It the beginning of June the oppoA
sition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe called a week-long general strike which it had been planning since February. They claimed this "final push" would finally bring down Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party that has been in government since 1980.
Life is impossible for Zimbabwean workers. Unemployment has rocketed - officially it is 70 percent. The government has been put on a 10 minute warning by the South African electricity supplier ESKOM: if the bills aren't paid power will be cut. Inflation is 270% but predicted to rise to 500% by the end of the year. This, together with the reactionary policies of Mugabe and his cronies is why many look to the MDC for an alternative.
Robert Mugabe is no friend of the working class. While he mouthed some radical rhetoric in the days of the guerrilla war against colonial Rhodesia during the 60s and 70s, this quickly faded when he was in govemment.
His election in March 1980 unleashed a massive wave of strikes, most of which were demanding higher wages. Mugabe's new Minister of Labour persuaded workers to return to work, promising that their grievances would be sorted out soon. Mugabe himself was less tactful, referring to the strikes as "quite inexcusable" because they caused a loss in production. In June Friends of the Earth. Also taking part in the march were the LPM, and international movements such as Via Campesina (a movement of the landless and the peasantry and the World March of Women.
The issues raised by the marchers ranged from cut-offs, evictions, global warming, privatisation and landlessness to political repression and poverty.
This largest ever post-apartheid march was held outside the framework of the Tripartite Alliance, whose counter-march was small in comparison, attracting 5000 people. The latter had sought the collaboration of the new social movements in trying to dilute the political exposure of the government, and when this failed Mugabe 1987, Mugabe's government imposed a sixmonth wage and price freeze.
His ability to do all this was enhanced both by the fact that the trade union movement was relatively weak (both in terms of density and because of racial divisions) and therefore prey to corruption and influence from full-time politicians.
This was despite the fact that, at the time Mugabe came to power, the Zimbawean economy had the most advanced industrial capacity in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa itself. On the other hand the agricultural sector was one of the most underdeveloped in the world
At the same time, Mugabe also successfully got rid through repression of the other party (ZAPU) which had opposed British rule in Zimbabwe, and established one party rule. His tendency to imprison and otherwise repress his opponents did not rock South Africa organised their own counter-march.
The SMI, LPM led protest march succeeded in bringing together some of the major issues facing movements and organisations struggling in the towns and countryside nationally as well as internationally.
Significant as the development of the SMI has been, it has to be recognised that it is only those sections of the community directly affected by pressing issues such as cut-offs and evictions, who have been centrally involved in the struggle. The new social movements that have been formed have not sunk deep roots in the community. Organised labour and the students are not part of the new developments that have start with the MDC.
Returning to the present day, the strikes of 2003 were banned before they even started and what stayaways happened were met with mass repression. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested on the Monday morning. 4000 students attempting to march from the University of Zimbabwe were brutally beaten and forty five were hospitalised. The MDC say one supporter in Harare was killed.
All major roads in and out of Harare, Bulawayo and other towns had military road blacks by the Sunday evening. This was a war against what the state argued was tantamount to a "coup d'etat". The crackdown was carried through not only by the army and police but by the apparatus of the ruling party which remains desperately loyal to its leader.
Unfortunately, Mugabe remains in U power whilst to MAD reat.
Led, claiming that they had never said this was the endgame. In an interview in The Daily News on the Tuesday of the strike week, Morgan Tsvangirai attempted to shift the blame from himself and his party. Asked if he had underestimated how Mugabe and ZANU-PF would react to the protests he said, "You cannot blame the leadership. Look, the leadership can only do so much, but if the people are afraid to take the risks to gain their freedom, what do you expect the leadership to do?"
So the people are to blame? Suddenly the been taking place. The traditional organisations of the working class are for the most part either entrapped in the Tripartite Alliance, or extinct. While the SMI is overtly anti-capitalist and against their globalisation, it does not have a political programme. It is busy discussing whether it should remain a national movement, bringing together its constituent organisations. It also has to decide on whether to become part of the Africa Social Forum and the World Social Forum. It will discuss these issues at a conference, which it has called for later this year. action was recast and the interpretation of the 'final push' - as indeed 'final' (the popular meaning of the word) - was dismissed as "simplistic'. Tsvangirai insisted that the situation in Zimbabwe now demanded a 'long struggle', but how much longer can people wait?
The fact that Mugabe is today supported by other African leaders such as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Obsanjo of Nigeria says more about the desire those politicians have to carry though attacks on their own working classes than it does about any commitment to any radical notion of African solidarity against the imperialists
As Raymond Majongwe - the general secretary of the Zimbabwean teachers union, the PTUZ, said:
"Mugabe has to be kicked out. You don't negotiate with Mugabe because he knows no negotiations, his history proves the man does not respect any other idea as long as its not in line with his. Now anybody who comes to liaise, like Thabo Mbeki and Obasanjo - Obasanjo is like Mugabe he is a. soldier in civilian clothes he is also a man who rigged his own elections. Thabo Mbeki is a man who is pursuing an agenda for the benefit of South African businesses and Zimbabwe is one of his victims. The situaBY PRIVALIZING STATE ASSETS The Government PROMOTES RACISM tion in Zimbabwe is ripe enough for the Zimbabweans to take action against the regime themselves."
Raymond had expressed his reservations at the 'action' weeks before and is unhappy about the fact that the majority of trade union leaders in Zimbabwe follow the lead of the MDC - which will not protect the interests of their members.
In the meantime, the government's attempts to resolve the crisis have not been successful. The MDC on the other hand increasingly criticise Mugabe for not implementing IMF and World Bank inspired neoliberal policies.
This also explains why at least in Britain the media has been relatively supportive of the MDC and the strikes - not because they want a radical alternative to Mugabe but precisely because they hope that mass anger against his policies can be channelled in a way that doesn't challenge the colonia legacy. • With thanks to Leo Zeilig on SA Indymedia for providing many of the facts and some of the analysis of the current situation and South Africa Labour Bulletin Aug/Sept 1987 on Labour in Post Independence Zimbabwe (in particular Brian Woods article for the historical perspective.
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22 soclalsti International resistance Istance Summer 2003