Move to the Left

According to Akena Adoko, former head of the General Service Unit in Uganda, it took time for socialism to be established in Uganda because of the political realities of the time: The second Five Year Plan (roughly 1966-1971) noted the potential of the state-controlled Uganda Development Corporation, but also sought to promote small, private industry and attract foreign investment. There were few genuine socialists in Uganda, let alone socialists with genuine administrative ability. Of these, very few enjoyed the confidence of Obote. == Key components ==

The Move to the Left was characterised by five key documents, adopted between October 1969 and the summer of 1970. National Service Proposal The National Service Proposal, adopted in October 1969, proposed that every able-bodied person should undertake two years of national service. they would now be run by state corporations, trade unions, municipal councils and cooperative unions. The pronouncement added that a government monopoly would be enforced in Uganda's import-export markets In reality, little preparation had been carried out, nor thought given to the pronouncement's consequences; it seems that the President did not even give the Cabinet any prior warning of his decision. The criteria for nationalisation were not made clear and there was great uncertainty as to whether the nationalisation exercise was complete. It was not even clear whether the nationalisation was supposed to complement the Africanisation of Uganda commerce or to re-prioritise it. The "governmental machine was thrown into the kind of incoherent muddle which became increasingly characteristic of the regime's final phase." The result was that nationalisation was never fully realised, and the government never took control of Uganda's major industries. "Three Plus One" The "Three Plus One" proposal proposed that each member of the National Assembly should stand in four seats simultaneously (their "home" seat plus three others). == Evaluation ==

Ugandan commentators worried that the Move to the Left, insofar as it was socialist, could not co-exist with plans to Africanise the Ugandan economy, since the latter promoted African enterprise (what Ryan termed "petty bourgeois accumulation") in a way that was incompatible with the planned economy model of socialism. Particular vocal in their hostility to nationalisation were many UPC members of parliament, who were themselves business owners. Former Minister Sam Odaka tried to reassure them that this was not the case. "We appeal to people not to put wrong interpretations on the Common Man's Charter," he said. "It does not stop a person building ten houses if he does it properly." Ultimately, the issue was not resolved before the government was overthrown by a military coup in January 1971. There was no attempt to abandon the incentives that were being offered to promote African capitalism. This has led commentators such as Ryan to comment: == Revocation ==

Obote's overthrow by the forces of Idi Amin in the military coup of January 1971 ended hopes of a full move toward socialism. The incoming Minister of Finance declared that the new regime would "break away from the trend towards absolute central control of the economy and adopt a more liberal economic policy". In his Kabale Pronouncement of 1 May 1971, a year to the day after Obote's Nakivubo Pronouncement, Amin confirmed this swing, and added that pure socialism and capitalism were only of academic interest to him; his aim was to choose elements of either which might be relevant to Uganda's needs. Except for four banks, four insurance companies, two locally owned sugar companies, and the East African Steel Corporation in which the government retained 49% of the shares, all other firms were left completely in private hands. The Move to the Left was clearly no longer a policy of the administration. == References ==