Mugabe clings to power
BY BRUTE force, Robert Mugabe’s regime has for the moment
survived the longest and most successful stay-away in Zimbabwe’s history. The
‘Final Push’, called by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), did not topple
Mugabe, but the brutal suppression revealed the isolation of a regime with no
support in the urban areas.
To enforce a court order forbidding the action, all police
and army leave was cancelled; the entrances to Harare and Zimbabwe’s second
city, Bulawayo, blockaded. The two cities were flooded with military
detachments, helicopters and 2,500 militiamen.
A march by thousands of Mbare residents was violently
dispersed. An eyewitness reports that 4,000 students from the traditionally
militant University of Zimbabwe were viciously beaten: "On Tuesday I was shown
the bloodied corridors in one student residence, nicknamed Baghdad. One window
of a ground floor flat was broken, and only the jagged glass left. The frame and
the wall were drenched in blood, as if someone had emptied a bucket. Military
police fired tear gas into rooms where students were hiding, igniting a
mattress. Struggling to breathe one student broke the shattered plane of glass
with his head. His head was repeatedly hit by police wielding batons. Forty-five
were admitted to hospital". (Leo Zelig, www.nu.ac.za.cc, 9 June)
The suppression claimed two lives, hundreds of injuries and
over 800 arrests. MDC leaders Welshman Ncube and Morgan Tsivangirai, already
facing trial under trumped-up charges of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, have
now been charged with treason.
The events of 2-6 June represent a new stage in the
strangulation of democracy. The arming of mainly rural militia to impose
‘political discipline’ on teachers and students, abduction, torture and murder,
the bombing of newspaper presses, and manipulation of the judicial system, all
show Zimbabwe is drifting towards naked military rule and a possible civil war.
Despite the brutality, the strike held solid. It followed
two general strikes called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and
other ongoing actions. The slogan ‘Zvakana!’ (Enough) captured the hatred for
Mugabe’s regime. Even businesses threatened with the cancellation of licenses
defied orders to reopen. Newspapers continued to publish in the face of
persecution.
Indicating the weakness of his position, Mugabe insists he
is willing to negotiate, even publicly calling on his Zanu-PF party to discuss a
successor. This ‘victory’ will at best buy him some time. He has no solution for
the catastrophic economic crisis fuelling the seething anger.
In the past three years, gross domestic product has declined
by more than 30%, inflation is expected to be well over 300% for 2003, and 73%
of Zimbabweans are officially ‘poor’. The so-called ‘land reform’, which
benefited Mugabe’s cronies, displaced millions of farm workers and peasants and
hit agricultural production. "Seven million (out of 12m) are going hungry",
according to the (Johannesburg) Mail & Guardian (30 May-5 June).
Zimbabweans refer to the neo-liberal Economic Structural
Adjustment Progamme (ESAP) as ‘Eternal Suffering for African People’. It is not
a joke but a living nightmare. Implemented in 1991, ESAP has devastated the
economy, reversing all the social gains of the first ten years of independence.
The education system lies in ruins, reflected in the massive drop-out rate by
school children directly attributed to hunger. The University of Zimbabwe is on
the brink of collapse, with lecturers forced to find other jobs to get by.
While 1,500 Zimbabweans flee every day, the country is
flooded by speculators and swindlers: "Food shortages are for the poor. For
those with the cash, foodstuffs are plenty, from imported whisky and wine to
Belgian chocolate and exotic fruit… Banks officially work at the rate of US$1 to
Z$55, but out on the streets young men with bulging rucksacks will buy an
American dollar for anything from Z$1,300 to Z$1,800. New banks form all the
time and the huge profits they turn have given rise to the ostentatious
‘Kompressor class’, named after the [Mercedes] cars they drive". (Mail &
Guardian, 2-7 May)
In the past, Western powers were happy doing business with
Mugabe. Now, his continued rule has lit a veldt fire of mass opposition that
could explode into an armed uprising, endangering Western investments in
Zimbabwe, as well as their more substantial interests in South Africa.
Mugabe has accused Tsivangirai of being a stooge of
imperialism. This gains credibility because of his links with sections of the
white farmers, and Zimbabwean and Western big business. The MDC was born out of
the magnificent movement against ESAP in the early 1990s and an attempt by the
working class to form its own party. Unfortunately, the young working-class
movement, without a class-conscious leadership, was powerless to stop the MDC
from being subverted by Western and Zimbabwean big business flattery and finance
into a neo-liberal reserve team for capitalism.
The MDC is seen as the leadership of the opposition,
although the protest action was largely a spontaneous movement from below.
Tsivangirai’s failure to lead the movement effectively has led to criticism of
the MDC from the ranks for months. Raymond Majongwe, general secretary of the
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), was scathing on the preparations
for mass action: "If people are going to be calling for mass action on cell
phones and in the papers, that will not work. The MDC leadership must be
prepared to suffer. This is the difference between MDC and Zanu-PF… Mugabe has
to be kicked out. You don’t negotiate with him". (Leo Zelig, www.nu.ac.za/ccs, 9
June)
The MDC leaders failed to involve the local civic structures
or resident associations central to organising previous, successful stay-aways.
They were not involved in the PTUZ two-week strike over pay in May, the general
strike days, or action taken by doctors and electricity technicians. They seem
to have expected the masses to confront the biggest military mobilisation since
the early 1980s with their bare hands. Although the repression has not reached
the scale of the 1983 slaughter of 30,000 Ndebele minority in Matabeleland, to
suppress the uprising there, the masses know this regime’s capabilities. The
question of armed self-defence committees was not even on the MDC’s agenda. It
seemed to believe that hastily prepared mass action and imperialist support
would be enough to bring Mugabe down. The masses struck but stayed at home
rather than face a massacre.
A properly prepared movement might not have been deterred by
the military mobilisation. The basis for splitting the security forces is
present in the situation. As the presidential election results showed despite
the rigging, the regime has no support in the urban areas. If the security
forces are still holding together, this is because the aims of the mass action
were not clear, either in deeds or words: whether the phrase ‘Final Push’ really
meant that.
The armed forces are affected by the economic crisis and the
mood in the cities: "Most of the time the helicopters cannot fly for lack of
fuel. A police unit which raided the University of Zimbabwe stole not only the
students’ mobile phones and jackets, but biscuits and bread which they devoured
on the spot. ‘They seemed starving. It was amazing’, said one student". (The
Guardian, 7 June)
In a revealing display of his attitude towards the masses,
Tsivangirai responded to criticism for the failure to topple Mugabe by blaming
the masses! "You cannot blame the leadership. Look, the leadership can only do
so much, but if the people are afraid to take the risks to claim their freedom,
what do you expect the leadership to do?" (Daily News, 9 June)
Tsivangirai is clearly open to talks that could lead to a
transitional government. Rumours of divisions in Zanu-PF and speculation about a
successor to Mugabe are rife. The way is being paved for a ‘government of
national unity’. And the US and Britain are now heavily involved in their own
shuttle diplomacy between the MDC and Zanu-PF.
A MDC government could enjoy an initial honeymoon. But its
neo-liberal policies will not solve any of the country’s fundamental problems.
In time, the masses will come into conflict with it. The task facing the
Zimbabwean working class is to establish its own mass party on a socialist
programme, build links with the powerful South African proletariat, and fight
for a socialist confederation on the subcontinent as a step towards a socialist
Africa.
Weizmann Hamilton
Extracted from a longer article in Izwi La Basebenzi, the paper of the
Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI South Africa)
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