|
Back to Index
Zimbabwe:
The struggle enters a new stage
Munyaradzi
Gwisai, International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe
May 06, 2009
http://links.org.au/node/1045
The formation of the
government of national unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe between the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in February 2009
was the logical outcome of the agreement made between them in the
middle of last year. The final negotiations had stalled as Mugabe
tried to manipulate the details to exact maximum concessions from
the MDC.
However, by
January 2009, 1 billion per cent inflation and a worthless Zimbabwean
dollar meant that people could not buy anything. Basic social services
had ceased to function and popular unrest was reaching breaking
point. Mass action, which had been in a lull for five years, started
to become a real possibility again. Rank and file soldiers had rioted
in downtown Harare and members of the public had joined them. The
Zimbabwean Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was threatening to call a general strike.
The Zimbabwe Business Council issued a dire warning that massive
social unrest was looming. Given the threat of revolt from below,
Mugabe had few options when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai issued
an ultimatum to him to finalise the deal or face the consequences
of mass action.
Mugabe soon declared
that he and Tsvangirai were "now brothers".
Other factors
cemented the rapprochement. When General Zvinashe, who had mobilised
the top brass of the armed forces against the MDC in 2002, died
the MDC declared him a "national hero''. In addition, the tragic
death of Tsvangirai's wife in a car accident in March also helped
cement relations. Mugabe offered his personal solidarity and Tsvangirai
neutralised people's natural suspicions when he stated that there
had been no ill intent behind the accident.
The political elites
are so serious about making this deal work that they recently held
an all-expenses-paid three-day retreat at a luxury resort in Victoria
Falls.
ZANU-PF
still in charge
ZANU-PF is the senior
partner in the GNU. As executive president and as commander in chief
of armed forces, Mugabe retains control over the key security ministries
of defence and intelligence. Being head of the government, he also
appoints ministers, ambassadors and the governor of the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe. Given this level of influence, if the deal collapses
he might be able to crawl out with out losing too much.
Tsvangirai is prime minister
and MDC ministers are mostly placed in charge of social services
departments, those areas which have to deal with the social consequences
of Zimbabwe's economic collapse, especially education and health.
While the MDC won control over the finance ministry, the Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono, a Mugabe loyalist, kept his job. Mugabe
objected to the MDC's nominee for deputy agriculture minister, Roy
Bennett, who is the MDC treasurer and number three in the party.
Mugabe had him jailed for months and still says that he is "not
swearing in a Rhodesian".
Most critically,
as the International Socialist Organisation in Zimbabwe had long
warned, the elitist GNU has adopted a neoliberal economic framework,
called the Short-Term
Emergency Recovery Program (STERP). This is the most extreme
free-market economic program adopted by the country-s elites
since independence in 1980, going beyond the one adopted by Mugabe
in the 1990s. The new program aims to totally open up the economy
to the market, with most state-owned companies slated for privatisation
in the next six months.
The Zimbabwe dollar has
been dropped in favour of the South African rand and the US dollar.
Price controls and subsidies have been removed so bills for water,
electricity, education, health, housing, transport and farming inputs
have all shot up. The country-s main university remains closed
because, out of its 10,000 students (or "clients" as
the university vice-chancellor now calls them), only 68 have managed
to pay the more than US$500 required. The city authorities in Harare
have been forced to cut rates increases by half but people still
are failing to pay. The bosses themselves calculate that an average
family needs at least US$250 a month just to survive, yet most workers
earn less than US$100 with the 94% unemployed having even less.
Thus supermarkets may now be filled with goods, but without foreign
currency you can-t to buy them.
For the elites, the middle
class and a few workers with access to US dollars or rands conditions
have improved, but for the majority it is a real struggle. But not
so for the bosses, capitalists and politicians. It was recently
disclosed that all the new ministers, including from the MDC, have
each received two top-of-the-range luxury vehicles. The first act
of the new finance minister, the MDC-s secretary general Tendai
Biti, was to remove all the special levies that had been placed
on businesses by the Reserve Bank. Biti says he will now rely on
donor funding to fund health, education and so forth, but this has
not yet been forthcoming from sceptical Western governments.
The MDC supports the
arrangement to the extent of preaching unity and going all out to
demoralise and neutralise anger from below. Even though the MDC-s
position in the state is subordinate, it still gives its leaders
an opportunity to accumulate personal wealth through their new positions
in the state apparatus, including through the impending privatisation
program. Many are also exhausted from the long struggle against
the dictator and are happy for this ceasefire, which benefits them
but not the masses.
A variety of
factors came together to create the new political situation. Mugabe's
claim to hold a popular mandate vanished when he lost the 2008 election
to Tsvangirai by 43% to 47%, his first admitted defeat. The MDC
also made inroads into two key rural ZANU-PF strongholds. This prompted
Mugabe and his cronies to realise the benefits of a deal which would
legitimise their control over the state, protect their ill-gained
wealth and avoid the fate which befell Charles Taylor in Liberia
and Solobodan Milosevic in Serbia.
Illusions
in MDC
The ISO in Zimbabwe had
long considered that an accord between the MDC and ZANU-PF was just
a matter of time. This was especially so after the MDC right wing
and bourgeois elements cemented their control over the party and
froze out socialist politics in 2002. Sections of the elite, such
as newspaper owner and Mugabe critic Trevor Ncube, had even argued
for a negotiated settlement based on a neoliberal program as early
as 2003.
The deal met little opposition
as eight years of severe economic crisis and massive brutal attacks
by the dictatorship had left the organised labour movement, the
militant social movements and the socialist left battered, marginalised
and exhausted. Zimbabwe-s economic crisis resulted in many
activists and trade unionists leaving the country to as a means
of survival, while many organisations teetered on the brink of collapse
for lack of funds. All this massively weakened the ideological and
organisational autonomy and strength of the working class, leaving
the field open to the right-wingers.
Indeed the right within
the opposition movement was strengthened as it benefited from the
Western donor money which flowed to the MDC and its civil society
allies. Right-wing civil society leaders were able to pay activists
to support their projects. This process, what we call the "commodification
of resistance", makes it harder to mobilise independently
of the non-government organisations (NGOs) and it even affected
our own organisation, as some comrades demanded that the ISOZ significantly
dilute its politics and activities and align more closely with the
right-wing MDC, in order to access such money. In the resulting
split, which occurred earlier this year, we lost up to 25% of our
membership to the so-called "New ISO", which is firmly
embedded in the right-wing civic groups and MDC.
However, the ISOZ remains
independent and continues to rally against the elitist GNU, especially
its neoliberal policies and its elitist constitutional reform process
which is meant to buttress the neoliberal economic policies. But
we realise that now is not a good time to take on Tsvangirai directly.
Socialists have to find ways to engage with the many workers and
ordinary people who support Tsvangira and have illusions in the
MDC. Workers and the urban poor support the MDC, despite its limitations,
as a way of overcoming the democratic defects of the Mugabe regime.
People assume that things will get better, but we believe things
will get worse.
Within the next two years
there is likely to be growing anger around issues like the availability
and cost of water, electricity, education, health care, food, transport,
housing, farm inputs and low wages. We aim to build on the community,
workers- and students- campaigns as part of broader
anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist movement. Already residents-
associations have called for boycott of paying city tariffs (rates)
in Harare and Bulawayo, while teachers are on the verge of another
crippling strike to demand higher wages.
On May Day, ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo gave a warning to Tsvangirai that the ZCTU will
mobilise workers in the streets if the new government fails to provide
a living wage of US$450 a month, stop the privatisation of state
companies and adopt a people-driven constitutional process.
The question of a people-driven
process to draft a new constitution will be an important campaign
of engagement. We hope to build a radical united front to oppose
the new neoliberal constitutional framework the new regime is likely
to try to impose.
We aim to build on the
resulting community campaigns as part of broader anti-imperialist
movement. Unless there is a revolutionary consciousness reflected
in a class-minded organisations then the middle-class elements who
relate to the organisations of the rural and urban poor will come
to dominate them and be the conduits for their ideological neutralisation.
The civil-society conservatives have no real arguments or real alternatives
to neoliberalism, and ultimately support private property as the
hegemonic model.
The GNU will last as
long as working people in urban and rural areas support their respective
leaders and hold onto the illusion of change. How long Tsvingirai
can command his level of support also depends on external events.
We have already seen
what happened in Kenya, where a major African economy nearly imploded.
The global recession is likely to make such meltdowns more probable.
In South Africa, the xenophobia against migrants displayed in the
townships reflects the serious failure of neoliberalism to provide
jobs and basic human services. The removal of South African President
Thabo Mbeki last year following the ANC Congress at Polokwane reflects
a certain radicalisation. Mbeki had become a liability to the ANC
as he was too obviously in league with the tiny layer of super rich
blacks. The ANC with Jacob Zuma in power is likely to continue with
Mbeki's project but with a left face.
It was this left shift
which provided the space for South African trade unionists to express
crucial solidarity with Zimbabwe in opposition to their own government.
When the Durban dock workers refused to unload an arms shipment
for Mugabe, and dockers in Mozambique and Angola supported their
stand, it was a major attack on Mugabe's hegemony. This action put
pressure on Mbeki to broker a solution in Zimbabwe. However, Mbeki
did this in a way which advanced interests of the black bourgeoisie
in South Africa and the Zimbabwean political elites.
Black capital, as represented
by Mbeki's mediation, supports the GNU. However, US and British
capital is concerned that the ZANU-PF bourgeoisie have too much
control. The ZANU-PF has passed a law, for example, which allows
for 51% control by local Zimbabwean capital of important national
resources such as the platinum mines. The US and British ruling
classes are also concerned about the continued expropriation of
white agricultural capitalists and ZANU-PF's claim that compensation
for expropriated land should be paid by the former colonial power,
Britain. This would be a precedent for South Africa and other countries
regionally.
The international bourgeoisie
are not happy with this and are not convinced that the GNU is durable.
They would prefer to see Mugabe and all his policies go with him
and for this reason US and Britain have extended sanctions for one
more year. Moreover, because of the arrogance he has displayed,
they want to totally defeat Mugabe, humiliate him and send the message
to any future would-be radical bourgeois nationalist radical leaders
that opposing Western imperialism is futile. So the West is still
withholding crucial economic support and maintaining sanctions in
place, thereby imperilling the future of the GNU.
Land
reform
The GNU's politics are
extreme free market and they will run up against the opposition
of the labour movement and urban/rural poor in the context of the
likely failure of the new round of neoliberalism centred on STERP,
and attempts to reverse the land reform program.
Significant sections
of peasantry did benefit from the land reform. This process started
in 1997 as a spontaneous movement which included urban radicals
and peasants and in many was a reaction to the poverty caused by
Mugabe's implementation of neoliberal policies from 1990 to 1997.
When his popularity fell, and with his political survival at stake,
Mugabe abandoned many of these policies and used the land movement
as a way to outflank the MDC from the left. Ultimately, it was the
MDC's fear of mass action and its adoption of right-wing policies
that allowed for Mugabe to rebuild a social base, and divide the
urban and rural working classes through the land reform.
However, Mugabe's land
reform was no socialist model. It did not balance the interests
of the farm workers (the rural proletariat), peasants and the state
as a whole. It was more based on establishing new individual farmers
rather than cooperatives. While it was primarily the white Rhodesian
farmers who were expropriated, the big plantations and the land
owned by the multinational corporations were not touched. The black
elites also took the most productive and fertile farms for themselves.
Nevertheless, up to 10 million hectares were redistributed in the
most significant land reform in Africa. Given this background, the
GNU is likely to try to resolve the land issue by granting private
tenure and the right to sell land. In time, small farmers will be
forced to sell their land cheaply to the bourgeoisie, both black
and white, and the land reform will be significantly reversed.
Democratic
space
The MDC's fear of mass
action is ultimately the recognition of the working class as the
main agent for change. The opening up of democratic space following
the GNU deal will allow the left room to organise and work to reunite
the urban and rural poor around issues such as access to affordable
water, education, electricity, AIDS/HIV drugs and health care in
general, housing, transport and rural development. The political
divide that previously made this difficult, especially in relation
to MDC-controlled local government structures, is now blurred with
the GNU, allowing for greater class-based actions of the poor, regardless
of party affiliation.
The GNU deal also creates
the possibility for a new constitution and new elections, within
18 months. However, an unwritten part of agreement was that the
elites could delay elections for five years. The relaxation in the
authoritarian character of the state also means that we can work
with broader forces, including trade unions and social movements,
to build a movement in support of a democratic constitutional reform.
Within the social movements
there is now a left wing which questions neoliberal process, whilst
many right-wing civic leaders are being co-opted into the new government
structures. The ZCTU will be key. The issue will be whether radicals
and left-wing leaders will be able to rally the movement in the
militant and anti-neoliberal and autonomous direction that its radical
socialist president Lovemore Matombo pointed to at May Day, or whether
the centrist and right-wing forces -- including many who hold positions
in MDC -- will continue to make the ZCTU subordinate to the MDC
and GNU.
The radical forces will
have to mobilise and fight together with radical social movements
and the left, if this is to happen.
The constitutional reform
process offers a major opportunity for this. The conservative NGOs
and their MDC elite partners will oppose any attempt to establish
a truly people-driven constitution in terms of process and content.
They will seek to impose a process they control to ensure that the
new constitution does not include radical labour, gender and socio-economic
rights for the working people, or subject private property to social
control and regulation to benefit of the poor. They want the a process
that will simply rubber-stamp the undemocratic and neoliberal draft
constitution already agreed to by the political elites, with just
a few modifications.
International
solidarity
We would like to see
a constitution like that recently adopted in Bolivia, one that is
anti- neoliberal and which includes social rights. We want to learn
from Latin America - from Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador --
where strong alliances and campaigns against neoliberalism and capitalism
have been forged.
Ultimately, we look to
link up with a revitalised South African, Zimbabwean and Zambian
working class. In Zimbabwe, our liberation fight was more nationalist
than socialist and this has put limitations on our struggle, especially
considering that our socialist tradition was weak.
The South African working
class has a richer tradition of left struggles. It brought down
apartheid but post-apartheid the leadership was coopted by the middle
class. Now, in post-Polokwane South Africa, the revolutionary left
organised in groups such as Green Socialist, Democratic Socialist
Movement, Keep Left, Platform for Democratic Left and the Coalition
Against Xenophobia have shown increased maturity and work together
more closely in a process of left regroupment, as well as working
with the radicalising masses in the broader working-class movement,
including the trade unions and radicals in the ANC and the South
African Communist Party.
We are members of the
International Socialist Tendency and from our own experiences fighting
neoliberal capitalism and dictatorship in Zimbabwe, we are more
than strong supporters of left regroupment and are convinced that
unless the revolutionary movement is big and accommodating enough
we will not be able to take on the forces arrayed against us, or
engage with the possibilities now opening before us in the face
of the biggest economic crisis of capitalism for more than seventy
years.
*Munyaradzi
Gwisai is a leading member of the International Socialist Organisation
Zimbabwe. He was a featured guest at the April 10-12, 2009, World
at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia -- organised by
the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance. This article
is based on a talk presented at the conference.
Visit the International
Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe fact sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
