UPND Economic Policies are not new, they have never led any Poor Country into Prosperity

By Fred M’membe President of the Socialist Party

The economic policies being pursued by the leadership of this UPND pro-transnational corporations, pro-imperialist puppet regime will not take Zambians to the ‘promised land. They will certainly not help the UPND leadership deliver on the many promises they made to the masses of our people to vote for them. In saying this, we are not at all being malicious or wishing them to fail. We are patriots who wish the best for our country and our people with or without us. But it is impossible to arrive at heaven, paradise or even purgatory if one is on the broad road to hell.

These economic policies they are pursuing are not new to Zambia, Africa, Latin America and some parts of Asia. They have never led any poor country into prosperity. We have been on this unbridled neoliberal capitalist path for the last 31 years.

It requires little intelligence – if a little is all one has – to realise that these neoliberal capitalist policies are taking us nowhere but to Calvary.

We have been struggling uphill long enough. We have suffered not only the torment of Calvary but also that of Sisyphus, who had to keep pushing the boulder up a hill and every time he was about to reach the top, it would roll back down and he would have to start all over again. Our situation is worse than Calvary because Calvary was climbed quickly; we have been climbing our hill for a long time, and we keep on having to start over. Calvary is preferable to Sisyphus’ torment, and if we had our Calvary, we should also have a resurrection.

We must choose concrete, realistic and definitive solutions – not take the path of agony. We must choose a clear, intelligent, effective solution – not head toward Calvary.

What we need is to find a real solution for the problem, but what will happen is that imperialism and its agents – the puppets, lackeys, it has helped assume power – will try to prevent the implementation of these solutions and divide our people, confuse our people, deceive our people, they give a little aid for this and that so that we remain on the path to Calvary – and not even a Calvary, but with the agonising torture of pushing the boulder up a never-ending hill. But one day our deceived people, our betrayed people are going to demand, “How much longer do we have to up with these conditions, this deception, these lies and abuses?” And then they will find solutions.

Clearly, the economic policies this puppet regime is pursuing, like the ones before it here and elsewhere, are taking us nowhere but to Calvary. There was a period when such policies increased the well-being of significant numbers of people as a by-product of seeking out profits for a few, but today the quests for profits comes into sharp conflict with people’s demands that their material and social needs should be fulfilled.

I fully agree with Pope Francis’ conclusion that market forces alone and “trickle-down” economic policies had failed to produce the social benefits their proponents claim. As Pope Francis correctly observed, trickle-down economics, the theory favoured by our neoliberal capitalists that tax breaks and other incentives for transnational mining corporations and big business eventually will benefit the rest of society through investment and job creation is a fallacy, a fleeting illusion.

The cost of living will continue to rise, hardships for Zambian families will continue to increase and prices of necessities will continue to rise. Soon the effects of being on the broad road to hell will be fully felt!