Zimbabwe: The Revolution Continues (Part – 1)

Eric Draitser

StopImperialism.org

June 

 

The coming elections in Zimbabwe are no mere referendum on the leadership of the coalition government.  Instead, the decision before Zimbabweans is a clear one: continue on the revolutionary path of Mugabe and ZANU-PF or follow Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and their pro-US, neoliberal economic agenda.

 

While much of Africa has been turned into a chaotic, war-ravaged continent stuck in the destructive cycles of violence, terrorism, and dependence on imperial powers, Zimbabwe has managed to maintain the fierce independence and commitment to revolution espoused by President Mugabe stretching all the way back to the post-colonial liberation struggle.  However, in order to fully understand the sustained campaign of destabilization and subversion by the Western imperialist ruling class, one must first examine the policies of Mugabe and ZANU-PF that have earned them the ire of Washington and London.

Mugabe’s “Crimes”

Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party emerged from the post-independence conflict as the dominant political party in Zimbabwe, promising to finally address the most pressing issues facing black Zimbabweans who, despite making up the vast majority of the population, continued to be mostly landless, while the white, landowning class maintained their grip on the most arable land.  This gross disparity in land ownership, a vestige of the colonial system, became one of the primary needs that the new leadership intended to address.  However, the terms of the negotiated settlement of the war of liberation in 1979, known as the Lancaster House Agreement, essentially allowed the white farmers to retain their land if they chose to do so under the “willing buyer, willing seller” principle.

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