The Call of the Democratic Left Front
Back to the front
No more heckling at the back
No more ranting in the dark
No more pontificating from a distance
No more writing behind the scenes…
Back to the front
No more heckling at the back
No more ranting in the dark
No more pontificating from a distance
No more writing behind the scenes
No more analysis after the fact
No more paralysis by the facts
From now on we will regain
Our voices and reclaim the streets
We will control the schools
& takeover the farms & factories
We will run the city
Our poets and artists
Will write new songs
& give the nation
New symbols of hope
Worker and student
The red and the green
Together as one
We hearken to the call
To the front, comrades
No more slinking behind slogans
No more hiding in rhetoric
No more fighting over jargon
No more arguing over diction
No more debating accent
No more conflict over terminology
The earth is diminishing
The people are dying
We are called to the rescue
The call is out my people
To the front
No more children schooling
Under trees, the bush their loo
No more open toilets
& concrete slabs for houses
No more choking air & dummy foods
No children suckling thumbs for breasts
No more girls fearing the night
No more boys devoted to machineguns
No more adults chasing their shadows
No more frowning in the toilet
Emerging out with a smile
Knees on the ground
Hat in the air
This time we swear
Enough of hot air
From now on we will air
The boiling fury
Hidden in the eerie melodies
Hummed at the backyards
Of backyard dwellings
The call is out
Worker and student
Peasant and proletariat
Unemployed, employed and underemployed
Agnostic, atheist & gnostic
Red and green
Villager and township dweller
"Organize &mobilise, educate to liberate
Free the mind to free the land
Learn & Teach"
It's you who created
The dynamic slogans
Powerful symbols and songs
That carried the nation
Through years of struggle
"Burry division & build unity
Divided we fall, United we stand
An injury to one, is an injury to all"
It's you who will
Through action and struggle
Creative thought and imaginative thinking
Build the democratic left front
Create new slogans and songs
New platforms and new values
To guide us to the egalitarian society
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a cultural worker and social critic.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.