Swaziland: Movimiento democrático único del pueblo

In July 1983 students, intellectuals and trade unionists formed the People's
United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), an underground coalition of popular
organisations. The organisation only came to the public eye in late 1989
when Pudemo circulated pamphlets in the urban areas criticising the
aristocracy. In the following year Pudemo members began to organise
resistance to the government through the creation of civic organisations.
Later in the year senior members were the subjects of a high profile treason
case, which publicised the organisation's activities and objectives and
broadened its support base. The organisation successfully led the opposition
to the 1991 commission that reviewed the tinkhundla system. In February
1992 Pudemo announced that it was unbanning itself, and that it would
henceforth operate openly in Swaziland. Pudemo launched a successful
campaign of civil disobedience in January 1996 that demonstrated an urban
mass base among intellectuals, students and workers. The history of conflict
between Pudemo and the government, as well as its close ties with the
labour movement, has radicalised the movement. In May 2003 Pudemo
declared that its members would defend themselves with force from violent
acts by government in inflammatory language that stopped just short of
calling for an armed struggle to overthrow the state (Mzizi 2005, 16, 19-21,
23-25; Kabemba 2004, 30, 31).
Pudemo's constitution provides for elaborate structures, including wings for
women and youth - and the latter, the Swaziland Youth Congress
(Swayoco), has been extremely energetic, active and even more radical
than Pudemo in its rhetoric. The People's Manifesto, which was adopted at
Pudemo's 4th General Congress in 1996, emphasises the need to create a
constitutional multiparty democracy with elected and accountable
government, and to promote economic growth, development and the
empowerment of citizens through a mixed market economy. Land
administration should be placed in the hands of the state to ensure access
to land and security of tenure and to avoid landlessness and squatting. The
state should promote job creation and high levels of employment through
partnerships with labour and capital. The manifesto also demands universal
compulsory education, respect for the right to life, primary healthcare that
is free or subsidised by the state and tertiary healthcare that is affordable,
the provision of shelter for all and especially for the disadvantaged. It
concludes by requiring the promotion and development of Swazi culture
and the observance and protection of basic human rights and the end of
state repression (Pudemo 1983; Mzizi 2005, 24-25, see also the section
"New challenges to the autocratic order" for the origin and activities of
Swayoco; Pudemo 1996).