Strikers humble Kaunda in Zambian showdown

Press, 9 May 1981, Page 14

Strikers humble Kaunda in Zambian showdown

By

STEPHEN TAYLOR

in Lusaka

There was a mood of heady nationalism at a press conference in Lusaka’ recently as the rich baritone voices of African journalists and government officials joined in the singing of Zambia’s national anthem. The anthem compares the progress of the country to the flight of the eagle — but the eagle’s flight is faltering. The conference had been called to announce what amounted to another climbdown by the Government in a long-running confrontation with labour leaders. Although the dispute appears to have been resolved for the moment, it is still seen by some authoritative sources as the most dangerous internal rift in Zambia’s history. And there are other serious problems facing the country’s only political organisation, the United National Independence Party (U.N.1.P.) of President Kenneth Kaunda, who seems to be at the lowest ebb of his 16 years in office. Maladministration, a dramatic increase in corruption at senior level, the inability of Zambian agriculture to feed the country, the stark fact that people in the rural areas have to produce three times as much as they did at independence to buy the same consumer goods ... all have led to unprecedented criticism of the ruling hierarchy.

The labour dispute storied in January on Copperbelt, the Mineral-rich strip of land north KSka that produces 95 per foreign curZy earnings. The region is fu mnst politicised .in the the the capital and prete ' l * countered union The P’ rty bv C expelling 17 resistance by . n^uding Mr trade«y^ ba the power-

Congress of Trade Unions, his deputy and the head of the Mineworkers Union. As U.N.I.P. is the only party and membership is virtually mandatory for union officials, the party was effectively attempting to have the 17 removed from office. A disastrous visit was made to the Copperbelt by Mr Mainza Chona, then U.N.I.P. secretory-general and No. 2 to President Kaunda, who spoke in contemptuous terms of the union’s power. The miners came out to a man.

Only then did the seriousness of the situation sink in. Deprived of mineral earnings for more than a couple of weeks, Zambia’s economy would have collapsed and the Government would probably have fallen. As a Western diplomat said: “Both sides were suddenly looking over the precipice.”

What followed was a political power struggle. Faced with the realisation that it could not take on the miners, the party hastily cobbled together a formula to get the men back to work and said it would consider individual applications for readmittance to the party by the 17. Mr Chona and Mr Daniel Lisulo, the Prime Minister, were replaced, although such a step had been expected for some months.

Sensing that there might be an attempt to weed out individuals, the union sent in a block application and demanded that the Government revert to the practice of consulting labour leaders on policy, decisions. It went further out on a limb by refuw to meet Mr Basil Kabwe, the Minister of Labour A week later Mr Humphrey Mulemba, who had replaced Mr Chona, called a press conference and announced that the Central Committee had decided 12 days earlier to readmit the 17. He gave no explanation for the delay , in making the. announcement but asserted that

the applications had been considered individually.

The statement failed to dispel the impression that the party had been faced down. Another Western source said: “It has been a patent victory for a cohesive, organised and highly motivated union movement, which has realised for the first time how powerful it io ”

Mr Chiluba, the union chief, has emerged as a considerable political force. Like Simon Kapwepwe, the former leader of the opposition United Progressive Party, which was banned in 1972, Mr Chiluba is a Bemba, the main tribal group on the Copperbelt, and is thought to have inherited much of Kapwepwe’s support after his death last year.

Mr Chiluba was reluctant to go into details of the dispute when I spoke to him, but said he was satisfied that the process of consultation would be renewed. “We don’t want necessarily to change party plans but we do want to be able to give our opinion,” he said.

In the coming months the unions will be urging the Government to encourage expansion in the private sector. Capitalism has long been an ugly word in Zambia and 80 per cent of the economy is in the hands of the public sector which has, by consensus, performed abysmally. “In our case nationalisation has too often resulted in inherited problems and the creation of new ones. We believe the private sector can play an important part in improving the economy,” Mr Chiluba said. Asked whether he foresaw a future in politics, he replied: “I was offered a post on the Central Committee and refused it. While I have a role to play at the Congress of Trade Unions that’s where my future lies.” — Copyright, London Observer Service.