------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 29, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
ZIMBABWE: THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND LAND SEIZURES By Monica Moorehead On Aug. 15, the Zimbabwean government, led by President Robert Mugabe, began the process of physically expropriating the land from white farmers who had defied the timetable given them to abandon their farms. The Western capitalist press reported that as of Aug. 18, over 130 white farmers had been arrested for refusing to relinquish the lands to war veterans. These veterans are Black Zimbabweans who fought a national liberation struggle against Ian Smith's white racist regime. Smith ruled what was then called Rhodesia from 1965-1980. It was much like the apartheid regime of South Africa. Smith remains a landowner in Zimbabwe while the masses remain landless. The Lancaster House agreement the liberation forces of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) signed with the Smith regime in 1980 fell far short of winning total liberation for the masses. In essence, the agreement helped the white farmers and corporate interests to maintain economic control of Zimbabwe, while former members of the liberation forces took over the administrative reins and ran the country politically. In the 19th century, Zimbabwe was made a colonial possession by the racist colonizer, Cecil Rhodes, on behalf of the then British Empire, which named the nation after Rhodes for this conquest. For many generations to the present day, the Zimbabwean people along with the rest of the African continent have been brutally robbed of land, resources, cultural and economic development and subjected to slave labor under colonialism and neo-colonialism. The capitalist press has characterized Mugabe in the most horrible racist way, calling him a dictator and a tyrant. But what is really behind this demonization? It is a cover- up for the main crime against humanity. POVERTY: WHO'S TO BLAME What is the relationship of these land seizures to the deepening impoverishment of the Zimbabwean people? The Zimbabwean economy is based mainly on agriculture, like most of Africa, due to colonial underdevelopment. Before the recent land seizures, 4,500 white commercial farmers controlled at least 70 percent of the most arable lands. Most Zimbabweans were reduced to being peons or tenants in relationship to the land. Others exist in barren, Bantustan- type conditions. Black Zimbabweans do not hold the reins of the real power-- they neither own the major means of production nor control how the economy is run. The Zimbabwean people are dispossessed not only of their lands but of the economy as a whole. Baffour Ankomah spent two weeks in Zimbabwe after the recent reelection of Mugabe. In his special report called, "Zimbabwe: Life after the election," in the May edition of the New African publication, he makes this point on the economy: Black Zimbabweans control just 4 percent of the economy while the white farmers control 30 percent and the British-dominated transnational corporations control 66 percent of the economy. That means that 96 percent of the economy is out of control of the Black Zimbabweans people. The life of Black workers on these white farms is very similar to a slave plantation in the old U.S. South. The New African report states that on one farm in the northern part of the country, Black workers are forced to work 13-hour days for Z$1, 500 per month. The Zim dollar amounts to Z$55 to the US$1 on paper but in reality, on the informal market, the Z dollar is really Z$300 to the US$1. So in U.S. dollars this amounts to an astounding $5 for these Black workers, not per week but per month! Ankomah quoted a number of Black workers who described this super-exploitation: "If you are employed on January 1, you get your first pay check on February 15, and the cycle goes on. At the end of the year, it adds up to three months lost pay. And we never get paid our full salary, never; because by the end of the month, we already owe the boss money that he takes out of our salaries before paying us." The highest paid farm worker in Zimbabwe reportedly makes Z$3,000, or US$10 per month. Urban Zimbabweans are relegated to being servants for corporate management. FOOD PRODUCTION The land question ultimately leads to the issue of food production. Zimbabwe is in the throes of a horrible famine brought by a long period of drought. Pro-imperialist critics have accused Mugabe of wielding food policies as a "political weapon." Some of the big-business press and Western imperialist apologists state that yes, war veterans should have the land, but white farmers are needed because they have the expertise to grow food to turn around the famine. This is not only a racist insult to justify these white-owned farms, but a lie to boot. These racist farmers couldn't care less about the plight of six million starving, malnourished Zimbabweans. These farmers are tied to the worldwide capitalist market, meaning that they are driven to sell their harvest to the agribusiness market to make the most profits. It has been documented that these white farmers have destroyed maize, the main staple crop of the country, for political reasons or have turned this crop into animal feed rather than provide it for human consumption. George Monbiot, in his article "Our Racist Demonology" that appeared in the Guardian (UK) on Aug. 13, states that 70 percent of the maize crop is not grown by white farmers but by Black peasant farmers, who are desperately trying to feed their families. In reality, a majority of the white farms grow tobacco and not food for the population. In the aftermath of the national liberation struggle, Zimbabwe was able to produce enough food to feed its population. Today, as a victim of the globalization of capitalism, it is forced to rely onfood aid. Meanwhile, the Inter na tional Monetary Fund forces the government to use money that used to go for education, health care and other social services to pay the foreign debt. It is no wonder these war veterans have decided to take matters in their own hands to reclaim the farm land that should be theirs by birthright. By expropriating the land, these former colonized masses are carrying out their own form of Reconstruction or reparations that is long overdue. What is going on in Zimbabwe today is really another stage in the ongoing revolution for winning democratic rights. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
