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This game has just begun
Movement for Democratic (MDC)
September 13, 2006

The important task of constitutionally dismantling a dictatorship through peaceful and democratic means is a process and not an event. The ZCTU-led march of today was an important event in this process.

Although thousands of workers turned up and were ready to march as planned, the police, militias and security agents blocked the streets of Harare and ensured that no crowd could gather that could form the sufficient nucleus necessary to kickstart the march. Once again, police brutality and state repression triumphed over the will of the people. So naked and so overt was the repression that ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe were viciously assaulted in broad daylight in the ironically-named Jason Moyo street. In the same brutal manner, other cadres such as ZINASU president Promise Mkwananzi, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Ray Majongwe, human rights activist Kerry Kay, MDC national executive members Grace Kwinje, Lucia Matibenga and Ian Makone were bundled into police trucks like bandits and whisked away in scenes reminiscent of Alexandria and Gugulethu in the apartheid days. True to its tradition, the regime has denied lawyers access to the incarcerated activists in a move that is inimical to democracy and the rule of law.

We had warned that there would be violence and police brutality and we were not surprised by the same. Today's events provide valid organisational lessons in respect of future actions. In this struggle, as with all battles, the element of surprise is very critical. Second is the need to ensure that sufficient groundwork has been done so that the majority of the citizens are participants and not spectators. Third is the need to thoroughly decentralise the action so as to stretch the dictator and his instruments of repression.

With inflation of over 1 000 percent and an unmployment rate of over 80 percent, with 60 percent of urban residents being tenants assaulted by high rentals and with a life expectancy of 34 due to hunger and disease, it is inevitable that there will be more protests, stayaways and demonstrations.\par

The resistance movement will learn its lessons and execute different strategies in future battles. The scoreline might be 1-0 to the regime, but this game has just begun.

Hon Tendai Biti, MP
MDC Secretary-General

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