{"id":964,"date":"2019-12-06T17:52:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T15:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=964"},"modified":"2020-04-23T11:42:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T09:42:47","slug":"the-organised-workers-must-build-and-lead-the-united-democratic-front","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=964","title":{"rendered":"The Organised Workers Must Build and Lead the United Democratic Front"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editorial from Inqaba No. 11 (August-October 1983)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20 August\nlaunching of the United Democratic Front is the most important advance in the\nworking class movement since the Durban strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those strikes,\nten years ago, signalled to the whole of South Africa that the black working\nclass had re-awakened to struggle after the paralysing setbacks and defeats of\nthe late 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That first\nre-awakening was on the industrial plane, as workers tested their strength\nagainst their immediate enemy, the factory boss. It has led to the building of\nthe strongest independent, democratic trade unions our country has ever seen.\nIt laid the foundation-stone for the vital efforts towards trade union unity\ntoday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revolt of\nthe black youth since 1976, the struggles over rents and housing, the bus\nboycotts, the resistance to removals \u2013 all have been spurred on by the advance\nof the workers’ movement, and in turn have given ever wider sections of workers\nthe confidence to organise and fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the mass\nenthusiasm for the UDF \u2013 and the revolutionary spirit among the conference\ndelegates, the observers and the 12,000-strong crowd at the rally \u2013 signal a\nnew stage in the rise of the working class movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of\nblack working people all over South Africa are looking eagerly for a national\npolitical leadership and a united organisation to lead them country-wide\nagainst the ruling class and the racist regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UDF means\nmuch more than the ‘400 organisations’ affiliated to it. Millions sense that\nthe UDF is a forerunner of the ANC’s emergence once again as a mass\norganisation inside South Africa. This is what gives the UDF its enormous\npotential following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UDF is\noverwhelmingly working class in the composition of its support. But it is\noverwhelmingly middle class in leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the\nconference, delegate after delegate recounted the sufferings of black working\npeople under the capitalist system: low wages and rising prices; unemployment;\nbad and crowded housing and transport; rising rents and fares; migrant labour,\npasses and removals; beatings, arrests and shootings by the racist state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tumultuous\nreception, the warmest of the conference, was given to a trade unionist who\nsaid: “Every one of you must realise that the struggle lies with the\nworking class… All workers must unite under the UDF banner and work for a\nsystem where exploitation of man by man is ended and where the means of\nproduction will be in the hands of the working class.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The working\nclass, by leading the national liberation struggle, can take state power into\nits own hands, sweep away racial oppression, expropriate the rich, and organise\nproduction on socialist lines to end poverty and take the whole society forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This program \u2013 the\nonly realistic approach to the revolution \u2013 would win a tremendous response\nfrom millions of oppressed people throughout South Africa. But it is not the\nprogram reflected in the declarations and statements drawn up by the UDF\nleaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theirs is the\nabstract idea of \u2018democracy\u2019 without workers’ power; the vague hope of a new\nsociety, without recognising the need to end capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the UDF can\nmeasure up to the tasks only if it rouses and unites the full force of the\nworking class in a struggle against the entire system \u2013 racial domination and\ncapitalist rule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the most\nmilitant and experienced worker activists in the unions have stood aside from\nthe UDF. That is a mistake. Millions of workers are looking to the UDF. They\nmust not be left without workers’ leadership in the political field at this\ndecisive time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They must not be\nleft in the hands of middle class political leaders whose aims are not the same\nas workers’ aims \u2013 who do not want a thorough-going revolution to make working\npeople the masters of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This problem\nshould be discussed in all the unions. Surely the task of organised workers is\nto build the UDF on solid foundations, as an organisation predominantly of\nworkers, with a conscious program for workers’ democracy, national liberation\nand socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every effort in that direction would prepare the way for a mass, socialist ANC in future, able to lead the revolutionary struggle for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2019).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue to Part Two<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial from Inqaba No. 11 (August-October 1983) The 20 August launching of the United Democratic Front is the most important advance in the working class […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":960,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-964","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1281,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964\/revisions\/1281"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}