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Mobilise
against illegitimate Zanu PF regime
International Socialist Organization of Zimbabwe
Extracted from the Socialist Worker
July 2008
Download full
July Newsletter here
On 29 June Robert Mugabe
was announced the winner of the presidential runoff "elections"
with a vote of 2.1 million as opposed to 233 000 for Tsvangirai
and 131 481 spoilt ballots. The regime claimed a sweeping victory,
"winning" in all constituencies even in areas where it
did not win a single seat in the March elections.
As ISO had warned these
elections were not going to bring real democratic change. Rather
the regime would ensure a victory for Zanu PF by hook or crook and
then seek a government of national unity with MDC as a junior partner
to deal with the imploding economic crisis.
The decision by MDC to
pull out of the run off was therefore correct. Participating in
such a sham election would have been disastrous. Activists desperately
needed breathing space to re-organize and begin the fight-back.
This would have been much more difficulty after a sure defeat on
27 June. The pull-out exposed the elections for the sham they are
even for Mugabe's buddies. SADC and AU observer teams have declared
the elections undemocratic. The issue now is what is the way forward?
The crisis of legitimacy
for the regime and the escalating economic crisis with inflation
over two million, creates three main possibilities: an elitist negotiated
settlement or removal of the illegitimate regime through people
power and the holding of proper elections under a new democratic
people driven constitution or on failure of these an all out Zanu
PF-military dictatorship. The negotiated option is being pushed
by elites locally, regionally and internationally. With its structures
decimated, its supporters traumatized, brutalized and killed, the
elites in the MDC leadership will use this to push this option,
arguing that there is no other way.
Yet the paralysis of
MDC results not only from the repression but also critically the
massive blunders of strategy of the MDC leadership. They, and their
followers in civic society, naively believed in a central strategy
of elections without a new constitution as the main way to achieve
change. They steadfastly downplayed the need for people power or
mass action based alternatives, including critically the need to
establish a democratic united front of the opposition and civic
society.
They rejected advise
that the central strategy in dealing with a dictatorship like Zanu
PF must be mass action, with elections, if used, only taken as a
secondary tactic to mobilise for the mass action strategy. Instead
working class and left militants were marginalized and substituted
by cowardly and opportunistic middle class and capitalist elites.
Even after the rigged March elections, Tsvangirai was imploring
civic society not to do anything to provoke the regime and thereafter
fleeing the country for a month on a futile "diplomatic offensive"
that left a fatal leadership vacuum locally. As we have warned a
boycott not backed by mass action is a dangerous strategy that only
gives the regime time to consolidate and an upper hand in any negotiations.
Today, the GNU
option will be vigorously pushed by Mbeki, SADC, AU and the UN,
under the guise of a transitional authority. The western imperialists
will pile further economic and political pressure, including more
sanctions to ensure the Mugabe regime plays ball. In his inaugural
speech, Mugabe has indicated a willingness to negotiate such a power-sharing
deal. We had long forewarned of the likelihood of a negotiated elitist
settlement as shown in our January and September 2007 perspectives,
quoted elsewhere in this issue.
But we do not believe
a GNU with the regime is the way forward. The experiences of ZAPU
in 1987 should teach us that there should be no marriage with a
regime that murders, maims, rapes and destroys to remain in power
- it belongs to the dustbin of history. The GNU is a project for
the dictatorship to perpetuate itself and for the capitalist and
the imperialist elites, to ensure that the poverty that the Zanu
PF state started with its ESAP programme is perpetuated forever
but now buttressed by elites in the MDC leadership and their equally
neoliberal RESTART programme.
Mobilise
for a united front and Rally for Democracy
There is need for an
urgent re-groupment of civic society and the opposition to launch
a serious and determined programme of civil disobedience and mass
action supported by regional and international solidarity from working
peoples and progressive movements.
Some question whether
it is realistic to expect a people power based solution given the
massive attacks that people and activists have suffered under the
regime?
We acknowledge that it
will not be easy, both because of this and because of the disastrous
strategic blunders of the opposition leaders. But the massive boycott
of elections, the spoilt papers and the various acts of resistance
by individual opposition activists show that the willingness to
fight is there. The refusal by the regime's buddies to endorse the
fake elections will help whilst the masses will grow more angry
with the sharpening economic crisis over the next few weeks. With
leadership this can be channelled into a serious fightback against
an increasingly isolated regime.
The key though
is united action. No single organisation can carry out the massive
tasks required. What is needed is to urgently set up a united front
of resistance, at two levels. Firstly amongst the civic groups themselves
and secondly with the opposition. The need for a radical and autonomous
united front of civic groups arises from the domination of MDC leadership
by elites, its pro-neoliberal ideology and its propensity to enter
into compromise deals with the dictatorship. We need a united body
capable of initiating united front-based mass actions without necessarily
being subordinated to MDC or continuing with the struggle against
the dictatorship should MDC leaders sell out and go into a deal
with the dictatorship as happened in Kenya. And one based on a pro-working
people and anti-neoliberal capitalist ideology. Any struggle that
fails to do this will be outflanked on its left by this crafty regime,
which has shown, most powerfully around the land question, strong
capacity to cynically manipulate the poor's concerns to remain in
power and demonize the opposition as a stooge of the west and business
class. The People's
Charter of the People's Convention offers a powerful starting
point.
We nearly established
the basis of such a united front at the People's Convention but
we unfortunately allowed our tactical differences on whether to
support or boycott the March Elections, to divide us and stop us
from the bigger project of building such united front. Today we
all pay a heavy price. But it is not too late to regroup, re-organize
and offer leadership in action along with MDC.
To kick-start the campaign
of civil disobedience we propose the urgent holding of a massive
national Rally for Democracy in Harare, convened by a united front
of the opposition, civic groups, trade unions and churches. The
Rally must be supported by a full scale general strike by workers
and traders and class boycotts as well as regional and international
solidarity actions from organisations of working people, socialists,
the anticapitalist movements and democrats. These are our true allies
and not the western imperialists or their regional state lackeys
who pursue an anti-people solution to the Zimbabwean crisis. The
purpose of the Rally is first to fight the veil of fear and secondly
to send a message to the dictatorship that we will not be cowered
and that we reject the illegitimate June 27 elections.
Our demands must include:
fresh free and fair elections under a new democratic constitution
and consistent with the AU Declaration on the Principles Governing
Democratic Elections. We further demand the immediate cessation
of the reign of terror, compensation of all victims; immediate release
of all political prisoners and confinement of soldiers to the barracks.
No to
any exclusive MDC - Zanu PF talks!
Re-groupment
of civic groups and establishing of the united front of resistance
of civic society and the opposition to spearhead mass action is
therefore the way forward. And whatever negotiations for a transitional
arrangement are made, must be carried out by such a united front,
and not just Zanu PF and MDC. We hope MDC has truly learnt from
the abortive Mbeki talks that "tsvara chimwe hachitswanye
inda" - "or divided we fall and united we conquer.
" Even the SADC and AU Observers have noted the need to involve
all stakeholders. In any case if negotiations fail, Mugabe's likely
Plan B to counter western pressure will be to massively escalate
repression on the democratic movement supported by a command economy
with People's Shops to quieten the masses. Eventually he will give
power to a chosen successor, possibly acceptable to business and
the west. Only united mass action can stop this.
Thus negotiations can
only bring real results if supported by peoples power, which is
why we must urgently proceed with the civil disobedience campaign.
It's time we allow the
ordinary people to take charge of the struggle that is rightfully
theirs and ensure an outcome that achieves real democracy, economically
and politically, for the majority and not just political and capitalist
elites as we have so many times seen in recent history in the region
and internationally in Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, S. Africa
and Eastern Europe. Following working people in Latin America we
say no to capitalism and yes to international socialism as the way
forward for humanity. Real struggles are only just about to begin.
Visit the ISO
fact sheet
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