Tag: revolution

    It’s time to choose between the future and the past – M’membe

    It’s time to choose between the future and the past – M’membe Featured

    May 27, 2021 by Socialist Party Zambia in

    ON AUGUST 12, Zambians will face a stark choice: a choice between the future and the past, Socialist Party president Fred M’membe has said.

    “Today the case I put before the Zambian people is that if we are to secure the future for our children, for our communities and for our nation, the government of Zambia must now change in a real and revolutionary sense,” he said.

    “The neoliberal, capitalist policies being pursued and advanced by our opponents belong to the past. Socialism is the future and we must build it now. After a decade in power, the PF has lost touch with the poor and working people. It no longer understands what fairness, justice, equity and peace actually mean. It simply doesn’t understand the new challenges we face, now, and in the future.”

    In a statement ahead of the party’s official campaign launch, Dr M’membe spelled out some of the challenges Zambia was facing.

    “One challenge is to revolutionise our hospitals and make health services free and socialised. And above all, there is the challenge to transform our education system and make it free and socialised,” he said.

    “The PF has no plans for the future because it’s not going to be there to deal with the challenges of the future. It is being sent to the wire on August 12.

    “The way forward for Zambia is to elect a revolutionary party and president with progressive ideas to meet the challenges of the future, a new president and government that understand and respect the values upon which our independence struggle was fought.”

    Dr M’membe said those values were honesty, equity, humility and solidarity.

    “We need to build a Zambia anchored on justice, equity and peace. We need a nation where there’s decency, fairness and respect,” he said. “You can’t have a plan for Zambia’s future if you have lost sight of such basic values. For us socialists, these values are in our DNA.”

    Dr M’membe said Zambia needed a new leadership with fresh ideas for the future. “With barely three months to go in this election campaign, the PF government has put forward no real new ideas for the future. It has run out ideas. It has clearly run out of energy. And it has run out of time.

    “The Socialist Party is offering new leadership with a plan for the future, and however many words and however much money the PF may yet throw at these longstanding challenges over the next 11 weeks, it is just not going to be real. The truth is, it’s all just too late to be believable.”

    Dr M’membe said nation-building required vision. “And the cornerstone of our vision for Zambia’s future is an education revolution. We believe passionately in the power of education,” he said. “We believe education is the engine room of equity and the engine room of the economy. I would not be standing as a presidential candidate today were it not for the encouragement and instruction provided to me by the teachers who shaped my life. They made it possible for a child like me from Lubemba and Bulozi to finish school, go to university and be here today seeking to lead our nation into the future.

    “I know the difference a great education can make. Our vision for Zambia is to build a very good education system so we produce an innovative, skilled and well-trained workforce.”

    Dr M’membe said the economies competing against Zambia were making huge investments in education. “They know that knowledge-intensive economies will be the wealthiest economies of the future. We must take decisive action now,” he said. “We need nothing less than an education revolution now to improve radically the performance of the education system. Universities are critical to the education revolution that Zambia so urgently needs. Undoing the damage this government has done to our universities will not be easy. But this challenge begins today.

    “Zambia cannot be put on the path of a knowledge economy if we do not help our universities attract and retain our best scientists, innovators and researchers into the future.”

    Dr M’membe said he was approaching the election “with a passionate commitment to Zambia’s future”.

    “The values I bring to leadership are the values instilled in me by my strong Bemba royal upbringing,” he said. “They are also the values that are intrinsic to this revolutionary party. I understand that life is sometimes harsh, but I believe that as a people we have a responsibility that when one of us falls down we must help to lift them back up. That’s what decency and fairness is all about.

    “Another thing I have learnt is the absolute value of hard work, of not being wasteful, and the importance of planning for the future. For me, these are enduring values. And these are the values that, as president, I would bring to our nation’s challenges.

    “The nation now needs new leadership for the future. The nation now wants new leadership for the future. And today, I am ready to deliver that new leadership for Zambia’s future.”

    Socialist Easter Greetings!

    Socialist Easter Greetings!

    April 18, 2019 by Socialist Party Zambia in

    Jesus came into our world to launch God’s revolution – a kingdom revolution, a revolution of the Spirit, a world-changing movement that would overcome evil with good and hatred with love. And Jesus himself was the most radical revolutionary leader who ever lived.

    All too often, however, we look at Jesus as the founder of a “lovely home and garden religion,” called Christianity, a harmless spiritual leader who left behind some lovely platitudes and inspirational thoughts, a man whose memory we celebrate at the annual Easter egg hunt.
    But that is hardly the Jesus of the New Testament. His message was a threat to the religious establishment. He called for dramatic, sweeping – yes, revolutionary – change. He taught his followers to pray radical prayers like, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” – meaning, the displacement of the corrupt kingdoms of this world by the perfect kingdom of God. He called his disciples to revolutionary commitment, urging them to leave everything and follow him, and in his platform message, he promised freedom to the captives (Luke 4:18–21).

    That is the language of a revolution, and that is the language we must recover today, as our nation teeter–totters on the verge of moral and social – not to mention economic – collapse. We need a Jesus-based cultural revolution that will recover the fear of God, the respect of honour, the dignity of family, and the beauty of morality.

    Join our socialist revolutionary cause and fulfill Jesus’ call to change the world, a life-changing book filled with challenging examples from saints and martyrs of the past.

    “We socialists would have nothing to do if you Christians had continued the revolution begun by Jesus,” these words were spoken by a leading socialist in the 1920s. Yet more than 90 years later, they remain foreign to many Christian ears. What “revolution” did Jesus begin? And was Jesus in any sense a “revolutionary”?

    As Dr. Martin Luther King warned decades ago, “If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”
    Let’s accordingly examine our present methods of leadership against the biblical grid.

    There is reason for great hope. As expressed by the Vernon Grounds, “A Christian who… becomes a revolutionary will serve as a revolutionary catalyst in the Church; and by the multiplication of revolutionised Christians, the Church will become a revolutionary catalyst in society; and if society is sufficiently revolutionised, a revolution of violence will no more be needed than a windmill in a world of atomic energy.”

    Wishing you a Happy Easter!

    Issued by Fred M’membe on behalf of the Politburo of the Socialist Party

    Analysis of 2018 and expectations in 2019: by Socialist Party General Secretary, Dr Cosmas Musumali

    Analysis of 2018 and expectations in 2019: by Socialist Party General Secretary, Dr Cosmas Musumali

    January 4, 2019 by Socialist Party Zambia in

    Q. Comrade we have just done 2018, how do you analyze the year 2018?

    A. 2018 was a very difficult year for Zambians, especially those without jobs, those that lost jobs, those that depend on their meager salaries for survival and those that are trying to earn a living through farming, students who have not been able to pay their fees, and basically all poor and marginalized Zambians.

    With the downturn of the Zambian economy, a lot of things are very hard to come by for the average Zambian. And what we have also seen is that apart from the economy biting and making life very, very difficult for our people, the political climate has also worsened – there has been increased repression from the leading political party and from those in government. We have also seen high levels of intolerance when it comes to dealing with national issues, we have also witnessed state sponsored violence where crisis and the issues that should have been dealt with amicably were resolved using strong hand tactics.

    And this is most likely not going to end in 2019, it is a continuum of violence that is increasingly making life very difficult in Zambia. But we have also seen the reaction of the international community, one of the sad areas was in the areas of corruption, where donors had to go to the extent of withdrawing their support because we are deemed to be a corrupt society especially the leadership and even the government itself.

    We have seen our grading in terms of governance deteriorating, in terms of human rights, in terms of the livelihoods of the people and many other indicators of governance and economic wellbeing.

    Economic status and projection

    In short, 2018 has not been an easy year: things have been rather difficult for the average Zambian, the little bit of democratic space that was gained earlier on has been lost in that year and the hope is becoming less that 2019 is going to be any better. For 2019 we expect the continuation of the suffering that we saw in 2018. I would add actually that things are going to be worse off compared to 2018. What we expect is an economy that is literally stagnating, and as the economy is stagnating we expect also that inflationary pressures to come in, in a much bigger way, its going to be very, very difficult to do away with the inflation when it comes to food, and beyond food also some of the none food products upon which the poor people depend.

    Social Services

    We see a lot of difficulties in accessing social amenities, social utilities for the masses of our people, the paying of school fees is going to be a challenge, the meeting of transport needs or requirements is going to be a big challenge, food itself is going to be a big challenge for our people, hospitals and medical requirements are still going to be another hustle.

    Political Resistance and Repression

    So 2019 may also produce some bit of resistance from our people, as the suffering increases there is a good chance that people are going to go out on the street to vent out their anger. With that, there is also a possibility of much more repression as the government becomes insecure and unstable.

    Political Players and alternatives

    On the political scene we do not see much change, what we are witnessing in Zambia is a proliferation of opposition political parties that do not have a different agenda from that of government. These are capitalist political parties that are repositioning themselves; these find the leadership of the PF and government weak and they are vying for positions not necessarily that they are doing it for the betterment of Zambians but they see their chances to get into power, come 2021. That’s the dilemma that we find ourselves in, in the political sphere in Zambia. And the troubles of 2019 are going to be a huge reflection of this dilemma.

    Pacifying political tensions

    We expect also to see some attempts towards national dialogue taking place, as the situation becomes critical, we will most likely see certain parties such as the church coming in and trying to bring in some bit of sanity. We do appreciate those efforts, we will support those efforts, we are skeptical that the current government has the willingness, has the capacity, the commitment to changing the situation. It’s an elite, political elite that has come into power using violence and if it doesn’t use violence what else has it got to offer? It’s an elite that continues to use the buying of people, misusing government resources, it’s parasitic on the public funding and this is a culture that it cannot just easily stop. But as it tries to re-assert itself, there will be contradictions within those that are in power and there will be some form of opposition within the leading party itself or the ruling party itself but that should not be judged as a measure of increased democracy and transparency in Zambia. If anything it’s a measure of a failing elite, failing in terms of providing to the Zambians. Then it becomes insecure and starts fighting itself. Not necessarily that those that are fighting the current government have got much or better to offer, NO. Definitely not.

    The alternative

    For SP, for the socialist party, we feel the main fight is against the failures of capitalism, it’s a system that hasn’t delivered to our people for so many years and it won’t definitely deliver in 2019. Joblessness is going to increase, inflationary pressures are going to increase and any wealth that created in Zambia is going to be consumed or is going to accrue mostly to the already rich people. And this is not going to change, it’s going to be enhanced. The richer will get richer, the poor will remain poor under the capitalism that we experience in Zambia. And as a party we stand firm behind the suffering masses, behind the working people of this country. We will do our part to agitate, we will do our part to stand firm for the masses and against the exploitative and repressive tendencies of the current government. It’s going to be a year of struggle, but we also think that with our combined forces it is going to produce positive results. By the end of the year, that movement towards peace, towards equity, towards justice will gain in strength it will give Zambians the confidence that they can be masters of their destiny and that Zambia can be a better society. That’s how we get into 2019, it’s going to be a year of resistance, a year of the revolution.

    Thank you.

    US Military invasion of Venezuela highly possible

    US Military invasion of Venezuela highly possible

    August 20, 2018 by Cosmas Musumali in

    A US military intervention of Venezuela is highly possible. The dynamics in American domestic politics are creating an environment in which the anti-Venezuelan forces are gaining an upper hand. This is a coalition involving US based Venezuelan dissidents, right-wing Latin American cartels and conservative Christian groupings. It is the type of groups President Trump is targeting in the bid to sustain domestic support for his administration and perform well in the forthcoming midterm elections. The heightened aggressiveness and impunity of the Columbian ruling elite, which currently serves as Washington’s blue-eyed boys in Latin America, has also helped to unite the Anti-Venezuelan forces and reawakened the possibilities of a full-scale military invasion.

    In August 2017, President Trump had asked his foreign policy advisers about the possibility of invading Venezuela – a country whose economy was already crippled by sanctions and its leadership demonised as corrupt, narcotic peddlers and left-wing dictators. The suggestion to invade Venezuela had surprised even his advisors, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser HR McMaster, both of whom have since left his administration. Similarly, even the Latin American leaders whose accomplice he sort were not ready for an invasion. However, the current team of advisors and Latin American right wing leaders are not as careful and cautious. There is growing excitement to finally destroy the Bolivarian revolution.

    The disdain and hate for the socialist oriented Bolivarian revolution is understandable. When oil prices were high, Venezuela extended financial support to its poor Latin American and Caribbean neighbours. Even poor communities in the USA received energy subsidies from Citgo,a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Venezuela was becoming an example of a society where poor people could come out of poverty through a committed and egalitarian government policy. This is the opposite of the greed and individualism of neo-liberal capitalism. Venezuela was is not the example that is required in Latin America – just at the backyard of the USA! American imperialism fears the power of an enlightened and socialist inspired people more than anything else.

    In his desire to invade Venezuela, President Trump is known to have alluded to what he considered past cases of successful gunboat diplomacy in the region. The invasions of Panama and Grenada in the 1980s were such examples. This is outright reckless. Panama and Grenada have hardly recovered from these invasions. The economic and social costs have been huge.

    Venezuela may not be a military power, even by Latin American standards. However, the majority of the poor masses are supporters of the revolution. These are the key pillars in the defence of the country against foreign invasion. They have shaped the country’s defence doctrine to stress asymmetrical warfare: using insurgency to wear down the invading enemy forces over time. Venezuela will be more than Vietnam, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Millions will perish and American lives will recklessly be sacrificed. Hopefully sanity will prevail and humanity is spared such a macabre invasion.