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Whither the MDC?
Mike Davies
September 26, 2003

Email Mike Davies at gardener@zol.co.zw

Colleagues

The growth of civics in Zimbabwe which blossomed into the NCA and then into the Movement for Democratic Change continues to be one of the few sustaining phenomena in this dark and bleak period in our history. In spite of the threats and oppression from the regime, the internal pressures arising from donor-driven institutionalisation and the inertia arising from 'NGO-careerism', civics continue to collectivise the energies and voices of ordinary Zimbabweans in myriad formulations and numerous arenas. But given the implicit assumption that collective action is a valid and productive construct, where are the supra-collectivities?

The Crisis Coalition, while articulating our crisis well on the regional and international level, does not have the activist core that allows it to translate its intellectualism into street-level activism; the few times we have tried to do so have been miserably depressing affairs.

NANGO has become largely irrelevant since it is a middle-of-the-road grouping that seems reluctant to criticise the regime openly.

There are increasing calls for a UDF-type formulation that will articulate the voices of civics and drive the liberation movement forward but these calls (which by and large emanate from South African brothers and sisters and are rooted in the historical realities of that country) are not I believe appropriate here and now.

I still regard the MDC as the only comprehensive 'civic umbrella group': I remain a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, a broad coalition of those who seek to save our country by addressing the cause of its problems.

I am not a member of the MDC the political party since a political party must have a unifying ideology rather than be driven only by a cause. I am not sure what the ideology of this hybrid beast is: is it social democracy or liberal democracy or international capitalism? Like the African National Congress, I believe the MDC is a broad coalition uniting the forces opposing the destruction of our country by an elite of petit bourgeois 'national liberators', in collaboration with their nouveau riche businessmen, who peddle their lies to a captive rural peasantry. (Witness the pathetic mouthings about mwana wehvu like a mantra chanted endlessly in a futile attempt to bestow legitimacy upon an increasingly isolated, corrupted and urban-based ruling elite.)

I believe that the civic activists who created the Movement have been superseded by the lawyers, academics and politicians who would transform the Movement into the Party. Witness the expulsion of those like Gwisai who raise their voices in protest at the 'partification'; witness the irrelevance and unaccountability of most elected MDC representatives; witness the unforgivable marginalisation of Mayor Mudzuri and the unbelievable antics of those Harare Councillors who trip over themselves to come to an accommodation with the illegitimate regime; witness the rumours about a deal done behind closed doors that will lead to a political compromise between the parties' elites.

Is it not time for activists to seek a louder voice within the MDC and to demand that the Movement returns to its roots. Let the politicians, lawyers, bureaucrats and all those who seem more interested in power than freedom stay their agendas until political power is achieved. They should not be allowed to undermine our resolution to remove the illegitimate regime from power, a resolution that will only be realized when committed activists are once more in control of the movement.

This represents my personal views and does not in anyway reflect the consensus of members of the Combined Harare Residents Association.

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