MortarBoardCU Communist Parties and Parliamentarism Part 3, Mass and Vanguard Dominic Tweedie, Johannesburg, 5 March 2005 (edited) We can think of the revolutionary vanguard function, the character of the mass organisations of the working class, and electoral and parliamentary struggles, as one concrete whole. We may also take into account the special circumstances of South Africa now, both objective and subjective, including the mass nature of the ANC and the various interpretations of the "National Democratic Revolution", or NDR. The mass organisations of the working class are not puppets to be manipulated. "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims." is how the last paragraph in the 1848 Communist Manifesto begins. It means that there is no hidden manipulation. "Vanguard" is not the same as "influence". Influence, especially if it means hidden persuasion, is not the concern of the communists. The communists do not conceal, but they are out in the open, as a vanguard. The mass organisations are so called, not because of their size, which may be large or small, but because they grow within the masses and belong entirely to the masses. They are defensive organisations around perceived common threats. We communists enter all the organisations of the working class, and also parliament, openly. We advocate our positions openly. We follow rule number 6.5., which obliges the communists to win their positions and policies openly. We do not hold out the possibility of the working class taking power by electing representatives to parliament. That has never happened, and it will not happen in South Africa. There must be no illusion or deception about this. The revolutionaries are not seeking a parliamentary majority, they are seeking a different kind of democracy altogether. They are seeking the direct power of the working class acting together as a class, having learned to do so in its mass organisations. It is the class that must rule, and not any substitute for the class, whether parliamentarian or bureaucratic centralist. There is a vanguard role to be played, but who will play it on the crucial day is not yet known. Nobody can claim the title of vanguard as a right - not the communist party, nor anybody else. It will be a matter of fact as to who gives the proper leadership in the historical, revolutionary moment, just as it is a matter of fact that Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized the initiative in 1917 and changed the world forever. End -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d1c71c%24366f2380%24a34d6a80%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
