO), market women, trade unionists
and other marginalised groups engaged in the struggle for national independence.
This development clearly signalled the fact that the working people of Ghana were ready to take
their destiny into their own hands and to wage a relentless battle against all forms of oppression and
exploitation. It was the beginning of a new era of mass mobilisation for self-rule and task of national
transformation away from the colonial narrative of dependence and general hopelessness.
The landslide victory of the CPP in the general elections of 1951 validated the claim that it had
become the true vanguard of the people of the then called Gold Coast in their heroic struggle for
national independence and clearly shattered the notion that the path forward could be dictated by the
elite and their masters in the colonial metropolis.
As Nkrumah himself proclaimed “the Party is (was) the rallying point of our political activity.
Without the Party there would be no force through which to focus the needs and desire of the people.
The Convention People’s Party is (was) this force. The Party, therefore, is (was) the hard core of those
who are so dedicated to its ideology and program, that they make their membership the most serious
business of their lives…”
It is significant that in the nine years of its rule, the CPP accelerated the pace of development in
all sectors of the national life, improving access to education by more than 300 percent, embarking upon
an industrialization programme that saw the establishment of more than 400 factories, improving access
to social services like health, public housing and transportation.
The CPP became the centre for the acceleration of the National Liberation struggles in Africa,
and an outstanding advocate of Pan-Africanism and Socialism. It provided diplomatic and material
assistance to the national liberation movements in Africa and elsewhere and was instrumental in the
establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Today, as Ghana struggles to free itself from the crippling debt burden and the incompetence of
leaders who have embraced the neo-liberal order, the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) takes
inspiration from the CPP and its transformational experiment of embarking on the path to socialist
construction of Ghana and a new world.
On this occasion, the leadership and the entire membership of our movement salute the founding
members of the CPP for their foresight and commitment to free the world from all forms of oppression
and exploitation, hunger, illiteracy, disease, and the degradation of the environment.
We firmly believe that the globalised phase of capitalism is responsible for the inequality and extreme
poverty engulfing society and to this end, we declare our full commitment to the foundation of a new
society based on the construction of social justice, deeper democracy and the tried and tested principles
of socialism.
The masses of the world will be victorious in their confrontation with capitalism in all its forms.
Signed.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr.
General Secretary.