‘Fundamental change’ that resulted from Bush War was no revolution

In a document titled Transformation Agenda and described as “Alliance for National Transformation’s Policy Guideline Document” dated 2019 and published online, Gen Mugisha Muntu took occasion to opine on revolution.

In his first sentence on revolution he wrote: “Our country is on the verge of change whether by revolution or reformation, it is clear for all to see that change is coming... As one who has not only lived through several of these changes, but also participated in one of them, I have come to witness first-hand, the brutal and destructive nature of revolution.”

The two sentences betray serious lack of knowledge of what a revolution is. I will demonstrate to Gen Muntu that contrary to what President Museveni claimed or was illusioned to believe that a revolution occurred in Uganda in 1986, no such thing ever happened.

This is how the online Dictionary of Revolutionary Marxism defines revolution: “The replacement of one socioeconomic formation with another, higher one. This implies the replacement of one class as the ruler of society by another (except in the change from primitive communal society to slave society, where there was originally no ruling class; and in the change from socialism to communism, where the proletariat gradually ceases to exist as a class.)

“Whereas bourgeois commentators often use the term ‘revolution’ very loosely to mean any change of government except through established electoral procedures (and sometimes even including that!), Marxists reserve the term for genuine changes in the form of society, and moreover changes which are progressive and in the interests of the people (as opposed to counter-revolution).”

Following the above definition, it is clear there was no revolution in Uganda in 1986. For a revolution to have occurred, it was not enough for the Bush War to have taken place. The Bush War was mere militarism which could not bring about a revolution.

For a revolution to have taken place would have required what Lenin defined as a revolutionary situation to have obtained. Lenin defined what he called a revolutionary situation in his essay, The Collapse of the Second International thus:

“To the Marxist it is indisputable that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation?

“We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the ‘upper classes’, a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth.

“For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for ‘the lower classes not to want’ to live in the old way; it is also necessary that ‘the upper classes should be unable’ to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in ‘peace time’, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the ‘upper classes’ themselves into independent historical action.”

For such a situation to mature in Uganda would take around 100 years. I derive this estimate of 100 years from the length Fidel Castro says took their revolution to incubate.
Gen Muntu needs to be told that the so-called fundamental change that resulted from the Bush War was no revolution.

While it is true as Marx said that force is the mid-wife present when a situation is pregnant with change, the Bush War was simply militarism. It had very little political content and what it produced could not meet the true definition of a revolution.

Yoga Adhola is a leading ideologue of UPC.