By A CORRESPONDENT
We all know that socialism is no longer a popular ideology in many countries that value democracy complete with liberalism.
Among numerous reasons why the ideology is becoming unpopular is the fact that it had devastated the lives of millions in Eastern Europe.
This and many other negative effects should make anybody supporting the ideology be prepared to argue hard to establish its relevance.
In most Western countries socialism is well and truly dead in a movement sense and is only kept alive by a few leftist proponents.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union necessitated by Perestroika a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party during the 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the glasnost policy reform making socialism essentially indefensible.
After glasnost the world saw almost all socialist parties go under restructure and espouse a new Neo-Liberal doctrine with token “leftist social policies” called “The Third Way” or “Liberal/Democratic Socialism.’’
Russia which was once a famous communist government during the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) is now a federation. According to Karl Marx’s prognosis communism is the final stage in the socialism ‘path.
The attraction of socialism as an ideology is that it is largely a fairy tale ideology that almost promises heaven on earth.
Some proponents of socialism have even erroneously cited Scandinavian countries as classic examples of the benefits of the system.
Little do they know that Scandinavian countries are not socialist but social welfare states.
Now, whether we like it or not, we live in a world subjugated by capitalism and right wing ideology. Even countries that are viewed as communist have ingeniously fused capitalism thereby proving that both ideologies can coexist because the world is equally diverse.
So when Rainbow Party General Secretary, Wynter Kabimba recently said there is need to transform the governance system into a society that offers equal opportunities for all, people have been hotly debating his statement.
Addressing party officials in Livingstone, Mr Kabimba said capitalism has not worked for Zambia in the last twenty four years because it gives selective opportunities.
Mr Kabimba says socialism is the best system for Zambia as it gives equal opportunities to all citizens without discrimination.
The question is, did socialism work under UNIP, which like most African countries that got independence in the 60’s embraced the ideology which is highly afro centric?
For the Zambian case, it is easy to make reference to the country’s experience when we were socialist.
To quote Henry Kyambalesa (PhD), a Zambian academic currently residing in Colorado, USA a socialist state policies in Zambia barred both local and foreign private investors from certain commercial and industrial sectors of the country’s economy and recommended the creation of state and parastatal companies to operate in such sectors of the economy from the late 1960s to 1991.
Under socialism, the Zambian government heavily subsidised underperforming companies like the United Bus of Zambia (UBZ) just to keep them afloat.
Dr Kyambalesa argues that the former president,  Kenneth  Kaunda, made the policy pronouncements which ushered in an era of both parastatal and state enterprises in his April 1968, August 1969, and November 1970 addresses to the National Council of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) leading to a monopolistic position only enjoyed by state and parastatal companies.
He notes that this culminated in complacence and gross inefficiency because, in the absence of competition, they apparently did not find it necessary to seek or use technological inventions and innovations that would have improved the quality and quantity of their outputs.
He further argues that this is what prompted the next government of the late President Frederick J. T. Chiluba to embark on a massive privatisation program in October 1991 in an attempt to boost competition in commerce and industry.
Dr Kaunda went further by developing a left nationalist-socialist ideology, called Zambian Humanism based on a combination of mid-20th-century ideas of central planning/state control and what he considered basic African values: mutual aid, trust and loyalty to the community.
To elaborate his ideology, Dr Kaunda published several books: Humanism in Zambia and a Guide to its Implementation, Parts 1, 2 and 3.
Other publications on Zambian Humanism are: Fundamentals of Zambian Humanism, by Timothy Kandeke; Zambian Humanism, religion and social morality, by Cleve Dillion-Malone S.J. and Zambian Humanism: some major spiritual and economic challenges, by Justin B. Zulu. Kaunda on Violence, (US title, The Riddle of Violence), was published in 1980.
To understand the genesis of Mr Kabimba’s love for socialism, it is important to track his political career to the man who exposed and elevated the lawyer turned politician to political life, the late Michael Sata.
Mr Kabimba’s political history is entwined with that of Mr Sata who ran for Presidency for a record fourth time till he won on 20 September 2011.
Note that the Rainbow Party leader knows well that being a man of the people and espousing populist policies put Mr Sata in a better stead for presidency both when the former head of state was in opposition and when he ascended to power.
Mr Sata was largely voted by the urban poor who saw hope in a man who seemed to understand their wretched lives and promised to improve their welfare.
In opposition he threatened that he would revoke licenses for foreign investors if they resisted his orders to give at least a 25 per cent stake in their companies to Zambians.
However, after his inauguration as President of Zambia, Mr Sata assured foreign investors that they were welcome in the country.
Since its formation in 2001 by Mr Sata, the Patriotic Front (PF) whose ideology is democratic socialism, had inclination to socialism.
The PF was even admitted into the Socialist International as a consultative member at the SI’s spring congress on 4-5 February 2013.
However, under President Lungu’s leadership, there is a marked ideological shift to socialism with a capital face.
President Lungu’s policies like youth empowerment, improvement of women affairs and the general overhaul of the economy owes little to socialism but general economic advancement for the nation.
This is radically different from what the Rainbow Party Lusaka Province chairman Goodson Banda recently said that his party will live up to its socialist ideals of empowering Zambians with national wealth if it forms government next year.
Mr Banda said if all Zambians were to equally enjoy the country’s natural resources, a party with a socialist agenda should be ushered into office to administer national wealth.
We are a socialist party and I must quickly tell you that the moment we form government next year, we’ll be more than ready to transform the economic status of this country and ensure that Zambians themselves benefit from these natural resources, he said.
It is clear that Mr Kabimba wants to re-enact what his political mentor Mr Sata did by championing populist causes that he feels will endear him to the populace.
He is only forgetting one thing. The circumstances that enabled Sata to go to State House are different.
Secondly, Mr Kabimba is not Mr Sata in many ways.