Tanzania 1975
In 1975, Tanzania’s independence constitution (1965) was substantially amended to reflect a stronger commitment to the principles of socialism. The amendments gave legal recognition to the socialist party’s long-standing de facto supremacy, and declared socialism and self-reliance as key principles of the polity. Party leaders drafted the amendment to solidify and re-energize the party in response to increasing popular discontent, fueled in part by a crisis in agricultural productivity that had resulted in massive imports of food in 1974. Pressures from other socialist countries, notably Mozambique (where Tanzania had been active in promoting socialism), Egypt (then socialist) and Cuba, may also have influenced the decision to take this step at this time.
The text of the "Interim Constitution (Amendment) Bill of 1975" was developed by an 18-member committee comprised of the central and national executive committees of the ruling parties. The committees began work in March of 1974 and by November had produced the bill’s initial text. A national conference with delegates from both parties then reviewed and approved the text in meetings from November 22-27th of that year (1974). The bill was introduced to the Tanzanian Parliament five months later, on April 24, 1975, and was approved by a unanimous vote of all 279 members on June 3, 1975.
This amended constitution was superceded by a new constitution in 1977, which reasserted the country’s commitment to socialist politics under a unified party created by merging what had previously been two parallel ruling parties: (the socialist parties of the mainland and Zanzibar.)