The Socialist Movement of Ghana Salutes 76 Years of the Convention People’s Party

Rekindling the Torch: The Socialist Movement of Ghana Salutes 76 Years of the Convention People’s Party
On this historic day, June 12th, 2025, the Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG) raises its fist in revolutionary salute and profound respect to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). We honour not merely the passage of time, but the enduring spark of liberation, socialist aspiration, and Pan-African unity ignited on that day in 1949.

We remember the fearless visionaries, the mobilized masses, and the unwavering spirit that dared to challenge the chains of colonialism and dream of a Ghana free, united, and socialist.

The CPP emerged not from abstract theory, but from the brutal crucible of British colonial exploitation and the burgeoning consciousness of the African masses. Ghana, then the Gold Coast, was a prized colony; its riches in cocoa, gold, and timber ruthlessly extracted to fuel the imperial metropole, while its people languished under the yoke of forced labor, discriminatory laws, political exclusion, and pervasive poverty. The so-called “partnership” was just a naked plunder.

Earlier nationalist efforts, often led by an elite seeking accommodation within the colonial framework, proved inadequate to the task. The workers were sweating in mines and ports, farmers squeezed by monopolistic marketing practices, market women battling unfair taxes, and the unemployed youth yearned for genuine liberation.

They needed a weapon forged in their own image, a party unafraid to name the enemy. Into this ferment stepped Kwame Nkrumah, returning from years of radicalization abroad, infused with the spirit of anti-colonial struggles, Marxism, and Pan-Africanism.

Rejecting the gradualism of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), Nkrumah understood that true independence required mass action, class consciousness, and a revolutionary break.

The CPP was thus born as the authentic voice of the oppressed and exploited. Its founding slogan, “Self-Government Now!” was not a polite request but a thunderous demand echoing from the streets of Accra to the villages of the North. It was a party built from the ground up, organizing workers’ unions, farmers’ cooperatives, youth leagues (the Central Youth Organisation (CYO)), and the Market Women’s Association. It spoke the language of the people and articulated their deepest desires: not just political independence, but economic justice and social dignity.
The CPP mastered the art of grassroots mobilization.

It transformed political participation from the preserve of chiefs and lawyers into a mass movement. Through relentless organizing, political education (“CPP Evening News”), and direct action campaigns like the epoch-making Positive Action of 1950 (a strategic combination of strikes, boycotts, and non-violent resistance), the CPP brought the colonial economy to a standstill.

It demonstrated the invincible power of the united working class, peasantry, and progressive intelligentsia. This was not passive resistance; it was the organized might of the people in motion against their oppressors.

It recognized that political independence was meaningless without economic liberation. Nkrumah’s famous dictum, “Seek ye first the political kingdom,” was always understood as the essential first step towards dismantling the entire colonial economic structure. The CPP fought against the stranglehold of foreign capital (like the United Africa Company), challenged exploitative trade practices, and laid the groundwork for Ghanaian economic control.
Kwame Nkrumah was the indispensable leader.

His genius lay in synthesizing Marxist analysis with the concrete realities of Africa, channeling mass discontent into organized revolutionary energy, and articulating a vision that transcended Ghana’s borders. He understood that socialism was not an imported doctrine but the logical path to true independence and development for a newly liberated colony. His leadership provided strategic direction, ideological clarity, and inspired millions.

Upon achieving independence in 1957, the CPP government, under Nkrumah, embarked on an ambitious programme of socialist transformation. Key industries were nationalized. Massive investments were made in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. State farms and workers’ brigades were established to boost agricultural production and create employment. The Seven-Year Development Plan embodied the commitment to planned economic development for social needs, not private profit. The Trade Union Congress became a powerful ally in building the workers’ state.

The CPP understood Ghana’s independence as incomplete without the total liberation of Africa. Nkrumah made Accra the beacon of the Pan-African movement, hosting conferences, supporting liberation struggles across the continent, and tirelessly advocating for continental unity as the only bulwark against neo-colonialism. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was his brainchild, a testament to his unwavering Pan-African commitment.

Seventy-six years on, the revolutionary socialist and Pan-Africanist philosophy of the CPP is not a relic; it is a burning imperative. Ghana, like much of Africa, remains ensnared in the web of neo-colonialism; the continued domination by foreign capital, enforced through debt, unequal trade, IMF/WB conditionalities, and the complicity of a domestic elite. The CPP’s core insights illuminate our present crises: The Socialist Movement of Ghana pays the highest tribute to the founding fathers and mothers of the CPP. To Kwame Nkrumah, the indomitable strategist and ideologue, and the countless organizers in the field; to the courageous market women like Akua Asabea Ayisi; to the workers and farmers who filled the ranks. We honour their revolutionary vision, their immense sacrifices, and their undying legacy.

You faced imprisonment, intimidation, and vilification by the colonial oppressors and their collaborators. You dared to imagine a Ghana and an Africa free, united, and socialist. You mobilized the masses and proved that imperialism could be defeated. You laid foundations upon which we must continue to build, however difficult the terrain. Your struggle is our struggle; your dream remains our dream.

As we mark 76 years, we do not merely look back in nostalgia. We recommit. We recommit to the CPP’s founding principles: Mass Mobilization, Anti-Imperialism, Socialism, and Pan-Africanism. We recommit to organizing the workers, the farmers, the youth, and the urban poor. We recommit to exposing and fighting neo-colonialism in all its guises. We recommit to the vision of a united, socialist Africa.

The torch lit on June 12th, 1949, still burns. The Socialist Movement of Ghana pledges to carry it forward, to rekindle its flames in the hearts and minds of a new generation, and to struggle relentlessly until the dream of the Osagyefo is finally realized.

Long Live the Revolutionary Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah!

Long Live Pan-Africanism!