Vol. 71/No. 44      November 26, 2007

Formerly the British colony known as Rhodesia, Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980. Since 2002, London, Washington, and other imperialist centers have targeted Zimbabwe with economic and travel sanctions, allegedly because of the lack of democracy there. In reality, they want to see a regime there that will be pliant to their interests.

In September, the Mugabe government enacted a new “indigenization and economic empowerment” law that calls for foreign owners to hand over 51 percent of their companies to “indigenous” Zimbabweans, including whites “disadvantaged by the colonial system.” This is the latest in a series of measures against wealthy whites and foreign interests taken by the Mugabe regime, which the imperialist powers have seized on in their anti-Mugabe campaign.  
 
Land question
Land reform is desperately needed in Zimbabwe to uproot the legacy of colonial rule. In 2000, Mugabe ordered the seizure of land owned by several thousand wealthy white farmers who dominated agriculture while 6 million Black farmers were landless.

But the land grab was bureaucratic. Much of the land was handed over to officials and supporters of the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

Concerning the new “indigenization” law, government minister Paul Mangwana said it “is about the total liberation of Zimbabwe.” Such official demagogy is designed to deflect opposition to the government’s responsibility for the spiraling collapse of the economy. On occasion it’s combined with antiwhite rhetoric. Mugabe told a ZANU-PF conference in 2000, “Our party must continue to strike fear in the hearts of the white man, our real enemy.”

Since 1999, Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product has contracted by one-third. Gold production plummeted by 44 percent from 1996 to 2006. The annual inflation rate has been running at more than 1,000 percent and more than half the working population is unemployed. According to United Nations statistics, life expectancy is 34 years for women and 37 for men.

The agricultural ministry says that the wheat harvest is one-third of what is required and the World Food Programme estimates that some 3 million people will need food aid in the coming months. During protests against food price rises in 1998, government forces killed eight workers and arrested 2,300.

This year, leaders of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were arrested and beaten by the police. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai supports the sanctions against Zimbabwe and has the backing of some imperialist governments.

Mugabe’s foreign policy has sometimes come into conflict with British imperialism’s goals in Africa. For example, London opposed Zimbabwe’s military intervention in the Congo war. At one point, Harare deployed 10,000 troops aimed at propping up the Laurent Kabila government.

Zimbabwe was also key to the detention of a group of British businessmen and mercenaries, with connections to ruling-class figures in the United Kingdom, who were involved in an attempted coup against the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.  
 
Foreign investment down
Foreign investment in Zimbabwe tumbled to $5 million in 2001, down from $436 million three years earlier. Mugabe turned to China in what is officially known as the “Look East” policy. Trade with China surged to $280 million in the first eight months of 2006, although it has slowed somewhat since. China is today Zimbabwe’s biggest overseas investor.

Concern over China’s growing presence in Africa is a factor in the EU’s African Union summit in December. The EU is split by the British government’s proposal to boycott the meeting if Mugabe attends. The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands have voiced support for the boycott; Germany and Portugal are against it.

The presidents of South Africa and Zambia have said that they will not attend the summit if Mugabe is excluded.  
 
 
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