[Marxism] Zimbabwe gov. defies regional court's support for white farmers

[Fred Feldman]

In my opinion, the expropriation of the white farmers by the Zimbabwean
government deserves to be defended against reversal (as opposed to
progressive transformation) regardless of what position one holds as to the
continuity of the current Mugabe government. The reform, long demanded by
the Zimbabwean people although constantly delayed by the Zimbabwean
government in deference to British and US imperialism, was carried out in a
panic by the regime to consolidate its popular base. The method seems to
have been shaped in part by corruption and patronage. Nonetheless it was a
serious blow to a real element of imperialist domination and a genuine
survival of settler-colonial rule.

Any successor government that simply repudiates this reform in the name of
"justice" to the imperialists and settler colonialists cannot have an ounce
of stability, no matter what its "democratic" cover story.

Supporters of the opposition should, in my opinion, demand acceptance of the
reform as a fact and orient not toward restoration but towards agrarian
transformation in the interests of the mass of the rural population and the
workers. If they can't reject these demands of the imperialists, their right
and capacity to rule Zimbabwe as an independent state will be legitimately
in question, putting it mildly.
Fred Feldman


December 2, 2008
World Briefing | Africa
Zimbabwe: Court's Land Ruling Defied 
By BARRY BEARAK
The government has rejected a ruling by an African regional court that
ordered the return of land confiscated from 78 white farmers, the state-run
newspaper The Herald said. Didymus Mutasa, the minister in charge of land
reform, was quoted as saying that a tribunal empowered by the 15-nation
Southern African Development Community was "daydreaming" if it thought the
government would comply. That was a cold splash of reality for farmers who
had been rejoicing since Friday's judgment. President Robert Mugabe's
government seized the land of 4,600 farmers in the past decade, creating
upheaval that most analysts say sent Zimbabwe's economy into the free fall
it suffers today.