Red Flags at Lake Victoria – Another Interview with the Communist League of Uganda (February 2026)

1. It has been one year since our last interview. Your Party went through a rapid development. How would you describe the current state of the CLU?

Thanks, comrades, for this opportunity again.

Currently the state of our development can be described in three phases.

But first of all, the progress we have achieved: The progress of the organization manifest in different ways, majorly, ideology, mass mobilization and organization, and lastly expansion and legality.

In the ideological area, study cells have been established and are run smoothly though still having some small challenges these specifically work as a part and percale in teaching comrade’s Marxism-Leninism ideologies and principles.

I. Mass organization.

The leadership wings of CLU have worked on the issue of expansion, East, West, Central, and Northern region of Uganda. With physical offices in Bugiri, Lira, and Mukono and many more are expected to come into existence in the near future.

II. Legality.

For the full year the CLU has been in existence, we have been working on the issue of attaining legality, though it has not been an easy task, but with commitment, determination of our comrades, the first stages of registration have been accomplished with the certificate of incorporation being in place.

III. Way forward.

As the organization, generally our major aim is focusing on mass mobilization and community engagement, and through this, we expect to establish at least an active and functioning office in every region and sub region of the country.

2. You have taken a great stride forward in teaching the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. How do you see the current level of the understanding of Marxist theory among the Party members?

The level of understanding I can say is moderate and it is promising, since learning is a process and takes phases and some time to assess its fruits, so far now the basic principles of the theory have been grasped by potential party members through ideology classes and study cells.

Study cells have been established in areas in the Central Region of the country, in Kampala district – one study cell in Banda and one in Naguru. Several cadres are being trained on a weekly basis several topics of Marxism-Leninism. The cadres being trained shall act as the basis and foundation of mobilization, as they are required to understand the topics and further train more cadres in their respective regions.

The cadres being trained are majorly youth and show a lot of commitment unto learning and understanding different concepts. For instance in Naguru, some of them adopted icons of the different personalities of the Marxism-Leninism ideology, there are those known as Milton Obote team, Vladimir Lenin team, Joseph Stalin team and so on. This demonstrates that the cadres being trained are inquisitive to comprehend the concepts.

Secondly, several communist literature has been distributed among our cadres in the different regions of the country. These include works of the classics and architects of communism: Works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong among others. These works include “The State and Revolution” and “What is to be done” by Lenin, “Foundations of Leninism” by Stalin, “Wage Labour and Capital” and “Value, Price and Profit” by Marx among other works. More works written by several writers regarding the Marxist-Leninist ideology are yet to be shared to the cadres of the Communist League of Uganda.

3. You have celebrated the 100th birthday of A. M. Obote on 28th December 2025 in Lira. On that event the terms Commonism and Common Man’s Outlook were used to describe Obote’s thought. Could you please summarize for the reader how that term is defined and how it is important for your theoretical and practical approach?

The term Commonism is derived from the word common. Common in this perspective means something of lower status, hence a term that was frequently used by DR AM Obote, to refer to a common man. So common man always means the man of lower status. Hence bringing in a class perspective, for instance, historically, Ugandan society even before the coming of colonialists and imperialists was under classes, built on the hereditary system of kingdoms and chiefdoms, and in every society of that nature there was a common man, for instance in Buganda kingdom, the “Bakopi” (serfs) and royal family plus their chiefs “Abalangira”, so the feudal society at that time created such classes, on which the on to which the British improved to build a strong capitalistic system that is still existing up to date. So the lower class and upper class always existed up to the time of independence, and by DR AM Obote saying the common man always referred to that Ugandan of lower status and this briefly described the existence of classes in Uganda and oppression as well exploitation which he intended to abolish with the initiation of the national-democratic revolution that has socialism as the goal which later was never accomplished, in general the common man literary means the peasant, worker, farmer as well the serfs and oppressed people.

So, through Commonism and recalling the basic principles and objectives of the Common Man’s Charter, we the communist league of Uganda we shall look at all possible ways of fulfilling the un fulfilled objectives of the common man’s charter and liberate the common man (workers and peasants from chains of oppression and exploitation) of the capitalist system.

4. Mass organizations such as trade unions and cooperative associations are vital. What is your approach to get ties to the masses?

Regarding this, we have so far achieved some milestones to establish associations with hope that in future, if well natured, will lead to strong independent trade unions and cooperatives that can fight for the common man’s cause. Though still facing some setbacks and challenges.

5. You have established ties to comrades abroad. Without leaking too intern information: Which are your closest ties?

We have so far established ties with some revolutionary and progressive organizations and comrades in Germany as well within Africa in Kenya and South Sudan.

6. Do you think that these military regimes in West Africa are actually anti-imperialist or do you regard them as pro-Russian and pro-Chinese puppets?

Actually the anti-imperialists agenda of these Sahel states is just a lipservice, the first observation is that they simply escaped from the frying pan of one imperialist (France and America) and fell into the fire of another imperialist (Russia and China), the Sahel states are known for being rich in natural resources, the cooperation between them and Russian and Chinese imperialists in fact is not a mutual cooperation, but a parasitic cooperation and with in a near future these countries’ resources will be exchanged for military assistance and other technical support, not to benefit the masses but to keep these militant regimes in power and will always be submissive to the Russia and her Ally so as to consolidate power hence ending up as pro-Russian and pro-Chinese puppets and with this in place, power can not belong to the people socialism can not be established under such circumstances.

7. What is your stance on the famine in Karamoja, which is already going on for years?

Karamoja’s famine almost every year kills a hundreds and hundreds of citizens, Uganda as a country has the potential to feed all her people and the surplus can make us to be Africa’s food basket, and in some regions, in some good seasons , food is always in plenty in some areas and tends to be scarce in some parts of the country, so with the capitalist system, the blame is put on the failure market forces of demand and supply, but the reality is poor planning. Under capitalism, there is no proper planning. Hunger can be cured in Karamoja when there is collectivization of the agricultural sector running under the centrally planned economy in a socialist state.

By the COC of the CLU