Sie sind auf Seite 1von 9

From

SOCIALISTWORKER.org

Defend the Zimbabwe socialists


On March 16, Zimbabwes High Court Judge Samuel Kudya ruled that six prisoners facing treason charges for the crime of holding a meeting on the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia should be released on bail. The six who were among 45 people arrested when police raided the meeting spent nearly a month behind bars before their release on March 17. Kudya criticized state prosecutors for relying on dubious testimony by an undercover police informer to bring the charges. Bail for each prisoner was set at US$2,000an enormous sum for any Zimbabwean who isnt a crony of President Robert Mugabe. But families and friends quickly raised $12,000 with help from socialists and unionists in other countries. All of the prisoners were released on March 17. But the fight is far from over. The six will be back in court on March 21 to stand trial for treason. And around the world, people will be in the streets that day to say: All charges must be dropped immediately. Activists should also help raise funds for their defense and their medical bills (see the What You Can Do box on the next page). Our solidarity includes the responsibility to learn about their fight against both the Mugabe dictatorship and neoliberal imperialismand to tell others. This collection of articles is a place to start.

Call for a day of action


SIX PEOPLE in Zimbabwe are facing charges of treason for organizing a meeting to discuss the mass movements in Tunisia and Egypt. For this crime, they face a possible death sentence. They were tortured and held in solitary confinement for close to one month. An international day of action will be held on Monday, March 21, when they are scheduled to go on trial. Our message is simple and urgent: We demand that the government of Zimbabwe drop all charges. Plans are underway for demonstrations in a number of countries. We urge concerned people everywhere to join us in organizing meetings and demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners. Please translate and distribute this appeal as widely as possible. Let us know know what you are doing at our contact addresses. The worldwide significance of the struggle to free the Zimbabwean prisoners is reflected in a recent statement of support from the Congress of South African Trade Unions: The Egyptian and Tunisian experience have inspired many workers and poor people all over the world to stand up and demand an end to dictatorship, corruption and injustice of whatever kind. The arrest and prosecution of the six may seem like only the latest round of repression by Robert Mugabes government against opponents. But it is also an attack on the spirit of Tahrir Square, which has inspired people all over the world. The six prisoners include trade unionists, intellectuals and activists in the struggle for womens rights. The effort to suppress themand even to kill them, whether by execution or through torture and denial of medical treatment while in custodyis a vicious assault on all of us.
South Africa endorsers Anti-Privatisation Forum Amnesty International CIVICUS Democratic Left Front Freedom of Expression Institute Lawyers for Human Rights MDC Johannesburg Youth Assembly South African Municipal Workers Union Zimbabwe Treason Trialists Solidarity Committee U.S. endorsers Africa Action Campaign for Peace and Democracy Campaign to End the Death Penalty The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House (Washington, DC) Edge of Sports International Socialist Review The Nation New Politics The Progressive Socialist Worker Washington Peace Center

WHATS INSIDE
NICOLE COLSON

Free all the Zimbabwe activists


Page 2
SHERRY WOLF

People who make dictators fear


Page 3
SCOTT McLEMEE

A matter of life or death


Page 4
INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION

Release the jailed socialists


Page 5

BACKGROUND ON ZIMBABWE
LEE SUSTAR

Page 5

Mugabes murderous crackdown

LEE SUSTAR

After Mugabes election charade


Page 6
MUNYARADZI GWISAI

The struggle enters a new stage


Page 7

NICOLE COLSON

Free all the Zimbabwe activists


March 9, 2011

WHAT YOU CAN DO


To learn more about the six socialists and the struggle to defend them, see the FreeThemNow.com website, the SolidarityWithZimbabwe.blogspot.com and the Facebook group Calling for the Release of Zimbabwean Activists (facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_178 601402184959). To endorse the March 21 actions, send a message to both of these addresses: zimtreasontrial@gmail.com and solidarity@freethemnow.com. Sign and circulate a petition calling for the release of all the activists at ipetitions.com/petition/free_zims_now. You can donate to the Free the Zimbabwe 45 fund to contribute to the legal defense of the activists, as well as support for their families, at freethezimbabwe45.chipin.com/ free-the-zimbabwe-45-fund.

Nicole Colson reports on the arrest and torture of members of the International Socialist Organization in Zimbabwe.

HANKS IN part to an international outcry, a Zimbabwean magistrate has ordered 39 out of 45 of the recently imprisoned socialists and activists to be releasedbut six remain in jail, facing charges of treason that carry the death penalty. In February, the group of activists, students and trade unionists were arrested in Harare in a police raid on a meeting to discuss events in Egypt and Tunisia, and commemorate the life of HIV activist Navigator Mungoni. The meeting was called by Munyaradzi Gwisai, a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwes law school, general coordinator of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) of Zimbabwe, and a former member of Zimbabwes parliament. Gwisai and at least 11 others have been tortured while in state custodyreceiving lashes as well as being beaten with broom handles and metal rods. At a hearing on March 7, the magistrate reportedly stated that the six activists, by focusing on the possibility of doing what had been done in Egyptoverthrowing the regime of Hosni Mubarakmay have committed a conspiracy. In a hopeful sign, the magistrate also reportedly stated that the report of the states one witnessa police officer who attended the meetingwas not credible. Activists around the globe are continuing to mobilize support for those who remain imprisoned. A number of trade unions, civil organizations and others have passed resolutions and released statements in support of the activists. According to reports, state security agents broke into the February 19 meeting, seizing laptop computers, DVDs and a video projector, before arresting the dozens in attendance. The offending DVDs allegedly included clips from BBC World News and Al Jazeera. Members of Zimbabwes secret police may have been undercover in the group. In a court appearance on February 23, Gwisai detailed the torture that he and others have been subjected to while in detention at the Harare Central Police Station. During the torture sessions, which were recorded on video, the detainees were asked to recount what had transpired during their meeting, The Zimbabwean reported. Gwisai said each of the six detainees [with

Send an urgent e-mail to Zimbabwean officials calling for all charges to be dropped against the six activists Antonater Choto, Welcome Zimuto, Eddson Chakuma, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Munyaradzi Gwisai and Hopewell Gumbo. Send to these addresses: info33@zimbabwe-embassy.us, consular@zimbabwe-embassy.us, gapare@zimbabwe-embassy.us, mhute@zimbabwe-embassy.us, goora@zimbabwe-embassy.us, chinoingira@zimbabwe-embassy.us, masoso@zimbabwe-embassy.us, nyamapfeni@zimbabwe-embassy.us and mukupe@zimbabwe-embassy.us. Forward your message separately to these supporters of democracy, so they have a record of who has appealed to the regime: socialismfrombelow @gmail.com, ashley_fataar@yahoo.co.uk and shanthabloemen@gmail.com.

him during the interrogation] received a series of lashes which were administered while they lay down on their stomachs. He added that he received between 15 and 20 lashes as the police and his tormentors sought to obtain confessions from him and the other detainees. Gwisai said the pain which he endured and suffered as a result of the torture sessions was indescribable, sadistic and a tragedy for Zimbabwe. The University of Zimbabwe labor law lecturer said it was extremely difficult for him to sit and walk because of the torture sessions he underwent together with other detainees. Before the majority of the prisoners were released, none of those arrested had received any medical care since being taken into custody. This includes people who are HIV-positive, as well as one person who recently had brain surgery. A lawyer for the detainees told [United Nations torture investigator Juan E. Mndez] that a dozen of the 45 activists had been beaten with broomsticks, metal rods and blunt objects on their bodies and the soles of their feet, the New York Times reported. They were tortured to force them to testify for the state, and they have since been denied medical care for their injuries, the lawyer said. TATE PROSECUTOR Edmore Nyazamba claims the meeting was an attempt to foment an uprising against the regime of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe appears to have escalated attacks on his political rivals in recent months in advance of upcoming elections. While the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is urging elections be delayed until constitutional reforms can be put in place, Mugabes ZANU-PF party is pressing ahead, and carrying out a campaign of intimidation and violence that appears to be escalating particularly in the wake of the recent political
2

upheavals that ousted dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and threaten others across the Middle East and North Africa. According to Wired.coms Sam Gustin, a relative of one of the detainees who asked to remain anonymous described the attack on the activists as a pre-emptive strike by Mugabe. Its a clear indication of the fear and paranoia of this regime, the relative added. As lawyer Alec Muchadehama told the New York Times, This is a message that If you attempt anything, were going to arrest you, assault you, incarcerate you, lay false charges against you, deny you bail and occupy you with false trials. Thats the messageDont attempt this, it cant be done here. More than 200 MDC members have reportedly been imprisoned by the Mugabe regime since early Januaryincluding 10 members of Parliament, three of whom are remain behind bars. Despite a court granting them bail, opposition member of parliament Douglas Mwonzora and nearly two dozen other people remain imprisoned on charges of public violence after a meeting they were attending was broken up. Mwonzora is co-chair of the parliamentary committee overseeing the development of a new constitution. Its all prosecution to persecute, Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the MDC, told the New York Times. Only a government afraid of its people and that has a guilty conscience would be in perennial combat with its own citizens. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF were leaders of the anti-colonial struggle that won independence for Zimbabawe and the party was associated with some reforms in the early years of its rule, but Mugabes reign is plainly a tyranny. He has often relied on violence to suppress his political opponents and democracy. Meanwhile, a small circle of cronies around Mugabe has thrived while the mass of ordinary Zimbabweans struggle in abject poverty. More than 75

percent of Zimbabweans live below the official poverty line of approximately $41 per month, and average life expectancy in 2008 was just 44 years. OR THEIR work in promoting democracy, Gwisai and the Zimbabwe ISO have been targeted by the Mugabe regime before. In a disgusting display, even as Gwisai and other activists were being tortured, Mugabe pulled out all the stops for a lavish state celebration of his 87th birthdayincluding a celebration at a five-star hotel where he was garlanded with flowers and sung to by choirs. As one report noted, ads taken out in the local media by Mugabe-friendly politicians were marked by hero-worshiping phrases and language. In one advert, Mugabe was described as a legendary icon whose selfless dedication in rendering service to the nation and the peoples of Africa, was inspiring as well as unparalleled. Munyaradzi Gwisai and the ISO have a different opinion of the Mugabe regime. In court, Gwisai explained: The meeting [broken up by police] was to discuss constitutionalism, democracy and good governance taking into account recent events in Egypt, for the working people in Zimbabwe... It is not treasonous to seek to correct an anomaly in a government. The government of Zimbabwe today is not the government of the will of the people because it does not fulfill the issues of democracy, good governance and constitutionalism. International support for the imprisoned activists is growing, with organizations including the MDC, South Africas Center for Civil Society, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and many others calling for their release. Solidarity protests have taken place in Johnnesburg, South Africa, and Washington, D.C., as well as other citiesand activists are vowing to continue the pressure. As Patrick Bond of the Center for Civil Society noted in a statement: For one of the greatest movements for freedom in Southern Africas history, the Zimbabwean ruling party, to now become one of the most consistent enemies of democracy, is confirmed by the arrests...These acts will probably require the same treatment received by the corrupt rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. The arrest of those attending the ISO meeting only throws petrol on the fire of freedom. It will be seen by historians as one of ZANU-PFs most egregious errors of judgment. Their immediate release and compensation for the treatment they have received through a genuine move to Zimbabwean democracyis vital to limit the damage done.

SHERRY WOLF

People who make dictators tremble


March 15, 2011

The regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is intent on putting six socialists on trial for their liveson charges of treason that carry a death sentence, writes Sherry Wolf.

HE SLIGHT, soft-spoken woman now enduring beatings and medical abuse in Zimbabwes Chikurubi Maximum Security prison arrived at my doorstep more than a decade ago with a severe limp. Tafadzwa Antonater Choto (age 36), one of the six Zimbabwean activists facing charges of treason, is being tortured and facing a potential death sentence for the crime of organizing a viewing and discussion of video footage of the Egyptian revolution in Harare on February 19, 2011. When she came to visit a decade ago, Tafadzwa explained that her limp was caused by a beating from President Robert Mugabes police thugs, who smashed their way into a meeting and clubbed all of the participants involved in a discussion of womens rights. Tafadzwa, a longtime fighter for human rights and socialism in Zimbabwe, recently had an operation requiring complex postoperative care that she is being denied in prison,

though shes never been convicted of any crime. Tafadzwa was told by guards, It doesnt mattertoday, we will beat you until your period comes. Munyaradzi Gwisai (age 46) was a student when I met him in New York during the early 1990s. He was already a fierce politico, but not yet an organized socialist, when young reds in the International Socialist Organization (ISO)U.S. debated theoretical and political questions with him. Munyaradzis arguments led us to hold a series of study groups at Columbia University on the theory of state capitalism in Russia in order to understand how a revolution with mass participation devolved into a repressive state that used the language of socialism to justify gulag prison camps and all manner of oppression. Living in a country of mass poverty wracked by AIDS, where President Mugabe has claimed the mantle of socialism since victorious liberation struggles toppled the white-minority rule of Rhodesia in 1980, Munyaradzi has no doubt put those historical lessons to good use in building the ISO-Zimbabwe, a group he helps lead. Munyaradzi has spent years as a defender of workers rights and law lecturer, and he was a member of parliament who ran on the 2000 ticket of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Sportswriter Dave Zirin sent me this note about the former president of the Zimbabwe National Student Union, Hopewell Gumbo (age 32): When I was in South Africa to report on the pre-World Cup preparations, I was joined by an anti-debt campaigner named Hopewell Gumbo. Hopewell was as sharp and generous a person as I have ever come across.

I saw him at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit last summer, we spoke again at length about his efforts to see NGOs in Zimbabwe effectively work to get the debts accrued by Robert Mugabe dropped from the International Monetary Fund books. When it was revealed that Hopewells name was among the six being imprisoned, tortured and facing death in Zimbabwe, I became dizzy with anger and fear. Only a regime as decayed and frightened as Robert Mugabes would want to execute a person like Hopewell Gumbo. And only a presidential administration like Barack Obamas, that would continue the gulag in Guantnamo, would lack the moral authority or courage to say or do a damn thing. We are all Hopewell Gumbo. HESE ARE just three of the people Zimbabwes government is threatening with treason and possible death. Others we know of right now are: Welcome Zimuto (age 25) of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Tatenda Mombeyara (age 29) of the Zimbabwe Labor Center, and Edson Chakuma (age 32) of the United Food and Allied Workers Union. All of them are now subject to horrific brutality and held as political prisoners facing trumped-up charges of treason by a regime spooked by events in North Africa that have overthrown dictatorships not unlike Mugabes. Mugabes free-market policies and corruption have led to hyperinflation in excess of 100,000 percent (no, thats not a typo) and exacerbated the poverty of a nation already laid waste by colonialism and HIV/AIDS. Out of a population of 12.5 million, 1.6 million are living with HIV/AIDS, and because unemployment is a shocking 94 percent of the population, women and girls are sometimes forced to trade sex for food. Under Mugabe, Zimbabwe has become a social, political and medical nightmare. The courage it took for these six to hold a meeting to simply discuss world politics is humbling and warrants every bit of solidarity we can muster internationally. Activists from Europe, South Africa and North America are calling for an international day of action on Monday, March 21, 2011, in solidarity with these six Zimbabwean political prisoners. That day, a hearing is scheduled for the six in Harare. It is also the 41st anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, when apartheid police opened fire on Black protesters and killed 69 innocent civilians. In this moment of political upheaval from Africa to the American Midwest, when bankers, politicians and dictators aim to roll over us all, we have one weapon that must be deployed if we have any hope of justice and democracy in our lifetimessolidarity.
First published at SherryTalksBack.wordpress.com

SCOTT McLEMEE

A matter of life or death in Zimbabwe


March 10, 2011

saying goes, a firm advocate of the two-party system: There should be one party in power, and the other in jail.

Scott McLemee, a columnist for Inside Higher Ed and organizer of a solidarity campaign for jailed Zimbabwean socialists, explains how international activists could support the victims of the Mugabe regime.

IGHT NOW, six people are being held in solitary confinement in Zimbabwereleased from their cells each day, according to a report from family members, for just 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the late afternoon. They have not even gone on trial yet. When they do, the death sentence is a real possibility. Their offense is that they organized a meeting where video footage from the recent mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt was screened, and the events there were discussed. I do not know this for certain, but it seems likely that they also may have incited people to commit acts of reading. One of the masterminds behind the gathering, after all, was Munyaradzi Gwisai, a former member of parliament and leader of the International Socialist Organization of Zimbabwe. He also teaches labor law at the University of Zimbabwe. You know how it is with both professors and radicals. They are always trying to get you to read something. Now, all this unauthorized thinking about the outside world is clearly a matter of grave concern to the regime of Robert Mugabe, who has been running Zimbabwe for as long as its been called Zimbabwe. That comes to 31 years nowjust a little longer than Hosni Mubarak was in power in Egypt. On February 19, as the meeting was taking place at the Labour Law Center in the capital city of Harare, security forces raided it and arrested dozens of people, including students and trade union members. They were detained for a week at a police station, without legal counsel, and a number of them later described being beaten with broomsticks, metal rods and blunt objects on their bodies and the soles of their feet, according to an article in the New York Times. On Monday of this week, 39 of the prisoners were finally released. The six who remain in custody are being charged with treason; if found guilty, they could be executed. Meanwhile, other opposition groups are being harassed, with at least one MP being arrested. Evidently, this is the governments way of preparing for the national election to be held later this year. President Mugabe is, as the old
4

AST TUESDAY, with my column for the week not quite done, I hurried over to the Embassy of Zimbabwe in Washington, D.C., which is just a few blocks from Inside Higher Eds world headquarters. There was what any activist must feel obliged to call a small but spirited demonstration on the sidewalk in front of the place. We gave leaflets to passersby, and people in cars honked their horns in what one hoped was solidarity. At one point, I even directed a few choice words, by bullhorn, to any of the diplomatic staff who might have been inside. (This was not cathartic. It would have been better to say them in person, but the front gate was locked.) And then I rushed back home, to my desk and my deadline, trying to put out of mind the image of being whipped on the soles of the feet with a metal rod. That very same day, March 1, turned out to be the occasion of the Million Citizen March in Zimbabwe, which was organized on Facebook. The press abroad gave it almost no coverage. In a way, this was understandable, since nobody showed up for the Million Citizen March. One of the few reporters who did mention it found widespread suspicion that the whole thing was a ploy by Zimbabwes intelligence service to lure activists onto the streets so they can be arrested. The benign neglect by the media of this not-quite-historical event is worth some reflection, though. As I wrote in this column a month ago, there has lately been a strong presumption that social networking is, as such, democratogenic. It is true that platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Twitter can be helpful, even catalytic, for popular mobilizations. But as the authors of a recent report from the United States Institute of Peace note, there is a strong confirmation bias on that point. People only pay attention to the role of social media in political movements when the latter are gaining strength or moving forward. If the opposite happensif support begins to dwindle, or a campaign is stillbornit never occurs to anyone that online communication may have generated or amplified public fear, cynicism or passivity. That seems to be what happened with the Million Citizen March. Theres no substitute for the more inconvenient forms of activism, which require working with people you dont already know, and might not particularly like once you do. Not all solidarity involves friendship. But saying that doesnt mean discounting the possible value of social networking. The Facebook group Calling for the Release of Zimbabwean Activists is by far the best source of information on the detainees, and it provides a sense of what people around the world are doing to win their freedom.

Someone once defined politics as the art of knowing what to do next. Returning from that session with the bullhorn, I decided the next step would probably involve you, the readers of this weekly column, who have a vested interest in the release of Professor Gwisai and the other prisoners. Remember, they have been subjected to incarceration, beatings and the threat of execution for holding what was, in essence, a seminar on current events. Although not an attack on academic freedom in the strictest sense, it constitutes a brutal assault on the life of the mind. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, reads Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Obviously, that proclamation has about as much sway with the worlds despots as the Declarations prohibition on torture or...cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 5). But the vanity of dictators is a curious thing. They do sometimes respond to public pressure from abroad. They can, on occasion, be shamed. And for the sake of the Zimbabwean political prisoners, we must try. To that end, please consider endorsing and helping to circulate this call for the prisoners to be released and all charges dropped. It is literally a matter of life or death.
First published at InsideHigherEd.com

democratic rights, such as freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. We call for all charges to be dropped and all those arrested to be released unharmed immediately. We will stand in solidarity with those arrested until they are. International Socialist Organization February 21, 2011

BACKGROUND ON ZIMBABWE
LEE SUSTAR

Mugabes murderous crackdown


June 25, 2008

Lee Sustar reports on Robert Mugabes assault on political opponents in Zimbabwe ahead of a June 27 presidential vote.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ORG.

Release the Zimbabwean socialists

At its convention in March, the International Socialist Organization unanimously passed a resolution calling for all charges to be dropped against the Zimbabwe socialists and for the regime to stop its assault on democracy.

HE ANNUAL convention of the International Socialist Organization-U.S. expresses its outrage at the arrest of 52 socialists and activists in Harare. Those arrested were meeting peacefully to discuss lessons of the Egyptian and Tunisian events for Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. According to reports, the Zimbabwean government is planning to indict those arrested on charges of incitement to oust the government of President Robert Mugabe. We protest this attack on the most basic

IMBABWES PRESIDENTIAL election became an effective coup as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 vote amid a murderous crackdown by forces loyal to President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), went on to call for international peacekeeping troops to prepare for a new election. A fair vote in the presidential runoff vote scheduled for June 27, he said, was impossible due the widespread repression carried out by Mugabes ruling ZANU-PF party. We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force, Tsvangirai wrote for the British newspaper, the Guardian. Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not troublemakers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns. Tsvangirai hopes to get action from the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which unanimously condemned Mugabes attacks on the opposition. The next stage should be a new presidential election, he wrote. The reality is that a new election, devoid of violence and intimidation, is the only way to put Zimbabwe right.
5

The solid condemnation of Zimbabwe by the Security Council is noteworthy, given that two of its permanent members, Russia and China, have in the past moved to block sanctions against Zimbabwe. Also, Burkina Faso, Libya and South Africa joined the vote to condemn Zimbabwealso significant, given that South African President Thabo Mbeki has provided Mugabe with a political and economic lifeline for years. Yet there is little chance of the African Union assembling peacekeeping operation in Zimbabwe, and its even less likely that the UN vote will curb Mugabe in his bid to hang on to power. Despite the international pressure thats been building for years, ZANU, police, the army and paramilitary forces claiming to be war veterans of the liberation struggle have carried out a wave of violence. Mugabe, the central leader of Zimbabwes war against the old white minority regime, has ruled since 1980. For years, he refused political deals that would have eased him into retirement with his ill-gotten wealth intact. Now, dozens of opposition activists have been murdered, and hundreds jailed, including MDC spokesperson Tendai Biti, whos set to go on trial for treason. Tsvangirai himself took refuge in the Dutch embassy to avoid beatings, arrest or worse. Thousands of MDC supporters have been driven from their homes, making it impossible for them to vote. Moreover, the government ordered the closure of all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cripple the opposition and enforced the edict through violent raids. Food aid from foreign governments was halted, after Mugabe charged that relief workers were actually agents of Western imperialism. The result has been to make life in Zimbabwe, already difficult, unbearable. As Jan Puhl and Toby Selander of Der Spiegel re-

ported June 25: It is impossible for people to move about freely in the countryside. All the roads that cross the country are covered in a network of roadblocks where potential MDC supporters are dragged out of their cars or off buses. Simply not knowing the ZANU-PF song or declining to sing it is proof enough. Life in the capital Harare has also become grim. All official vehicles are covered in Mugabe posters, even bus drivers are forced to wear Mugabe T-shirts. Even aside from the intensified political oppression, life under Mugabe has become a daily struggle. The rate of inflation has risen to a staggering 2 million percent, a liter of Coke has increased in price from 200 million Zimbabwean dollars to 1.4 billion in just one week. A kilogram of meat has jumped from 1.5 million to 7 million Zimbabwean dollars. Postponing grocery shopping by even half an hour, one newspaper calculated, could see the value of ones money reduced by half. UST A few months ago, it seemed as if a more or less peaceful transition of political power had finally become possible in Zimbabwe. The opposition MDC had overcome a split to mount a winning campaign in the first round of the March 29 elections, taking control of parliament from ZANU-PF. For its part, the ruling party was divided, with a former top government official, Simba Makoni, challenging Mugabe along with Tsvangirai. But the Zimbabwe election authorities delayed the presidential election results for a month. Ultimately, they declared that Tsvangirai, a former labor union leader, won with 48 percent to Mugabes 43 percent, thereby necessitating a runoff election. Tsvangirai and the MDC believedwith good reasonthat he had won an outright majority during the first round of the election, and therefore, he should have been declared the victor outright. After initially refusing to participate in a second-round vote, he reversed course. Mugabe then unleashed the crackdown. While trying to crush the opposition, Mugabe has postured as an anti-imperialist fighter who is leading the country in struggle once again. He says hes trying to prevent a U.S.British takeover of Zimbabwe through the MDC, which has long had the support of the West. Now, with Tsvangirai out of the race, Mugabe has pledged to hold the vote anyway. And with arrests, assassinations and repression of MDC members of parliament, ZANU-PF may even be able to reclaim a majority when the new parliament finally convenes. Mugabe may be trying to preserve his rule with even more dictatorial methods than he has used so far in his 28-year rule. Or he may be using the violence to impose a government of national unity. His model may be the stolen Kenyan elections of last December, which led weeks of eth-

nically-based political violence. The result was a power-sharing deal, brokered by the U.S. and Britain, that left incumbent Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in office while installing opposition leader Raila Odinga as prime minister. Its unclear whether such a deal will be offered to the MDC, and, if so, whether it would be accepted. In either casea ZANU-PF dictatorship or a power-sharing dealthe popular struggle against Zimbabwes corrupt rulers will continue.

LEE SUSTAR

A deal after Mugabes election sham?


July 1, 2008

Lee Sustar reports on the possibility of negotiations following Robert Mugabes campaign of terror to win re-election.

OBERT MUGABES bloody re-election farce in Zimbabwe may turn out to be a prelude to a power-sharing deal with the oppositionand it may get the blessing of the international community that condemned the vote as a fraud. After a rushed inauguration the day after his sham re-election June 27he was the only candidate in a runoff vote, after the frontrunner was driven by violence to withdrawMugabe sounded themes of reconciliation with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). This is the same party that Zimbabwes security forces had repressed with the murder of 100 people, beatings and arrests of thousands, and the forcible displacement of some 200,000 people to prevent them from voting. The bloodshed ultimately forced MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw his name from the contest just days before the vote. Yet even as the U.S. says it will push for wide-ranging sanctions against the Mugabe regime, talks are reportedly underway for a deal that would install Tsvangirai or other MDC leaders in a unity government. After his inauguration, Mugabe called for consultations with the opposition. The 84-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the ouster of a racist white minority regime in 1980, has presided over an economic collapse that pushed inflation to 2 million percent and unemployment to an estimated 80 percent. He has maintained power by increasingly dictatorial methods, but now, facing international isolation, apparently wants to use the MDC as a political fig leaf.
6

Tsvangiraiwho took refuge in the Dutch embassy amid the violencedismissed Mugabes overtures. But the MDC leader has long floated the possibility of a government of national unity. Moreover, by initially participating in the runoff, Tsvangirai gave some legitimacy to Mugabes manipulation of the electoral process. In the first round of voting March 29, the MDC won control of parliament from Mugabes ruling ZANU-PF party, but government authorities delayed the result of the presidential contest for more than a month. Eventually, Tsvangirai was denied the outright majority he almost certainly receivedthe official result gave him 47.9 percent of the vote against 43.2 percent for Mugabe, which led to the runoff. Now, even as the opposition is reeling from repression, Tsvangirai is angling for a deal. The MDC leader sees talks as a step toward dismantling ZANU-PF rule through powersharing and assurances to members of the violent mafia that now runs the country that they will not be held to account for their crimes, wrote Chris McGreal of Britains Guardian newspaper. Mugabe is seeking to co-opt and neuter his opponents as a means to defuse international criticism and get the aid he wants to rescue Zimbabwes imploding economy. Tsvangirai is counting on international pressure to propel him into power. For his part, Mugabe needs Tsvangirai and the MDC in his government to dodge sanctions. Without the MDC, Mugabe doesnt have a solution to the economic crisis in the country, Mike Sambo, a member of the International Socialist Organisation-Zimbabwe, said in an interview. Mugabe is trying to use an election to determine who will have the upper hand in a government of national unity. There is a parallel with Kenya, where a disputed presidential vote last December set off weeks of ethnically based violence. It was resolved only when the incumbent who claimed re-election, Mwai Kibaki, accepted opposition leader Raila Odinga as his prime minister. Mugabe is after a similar result. The difference, Sambo pointed out, is that Odingas supporters were able to protest and fight, whereas Mugabes repression has incapacitated the MDC. There was massive intimidation of the opposition, massive violence towards MDC supporters, such that it was completely weakened, Sambo said. They could not organize any resistance because they were being arrested by the government. The only announcement they made was that they were pulling out of the election. Other than that, they were quiet. There were no posters to be seen, no campaign rallies whatsoever. They have been incapacitated. Whats more, Mugabe still enjoys the support of South African President Thabo Mbeki, whos been key to maintaining the ZANU-PF regime in power. By dealing with the two parties as equal players, Thabo Mbeki not only fails to recog-

nize that electoral reality, but he tilts the balance of power firmly in the direction of the ruling party, wrote the BBCs Peter Greste. ZANU-PF controls all the security servicesas Morgan Tsvangirai has learned to his costand it dictates what goes on state media. It runs the ministries and controls the economy. In effect, it holds all the aces. Meanwhile, the MDCs leader is sheltering in a foreign embassy; its secretary general is in prison on treason charges; and its party workers are either in hiding, in hospital, or in a grave. S A result of all this, Zimbabwes independent left is now in a corner, said the ISOZs Sambo. Although the MDC originated as a kind of labor party rooted in the trade unions, it has become, he said, a neoliberal party, pushing a completely right-wing agenda. But the same time, we see ZANU-PF implementing policies which are attacking workers, left, right and center. Because of the MDCs turn to the right and its willingness to accept a government of national unity, the ISO-Z abstained from the first round of the vote on March 29. But afterward, Sambo said, the organization shifted to support for the MDC in the second round vote in order to identify with working-class hatred of the Mugabe regime and desperation over Zimbabwes economic collapse. Several ISO-Z members were beaten during the election campaign, and the organizations offices were raided twice. Today, the ISO-Z is one of several organizations from what Sambo called civil society that are organizing underground, trying to rebuild a protest movement in favor of democracy and to press for economic demands to benefit hard-pressed workers. One of the reasons that the Mugabe regime can successfully unleash terror, and one of the reasons he cannot be removed from office, is the constitutional framework we have right now, Sambo said. We are demanding a democratic new constitution that will provide for free and fair elections. We also want a constitution that includes a right to education, a right to food, a right to shelter, things we are generally being denied by the regime. We are also demanding a national minimum wage linked with inflation. Sambo argued that a potential power-sharing deal between Mugabe and Tsvangirai brokered by African governments and backed by Western powerswill only prolong Zimbabwes crisis. The only way to take Zimbabwe forward is a united civic society, he said, to mobilize popular resistance.

MUNYARADZI GWISAI

Zimbabwe: The struggle enters a new stage


May 6, 2009

Munyaradzi Gwisai, one of the six charged with treason and a leading member of the International Socialist Organization in Zimbabwe, spoke as a featured guest at the World at the Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, an event organized by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance. This article is based on his talk, and was rst published by Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal.

ury 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 Zimbabwes 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 MDCs 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 Organization in Zimbabwe had long warned, the elitist GNU has adopted a neoliberal economic framework, called the ShortTerm Emergency Recovery Program (STERP). This is the most extreme free-market economic program adopted by the countrys 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 privatization in the next six months. The Zimbabwe dollar has been dropped in favor 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 countrys 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

HE FORMATION of the government of national unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Robert Mugabes 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 finalize 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 mobilized 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 Tsvangirais wife in a car accident in March also helped cement relations. Mugabe offered his personal solidarity and Tsvangirai neutralized peoples 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 lux7

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 cant afford to buy them. For the elites, the middle class and a few workers with access to U.S. 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-ofthe-range luxury vehicles. The first act of the new finance minister, the MDCs 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 skeptical Western governments. The MDC supports the arrangement to the extent of preaching unity and going all out to demoralize and neutralize anger from below. Even though the MDCs 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 privatization 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. Mugabes 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 realize the benefits of a deal which would legitimize 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 ZANUPF 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 organized labor movement, the militant social movements and the socialist left battered, marginalized and exhausted. Zimbabwes economic crisis resulted in many activists and trade unionists leaving the country to as a means of survival, while many organizations teetered on the brink of collapse for lack of funds. All this massively weakened the ideological and organizational autonomy and strength of the work-

ing class, leaving the field open to the rightwingers. 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. Rightwing 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 mobilize independently of the non-government organizations (NGOs) and it even affected our own organization, 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 realize 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 mobilize workers in the streets if the new government fails to provide a living wage of US$450 a month, stop the privatization 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 organizations then the middle-class elements who relate to the organizations of the rural and urban poor will come to dominate them and be the conduits for their ideological neutraliza8

tion. 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 radicalization. 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 Mbekis 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 Mugabes 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 Mbekis 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-PFs 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 imperiling the future of the GNU.

Land reform
The GNUs 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 centered 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 Mugabes 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 MDCs 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, Mugabes 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.

ing 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 mobilize 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 labor, 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 revitalized 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 co-opted 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
9

closely in a process of left regroupment, as well as working with the radicalizing 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.

Democratic space
The MDCs 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 organize 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, includ-

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen