[A-List] US, BRITISH HANDS OFF ZIMBABWE. LIFT ALL SANCTIONS! NED OUT OF ZIMBABWE!

[james daly]

---- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Lippmann" <walterlx at earthlink.net>
To: "'Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition'" 
<marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 10:16 AM
Subject: [Marxism] The Black Scholar Editorial on Zimbabwe



(Taken in full from PORTSIDE)
=================================================================

The Black Scholar Editorial on Zimbabwe

Submitted to Portside
by the Author ===

Dear Moderator,

I think you are off the mark in your April 3 position on Zimbabwe.
But that is understandable, in view of the massive disinformation
that Blair, Bush, the EU have been dispersing.

The simple fact is that Britain welshed on its Lancaster House
agreement to "buy out" white farmers and compensate them for land
they had stolen from Zimbabwe some 100 years previously, when the
country was a fiefdom of Cecil Rhodes and called "Rhodesia." and thus
permit Zimbabwe to repossess its land and income without
confrontation. Mugabe/ZANU inherited a nation whose black population
was impoverished [1 % of the population--whites--owned 70% of the
arable land.] Zimbabwe then borrowed money from IMF, got into the
structural adjustment squeeze even though it has met wage demands as
possible .

At the same time, international capital began the destabilization
strategy of inflating an opposition, supporting spurious
demonstrations, and playing the human rights card, strategies already
deployed in Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Poland to eliminate
legitimate administrations.

This campaign ignores the fact that Mugabe had been elected
twice--legitimately--in elections that were deemed fair by
international agencies. It also dismisses the Africans' right to
self- determination, and ignores the fact that in late March, the
leaders at the two-day Southern African Development Community (SADC)
summit in Dar es Salaam took measures,asking South African President
Thabo Mbeki to help promote dialogue between ZANU and MDC.
(AllAfrica.com)

I would suggest that you research a bit more deeply into the roots of
the Zimbabwe crisis, and the morphing of the front line states into
SADC, which advocates economic regionalism, political cooperation and
respects the independence of its members.

Separately, I am sending you an editorial I wrote on this subject
that will be published in Volume 37 No. 2 of THE BLACK SCHOLAR.

Sincerely yours,

Robert Chrisman, Ph.D.,
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher,
THE BLACK SCHOLAR

===

ZIMBABWE: THE LONG STRUGGLE

by Robert Chrisman, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher THE BLACK SCHOLAR,
VOL. 37 #1

BLACKS IN AMERICA have supported the Zimbabwe Liberation movement,
both from our ideology of Pan-Africanism as well as from our
identification with oppressed people in emerging countries. This
issue of The Black Scholar explores the current crises in Zimbabwe to
develop deeper understanding of issues within that embattled country.
We give our thanks to the scholars and activists who have contributed
their various viewpoints of this complex situation. Upon its
independence and the ascendancy of ZANU's Robert Mugabe to its
presidency in 1980, Zimbabwe's main economic resources, particularly
agriculture, remained in the possession of white farmers who refused
to release the spoils of Cecil Rhodes' policies: one percent of the
population owned 70 percent of the arable land. As part of the peace
settlement negotiated at Lancaster House, 1979-80, which involved the
US, Britain had promised to subsidize the buy-out of these farmers
but did not provide funds to pay them and equivocated on terms,
insisting on 'willing buyer-willing seller,' and 'full-market value'
for land. White farmers remained in possession of the land. On
November 6, 1997 British Labour Secretary Clare Short sent a letter
to Kumbirai Kangai, Minister of Agriculture in Zimbabwe, in which she
stated that, 'We do not accept that Britain has a special
responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe.'


Structural Adjustment

CORRECTING THE ECONOMIC and social welfare inequities for blacks left
over by the white Ian Smith regime (temporarily solved by securing
foreign credits), and a severe drought, forced Zimbabwe to enter a
structural adjustment program with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) in 1990. Structural adjustment typically mandates laissez faire
capitalism (disingenuously called 'neoliberalism'), privatization,
and the reduction of social welfare. Since implementing these
measures Zimbabwe's conditions have deteriorated drastically. Writing
of this adjustment, political economist Antonia Juhasz states:

In order to radically reduce government spending, the government
fired tens of thousands of workers, gutted the pay of those who
remained and drastically reduced spending on social programs. At the
same time, taxes were reduced (the idea being to encourage both
increased spending and businesses to locate to Zimbabwe), and the
country was opened to foreign competition-hitting the manufacturing
sector particularly hardâ?¦ Both employment and real wages declined
sharply. During 1991-1996, manufacturing employment fell by 9 percent
and wages dropped by 26 percent. Public sector employment fell by 23
percent, with wages dropping by 40 percent. (Juhasz, 'The Tragic Tale
of the IMF in Zimbabwe,' Daily Mirror of Zimbabwe, March 7, 2004)

The privatization of health care has had disastrous consequences for
AIDS/HIV treatment in Zimbabwe:

While campaigns to prevent and treat HIV in other African nations
benefit from international aid, the political situation in Zimbabwe
has caused most foreign donors either to decrease aid for the country
or halt it altogether. The United States, Australia and the European
Union have also imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe. The
neighboring nation of Zambia, which has a similar HIV prevalence
rate, receives around US $187 per HIV-positive person annually from
foreign donors; in Zimbabwe, the figure is estimated to be just $4.
(Graham Pembrey, 'HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe,' Avert.org)

Clinics and individuals cannot afford to buy the needed drugs. Even
so, on their own initiative, the Zimbabwean government and people
have reduced incidence from 25 percent to 20 percent.


Destabilization

ZIMBABWE HAS BEEN SUBJECT to a two-pronged destabilization program
led by the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union-1)
economic sanctions and 2) a relentless propaganda barrage.
Allegations against Zimbabwe of torture, cruelty, and abuse resemble
similar Western orchestrations against Cuba, the German Democratic
Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nicaragua, North Korea,
Palestine, Poland, and other countries targeted for economic,
political, or military assault. The goal is not economic justice for
citizens but the creation of a national bourgeoisie which serves
Western global interests, not those of its own people. A notable case
is the Mexican crisis, brought about by the neoliberal polices of
former president Vicente Fox and NAFTA.

THROUGH ELECTIONS Mugabe has remained in power, but as is often the
case when an independent or non-Western force prevails, its
legitimacy is contested by pro-Western international and domestic
forces. 'Democracy' in this context often means penetration of the
nation by international capital, which ignores the fact that the
primary issue is self-determination, not democracy. However, a
country's cooperation with global capitalism does not mean sharing in
its profits. As Moamar Gaddafi stated March 2, 2007, the 30th
anniversary of his declaration of a Jamahiriyah or 'state of the
masses,' the West has yet to provide economic aid to Libya, despite
its retreat from nuclear programs:

The prevailing powers today are in the hands of those who have
economic and military power which puts fear in others. They can make
you starve. They can close the doors for your exports of raw
materials such as coffee or oil. . . . This is an international
dictatorship that is being practiced against people, especially poor
people. (William MacLean, Reuters, 'Gaddafi Says Fear Drives World
Economic System,' Reuters.)

For example, with the destruction of the Iraq nation state headed by
Saddam Hussein-to create 'democracy'-its nationalized oil policy was
destroyed to permit the plunder of the rich Iraq oil fields, which
are to be divided among ethnic and religious factions, with the
global West controlling their markets. Writes Pepe Escobar,
'Sixty-five of Iraq's roughly 80 oilfields already known will be
offered for Big Oil to exploit. Iraq has as many as 70 undeveloped
fields-â??small' ones hold a minimum of a billion barrels. As desert
western Iraq has not even been exploited, reserves may reach 300
billion barrels' (Escobar, 'US's Iraq Oil Grab is a Done Deal,' Asia
Times Online, February 28, 2007).


The Road Ahead

ZIMBABWE'S PROGRESS toward true independence and self-determination
has been hamstrung by the Draconian measures of economic sanctions,
IMF schedules, and international demonization. Possessing
extraordinary mineral and rare earth resources and fertile
agriculture, Zimbabwe must be permitted to develop and integrate its
resources with other developing nations in Southern Africa. The
following measures must be taken immediately:

â?¢ Forgive Zimbabwe's IMF debt. Currently Zimbabwe is 128 million
dollars in arrears to the IMF. Considering that this amount is about
five percent of the two billion dollars a week the US spends waging
war on Iraq, debt forgiveness is a small price for securing peace and
alleviating poverty and suffering.

â?¢ The US, UK, and European Union should lift their economic
sanctions on Zimbabwe. These sanctions have served no useful purpose
but in fact expose the West as a group that will ruthlessly punish an
emerging nation for reclaiming its patrimony of land, liberty, and
the pursuit of economic and social justice.

â?¢ The demonization of Zimbabwe must stop. The whirlwind of
disinformation pouring from Western and pro-Western presses does not
provide an objective, comparative context for understanding
Zimbabwe's issues relative to those in other parts of the world,
particularly the western surrogates in Asia and the Middle East.

â?¢ The West must stop its provocative campaign for regime change and
respect the national and regional autonomy of Zimbabwe, as Russia,
China, South Africa, and the African Union have done. The continuing
escalation of the West's belligerence and sanctions against
independent, sovereign countries at the same time it offers a bait
and switch of 'free elections and democracy,' offers a caution for
blacks in America. The cause of social and economic justice in
Zimbabwe is best served by the elimination of sanctions, the
cessation of the propaganda war, and the forgiveness of the IMF debt.
Such measures will allow Zimbabwe to solve its own problems without
foreign interference.