Letter from Zambia

Africa is a vast continent comprised of nations which because of their colonial past have different histories, just as they have variegated geographical landmarks that distinguish them. Thus African nations do not share many things in common except the forcible grouping together of tribes regardless of the interaction that existed before colonialisation.

In the attempt to create nations, different ethnic groups have been split between boundaries and the expression of nationalism has therefore not been through the medium of cultural or ethnic identity, but defined within the context of the country in which the language of the colonial master became the lingua franca.

It is imperative to note, therefore, that such a situation in which countries find themselves has made nation building and African unity a difficult task.
The political developments taking place in Zambia today are African in nature and therefore similar and comparable to political events taking place elsewhere. In Africa, parliamentary democracy defined through multi-party politics still remains a test case today. Political leaders in Africa are finding it hard to relinquish power through the medium of the ballot box. The current political scenario in Zambia may easily degenerate into political violence if left unabated. The Catholic church and some western NGOs have kept on to criticise the ruling MMD government both through the press and privately-owned radio stations. Radio ICENGELO – owned by the Catholic church has become the mouthpiece of the voiceless people on the Copperbelt.

The widening gap between the rich and poor is something the ruling MMD government of President Rupiah Banda does not seem to be concerned about. Indeed, privatisation of the Zambian economic sector can only succeed by strengthening the private- and profit-making social sector, otherwise than defending and safeguarding the economic upkeep of the peasants and workers.

Massive and periodic job losses in the formal and informal sector have come to characterise the economic policy of Zambia’s economic liberation ever since the MMD came to power in 1991 to date. During the leadership of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda education was subsidised by the state and every child had a right to free education from primary school to university level. Every year the UNIP government carried out massive recruitments of teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen and soldiers.

The change from one-party participating democracy to multi-party democracy saw the implementation of economic liberalism (defined as privatisation) under the MMD government of President Fredrick Chiluba. This entailed the liquidation of state-owned mining, industrial and financial companies. The privatisation of state-owned companies led to massive job losses – in most cases the retrenched workers have not yet received their retirement salaries.

But we cannot mop up the fact that the UNIP government had experienced economic decline from 1980 to 1991 – the MMD inherited a bankrupt economy as the case may be. But it must be emphasised that the manner in which privatisation was carried out by the MMD was less than transparent.
It was in an attempt to monopolise power that Kaunda introduced a one-party state in 1973 on the excuse that Zambia was facing tribalism under multi-party politics. He introduced the philosophy of humanism in order to weld the different ethnic groups together under “One Zambia One Nation”. He declared a state of emergency – political detentions without trial (political criticism was banned). It is a fact that both the ruling MMD and political opposition have shown no restraint in manipulating the masses through feeding them with prejudices against other tribes in order to win their support. Thus tribalistic sentiments in Zambia originate from politicians or political parties. The voting patterns that emerged from the previous three general elections depict tribal and regional allegiances in the sense that people voted on the basis of ethnic patronage.

Every economic gain achieved under the late President Levy Mwanawasa has been dissipated by the global economic downturn of 2009, making it possible for the PF leader Michael Sata to increase votes in the coming 2011 elections. General elections in urban areas of Zambia are determined by economic factors, especially for food prices, the cost of education and availability of employment. The ruling MMD has concentrated on building roads, hospitals, schools and subsiding peasant farmers. In rural areas where the party received massive votes, working class political consciousness is visibly absent in rural village communities. The failure of African leaders to relinquish power through the medium of the ballot box means that elections in Africa are conducted in a win-or-die situation. The experience of many African nations with regard to their armed forces have been sad in that they have stifled democracy with their intervention, purportedly in their attempt to correct the mistakes of their political bosses also had failed to adhere to the principle of democracy through perceived violations of the constitution. When military leaders come into power, they not only breach the constitution, they become traitors to the oath of allegiance they swore to the nation.

The reluctance of the ruling MMD to accept the PF and UPND as viable future political options is a bad omen for multi-party politics in Zambia.

Socialism is the only practical political alternative to capitalism and our message to the workers of Zambia remains the same – the creation of a classless moneyless and stateless society.
KEPHAS MULENGA

Politics of Poverty

The loss of a parliamentary constituency in Mufumbwe keeps on to erode the political majorities of the ruling MMD come the 2011 presidential elections. This took place on 28 April after the death of MMD Member of Parliament for Mufumbwe Misheck Bonshe.

The PF/UPND pact won by a landslide victory—in an election characterised by political violence in which a police officer was assaulted. Indeed, north western provinces as at now is slowly sliding into a PF ally and the loss of Mufumbwe brings to two constituencies won by the PF ever since Rupiah Banda came to the presidency in 2008.

Talking in terms of ethnic and tribal loyalties, it is correct to infer that the ruling MMD lost the original political majority when the late President Levy Mwanawasa came to power in 2002. Mwanawasa flushed out Bemba political following from the MMD in order to distance himself from the corrupt regime of his mentor Fredrick Chiluba.

This switch in ethnic loyalties came to the fore during the 2006 general election, when the MMD lost heavily in Northern and Ivapula provinces (Bemba-speaking provinces).

People in Zambia tend to vote for political leaders to whom they have close ethnic and tribal affinities—though that seems not to be the case in the urban mining towns (in the Copperbelt Province), where voting is determined by economic and social factors. Let it be understood that both UNIP, MMD, UPND and PF started as tribal political movements—commanding ethnic support in their respective tribal homelands. There we find political leaders in Zambia tend to evade the fact on the pretext of massing a natural following.

It is a fact that the Catholic clergy in Zambia proves to be a thorn in the flesh of every ruling political party, especially during the presidential elections. More or less the Catholic is always siding with the political opposition. On 10 April a group of unidentified women staged a demonstration at the Vatican embassy in Lusaka, calling for the removal of the Catholic Archbishop in Zambia Telesphore Mpundu. It is a well-known fact that Mpundu does openly advocate for régime change in Zambia. Investigations that were carried out by the political opposition revealed that a group of women who had staged a demonstration at the Vatican embassy were not Catholic women as was alleged by the ruling MMD—but a clique of political thugs hired by the MMD.

It is now a common experience in Zambia for political journalists and Catholic clergy to be assaulted in public by MMD party cadres. The flamboyant Catholic priest of Kitwe, Father Frank Bwalya was recently detained by the police when he was found distributing and brandishing RED CARDS during the youth day holiday celebrations. The meaning behind this red card politi8cal campaign calls for the unilateral vote of NO CONFIDENCE in President Rupiah Banda. Frank Bwalya has formed a political movement called CHANGE LIFE Zambia that openly advocates for the resignation of Banda.

The Catholic church plays a major rôle in the social and community upkeep of ordinary people—it runs mission schools and health institutions in some rural areas of the country. More or less the Catholic church supplements the government’s economic programme. Indeed the Catholic church does play a part in influencing political consciousness among poor and disgruntled majorities.

As befits a Zambian cultural and traditional setting, the untimely death of Levy Mwanawasa has been attributed to witchcraft either from his relatives or political enemies. It is a taboo among Zambians to speak ill of the dead, thus many politicians keep mum on the political defects of the late president Mwanawasa. Indeed, it is wantonly difficult to change the ethnic mindset of village dwellers in rural areas—thus socialist propaganda must be concentrated in urban areas among workers and students. It may come to pass that many an ordinary Zambian may want to know whether the former and second republican President Chiluba’s heart problem was induced by corruption allegations slapped upon him by the late Mwanawasa. Indeed, even since he won his corruption case, Chiluba does not go for medical check-ups in South Africa unlike it was [sic] in the past years.

We in the WSM do not advocate for régime change either in Zambia or elsewhere—we advocate world socialism—a classless, moneyless and stateless society.

K. MULENGA, Zambia

Letter from Zambia

Democracy is an all-encompassing word used to describe the political state of modern times. More or less democracy describes a political state in which fully fledged parliamentary legality flourishes and political parties come to power through the ballot box. The art of constitutional government as we know and practice it in Zambia is derived from British colonialism (parliamentary democracy). But parliamentary democracy is not a static condition—political constitutions have been revised in Africa day in and day out to suit respective political parties that may happen to be in power. In Zambia the ruling MMD has been experimenting to revise the current political constitution, in a move aimed to make it impossible for opposition leader Michael Sala to stand for the 2011 presidential election.

It is the case in Zambia today that the methods of political change are fraught with many difficulties—chief among these is the regional fragmentation of voting patterns, i.e. people still vote on tribal allegiances. Zambian politics is heavily influenced by political charisma. The first president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was a charismatic leader and still remained a flamboyant personality. Charismatic politicians have a propensity to capture public worship either through making articulate speeches or wearing fine suits. Both Kaunda and Chiluba had a gift of making inspiring speeches and a flair for clean and smart clothes. Chiluba is said to have possessed two hundred pairs of shoes worth hundreds of dollars.

Both Kaunda and Chiluba had the gift to foresee what the masses’ feelings were and used to take advantage of a given moment by seemingly voicing those feelings. And it became very problematic for many ordinary Zambians to rally behind the late president Levy Mwanawasa, who lacked a magnetic personality and was a poor speech-maker. Indeed, the current president, Rupiah Banda lacks a political flair for publicity and lacks a flair for speech making.

Freedom for expression in Zambia has been conceived in wrong terms. It has meant incessant political criticism of ruling government in methods likely to provoke political violence. We in the WSM abhor the methods of political criticism that is spearheaded by the PF and UPND because they border on intimidating certain individuals instead of offering an alternative political system against the existing political status quo (capitalism). Political demagogy by itself is not an antidote to unemployment and inflation. The vicissitudes of human rights, gender equality and freedom of expression will not exist in socialism because a socialist will entail the actual embodiment of political and gender emancipation.

Indeed, the failure of political groupings in England to win an outright parliamentary majority during the May 2010 general election did not result in political violence and was resolved in an amicable manner. It is a test case for parliamentary democracy from which political leaders in Africa must learn a lesson. Presidential elections do not give rise to political violence in England unlike it is the case in most African countries.

In an election portrayed to be a poetical tragedy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been voted out of power through incessant criticism by the mass media. It is the case that ever since he replaced Tony Blair as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, he was dubbed as an out of fashion political figure in contrast to the charismatic and flamboyant Tony Blair. The Conservatives and Liberals have formed a coalition government held together by trust—both of them failed to win an outright majority in the House of Commons.

K. MULENGA, Zambia

Culture and Tradition

It is common to hear some people talk about their cultural tradition. Some people believe that a person without a distinct cultural tradition is lost. Thus we may infer that it is culture and tradition that distinguishes and defines humanity into racial, ethnic and tribal boundaries.

When Europeans came to Africa they did not outrightly pacify African cultural and traditional ways of life. It was the Christian missionaries who used the word of God to indoctrinate the natives to forego some of their ‘disgusting’ customary beliefs and practices. It is Christian and Islamic traditions that keep on to undermine African cultural and traditional ways of life.

Political ideology may also help to lessen racial ethnic and secular animosities. We saw the process at work in countries ruled by Communist regimes where religious and ethnic allegiances were banned.

Indeed culture and tradition conceived under complex capitalist societies may colour eccentric bourgeois intellectual and political pasttimes—because the fundamental social and economic development of every country comes to epitomise the cultural traditions of the capitalist class.

In fact economic production conceived under wage labour promotes cultural and traditional integration. Culture and tradition exist but it is alarming to note that certain cultures and traditions are deemed to be primitive.

Thus African cultural and traditional ways of life come to be defined as ‘backward’ in the sense that European civilisation has come to supplant ethnic and tribal exclusiveness. The very word ‘civilisation’ brings to mind the feeling that races and tribes are more superior to others in terms of their cultural and traditional accomplishments.

Thus the term ‘primitive’ is a political and racial derivative that tends to emphasise the attributes of social and political hegemony. Africa has a rich cultural heritage and this can be read in the people’s accents, art and folk music.

In Zambia during the UNIP-led government of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s traditional and cultural ways of life were rigidly enforced. Music and art were censored in order to promote what was called ‘indigenisation’.

But what transpired was something unforeseen—a Bemba tradition and linguistic presence came to impose itself upon the country. Indeed the Ichibemba language is now a national lingua franca and second to English.

It may seem, that in today’s complex capitalist society, culture and tradition do not define an individual’s social identity in abstract terms. A person’s cultural and traditional identity comes to be determined by the degree of his economic and financial incentives. Social or political freedom without economic and financial privileges is a hoax. Poverty conceived under wage slavery may easily give rise to xenophobia. Socialism will give rise to a change to cultural and traditional ethnics—based upon the primitive accumulation and distribution of wealth.
KEPHAS MULENGA

Politics of Poverty and Political Parasites

ZAMBIA’S lack of development and widespread poverty is man-made, Zambians for Empowerment and Development (ZED) interim president Dr Fred Mutesa has said.

“Politics of poverty breed political parasites which are as deadly as killer bacteria that invade the human body. Unless this is clearly understood, the national cake will continue to be shared by a minority population while the majority of Zambians remain trapped in abject poverty..."

Zambia has the perfect conditions to become one of the most highly developed nations on the African continent. The country has abundant natural resources which make it the envy of many countries in the world.Minerals of all types and precious stones are buried in the soils of Zambia. The country is teeming with rich wildlife which if properly harnessed can make Zambia the destination of choice for tourists from all over the world. Zambians are among the most peaceful people on the African continent. People of different ethnic backgrounds live peacefully side by side each other. Despite all this development potential the majority of Zambians cannot afford a decent standard of living. They live in dehumanising conditions, which condemn them to a hopeless future.

"...The driving force behind politics of poverty is selfish ambition, seconded by greed and corruption. As long as our nation is run by politicians whose number one priority is to milk the system for selfish gain, nothing much will happen. To get what they want the average Zambian political predator will lie, bribe, steal, circumvent the law, insult and intimidate opponents. The end-effect of such a political culture is the disempowering of ordinary citizens to keep them in the chains of perpetual poverty and ignorance so that they can easily be manipulated.”

Zambia: THE ABUSE OF POWER

Zambia: THE ABUSE OF POWER

On 8 August 2009 a Zambian magistrate delivered a final verdict on the long-awaited ruling concerning the corruption case of former and second republican President Fredrick Chiluba. The Court found that Chiluba was innocent from the alleged stealing of K200 billion and declared that all monies and assets seized from him by the Task Force be returned to him. The head of the Task Force, Mr Marx Nkole immediately resigned on the grounds that he was shocked by the Court’s ruling. This is the case in which a London magistrate had found Chiluba guilty of misappropriating K200 billion from the Zamtrop account (a government account) some time back in 2008.

The whole matter revolves around the head of State, President Rupiah Banda. Old and tired, Mr. Banda is slowly and recklessly making mistake after mistake, in a country in which the majority of workers and civil servants have lost interest in the ruling MMD. It is a fact that president Rupiah Banda is still haunted by the Vista of Humanism conceived under a One Party State. Banda is busy appointing and removing cabinet ministers without regard to public feelings. Indeed the Zambian constitution has invested so much power into the head of state: a head of state in Zambia is above even their judiciary, parliament and government. It is without doubt Mr. Banda who personally instructed the judiciary to quash the corruption allegations against Mr. Chiluba. Let it be remembered that Mr. Banda was among those UNIP malcontents who suffered very much under the leadership of Fredrick Chiluba. He was among those who were physically molested or detained by the MMD government in 1992 (during the abortive UNIP comeback bid to power).

Thus the pardoning of Mr. Chiluba is a well timed political gesture aimed at winning political support from Northern and Luapula Provinces where the MMD has been doing badly in previous general elections. Mr. Chiluba has a patriotic and fanatical following from Luapula and Northern Provinces—he is a Bemba-speaking politician. President Rupiah Banda is a sturdy politician and strongly appreciates the existing ethnic and tribal allegiances. There is a political crisis in Zambia and the recent judgment in the case of former republican President Chiluba duly testifies to the abuse of power by the head of state. Public service employees are living under unpredictable eventualities. The nurses and teachers who went on a prolonged three months’ strike had to forfeit their salaries by the period they were on strike. There is a law that forbids illegal strikes in Zambia.

The private media in Zambia is misleading workers by making the strikers into scapegoats of the political opposition. Because the workers in Zambia have not achieved its class consciousness—they may have recourse to ethnic and tribal loyalties and so jeopardise its political consciousness. The WSM does not support the recent electoral pact between the PF and UNDP (political opposition). We advocate socialism without regard to nationality, but we are not deaf to the plight of working-class labour movements and trade unions in their efforts to improve their living conditions.
KEPHAS MULENGA

world capitalism

"Low income countries are more exposed to the current economic downturn than previously, as they are more integrated in the world economy"

At the town of Luanshya over 3000 copper miners, directly employed and on contracts, lost their jobs at the end of January after the owners announced that the mine was no longer economically viable.

Copper mining is the most important industry in Zambia, accounting for 90% of Zambia's exports and directly employing 50,000 workers. But the price of copper has slumped on global markets, falling from a high of nearly $9,000 per ton last year to just over $3000 per ton now. Zambia has already been forced to abandon its windfall tax on copper mining, which was set to add $450m per year to its anti-poverty budget . Zambia is still one of the world's poorest countries, with 60% of the population living below the $2 per day poverty line .

The collapse of the kwacha, down 36% against the dollar so far, has spread the economic pain even more widely.

The International Monetary Fund says that, because of its dependence on copper, Zambia is one of the poor countries that "highly vulnerable to the adverse effects associated with the global recession." The IMF warns that "commodity prices are unlikely to recover while the global economy remains weak" and says that "low income countries are more exposed to the current economic downturn than previously, as they are more integrated in the world economy."

Zambia's Presidential Election

Zambia—(30 October)
After a gruelling and breathtaking fight the MMD presidential candidate Rupiah Banda won presidential elections by 35,000 votes again the Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata. Indeed, many people expected Sata was going to win given the massive votes he received in urban areas. Sata has cried foul and blamed foreign observers and the MMD government for rigging the elections. The PF is now the strongest opposition political party in Zambia.
There is no need for a conspiracy theory when assessing the results of the 30 October election otherwise than through examining the existing fundamental ethnic and tribal loyalties. Tribalism remains to determine the popularity of political parties in Zambia in the sense that every political leader is strongly supported in his tribal homeland. This became very evident even during their presidential election especially when we look at the care [????] the UPND leader Hakainde Ichilema. The UPND accumulated 100% votes in Southern Province where from its leader Ichilema originates.
Ethnic and tribal loyalties in Zambia are elastic in the sense that political parties may easily manipulate the peasants in rural enclaves through bribery in order to win their votes. The ruling MMD has been doing this ever since it came into power in 1991. Indeed, most people in rural areas are illiterate and politically ignorant in terms of non-existence of news media and absence of well-informed middle-class elites. The only information people in rural areas receive is from the volatile government infrastructure. It has now come to pass that the MMD has lost the previous political following among the majority and politically vocal Bemba-speaking tribal homeland. More or less the MMD is now a political Cinderella in the sense that it does not have a distinctive ethnic and tribal following—the voting patterns that emerged from the 30 October election emphasise this fact.
Thus we may infer that the supposed votes received by the MMD President Rupiah Banda were mostly determined by the economic politicise of the late President Levy Mwanawasa (economic development took place in rural areas).
The October Presidential election was characterised by insults and political defections. Both the previous presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Fredrick Chiluba rallied behind the MMD vice-President Banda. The need to preserve the existing capitalist economic framework was uppermost in most people’s minds—a change in political leadership was going to reverse economic development.
But the workers and university students in urban areas strongly voted for the PF leader Michael Sata. It is the case that economic growth achieved through massive foreign investment and a stable financial balance of exchange has failed to translate itself in terms of free education and employment. Indeed, social poverty and poor salaries and working conditions are on the increase in urban areas. PF leader Sata is now a political force to be reckoned with today and tomorrow.
The ordinary Zambian voter stands to gain nothing from the results of the October election in the sense that income and wealth patterns will remain where they have always remained. The increase in mealie meal prices and the decline in copper prices help to dispel any hopes for a bright future for ordinary Zambians. Indeed, socialism is a political franchise invested in every working-class person to dislodge capitalism from the face of the earth. We in the WSM deeply respect and cherish our political franchise to vote—we cannot misuse it through voting for a political idiot. We can only use it to vote for a classless, moneyless and stateless society—SOCIALISM.
KEPHAS MULENGA, Zambia

No copper-bottomed capitalist market

the phrase copper-bottomed began to be used figuratively to refer to anything that was reliable and trustworthy . Well ,that certainly doesn't apply to the capitalist economics of the copper industry in Zambia .

Copper accounts for 80 percent of Zambia's foreign earnings but now the fall in international copper prices is causing unease in Zambia.

"...the pricing is not as profitable as we would like it to be..." general manager of the Zambia Chamber of Mines, told IRIN

"We are foreseeing a situation where our mining companies may begin to cut down on further investment programmes because of [making] less money and, ultimately, this may not just affect their profits but even their employment base," Bob Sichinga, an economist and former MP who served on Zambia's parliamentary mining committee.

"Because of the reduced resource base, government will face problems in social investments for such critical sectors as education and health," Saasa , a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia ,said.

The prices of key commodities have rocketed over the last three years in Zambia: a 25kg bag of maize-meal now sells for $18.00, up from $11.00 in 2006; a litre of petrol (gasoline) has risen US 75 cents over the same period.

China's Slave Empire

Socialist Banner in the past has frerquently drawn attention to the economic invasion of Africa by China and so we can only concur with Peter Hitchins , the controversial writer/journalist , when he states :
"that China's cynical new version of imperialism in Africa is a wicked enterprise.
China offers both rulers and the ruled in Africa the simple, squalid advantages of shameless exploitation.
For the governments, there are gargantuan loans, promises of new roads, railways, hospitals and schools - in return for giving Peking a free and tax-free run at Africa's rich resources of oil, minerals and metals.
For the people, there are these wretched leavings, which, miserable as they are, must be better than the near-starvation they otherwise face."

Peking regards Zambia as a great prize, alongside its other favoured nations of Sudan (oil), Angola (oil) and Congo (metals). It has cancelled Zambia's debts, eased Zambian exports to China, established a 'special economic zone' in the Copper Belt, offered to build a sports stadium, schools, a hospital and an anti-malaria centre as well as providing scholarships and dispatching experts to help with agriculture. Zambia-China trade is growing rapidly, mainly in the form of copper.

Mr Sata, a populist politician and the leader of the Patriotic Front says:
"The Chinese are not here as investors, they are here as invaders...Wherever our Chinese "brothers" are they don't care about the local workers," . He complains, that Chinese companies have lax safety procedures and treat their African workers like dirt. and he claims: "They employ people in slave conditions."

A government minister, Alice Simago, was shown weeping on TV after she saw at first hand the working conditions at a Chinese-owned coal mine in the Southern Province.

Denis Lukwesa, deputy general secretary of the Zambian Mineworkers' Union, said:
"They just don't understand about safety. They are more interested in profit."

China's Congo deal - worth almost £5billion in loans, roads, railways, hospitals and schools - was offered after Western experts demanded tougher anti-corruption measures in return for more aid.
In the 'Democratic Republic of the Congo', currently listed as the most corrupt nation on Earth.
A North-American businessman who runs a copper smelting business in Katanga Province told me how his firm tried to obey safety laws.
They are constantly targeted by official safety inspectors because they refuse to bribe them. Meanwhile, Chinese enterprises nearby get away with huge breaches of the law - because they paid bribes.

Letter from Zambia

Zambia is showered in condolences. President Levy Mwanawasa passed away in Percy Military hospital in Paris on 19 August.

Indeed, many ordinary Zambians are troubled by the untimely death of the president in the sense that every individual is unique. The people of Zambia are pious mourners and have turned up in large numbers wherever the coffin of Mwanawasa was being paraded for last farewells. The MMD has declared 21 days of national mourning. But some political think tanks are critical of the government’s motive and have seriously castigated them for parading the coffin around the country. They consider it to be a mere political gimmick aimed at winning the political confidence of the Zambian voters.

There is a succession crisis within the MMD. The current constitution allows for the holding of a party convention when adopting a presidential contender. But the MMD has unilaterally decided to select a candidate through the National Executive Committee. This move is untransparent and undemocratic. There are calls within the MMD hierarchy for the adoption of the current Vice-President Rupiah Banda (UNIP). The following have submitted their names for adoption as presidential aspirants from the MMD:
Willa Muyamba, Enoch Kavindele, Brian Chituwo and Ludwig Sondashi…

All the above-mentioned individuals are well-to-do MMD stalwarts. The wife of the late president Doreen Mwanawasa is proving a hard nut to crack in the sense that she is indirectly campaigning for the MMD through accompanying her husband’s coffin to every part of Zambia. Indeed, she even went to the extent of publicly humiliating the Patriotic Front president Michael Sata during a body-viewing ceremony at Chipata airport (Eastern Province). She railed at Sata in an unbecoming manner for a bereaved widow. It is said that she told Sata to stop attending the funeral. She told him that she had not reconciled with him. Sata had a political reconciliation with the late president in June. When Mwanawasa died in France Sata was among the prominent leaders who received the coffin at Lusaka International airport on 23 June.

Politics in Zambia are strongly influenced by ethnic and tribal loyalties. The MMD is a tribal party in the sense that the late president appointed people on the basis of their ethnic and tribal backgrounds. The current crop of ministers comprise of nephews and cousins of Mwanawasa. The entire MMD leadership is peopled by Lenje- and Lamba-speaking political appointees.

The ruling MMD currently enjoys massive support in rural areas. It is utterly impossible for the MMD to lose a presidential election given the positive economic policies of the late president Mwanawasa. Zambia’s favourable economic development is dependent upon the copper mining industry that is currently enjoying favourable prices on the stock exchange in London. Zambia remains a class-divided society with poverty and unemployment remains unappeased.
K. MULENGA, Zambia

Winners and Losers

It is the case that Zambia is enjoying unprecedented high levels of economic development due to favourable (high) copper prices on the world market. There are massive investments in the copper mining industry, mostly from China. Thus we may infer without doubt that the death of president Levy Mwanawasa has caught overseas investors off guard in the sense that they know that a change in leadership will entail the change in economic priorities and political stability—more or less most people in Zambia have come to accumulate wealth through political alignments and ethnic loyalties (nepotism).

The entire MMD government is a superficial political arrangement…cabinet ministers and civil servants are mostly hand-picked close friends and relatives of Mwanawasa. It will be superfluous to analyse the political crisis without due regard to the intrinsic ethnic and tribal prejudices that have always determined political loyalties in Zambia. The New Deal MMD government under Mwanawasa was strongly dominated by Lenje- and Lamba-speaking tribal politicians. There is a predisposition to sideline Bemba-speaking politicians from the high echelons of the MMD party.

The voting patterns that emerged after the 2006 general elections revealed a marked change in tribal and ethnic loyalties in the sense that the Bemba-speaking tribes mostly voted for the Patriotic Front (PF) of Michael Sata (a Bemba-speaking politician). The MMD emerged as a Bemba-dominated political party under the leadership of Fredrick Chiluba. We have seen political factions emerge within the ruling echelons of the MMD in consequence of the death of president Mwanawasa.

It is a fact that the appointment of Rupia Banda as the vice-president was made in order to compensate the people of Eastern Province for having heavily voted for the MMD in 2006 . Let it be understood that Banda was a staunch UNIP politician and was never a member of the MMD.

It is outright impossible for a ruling political party to lose a general election in Africa, especially when the so-called 50 percent plus vote is not part of the constitution.

The workers and peasants of Zambia have opposed the simple majority formula because it gives room to corruption and manipulation. Article 95 (1) of the Munyomba Draft Constitution prescribes that a presidential candidate should win the elections by 50 percent plus one vote. The National Constitution (NCC) appointed by Levy Mwanawasa is currently debating and reviewing submissions of the Munyomba Draft Constitution that may pave the way for the creation of a new constitution. But there are those who have opposed the 50 percent plus one vote like health minister Ronald Njapau, who said it was not good for a country's safety. He said the majoritarian system will bring about a political crisis in Zambia as was the case in Kenya and Zimbabwe. And the former republican vice-president General Christon Tembo said the NCC should not be excited with the clause but be mindful of the political repercussions.

But home affairs minister Lwipa Puma believes that the 50 percent plus one vote will be a costly exercise and that it is inappropriate for a poor country like Zambia to spend money on unnecessary re-runs instead of spending it on building schools and hospitals.

As socialists we have something more to say to our fellow workers in Zambia and who are currently mourning for President Levy Mwanawasa. What we ask you to do in your own interest is to consider the case for socialism. If you do you will discover facts that may surprise you—socialism involves the abolition of the wages system once and for all. Socialism should be your concern as well as ours.

K. MULENGA, Zambia

Zambia : Political Crisis

President Levy Mwanawasa suffered a head stroke on 29 June whilst attending the African Union Conference in Egypt. It was announced by the South African president Thabo Mbeki that Mwanawasa was dead (30 June). The following day Mbeki apologised to the Zambian High Commission to revoke the previous statement. But all the same the damage was done—there was an outcry among Zambian society that Mwanawasa was dead and the government was only hiding the real fact.

It is sad to note that Mwanawasa is hospitalised in a military hospital in Paris and his relatives and friends are refused permission to visit him. It is a fact that Mwanawasa is seriously sick and this has created a political crisis within the ruling MMD. Many prominent Zambians are waiting to know about what the ruling MMD has in store for the Zambian people in case Mwanawasa becomes physically incapacitated. Why is the MMD so discreet about Mwanawasa’s sickness?

The problem with African politics consists in the so-called political misconceptions people may have about leaders. Many ordinary people in Zambia believe that Mwanawasa is a charismatic political leader—just like his predecessors Chuluba and Kaunda. There is deep reverence mixed with fear concerning the sickness of President Mwanawasa. There is a feeling among many ignorant Zambians that there isn’t anyone within the MMD who can replace him.

Recent revelations by local government deputy minister Teta Mashimbo that there is a successor crisis within the ruling MMD has caused consternation across the entire political fraternity. Mashimbo gave a political speech in which he alleged that the senior officials were divided concerning the possible successor Mwa Nawasa. More or less his pronouncements have been strongly repudiated from within the MMD. There is a prayer mania and calls for reconciliation ever since Mwanawasa became sick.

However, the unrepentant PF president Michael Sata has come out in the light and told the MMD government to put matters straight. Basking in the honeymoon of his political reconciliation with President Mwanawasa—Sata has advised the MMD to convene a medical board that will tell the nation the facts about Mwanawasa’s medical proceedings. Sata said there is a clause within the Zambian constitution which allows the creation of a medical board whenever the president becomes physically incapacitated. There are calls for political reconciliation during the sickness of Mwanawasa and it is believed that to start talking about a successor is an act of witchcraft. It is an act of witchcraft in the sense that the MMD without Mwanawasa at the helm is doomed to destruction.

We in the WSM do not enter into political reconciliation nor participate in national prayers—we have remained convinced that capitalism will for ever create social, economic and political problems for the workers in every part of the world and we advocate the creation of a socialist and co-operative world in which poverty and fear will give way to plenty and happiness.

Kephas Mulenga

From a Zambian comrade

Two contributions from comrade Kephas Mulenga in Zambia:

SOCIALISM AND TRADE UNIONS

Becoming a member of the WSM entails the acceptance of the class struggle—political
consciousness envisages working class political solidarity. But must a member of the
WSM participate in trade unions?

It is empirically justified that a working class person must join a trade union in
order to improve his working conditions.

The moral principle of trade unionism is labour arbitration and not class antagonism
as such. Trade unionism intensifies economic and labour reforms and this restrains
working class political solidarity. It is the case that a member of the WSM needs
not to participate in a trade union or labour movement…because trade unions restrain
working class political solidarity. Because the working class has not yet achieved
its emancipation from the limiting conditions of wage employment, we must expect
that a member of the WSM may find it socially unjustified not to participate in a
trade union in the sense that the moral principle of trade unionism is labour
arbitration and not political revolution as such.

We are of the opinion that trade unions are not vehicles of working class political
solidarity otherwise than as movements of labour arbitration.

In Africa trade unions have become a vital source of class pressure. It is a fact
that trade unions in Africa are controlled by political charlatans—they tend to be
more politically vocal. It is my contention that a member of the WSM in Africa must
not underestimate the significance of racial and cultural prejudices (nationalism)
that remain to transcend all political and class barriers.

SOCIALISM AND REVOLUTION

The political subject of scientific socialism is conceived as an intellectual and
theoretical detachment. Thus the definition of class struggle and revolution remains
so much exaggerated in situations where the political subject of scientific
socialism remains so far removed from the entrenched political and academic
conventions. It may come to pass that working class political consciousness is not
so much politicised in Africa today. What I am trying to emphasise is the fact that
working class self-consciousness has not yet attained its political and social
emancipation from the limiting cultural and tribal prejudices (nationalism).

Nationalism is a cultural and political limitation in as much as African economic
underdevelopment comes to presuppose racial and cultural antagonism between Africa
and Europe. Thus the dilemma of African economic underdevelopment comes to be
conceived through racial prejudice—black consciousness is the language of African
nationalism. The extent to which the working class in Africa can achieve its social
and political emancipation may come to depend upon the existing historical
conditions. Socialism can only be realised in conditions where the working class has
achieved its emancipation from the limiting political and cultural limitations.
Though we may take it for granted African economic underdevelopment is a direct
product of European neo-colonialism, yet we are ready to point out that nepotism,
tribalism and corruption are also contributing to African economic underdevelopment.
Political independence in African was a hybrid of bourgeois black nationalism and
not of peasant revolution as such.

The fact is that Africa will never attain its economic development from within the
existing mode of capitalistic economic and production relations based upon the
exploitation of man by man.

Short of money = Short of food

At the risk of being seen as the boy who cried wolf once too often , another article about the pending effects of rising food prices has come to our attention and one distinctive feature of the article is its mention of the influence on the middle classes , another example of the proletarianisation of them .

“Everything is very expensive - we are now living on borrowed money,” Towela Ngwira, a shopper at a market in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, told IRIN. “For us it is no longer hand-to-mouth but hand-to-hand because all the money we get has to be given to someone else [from whom we borrowed]...We are now surviving on dry foods such as Kapenta [sardines], dry fish, and dry beans, because fresh foods are very expensive. We have even stopped buying bread for breakfast - it’s too expensive for us.”

This week South Africa, the regional economic giant, released figures showing the annual consumer price index for food, a measure of food price inflation, had increased to 14.1 percent. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation , the global picture is even bleaker: FAO’s global food price index rose 40 percent in 2007 compared to 9 percent in 2006. The causes are global. Worldwide food stocks have hit historic lows, while demand has never been higher. The combination has resulted in prices of basic staples such as wheat, corn and rice hitting record highs, up 50 percent or more in the past six months.

According to André Jooste, senior manager of market and economic research at South Africa’s National Agricultural Marketing Council, although the poor are inevitably the hardest hit, even professional urbanites are beginning to feel the squeeze. “The middle-class will start changing their buying patterns, moving away from special products to cheaper alternatives. They will have to” he said.

In Malawi’s southern town of Zomba, Harrison Kumwenda has seen the produce from his one and a half acre plot fall by more than half. He blames a combination of expensive fertiliser, and the weather.
“We were buying a bag of 50kg of maize at the price of K800 (US$ 5.8) in December but the vendors are selling a bag of 50kg at K3,000 (US$ 22) which is very high”.

In Zambia, the authorities “have decided to restrict the export of maize only to countries that have active contracts with us until we ascertain the quantity of maize stocks in the country,” Sara Sayifwanda, Zambia’s minister of agriculture, told IRIN. “It is important for us to take precautions because we don’t know as yet how exactly this harvest season will be; we may have maize shortages in certain places.”

Peter Cottan, vice president of the Millers Association of Zambia, said some millers had started hoarding their maize stocks in anticipation of a shortage. “We expect the prices to even go higher,” he said.

The Basic Needs Basket, an index of market prices compiled monthly by a local faith-based think-tank, the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) in Zambia, has shown an unprecedented increase in the cost of basic food items: the average monthly cost rose by 10 percent from January to February.
“The obvious and common underlying factor... has to do with how much is available on the market,” JCTR spokesperson, Miniva Chibuye, explained. “The current upward trends in food prices pose serious challenges to human development and require that strategic planning and responses begin now.”

Of course , the position of Socialist Banner is that the capitalist system is inadequate to plan or respond to its own inherent failings of supply and distribution , an explanation which can be summed up as "Those who can't pay , can't have "

Chasing the Chinese

Socialist Banner has often reported on the Chinese colonial expansion into Africa and in particular we said here that :

"...It is alleged that Chinese investors mistreat ordinary Zambian workers ... The ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) has spoken out strongly against the New Economic Zone by pointing out that Chinese investors pay low salaries and the incidence of accidents at workplaces..."

We now read in this report :

"A Chinese manager at a copper smelter in northern Zambia has been admitted to hospital after being assaulted by workers demanding better conditions. An estimated 500 workers at the Chinese-owned Chambishi mine site started throwing stones at the managers as they attempted to hold talks. Police came in to restore order and rescue the Chinese who had taken refuge by locking themselves in their offices." [ Chambishi Smelter, which is under construction, is part of a huge multi-million dollar Chinese investment in the area. ] .

A kitchen for Chinese workers and a guard's house were set alight and hostel windows smashed .

"The Chinese are not respecting Zambian labour laws," said a workers' representative .

While fully sympathising with the reactions and resistance of those Zambian workers , the previous Socialist Banner article cited, concluded "...chasing away Chinese investors is not a method of abolishing capitalism..." and what was really required is workers of Zambia uniting under the banner of international working class solidarity—Socialism.

Capitalism booms but little change

International investors are toasting Zambia's fast-growing economy. The economy has recorded an annual growth of five percent for the past five years, inflation is in single digits and the kwacha has appreciated against foreign currencies. Zambia's growth has been fuelled by record copper prices on the world market. Copper accounts for over 80 percent of the country's total foreign earnings.
Last month, the Global Economics Weekly, an international business research publication, ranked Zambia as number one among the 10 most improved countries in the world, ahead of Argentina, Ghana and Russia, among others. President Levy Mwanawasa's administration has been widely praised by western donors for its pro-market policies, which offer foreign investors generous conditions. This is particularly true of the mining sector, where royalty tax is an exceptionally low 0.6 percent, firms are exempt from customs duty, and there is no ceiling on the amount of dividends or profits that can be repatriated. But the benefits seem hard to find in the working-class districts of the capital , Lusaka .

Economists and social rights activists point out that it is all yet to make a serious dent in poverty.
"...they tell us the economy is growing but to us life is still the same, prices of everything on the market are still the same, we are still poor, and we are still looking for jobs," Lusaka resident Agness Banda told IRIN.
The social indicators that reflect whether Zambians are really having a better life have remained stubbornly negative. The poverty rate, as measured by the government's Central Statistical Office, has been stuck at 68 percent for years; despite all the foreign investment, only 400,000 formal-sector jobs exist for a population of 11.7 million.
"There is no emphasis on equitable distribution of wealth from this growing economy," said Ivy Mutwale, acting executive director of the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, an umbrella advocacy group.
Oliver Saasa, a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia, said the impact of copper earnings had been negligible because of the lack of social investment.

ZAMBIA: CONSITITUTIONAL FRAUD

From a comrade in Zambia :-

Karl Marx was certain that the economic and political reforms taking place in his time were paving they way to a working class inspired political revolution (socialism). But what Marx did not foresee was that the ruling class was going to intensify its accumulation of political and economic privileges that has remained to the present day.

It is in this sense that we in the WSM do not support political and economic reforms. We do not believe that there is a government that can put in place a working class inspired political constitution that shall undermine the political and economic privileges of the ruling elite. This we may infer that political constitutions are mere political statements—political and economic privileges remain where they have always remained: with the capitalist class. We in the WSM firmly believe that the MMD government under President Levy Mwanawasa cannot adopt the recommendations of the Mung’omba Constitutional Review Commission because to do otherwise will entail the unilateral limitation of its political and economic privileges.

The National Constitutional Conference (NCC) is a political fraud created by President Levy Mwanawasa to sideline the formation of a constitutional assembly that was recommended by the Mung’omba Constitutional Review. That is why the Catholic church and some opposition parties have boycotted the NCC. More or less the vast amounts of money given to delegates contradicts the main reasons President Levy Mwanawasa had given against the setting up of a constitutional assembly.

The NCC is a slap on the face of poor and disgruntled Zambians—it only shows the empty blind alleys where capitalism can lead the workers. Zambia is historically handicapped by ethnic and tribal allegiances, and it is a matter of political conjecture to infer that the workers and peasants in Zambia are in support of a constitutional assembly. This is so because the political statements being uttered by diverse political parties in Zambia does not in reality reflect the actual voting patterns that emerged during the 2006 general elections. People voted for the political parties to which they have close ethnic and tribal affinities.

Constitution reviews liberate no-one. The market system creates nothing beyond profit and misery—the ideological claims that capitalism is an efficient system just don’t stand up to any genuine examination.

This is proved in Africa where the prevalence of abundant minerals and oil reserves are failing to lead to economic development.

KEPHAS MULENGA , Zambia

Politics of Poverty

A commentary on the recent events in Kenya by a comrade in Zambia

It is tragic that poor Africans end up killing themselves each other whenever a political leader they support loses an election.

This was the case in Kenya where hundreds died after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election. The defeated opposition politician Raila Odinga cried foul and his tribal supporters went on the rampage, burning 300 innocent children who had taken refuge in a church. It is the case that in Kenya and Zambia, politics are strongly influenced by ethnic and tribal loyalties. In Kenya the Kikuyu and Luo ended up killing each other because of unexplained ethnic and tribal paroxysms. Odinga believes that the elections were rigged. It is the case that the so-called Western observers help to fuel political instability in Africa through their seemingly innocuous pronouncements—they are always unsatisfied with the electoral procedures that take place in Africa.

What took place in Kenya is more like what took place in Zambia during the 2006 general election. President Levy Mwangwasa won the elections on a slim margin and most members of the opposition PF felt that the elections were rigged. In any event, the defeated Orange Democratic Movement does not have a credible political vision for the poor workers and peasants of Kenya—that is to say, the economic status quo would not have changed even if Odinga had become the President.

Tribalism speaks hard against political transparency in Africa—it defeats the concept of political multi-partyism that exists on paper.

It is mostly political hooligans and thugs who benefit from ethnic and tribal conflicts.

Disparities in income and wealth distribution exist across the broad ethnic and tribal divide.

To infer that the ruling political elites in Africa cannot accept a political defeat (constitutional transparency) is beyond our theoretical jurisdiction. The WSM does not support any political movement that aims to reform capitalism. We believe that racial, religious economic, political and ecological disasters that confront Mankind cannot be resolved from within the political and economic arrangement that prevails under capitalism. We are hereby appealing to the workers in Kenya and elsewhere to become class conscious and rally behind the banner of WORLD SOCIALISM.

KEPHAS MULENGA (Zambia)

Zambian Polluters

At least 13 people in northern Zambia have been admitted to hospital after drinking water alleged to have been contaminated by a nearby mine . Those admitted to hospital in Mufulira were suffering from abdominal pains and vomiting .

Officials from Mufulira, who visited the site, claim acidic effluents from Mopani Copper Mines accidentally entered the water supply on Wednesday. Mufulira residents, who number about 800,000, are afraid to drink tap water. They are collecting water from shallow wells or nearby streams. Farmers fear their crops planted near the Kafue River will be affected. There was a near riot in Mufulira yesterday following water contamination , some people had mobilised themselves and attempted to march to the civic centre and Mulonga Water and Sewerage Company offices, but police were deployed in strategic areas .


This , of course is no isolated incident . Mr Mwandila , Mufulira Town Clerk , said this is the second incident experienced in Mufulira, with the first one having happened in 2005. A similar water contamination affected nearby Chingola in 2006. Also a US-based environmental charity , The Blacksmith Institute has stated that the Kabwe in Zambia, site for mining and smelting of metals was one of the most polluted regions in the world . The pressure group War on Want has also in the past accused the Konkola Copper Mines of negligence leading to toxic leaks.

As per usual , workers health is never a priority when it comes to prevention of pollution or profits .