Chiluba+is+a+sellout,+charges+Nzimande



=Chiluba is a sell-out, charges Nzimande=


 * By George Chellah, Bivan Saluseki and Kwenda Paipi**

Post, Friday March 31, 2006
CHILUBA is a sell-out and the worst example of a trade union leader, South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Dr Blade Nzimande has charged.

And addressing the Newsmakers Forum organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post on Wednesday, Dr Nzimande emphasised the need for Africa to learn from the current changes in Latin America if it has to attain meaningful political and economic liberation.

Meeting trade union representatives at Hotel Intercontinental on Wednesday, Dr Nzimande said the SACP had been concerned with the state of trade unions in the region especially for Zambia where Chiluba, who had been Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) chairman general, ascended to power.

He said it appeared Zambia had an unfortunate situation where a former trade union leader betrayed his fellow workers after ascending to power.

"He is the worst example of a trade union leader. Chiluba is like an example of a sell-out. You can't allow such a thing to happen. Now that is water under the bridge," he said.

Dr Nzimande asked where trade union leaders were when Chiluba was dismantling the very unions that had taken him to power.

"Couldn't they suspect that there is something here?" he asked. Dr Nzimande said because of the Zambian situation, he was uncomfortable with MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe.

He asked why the trade unions in Zambia lost control in 1991. Dr Nzimande said there was no political working group to monitor what was happening, let alone a workers' movement that plays a political role.

"So Chiluba smashed the very ladder he used to get to the top. He kicks the ladder because he knows somebody will use the same ladder to get up," he said. Dr Nzimande said sometimes he even asks why people removed Dr Kaunda if all the things were alright in the country.

Later during the Newsmakers Forum at Lusaka's Mulungushi International Conference Centre on Wednesday evening, Dr Nzimande observed that there was a rapid decline of progressive and vibrant post-independence mass movements in Africa.

"The lesson out of this is the tendency to channel all the energies with the singular focus on the electoral victory. If it's about KK then it will all be KK and if it's about Chiluba... it will be him. So the moment Chiluba begins to misbehave terribly such as dividing the labour movements, selling the mines and Zambia's assets, we fail to say anything," Dr Nzimande said.

"I was asking my comrades when we were meeting this morning (Wednesday) that 'but I have never heard of such things about comrade KK'. In short what I was asking them was 'why did you remove KK?'

"Therefore, the Chiluba experience is a lesson to Zambia and the region where popular trade union leaders get elected and then they hijack the struggle." He emphasised that the common practice in Southern Africa was that the moment former liberation movements ascend to power, alliances that ushered them in authority begin to crack. Dr Nzimande said similar to the United States, Southern Africa also has a huge civil society that only becomes active during particular issues.

"Usually mass movements or civil society can be very good in coming together on a single issue. If it's 'no third term for Chiluba then that's it' as long as they win. There is no sustainability. The lesson from Latin America is what's the correct relationship between the state, political parties and civil society?" Dr Nzimande said.

"Sometimes civil society tend to rope itself in permanent opposition and that's losing an opportunity to support and strengthen where the state is doing okay. During our negotiations in South Africa, we came up with a phrase that ' what progressive forces can't win on the ground they can't win on the table.'

We also said 'what you have won on the ground you can also lose it on the table'. So if we are to draw lessons from Latin America we need to reflect on the post-independence situation in Southern African."

He said there was a necessity of ongoing popular participation and mass mobilisation. "What we are seeing in Latin America is a direct expression of hard work mobilisation unlike the tendency that is practiced to try and put up alliances on the eve of elections," Dr Nzimande said. "We should welcome and build on this wave by the people in Latin America. Therefore, the current leftist electoral advances in Latin America also raise very fundamental questions to us."

Dr Nzimande, who quoted the United States recent national security document, criticised America's position of responding to problems that are facing the world through increased militarism.

"The document defines the immediate ally of the US as the major centre of global power which includes Europe. But if the aim of the US is to lead democratisation, why doesn't poverty eradication feature?" Dr Nzimande asked.

"The US is imposing itself as the custodian of human civilisation from now onwards and since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The current events in Latin America can be described as a definitely important left-ward shift that would argue and pose a challenge to neo-liberal policies.

"So the best organiser for socialism is capitalism because it's unable to address the problems our people are facing. Therefore, it's mobilising us clearly the time in Latin America is turning in favour of the workers and the poor."

He said heightened popular mobilisation after the Second World War was crushed by authoritarianism and Latin America militarism activities that he said were backed by the US in the midst of the cold war.

"US imperialists supported these activities just like it supported white regimes in Southern Africa," Dr Nzimande said. He further explained that the brutality of the torture by capitalists was later replaced by the brutality of the markets.

"That's why as much as multi-party democracy is considered important, it also needs serious scrutiny. Democracy is not just periodical elections or having elections every five years. Democracy must involve social and economic justice if it is to have a real meaning," he said. Dr Nzimande said there were no mass movements to defend developing countries against the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP).

"Not even to stop the elite from using its SAP to benefit themselves. State power is always vulnerable and allows the market to play its own games. There can be no meaningful political liberation without economic emancipation of our people," Dr Nzimande said.

And responding to comments from Austin Mbozi, a University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer who described communism as a failed ideology that only leads to dictatorship, Dr Nzimande said there was need to distinguish history and not just capture the US propaganda on communism.

"Let's examine our records of the communists correctly. Hitler was defeated by the Soviet Union. It was only when Hitler was pushed out that the US found a lousy excuse of World War Two. So when we criticise let's do a balanced criticism and not a one-sided criticism. If the Soviet Union was still in place, the US would not have attacked Iraq," Dr Nzimande said.

"We agree there were major distortions and mistakes which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In fact, the world has become poor since the collapse of the Soviet Union and developing countries have no chance of developing anymore."

He said SACP believes that Southern Africa has not exploited maximum mobilisation of resources as a region.

Asked by Women for Change executive director Emily Sikazwe how the SACP could help Zambia, given the influx of White farmers, which she said were grabbing land from the locals at give away prices, Dr Nzimande responded: "Our problem is that once our region is liberated politically, that's it. Government to government relationship is good but we also need people to people contact because our situations are similar or else we will be exporting economic apartheid."

He urged Zambians to persevere and have a vision for the country. "Many people in Latin America were almost giving up but they persevered. For Zambians, you must ask yourselves what your vision is, what type of Zambia you want to see 10-15 years from now and what kind of political parties you should support? So it's not for us to say to the region, it's a collective resolution," Dr Nzimande said.

He said it was sad to observe that the values of the liberation struggle such as selflessness and sacrifice had been thrown out. "We only want to do something in order to get money. That is what is encouraging rampant corruption. I don't care what you say about comrade KK; after all he is not only Zambian, he is African. The man ruled for 27 years but he is still poor. Some people have only ruled for five years and they are millionaires," Dr Nzimande said. "We should be careful or else our countries will be overwhelmed by greed, so the answer to the way forward is organisation."

On the Constitution, Dr Nzimande said it was important not to restrict the constitution-making process to the elite. "In South Africa, it took us four years. It depends on what you want to do and how you are going to produce the constitution," he said.

When asked by local music artiste, Maiko Zulu, what he could have done over the Zimbabwe land issue if he were in Zimbabwe, Dr Nzimande responded: "If our party was in Zimbabwe, we would have demanded for accelerated redistribution of land in Zimbabwe. We might do it differently from what Zimbabwe has done but with the same objective. We might say we have a plan to provide post-resettlement allocations. In fact, in South Africa the land issue is even worse."

UNZASU president Antonio Mwanza agreed with Dr Nzimande's observations on the civil society's tendency to only team up on particular issues.

"The civil society here only becomes active when there is something. We fought the third term together but after that they have forgotten about us. The civil society only becomes useful when there is a common problem," Mwanza said.

"But we have many problems in this country, the education sector is on shambles, on the constitution we have been dribbled, we also have a problem in the political field; there are so many people such that we don't even know who to vote for and the civil society is quiet amidst all these problems."

Luena UPND member of parliament Crispin Sibetta complained that South Africans have not signed any economic protocols with the Zambian government to assist the government considering that Zambia sacrificed a lot for South Africa's political independence.

He said South Africans have forgotten about the sacrifice Zambians made during the liberation struggles. In his response, Dr Nzimande said the South African alliance has not forgotten Zambians’ contributions to the struggle.

"There are certain lapses on our side, I don't want to be defensive. We are equally concerned that we are not doing much in our international relations. But it's not so much of what one should be doing but what both should be doing, that's what is critical," he said.

He said his delegation has learnt more out of their interactions during their visit and urged The Post to engage people in discussions that involve intra-regional discourse. Dr Nzimande concluded that communism was not about big words and concepts but issues affecting the people.

"Much as we are aware that a transition to socialism is not around the corner, the question is what socialist measure should we put in place? For instance, free education is a socialist measure. Socialist measures have to alleviate the conditions of our people because capitalism doesn't work," Dr Nzimande said.

"Communism is about shelter, clean drinking water and other issues in the realities we are faced with. When we sit at the end of things then we might as well give up and Africa shall remain poor and poor Amen!" he said.

Earlier, Dr Nzimande said the SACP was concerned with divisions among labour unions in Zambia. He said no revolution could succeed without involving the masses and making alliances. "You run the danger of being isolated. I know of no revolution which has succeeded without an alliance," he said.

He said the SACP went into an alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) because it knew that to smash the apartheid wall, they needed to form an alliance since ANC was weak.

He said the SACP defeated apartheid because of the alliance.

"To be in an alliance is not to submit, but you will submit if you are not strong," he said.

"An alliance is not a permanent thing." He said SACP whose membership is drawn from workers had to involve COSATU in order to liberate the people.

However, Dr Nzimande said a trade union was not a political party and should not try and pretend to be apolitical party.

"The best example was ZCTU and MMD. That was the seed for all the problems. Are you controlling MMD or are you part of MMD?" he asked.

He said South Africans were faced with a very powerful white capitalist and President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were watching what was going on in South Africa. Dr Nzimande said because of South Africa's developed economy, the duo were watching carefully what was going on. Dr Nzimande said the SAPC was concerned about the role of South African white capital on the rest of the world.

"They are also casualising in South Africa," he said.

And Joyce Nonde said liberalisation had its toll on the union. She said the union had lost a lot of its members because of liberalisation. She said currently, there was confusion on which direction Zambia was taking. "We have been seeing more confusion than direction," she said. Nonde said workers did not seem to be guided on which direction to go.

"Under one party state, it was easier to know where we were going," she said. Nonde said the union had gone through intimidation and harassment from the state. She said half the time, labour leaders were not free to speak out and could not even identify themselves with any political party. Nonde said the unions had fought privatisation though there was no progress.

She said government did not have a say in the way the country was running because the World Bank and International Monitory Fund were dictating terms. Nonde said workers were watching helplessly as profits were being externalised.

"That has frustrated us. Our workers have also been weakened by privatisation. Workers are no longer strong. They are being threatened with redundancies," she said. Nonde said the union was not strong because of redundancies. She said the union had continued to train leaders at great cost but they were not being retained.

"We are actually working in a very hostile environment that does not guarantee food security," she said. Nonde said some differences with ZCTU led to the divisions in the labour movement hence the birth of FFTUZ.

"We all need to be honest and understand what we want to do. It's not about coming together. There is need for a labour revolution for us to come together," she said. ZCTU trustee Sam Phiri was concerned with the casualisation of labour by South African investors.

Phiri said such investors had no regard for long-term employment and the textile industry had collapsed. He said Zambia was the biggest growing market for countries in Southern Africa. Phiri said South Africa was dealing more with the west than African countries.


 * From: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=8307**

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