The mass unemployment and the misfortunes high-tech brings cannot be ended under capitalism, says Socialist Party in Zambia deputy general secretary and 2021 presidential candidate, Fred M’membe.
Dr M’membe said in order to meet the needs of the scientific and technological advances, a transition from capitalism to socialism must be made.
“We are back again to the issues of jobs, jobs, jobs! This is one of our greatest national and global challenges today. The other week we said machines – excavators, combine-harvester, digitalised tractors, ATMs, and so on and so forth – have taken over workers’ jobs. Today we pull the string a little further and examine what is really taking place,” Dr M’membe writes. “Capitalist ideologists, apologists and some of our misguided politicians – well-meaning but empty, have been trying to present the current scientific and technological advances as a remedy for social contradictions which will ensure the general welfare of our people within the framework of capitalism.”
He said that actually, these scientific and technological advances are exacerbating the far-reaching socio-economic contradictions of capitalism and, particularly, the contradiction between the social character of production and private capitalist appropriation.
“It also intensifies the concentration of production and capital in the hands of the biggest companies and the rapidly growing dependence of social production on the new branches, which are among the technological leaders in this, as these branches are mainly concentrated in the hands of a few very big monopolies,” Dr M’membe said. “Technological progress accelerates the ruination of non-monopolised and small enterprises, which cannot afford expensive technological innovations. Enterprises have to renew their equipment continually to keep up with the technological changes. This requires continual big capital investments, which only the big monopolies afford.”
He said further that these scientific and technological advances intensify the main class antagonism of capitalism, which is the antagonism between the capitalists and the workers.
“The working class wages a constant struggle to have the proceeds of the new technology, the increase in labour productivity and the growth in social wealth used for the benefit of the working people,” Dr M’membe pointed out. “New technologies make many working people even less secure, and face them with unemployment and other privations.”
Dr M’membe observed that as a result of the growth of labour productivity at high-tech enterprises, the demand for labour power has dropped sharply.
“The mass unemployment and the misfortunes high-tech brings cannot be ended under capitalism. There are millions of unemployed in the United States and other big capitalist countries. Unemployment is particularly rampant among young people leaving school, college or university. Poverty has survived all the achievements of science and technology,” he said. “Many of the demands now being advanced by the working people are linked with the problem of unemployment, and the fate of workers who are being replaced by machines. Clearly, these demands, advanced in new conditions created by the scientific and technological advances, cannot be achieved in isolation from the more general, main task – the struggle for socialism.”
He said Lenin’s conclusion that the improvement of technology intensifies social inequality was still true.
Dr M’membe argued that capitalism was unable to completely cope with the scientific and technological advances.
“Its endeavours to adapt ultimately exacerbate the contradictions of capitalism even further,” said Dr M’membe.
“In order to meet the needs of the scientific and technological advances, a transition from capitalism to socialism must be made.”
Ba Meembe you are talking of things that are far fetched for Zambia. Your Minister still sets up road blocks to monitor use of government cars…. your traffic lights hardly work police always controlling traffic. Most people still cultivate Neolithic style there are no intercity fast trains no structured intracity metro transport just too many examples so stop wasting time with this theory please we need proper pressure on the PF ivi sivinthu that u have started we were a little hopeful when u got into politics
I have started warming to him.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Has Mmembe not made money through capitalism? don’t forget the loan for Zambian Airways which you failed to pay which also stinks capitalism. The Post News paper was existing because of profit and besides it was the most expensive paper on the streets. That was capitalism Mr Mmembe.
In Zambia a few people i know of who are capitalist include Mmembe, HH etc. Any business man has a capitalist mind. Only KK remains a socialist. I for one believe each person should be given a chance and God will bless that person if they work hard.
Where is Mmembe going to get the votes? Zambia of flourishing with capitalism and it shows. The only hindrance to the progress in Zambia is Koswe and his associated mafias along with the terrorists (Mwenyes). This Jonathan guy who Siwale is convinced is not even Zambian is really really a bum.
Lazy Lungu hates this man so much that he chased Cuban Ambassdor over him….really laughable…what a kneejerk reaction that was..next he will be complaining about smartphones yet the make it possible for us to watch his boring Youtube videos.
Punctuation please. If you read the above, you may run out of breath and collapse.
So Mmembe wants us to be queuing up in banks for cash instead of using ATMs? Life has been changing and improving from stone age and that’s the way it should be.
Doc today you are online because of hi tech
Even the Mast can produces million copies in one hour because of hi tech
Let’s now hear the directionless party blame ecl in support of the Doc
A socialist driving American bullet proof Hummer
How many street kids can the cost of running that car sustain
That’s what happens when there is no opposition in country. Anyone takes a shot
If you cared to research more you would know that Dr Fred is already sponsoring dozens of underprivileged students. But you are just another ignorant Zambians who love to comment even on matters they have very little understanding about
It’s the way the political and economic system employed.
*SOCIALISM:* You have two cows, and you give one to your neighbor.
*COMMUNISM:* You have two cows, the government takes both and gives you milk.
*FASCISM:* You have two cows, the government takes both and sells you milk.
*NAZISM:* You have two cows, the government takes them and kills you.
*TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM:* You have two cows, you sell one and buy a male. You multiply your cows and there is economic growth. You sell them, you retire and you live on your profits.
*MODERN CAPITALISM:* You have two cows, you sell one and buy a male. You multiply your cows and you buy those of your neighbors. The latter become your shepherds, you pay them in monkey currencies and they die poor.
*AMERICAN SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you…
CONT’D….
*AMERICAN SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you sell one and you have to make the other one to produce milk like 4 cows. By dint of producing beyond her capacity, she dies. You take a consultant to understand this death.
*FRENCH SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you go on strike because you want a third.
*GERMAN SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you modify them so that they live 100 years, eat once a month and treat themselves.
*CHINESE SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you sell milk to your compatriots and you produce plastic milk to export to the rest of the world.
*AFRICAN SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you eat them the same day because you believe that you need to rebury your grandma and thereafter you dream that donors or the international community give you others. Meanwhile you have…
CONT”D
*AFRICAN SOCIETY:* You have two cows, you eat them the same day because you believe that you need to rebury your grandma and thereafter you dream that donors or the international community give you others. Meanwhile you have fertile land which somehow precludes you from taking any extra efforts to maximize productivity thus resorting to praying praying praying and praying. With no fruits, then, probably, someone is supposedly bewitching you.
The name can tell. Brotherman you have issues kkkk
That witchcraft thing is really something.
Dr membe….you are on the losing side of the world…..socialisim is all but dead and barried…….today money is king and capitalism is the king maker.
King for who…just for a few pests like yourself
This man who defamed his contemporaries in his villainous way would crown himself with a halo of heroic probity fashioned of unctuous phraseology and twaddled about his duties as a journalist and other mouldy nonsense of that kind. When these cuttle-fishes gathered together in large shoals at meetings and congress they would give out a lot of slimy talk about a special kind of honour which they called the professional honour of the journalist. There are those among us that will always see through him….
Fred Membe really sounds like a relic from the past. Does he really want to win elections or are these signs of a bitter and ageing mind. He needs to understand the current democraphics metrics. The constituency is talking to is minority and almost extinct and frankly too old and tired to prop up his agenda. The man needs a seriously upgrade and reboot
I dont see any logic in his thinking, its so shallow, mmmmbe or mumembe wat ever they call you the world keeps on changing with time…
I bet you he was sat back in his chair reading all this calmly from teleprompter
….the man is stuck in his own little world.
LOL – Reading between the lines, Dr M’membe clearly knows he is talking b.s. and he knows that we know he knows he is talking b.s. So, the big question is WHY?
… Why is such an accomplished and time-served journalist doing this and making such an a$$ of himself? The ethos of journalism has until recently been to “Inform, Educate and Entertain”. But in recent years add ‘to dope’ with fake information to gullible masses.
Easy to do that if you can shamelessly adjust your moral threshold and join low life forms like fu.gitive humble Lungu to dupe and win votes.
******* **** you crack my ribs
Blaming technology is wrong. Why not blame scientists? Blame science policy. Technological innovation by definition makes a difference in society. Innovation leads to solutions to old problems. At the same time, innovation can create new problems calling for new solutions. Let the market judge technology. Lazy bones would prefer returning to nature. Living by the season. Living by the day. Living by the night. Living by the what?
M’membe and his party are a danger to our society. His ideas brings to the fore the regime that took Cambodia to stone age. Remember the killing fields??? M’membe and his team are capable of replicating this in Zambia. Be warned fellow Zambians. He should never be allowed anywhere near governing
LETS NOT BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH, POLITICIANS BLAME FOR ALL OUR FAILURES. LATENT GREED CORRUPTION AND LAZINESS BECOMES MAGNIFIED WHEN GIVEN POWER. GIVE THEM POWER TODAY, THEIR IDEAS AND FRIENDS WILL CHANGE OVER NIGHT. WHY SHOULD A COUNTRY BLESSED WITH NATURAL RESOURCES SUCH AS OUR WITH PLENTY OF LAND, MINERALS (COPPER, COBALT, EMERALDS ETC), HYDRO ELECTRICITY, A PEACEFUL POPULATION OF ABOUT 16 MILLION, 53 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE BE COMPARED WITH COUNTRIES THAT ARE COMING OUT OF WAR OR STILL UNSTABLE. IT DEFIES COMMON SENSE.
You are correct – oPoliticians are too blame. Why don’t we have investors wanting to start up businesses in Zambia ?? We used to have a vehicle plant in Livingstone, we used to manufacture textiles—— People are not investing because of corruption !! IF technology is the future why are we not investing in technology and manufacturing components ?????????????????????? Stop blaming technology! Blame Government !
When hatred and jealous of others take presidency over logic, this is what comes of the heart, not the mind. So whats the answer that M’membe is proposing other than the defunct Socialism ideology in simple terms? Stop the blame game. People are just lazy. You give them manual work, they dont want to work, there preoccupation is just texting on the phone and listening to music.
Technology has made Billionaires world wide except that in Zambia people dont want to seize the opportunity it brings. So M’membe, please give us a big break……
So if Fred becomes president, he will hire more people in the already over staffed government and parastatals all in the name of reducing unemployment? Instead of blaming automation and technology, he should tell us what he would do to redeploy the skills of people who lost their jobs, and what new skills will be needed in this environment
Who wants to go back to the stone age? Besides technology especially IT has in its own right created millions of jobs.
Here you have it wrong, uncle Fred. How do you blame technology for lack of jobs? Unless you are vouching for slave like jobs. To the contrary technology can help create quality employnent. What you need to vouch for, sir, is manufacturing. Yes manufacturing will bring jobs unlike the current situation where we are a only trading in goods manufactured in other countries.
I am sure lots of Zambia’s had respect for Fred, until now. We all overestimated Fred’s calibre, until these true colors of unprecedented low calibre. Chikome-kome ncha nkuyu m’kati muli nyerere. Muli Nyerere mu mutu wa fred.
His thinking is very similar to Boko Haram – God forbid. Backward never, forward ever. God bless Zambia!
The same M’membe when he visits developed countries he praises them for advanced technology they have in place, but yet he is condemning the same technology African countries particularly Zambia is trying to put in place. Is this guy really normal or Am i just missing something from his political ideologies? Besides socialists policies have proven to promote lazziness than capitalist policies. who wants to keep living in colonia days?
You are really an ignorant chap…who told you that colonialism was socialism. Colonialism was a result of capitalism
Forgive him. He’s lost his marbles.
Hearing Fred speak the way he is speaking I cannot help but feel like crying. The survival of human species is dependent on technology. It does not matter what Fred says technological innovations will continue to happen. We just need to adapt. I think Fred should just quit this politics before he embarssses himself.
Bo Fred, do you remember Kodak? It used to be one of the most powerful companies in the world, today it has a market capitalization of less than $1 billion. What happened? When cameras went digital and then disappeared into cellphones. People went from printing pictures to sharing them online the rest is history.
Kodak was so blinded by its success film business that it completely missed the rise of digital technologies.
Change is not a force of nature,change is nature itself so you can stick that bull you’re saying up yours.
I see some similarities between Mmembe and h.h which LT robot and his fellow upnd cadres will not see, of course.
How do you tell upnd robots from other bloggers? The language of course, silly!! You will know their fruits by language like lazy lungu etc. And if that is not enough, they will always laugh and praise, and sometimes just remain silent when h.h farts out some sill.y statement. Oh and they not praise their vice president when he speaks. I will give you a few more trairs as they adapt to my descriptions.
….traits….
MEMBE CHIKOPO, EVEN GREAT CHINA THAT IS NOT CAPITALIST HAS THE WORLDA BEST TECHNOLOGY! UBUKOPO BUBI !!
Complete and utter hogwash from a vain, narcissistic bandit.
Please, do not leave out the ever growing population as one reason for mass unemployment, poverty, corruption, increased crime levels etc. Economies are not expanding much but look at the number of children born on a daily basis. Its a mess! Its very difficult to take care of everyone nowadays and this will become worse soon.
Thumbs up cde fm,fo the good article uv done,a good reminder to our fellow comrades,all we talking about is complete change of governance system,forward to socialism,viva SP,those that sound bitter in there comments are very selfish cdes,be a generational thinker,think about the poor Zambian who is dying of hunger, ABASH CAPITLISM
Academic thinkers lack actions and they waste time..
High unemployment is an indication of unjust economy
By Fred M’membe
We are back again to the issue of unemployment – jobs, jobs, jobs!
Socialists are for scientific and technological advances; they are not against high-tech and machines. That would be pushing humanity back to the stone age and not progressive!
Socialists are fully in support of developing advanced technologies: replacing labour with machinery; producing more wealth for society with less work; and reducing the hours of the working day.
In the science fiction of the past writers imagined a future utopia in which the biggest problem facing humanity would be what to do with all our leisure time whilst machines did all the work! Such a society has been made entirely possible by capitalism, which played a most…