2005-02-25,+Welcome+to+Umbiko



=Welcome to Umbiko=

The business of communists is to help the working class to arrive to a stage where it can act as a class. In other words, to act as a free subject in the objective natural world and in the actual circumstances of history.

We know that a body of people does not arrive all at once at the same degree of understanding and consciousness. What happens in the working class is that people learn by experience what hurts them and how to defend themselves. They form organisations like trade unions, tenants' organisations, consumer organisations, and organisations for Peace and against Imperialism.

These are what we call "mass organisations" – not because of their size, which may be big or small – but because they arise within and belong only to the masses.

None of these specific organisations can take on the general task of changing society as a whole. Nor can any one of them set out the line-of-march for all the others. This task falls to the general-purpose organisation called a political party, such as the Communist Party. Some call this the "vanguard role" of the Party.

So what is this thing called "vanguard"?

For people to come together to consider the line-of-march of the working class as a whole is clearly a necessity. Those who do this effectively are worthy of the name vanguard. In the past we have had Marx, Engels, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Trotsky, and Moses Kotane, for example. Nobody can seriously deny these thinkers their due recognition as a historical part of the vanguard of the working class.

The vanguard of today is made up of those who lead. Nobody and no organization, not even the Communist Party, can claim this role exclusively or as a right. What matters is the fact of leadership, and the ability to pull together all the concerns of the working class and to show what is the whole truth of their situation, and what must be done about it.

"Umbiko" is determined to be a vanguard newspaper. "Umbiko" is going to report and reflect the actions of the mass struggles and mass organisations of the people of Johannesburg. It is also going to raise the level of discussion to the general interests of the working class in Johannesburg.

You, the readers, will be the judge as to whether "Umbiko" is truly a vanguard publication. The real test of a vanguard is not how clever it is, but rather the degree to which it is able to raise the general level of consciousness of the people. This is the task of "Umbiko".

As the Johannesburg Central Branch of the South African Communist Party, we welcome the return of "Umbiko" and look forward to many more issues.

Long Live the Working Class! Power to the People!


 * Dominic Tweedie,

Secretary, SACP Johannesburg Central Branch.