Fear and Loathing in Harare

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday March 14, 2002 20:19

by Revolutionary African - ISO Zimbabwe

isozim at hotmail dot com

Thursday March 14, 2002 at 11:32

Initial Statement From ISO Zimbabwe

Initial Statement by the International Socialist Organisation issued Thursday 14 March 2002

The results of the elections have not totally surprised us…and it has nothing to do with vote rigging.

The turnouts in Matabeleland and Harare reflect the disillusionment that ordinary workers have over the MDC. Its neo-liberal policies and consistent refusal to back workers actions since June 2000 have led to this situation. The MDC’s vacillations over the land issue have also messed up the MDC.

The voter turnoust in the Mashonaland provinces is a reflection of how important the land issue became. By seizing on this issue is how ZANU (PF) shored up its sagging support.

Even at this moment the anger over the MDC’s slowness at organizing mass action is being sensed. The longer the MDC takes to do something, the more it is likely to become even more isolated.

It is the MDC’s policies that have led to its electoral defeat. But with the economic crisis in the country and the levels of poverty that neither ZANU (PF) nor MDC will (or can) solve can only lead to further mass explosions over the coming weeks and months.

http://zimbabwe.indymedia.org/

From Zim ADMIN
administrator of the Zimbabwean IMC

How it feels to be an activist in Harare at the moment.

‘They’ve already stolen the elections. They’ve won.’ I was talking to a leading independent journalist earlier today. His despondency echoes throughout the left in Zimbabwe.

It seems as if the government have engineered the election result they wanted. The rest is just paperwork. They’ve managed to prevent people in urban pro-MDC areas from voting. They’ve managed to coerce people in rural areas, through lies, threats of violence, kidnapping of MDC election observers, killing of activists, and propaganda, to get the rural population to vote for them.

They’ve plucked out the key strategists from the MDC. Today Welshman Ncube, allegedly fleeing the country, arrested at the Botswana border. Tomorrow Tendai Biti, David Coltart and perhaps one or two other whites. Or so it feels.

This government is smarter than the opposition have given it credit for. No one here has slept in days. We’re tired. So tired. The vote has been for nothing. A farce that will be endorsed in a couple of days by the official election observers. Many observers don’t think this has been a free and fair election. Their opinion is sure to be overruled by their political masters, those who want stability, not justice.

Who’s speaking out? The police and army, loyal as ever, are swarming over Harare and Chitungwiza. Any rebellion here will be crushed in short order. Let us look, then, to Matabeleland. Where voter turnout was unaccountably low. Where 30,000 were killed in the civil war in the mid-1980s.

Hope is, right now, in short supply.

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ZIMBABWE- Revolutionary Worker Activists Perspective

by Revolutionary African - ISO- Zimbabwe

Thu Mar 14, 2002 20:28

by Revolutionary African - ISO- Zimbabwe Thu, Mar 14 2002, 7:26pm
isozim@hotmail.com

Workers Perspective
by International Socialist Orghanisation Friday March 08, 2002 at 03:32 PM

rosazulu@hotmail.com, antonater_c@hotmail.com, isozim@hotmail.com P.O. Box 6758, Harare

What is the future for worker activists?

Dear comrades,

The elections in Zimbabwe start in 9 hours time and end on Sunday. This is 48 hours over which you are supposed to “decide” your future for the next 6 years.

The lead up to this election has been the most tense and volatile in Zimbabwe’s history. It pits two apparently opposing parties against each other, both of whom claim to stand for the mass of ordinary people.

But is this really the reality macomrades? Nyaya chii? Over the time it has ruled, Robert Mugabe’s ZANU(PF) has shown itself time and again to be anti-working class, imposing IMF and World Bank neo-liberal policies like cuts in education and health spending and imposing laws that make it easier to fire workers. Weeks before this election ZANU(PF) enacted its most vicious attack on freedom since before nationalist independence 1980 under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Workers meetings have been banned, public meetings the same. When we marched for a new constitution and to denounce POSA, mapurisa attacked and arrested us. When ZANU(PF) marched, mapurisa escorted them.

The MDC in its time as an “opposition” party in parliament over the last 21 months has shown itself to be even more neo-liberal, anti-worker, than ZANU(PF) and has moved rapidly to attacking ZANU(PF) from the right. Its “Bridge” economic policy promises further attacks on ordinary Zimbabweans through privatizing totally everything. In a country with inflation at 120% and unemployment at over 80% among young people, this can only mean further massive poverty.

With the determination of ZANU(PF) to cling to power and the determination by the bosses through the MDC to attack workers, those who fight for genuine workers rights and freedom are caught in the middle. We have opposed the oppression of ZANU(PF), but can you unite with an opposition that is so openly anti-working class? This is not an easy question for which the answer is probably still to come.

If ZANU(PF) wins, we know the answer for workers. But if the MDC wins, what will happen to us workers? To claim that we will be worse off is not too far from the truth. When mushandi/msebenzi went on national stay-aways last year, MDC refused to support us. During debate on POSA in parliament, MDC made compromises to ZANU(PF).

At the same time, when we organized for the 15 February march against POSA, ZCTU also refused to organize for strike action despite workers demanding this at labour forums. Instead they called for prayers! Sadly, a number of trade union leaders have allowed themselves to become tied in with the MDC such that the leadership will not fight for us in the MDC either.

So those who fight for workers are caught between on one side ZANU(PF) who view us as an opposition enemy and on the other side MDC who view us as a threat because of our fighting for ordinary workers.

So this is where worker activists and radical progressive trade unionists are left – between a rock and a hard place.

Is there a possibility, therefore of fighting back, and, more importantly, building an independent workers movement after the elections – elections that have not focused on one single issue affecting workers daily lives? A movement independent of the bankrupt parliamentary parties?

YES THERE IS!!! Over the last few weeks, the Progressive teachers Union (PTUZ), Printing (Reflections) Union, National Engineering Workers Union (NEWU), Cnontruction Workers Union and the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have been laying the basis for just such a movement.

We do not believe that these elections will solve the poverty and unemployment that is facing workers every day. The system of parliament is there to serve the bosses and their lackeys. Parliamentary politicians enact laws to savage workers, while causing the prices of food to rise. These politicians also allow their stinking friends, the bosses, to cause shortages of food. While workers in townships and the country starve, the rich in the suburbs are eating.

If you believe that what we are doing is the way forward, then join ISO. Get your workmates and friends involved. If you really want to make a difference on the bread and butter issues, if you believe democracy is meaningless while people starve, then help us to build this fighting alternative.

You can e-mail us on isozim@hotmail.com or antonater_c@hotmail.com or rosazulu@hotmail.com or you can phone 091-370554.

QINA MSEBENZI QINA!!

SHINGA MUSHANDI SHINGA!!

Rosa Zulu, International Socialist Organisation, Zimbabwe

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Fear and Loathing in Harare

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