Date: 13 Mar 2002 16:41:33 +0200
From: "Tahir Wood" <twood-AT-uwc.ac.za>
Subject: Re: AUT: Advancing the Anti Imperialist Discussion


>>> topp8564-AT-mail.usyd.edu.au 03/13/02 03:31PM >>>
On 3/13/02 6:44 PM, "Tahir Wood" <twood-AT-uwc.ac.za> wrote:


Tahir, isn't there a wider dynamic over there as well? Not only is Mugabe is
a homophobe, corrupt, cynical, election-rigging slimeball,  but from what I
have gathered, the MDC are no angels either. At the very least, the recent
video shows that they are prepared to sit down in a table with Ari Ben
Menashe and have a good old chat. About killing people and making deals with
the army.  They can plead navette and entrapment, but for me at least, this
episode has been very disheartening.

Tahir: Oh I wouldn't trust them an inch; that wasn't my point at all. My point was entirely about Zanu-PF and Mugabe - Mugabe used to be referred to as some sort of Marxist for years, mainly on the basis of his own utterances, rather than any other evidence.

Whichever way you cut it, Mugabe has accomplished some sort of perverse land
reform. 

Tahir: I find this a very strange way of looking at it. For twenty years Mugabe did little or nothing in the way of land reform and only when his star began to wane did he unleash the recent chaotic process in a bid to gain favour with the disgruntled ex-guerillas etc.

A lot of it is very unfair, but a lot of it is also desperately
needed.  Like it or not, the guy is actually elected, in reasonably fair
elections up to this last one, which is obviously very dodgy.

Tahir: What is your view of these sorts of electoral processes? Does this make him more acceptable than Reagan or Thatcher, each of whom won two national elections?

 He ranks
pretty high in popularity polls, which is striking given he is meant to be
some sort of pariah and the country is in ruins. He is obviously singing a
tune people want to hear. Maybe you can tell us more about this.

Tahir: Actually I think his popularity has been on a steep downward curve for the last couple of years, because the people no longer believe him. As for his attempts to gain popularity through land reforms, well, as far as I know it has been largely land for pals and not a thorough and equitible process.

The dynamic which I find somewhat problematic is the talk around England and
Australia about this tragic story of the MDC, which has been horribly
oppressed by the Zanu-PF thugs; which is true enough, but rather cynical
given the material support from England and, for some odd reason, Norway, to
the MDC, who are also quite thuggish (although they obviously don't have a
state apparatus, yet). Worse, they seem to be on the Ian Smith side of land
reform opinion. That's no good.  Familiar situation indeed, with the west
picking its darlings in the opposition it has incidentally funded, and from
whose policies whites stand to benefit.

Tahir: I think the MDC are simply a neo-liberal party who are able to exploit Mugabe's current unpopularity. I suppose it's the classic two-party syndrome in electoral democracy: if the one party is obviously wrong to certain people, then to those same people the other must obviously be right. 

There is another interesting thing with Zimbabwe which might be worth
discussing, and that is that the current dynamic has led the workers in
white farms taking their bosses' sides. Or at least that is the picture the
MDC's benefactors are presenting us. Or at least the picture which has
drifted down my modem.

Tahir: Yes, there's been lots of talk of that. There is a deep split in the Zimbabwean psyche from what I can tell: those blacks who hate and fear the regime most of all and who see their white bosses as paternal benefactors (nothing new in that especially) vs. those who reckon that being anti-white is still the way to the promised land. It is easy to see some progressive content in each of these positions, but I think one should be very wary of taking sides here. The MDC option is pure neo-liberalism, which has the attraction of being more 'democratic', but which reflects a growing sense in Africa that the first postcolonial generation's talk of anti-imperialism and socialism is just so much hot air. I suppose one could say this is a weary capitulation and a sense that perhaps there is not alternative after all to the hegemony of whites in the world. The Zanu-PF option has the attraction of seeming more anti-imperialist (falsely in my opinion), but it operates in much the way that many countries' problems are blamed on the Jews: i.e. we would have no problem in Zimbabwe if we didn't have the whites to contend with, which of course ignores the way the black elite have lived off the fat of the land for decades and done nothing to uplift their compatriots standard of living. 

If I have this totally wrong, can you recommend some reading?

Tahir: No I must say I can't recommend anything. I'm only speaking as someone who has observed the unfolding events in that country since the sixties. There was a time in the early eighties when I was rather pro-Mugabe, but I like to think I've come a long way since then.


Thiago














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