Enemies within? Opposition to the Zambian one-party State, 1972-1980

Larmer, Miles

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Title:	Enemies within? Opposition to the Zambian one-party State, 1972-1980
Author:	Larmer, Miles
Book title:	One Zambia, many histories: towards a history of post-colonial Zambia
Year:	2008
Pages:	98-125
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zambia
Subjects:	one-party systems political opposition opposition parties 1970-1979
Abstract:	One-party participatory democracy was introduced in Zambia in December 1972. Political opposition disappeared from public view. This chapter is an examination of the trajectories of the leaders, members and sympathizers of the United Progressive Party (UPP) after its breakaway from the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in August 1971. It was banned in February 1972, preparatory to the declaration of the one-party State the following December. The essay explores the varying political ideas and tactical approaches of former UPP members. These strongly reflected the very heterogeneous composition of the UPP itself. Some chose to work within the UNIP, others decided to go underground, especially in the Copperbelt. In the late 1970s, Simon Kapwepwe decided to return to UNIP and carry on the fight from within. He identified himself increasingly with the oppositional Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Today any investigation of this is inevitably coloured by the personality amd subsequent career of Frederick Chiluba, who was then president of the organization. The material has been derived primarily through interviews with many leading UPP supporters. Later many UPP members joined the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), particularly after the re-emergence of active political opposition in 1990. The author pays some attention to the relationship between Zambia and South Africa in 1980-1981 and the question of South African involvement in a coup plot to oust Kaunda, but this has to remain superficial until such times as military archives are made public. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]

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