14.03.2002
Communists reject election fraud
Situation in Zimbabwe 'explosive'
With every passing day it is becoming more and more clear that the presidential election in Zimbabwe has settled nothing. Robert Mugabe may have been declared the 'winner', but he now faces mass opposition of such proportions that it is highly unlikely he will be able to cling to power. But who will unseat him? Will it be the neoliberal leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change, backed to the hilt by imperialism and most sections of Zimbabwean capital? Or will it be the urban working class in alliance with the peasantry - already hit by devastating unemployment, 120% inflation, catastrophic food shortages and draconian anti-democratic and anti-worker legislation? Workers feel "cheated and frustrated", John Bomba of the International Socialist Organisation told me. "They are extremely angry and we are now expecting some kind of spontaneous uprising." They had been told just a couple of weeks ago by the national council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions that they should not stage a mass stayaway, but wait for Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC presidential candidate and former ZCTU secretary-general, to assume office. Now, however, all that has changed. Mugabe's Zanu-PF, using every underhand trick, every intimidatory measure, has ensured that its man has more votes notched against his name than his opponent - even if not all of them were cast by the electorate (there was talk of police officers being made to fill in ballot papers by the hundred and ballot boxes being stuffed with bogus votes). Many people thought to be MDC supporters had been disenfranchised, using one bureaucratic device or another, while supplementary lists of Zanu-PF voters had been registered after the deadline. While Mugabe made sure that in the countryside, where he still retains support, there was a polling station in every village, it was a different story in the urban centres. Many thousands of workers, desperate to rid themselves of their dictatorial ruler, were unable to vote despite queuing for hours. Some people stood in line all night to be sure they could mark their cross, yet many were denied the chance - some polling stations were processing only around 20 voters an hour. Thousands gave up, and hundreds had to be driven away by Mugabe's police when the authorities declared that voting would cease after the third, extra, day enforced by the courts. According to the ISO, there had been no mood for a fight prior to the election. The belief that Mugabe was about to be voted out, combined with disillusionment with the increasingly neoliberal MDC - set up in 1999 as the "party for working people" - meant that there was insufficient pressure on the ZCTU leadership to act. But it is felt that the trade unions will now be forced to call strikes - perhaps within days. In 1997-98 the ZCTU, under the militant leadership of Tsvangirai, forced Mugabe - himself following the neoliberal dictates of the International Monetary Fund and its 'structural adjustment' programme - to retreat. It was the unions who formed the backbone of the MDC before it came under the sway of the black middle class, white farmers and pro-imperialists. Other sections look likely to support any such fightback. Students could well add to any generalised strike action with a boycott of lectures and mass action of their own. Perhaps it is a sign of the new mood that comrade Bomba himself has just been elected president of the National Union of University Students. Meanwhile the official MDC leadership will seek redress through the courts: "Tsvangirai won't call people onto the streets," comrade Bomba told me. "He will use the courts, but they won't stop Mugabe. The MDC leadership is extremely timid." Meanwhile, several MDC leaders, including general secretary Welshman Ncube and international spokesperson Tendai Biti, one of the authors of the party's 'privatise everything' economic programme, have been arrested. Ncube is charged with treason for his part in the secretly filmed meeting with political consultants, where there was talk of 'eliminating' the president. "International and local capital has completely rejected Mugabe," said comrade Bomba. "There is no way they can coexist." That means that capital's imperialist backers may look to extra-constitutional means to depose him. Even before the election the Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Forum, a group of anti-Zanu-PF war veterans, had called for "financial and logistical support", in the shape of such items as uniforms, radios and training. Comrade Bomba also pointed to the possibility of economic sabotage. Yes, imperialism yearns to replace Mugabe. But that does not lead communists to hold back in their own struggle to overthrow his regime - from a diametrically opposite viewpoint. Imperialism seeks a stable, pro-western regime in order to restore the Zimbabwe economy and remove a troublesome 'hot spot' - which has the potential to destabilise the strategically important South Africa. Workers, on the other hand, demand respite from the repression and hardship they are suffering at Mugabe's hands. They need democracy and freedom from poverty. Not for us, then, the simplistic and unMarxist mantra, 'My enemy's enemy is my friend'. Mugabe is no friend of the working class. In the immediate aftermath of the election the Zanu-PF leadership clique seemed confident - and pleased with their work in rigging the result. They issued dire warnings of ruthless action to be employed against any uprising - whether by imperialist-backed dissidents from the liberation war or by the masses. But they will not be able to resist the united action of millions, who have shown by their determination to vote against all the odds that they are ready to act. That is why, in the words of comrade Bomba, "the involvement of communists is critical". There is, he explained, "a crisis of leadership" - a vacuum ready to be filled by those prepared to take advantage of the change of mood and the new "explosive situation". The ISO itself has vacillated in recent months over its position on the MDC. Last July it developed an excellent policy of making pro-working class demands on Tsvangirai as a condition for support. Then, when Mugabe rushed through a raft of legislation early this year, the comrades seemed to falter, declaring that they would recommend a vote for Tsvangirai as the representative of "bourgeois democracy", despite the fact that, in terms of his economic programme, he is more rightwing than the incumbent. Finally, the ISO decided it could not back Tsvangirai and gave no lead at all when it came to the vote. ISO national treasurer Rosa Zulu has candidly admitted in a recent email to international supporters, "We may well have made mistakes in the past." However, judging from my conversation with comrade Bomba, there is perhaps a danger of a further error - the error of economism. The comrade correctly stated that the crisis could not be overcome through the electoral process, but then went on to say that the main problem was "deep-running neoliberalism". It is true that replacing Mugabe with Tsvangirai would not solve anything. But there is a risk that the comrades may continue to downplay the central importance of democracy. It is not the rolling programme of privatisation that has outraged the masses, nor the chronic unemployment, food shortages and desperate poverty that have sparked the present "explosive situation". What has brought workers to the point where, perhaps, they are no longer prepared to be ruled in the old way is Mugabe's gigantic electoral fraud - against the backdrop of chronic unemployment, etc. The movement against Mugabe and for democracy will develop its own momentum - but it must not be left to spontaneity. If the struggle involves the broadest mass of the urban working class it will soon go beyond faith in Tsvangirai and hope in Bush, Blair or Mbeki. Such a movement will certainly demand jobs, decent wages, subsidies, nationalisation of land, an end to student fees, etc. But, crucially, it will have to tackle the question of the state. What that means is carefully and meticulously organising alternative organs of administration from street level up, and the arming of the masses - first with defence corps and small fighting teams, then, in conjunction with a strategy for splitting the army, with the means to sweep away the whole Zanu-PF state. Political preparation and timing are obviously crucial. The working class must be won away from the MDC. It must then secure the peasantry as allies. The armed rule of the workers and peasants would see the presidential system, with its elected dictator, abolished. The ISO has already proposed a new constitution which enshrines the recallability of MPs and recognises the right to overthrow an unjust regime by force. In other words a revolutionary republic based on armed workers and peasants. The call must now go out for the convening of a constituent assembly after the overthrow of Mugabe to implement these and other measures of extreme democracy. Peter Manson The ISO urgently needs cash, and the Socialist Alliance has agreed to help raise funds - already over £200 has been forwarded. Send donations to: First Direct Bank, 40 Wakefield Road, Leeds LS98 1FO. Account name: John Page; sort code: 40-47-78; account number: 1118 5489. Email details of deposits to isozim@hotmail.com
Worker