Abstract
The years between 1989 and 1991 may be regarded as the period during which the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) reached the height of its perceived influence in Zambian politics. The organization’s public campaign for the democratization of Zambian politics, initiated in December 1989, culminated in the electoral defeat of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) at the multiparty polls of October 1991. Prior to that election, UNIP’s control over the governing institutions of parliament and the executive organ had been so effectively unchallenged that the ruling party equated itself with the state as well as with Zambian civil society. But all this changed when active trade union support for the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), the political opposition which Frederick Chiluba led to electoral victory in October 1991, decisively brought to an end the authoritarian party-state regime.
Apart from being a labor movement, ZCTU is also a political institution because it deals more with political issues. Let those saying [for ZCTU to leave out politics] know that even the Church supports a political party and that poorly paid workers cannot give good tithe in Church. The way we are governed has a bearing on the livelihood of people in the country and those calling on the labor movement not to support a political party of their choice should revisit their history. Our concern has been that our party [MMD] has failed to deliver and that is why we want to support a party that is labor-friendly. We used our resources to obtain independence and to change the government in 1991 and I see no reason why people should get worried when we say will support a single political party this time.
Sylvester Tembo
Secretary-General, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions 2004
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Akwetey, E., Kraus, J. (2007). Trade Unions, Development, and Democratization in Zambia: The Continuing Struggle. In: Kraus, J. (eds) Trade Unions and the Coming of Democracy in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610033_5
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