No subject

punchbag in the 'Dark Continent'. Yet Western governments have chosen
striking forms of intervention. Instead of militarily and directly
intervening in Zimbabwean affairs - despite loud demands from the
colonialist/radical alliance that they should do so - governments in the
West pursued a more hands-off form of meddling in Mugabe's regime. They
used sanctions and economic blackmail; they funded opposition parties
and 'events'; and most revealingly they put pressure on South Africa,
Tanzania and other nearby states to use their muscle to try to push
Mugabe from power. This was effectively 'blacked-up imperialism', an
attempt by Western powers nervous about being seen smashing their way
into Africa to use local proxies to do their dirty work for them. To
their credit, many African officials refused to play the game. The
African Union turned down Western suggestions to send forces to Zimbabwe
in 2005, arguing that 'it is not proper for the AU commission to start
running the internal affairs of members' states'. Though South Africa's
Mbeki has become involved in Zimbabwean politics, he has also, to the
irritation of Western observers, insisted that the future of Zimbabwe
'has never been a South African responsibility' {16}.

Zimbabwe captures both the West's sense of caution in international
affairs and also its inexorable drive to interfere wherever and however
it can. As the former British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett argued,
Britain cannot be seen explicitly interfering in Zimbabwe because we are
'the old colonial power' - yet at the same time Britain apparently has a
'responsibility' to spread democracy around the world {17}. The end
result of this schizophrenic approach to African affairs and
international affairs more broadly - a political defensiveness combined
with a desire to do something seemingly purposeful and proper - is an
unpredictable, ravenous, behind-the-scenes form of meddling in other
countries' affairs, a kind of 'cowardly colonialism'. And it can have
dire consequences for people in the third world.

On the basis of little more than the fact that they needed a focus for
their international pretensions, Western governments have put Zimbabwe
into an economic straitjacket and warped its internal political process.
If the sanctions, blackmail and withdrawal of trade have helped to push
Zimbabwe's economy into freefall, then the relentless backdoor political
interventions have disempowered the people of Zimbabwe. The dynamic of
Western intervention caused Mugabe to become more entrenched and
paranoid about outsiders - and it encouraged the MDC to look to Western
officials and radicals for their favour and flattery rather than to
build a meaningful grassroots movement inside Zimbabwe. Indeed, for all
the talk of a 'revolution' in Zimbabwe, both during minor street
protests last year and during the elections this week, many people
actually seem quite resigned about Zimbabwe's fate. As one report
recently said: '[T]he opposition hasn't been able to mobilise tens of
thousands of people ...' {18} Lots of the current news coverage
continually shows Zimbabweans queuing up for hours to buy a newspaper
for a few thousand dollars so that they can read about the elections.
This footage is supposed to show how bad inflation has become in
Zimbabwe, but it also reveals something else: that the West's attempted
strangulation of Mugabe's regime reduced the people of Zimbabwe to
observers rather than masters of their fate, who look to the front pages
of newspapers to find out what might happen next in their country.

Notes:

1 End of days for 'Africa's Hitler', National Post, 1 April 2008

2 Heroic return for Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Independent.ie, 28
March 2008

3 Mugabe hoping to side-step Mbeki and Annan , ioL, 24 July 2005

4 Abroad at Home; A Regime Of Thugs, New York Times, 5 May 2001

5 Britain prepares GBP 1 billion-a-year package to aid Zimbabwe,
Guardian, 3 April 2008

6 Britain prepares GBP 1 billion-a-year package to aid Zimbabwe,
Guardian, 3 April 2008

7 Britain prepares GBP 1 billion-a-year package to aid Zimbabwe,
Guardian, 3 April 2008

8 The Battle over Zimbabwe's Future, Global Research, 13 April 2007

9 The Battle over Zimbabwe's Future, Global Research, 13 April 2007

10 'This time, Bob, it's personal', by Barrie Collins, 22 February 2002

11 The Battle over Zimbabwe's Future, Global Research, 13 April 2007

12 The Battle over Zimbabwe's Future, Global Research, 13 April 2007

13 US reveals its efforts to topple Mugabe regime, Guardian, 6 April 2007

14 Sanctions, which sanctions?, New African, May 2007

15 'This time, Bob, it's personal', by Barrie Collins, 22 February 2002

16 Trashing Mugabe, by Josie Appleton, 25 July 2005

17 See Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett Condemns Mugabe Goverment

18 Zimbabwe: talking up a revolution, by David Chandler, 22 April 2007

_____

Brendan O'Neill is editor of spiked. Visit his website:
http://www.brendanoneill.net/

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4942/


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