Zambian workers and poor under attack
In Zambia, the working class is being brutally attacked by the
twin forces of capitalism and imperialism. Wages are falling,
education and health are being cut back, food prices are increasing,
and at least 100,000 jobs have been lost in the 1990s. Wholesale
privatisation is resulted in huge chunks of the national economy
being sold to Western and South African bosses. But the workers are
fighting back.
THE ENEMY
This situation is the direct result of the actions of the
Zambian bosses and their friends in the imperialist International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
Since the 1970s, the Zambian economy has been in a crisis. This
was partly due to falling prices for copper (Zambia's main export).
It was also due to the plunder of the State-controlled economy by the
local elite.
The resulting crisis forced the regime to borrow money from the
IMF and World Bank. In return, the IMF and World Bank demanded
privatisation, the removal of food subsidies, retrenchments in the
public sector and a free market.
THE STRUGGLE
Attempts to implement these policies by the one-party
government of Kenneth Kuanda were repeatedly blocked by mass
resistance. Massive riots in 1987 in defence of maize subsidies
forced Kuanda to temporarily defy the IMF.
Eventually Kuanda was overthrown by the trade union-backed
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) in the first open elections
in 1991.
In power, however, the MMD has vigorously implemented free
market policies- in fact more brutally and successfully than Kuanda.
Although the MMD fought for basic democratic rights, pro-free market
Zambian capitalists and former Kuanda supporters hijacked it.
The MMD has also moved to undermine democratic rights. It has
harassed the press, banned Kuanda (the main opposition leader) from
participating in elections, and has now imposed a State of Emergency
after the "coup attempt" in October 1997. There is evidence that MMD
set up the "coup" to justify increased repression.
RESIST!
However, workers and their trade unions have fought back
against their fat cat exploiters.
Workers in the public sector- the main target of the wage cuts
and job losses- are at the forefront. The Zambia United Local
Authorities and Allied Workers Union (ZULAWU) was involved in strikes
for wages at Mufumbwe and Livingstone councils in 1995. In February
1996, the Civil Servants Union of Zambia (CSUZ) organised a week-long
countrywide strike to demand payment of a 45% wage increase granted
by the Industrial Court. National Union of Public Service Workers
(NUPSW) members joined them.
Strikes followed at Livingstone in March, October and December
1996. After 7 months of negotiation, the CSUZ was able to announce
wage increases ranging between 36 and 70%, and a number of
allowances.
Often the government retrenches workers but does not pay
severance packages. Unemployed workers have resisted this gross
injustice. In 1996, retrenched railway and mill workers both
demonstrated against this practice.
MILITANTS
Some strikes have been very militant. In March 1996, 200
workers almost lynched three managers at Hybrid Poultry Farm in
Lusaka. The workers, members of the National Union of Plantation and
Agricultural Workers (NUPAW), said the bosses had a "bad attitude"
towards workers.
In October 1996, workers tried to attack the Managing Director
of the Medical Stores after an angry meeting by workers worried about
their future. The boss escaped while union leaders from NUPSW spoke
to the workers. Workers then seized other bosses' car keys, and told
them to catch a minibus like ordinary people. The workers banned the
bosses from coming back, stating that "we will continue working but
we are not definitely allowing in any of the managers".
In 1996, there were also strikes by railway workers (April),
food workers (May), academics (July) and teachers and junior nurses
(September). Striking miners were forced to work at gunpoint in
October ZAMBIA (continued from page 9)
1996, and responded by sabotaging equipment.
STAND FAST
The only way to halt the MMD-led free market assault is mass
action. The different workers struggles need to be linked up to one
another, not left isolated. The unions must be reinvigorated and
conservative or undemocratic leaders expelled.
Instead of falling for the tricks of electioneering parties,
the unions must be won to a militant programme, the unions also need
to be united- there have been major splits in the 1990s. Since the
1930s the unions have been at the forefront of fighting colonialism
and later the post-colonial dictatorship.
We need to learn the lesson: ONLY THE WORKERS CAN FREE THE
WORKERS!
Finally, the Zambian workers need to unite with the millions of
poor peasants in the countryside in a struggle against exploitation,
the State and all forms of oppression. We cannot trust governments:
they are tools of the rich. Do not put faith in parliament and
politics!
Organise in the unions for freedom and socialism! Unite workers,
peasants, and the poor!
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