Several significant events on the political and constitutional framework of the country have occurred in recent months. Firstly have been the controversies surrounding the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) outreach exercise carried out from June 2010 to date. Secondly is the crisis in the Government of National Unity (GNU) following various unilateral state executive appointments by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
Political Crisis in Zimbabwe
The GNU is facing its biggest crisis since its inception, following the unilateral re-appointment of provincial governors and Ambassadors by Mugabe. This has been one of the main outstanding issues of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which was supposed to be resolved by SADC and the AU, the guarantors of the GPA. The prime minister and MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai responded by declaring that he and his party did not recognize not only such appointments but others that Mugabe had unilaterally done in the last 18 months, including appointments of the Reserve Bank Governor; Attorney General; five High Court and Supreme Court Judges and several ambassadors to the UN, Europe and SA. He has since written to these various authorities formally informing them of his position. Mugabe and the state media have ridiculed Tsvangirai, with Mugabe saying this is why it was now mandatory to have elections by mid- 2011 and do away with the GNU that has become to him an unbearable hindrance.
The growing arrogance of Mugabe and ZANU-PF and the crisis facing the GNU is not surprising and we had predicted right from the inception of the GPA in September 2008:
“… (The MDC – T leaders’) primary preoccupation is towards reaching a sell out agreement with the Zanu PF dictatorship that will not benefit the poor and working people … the opposition is dominated by the petite bourgeois elite, who long ago prostrated themselves before western neo-liberal forces and are now eager to get into state power, even as junior partners, and accumulate as a neo-colonial dependent capitalist class...”
“On the other hand Tsvangirai, supported by a duplicitous and largely cowardly civic society, actively undermined any attempt at serious mass action solely relying on western sanctions. Not surprising they have been forced into a deal which gives a desperate dictatorship breathing space to renew itself, whilst laying the foundations for massive long term assaults on the living conditions of working people. Make no mistake, despite the above concessions; MDC is the definite junior in this deal with very unclear chances of success whilst the future of the deal itself is very uncertain...
“…Thirdly, unlike the Patriotic Front, MDC has no real fallback position if the deal collapses. Its only guarantor is a mediator who has now been ousted. Having consistently neutralized the mass action route, MDC has solely relied on the western sanctions. But MDC is not in full control of this. Locked in a hotel room and virtually coerced by Mbeki and Mugabe to sign there and then or risk immediate collapse of the negotiations, Tsvangirai seems to have signed a deal that does not meet the full approval of his western allies...
“With economic siege continuing, especially in an environment of global economic crisis, the deal looks very fragile and may unravel sooner rather than later. Popular acceptance of such an expensive and over bloated coalition government, proportionately the biggest in the world in a country with the world’s highest inflation, is likely to wane rapidly if the promised economic recovery fails to take place, with the draft national constitution a possible flash point. At such stage Mugabe’s continued control of the security apparatus, the state and treasury will be decisive and the opposition’s nakedness and foolishness in signing such deal exposed.”
Socialist Worker (Z), January 2009
The above prediction has indeed come to pass. The GNU saved the Zanu PF dictatorship from an impending social, economic and political implosion as foreshadowed by collapsing public utilities and rioting junior soldiers. The hyper-inflation dragon was tamed and Zimbabwe’s international isolation largely removed. Tsvangirai himself went the world over, as recent as September 2010 in an interview with South African E-News, preaching about how Mugabe had reformed, was a well-meaning statesman worried about his legacy and so forth. He has now turned and is bleating a different song!
We now in fact seem to be reaching the point predicted when Mugabe, no longer needing the GNU would flex his muscles and wee on the GNU. With a fairly stabilized economy, and Tsvangirai having de-mobilized and confused his supporters, the hardliners in the Mugabe regime are now again on the ascendancy and clearly on the offensive, using the constitutional question as the launch-pad. Mugabe has now called for elections saying the GNU has become intolerable for him and his Zanu PF. Prime Minister Tsvangirai has also told his supporters to prepare for elections in 2011, although he is insisting that these will be under a new constitution. Although Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has said this is grandstanding, events in the last few weeks show that the momentum for elections might be gathering its own pace and with increasing possibility could in fact happen.
Why Elections in 2011
Why is Mugabe pushing for elections when he lost in March 2008 and when recent polls show the MDC-T winning with 32% and Mugabe at 18%? It would seem following the COPAC outreach exercise, the hardliners in Zanu PF have become convinced that the system they put in place with devastating effect in June 2008 is still intact and that threats of return to such violence could land them victory. Moreover, they calculate the impact of the protest vote for the opposition arising from the massive economic crisis of 2008 has gone down whilst MDC-T seems to be focusing on their factional fighting.
The recent events show that Mugabe and Zanu PF have no desire to leave power soon or peacefully. The discovery of diamonds, the growth in agriculture and the economic indigenisation programme will require an appropriate enabling political framework that can only be provided by untrammeled Zanu PF control of the state. Even though Zanu PF is talking about peaceful campaign next year’s elections are likely to be characterized by state orchestrated violence, intimidation and the manipulation of the results to ensure a Mugabe victory.
What this means is that the struggle for democratization in Zimbabwe is far from being won. What is now required is a united force of all progressive forces to build independently and renew both political and economical struggles against the Zanu PF dictatorship as well as the neoliberal capitalist agenda of the ruling class in Zimbabwe. This movement must also not have any illusions in the MDC-T or MDC-M, whose leaders have shown themselves not only to be greedy self-interested and cowardly junior partners of the dictatorship but also have been at the forefront of pushing massive neo-liberal policies that attack ordinary people. They are a cowardly and vacillating lot, one day wining with the dictatorship and the other mourning about victimization. It is hoped that the latest events will show increasing layers of ordinary MDC-T supporters of the need for a resolute and decisive battle for democracy against the regime and capitalism.
The proposed Referendum can be used as a launch-pad for a bitter fight with the system of neo-liberalism and tyranny which must clearly go beyond the constitutional making process. Given the dominance of the COPAC Outreach programme by Zanu PF through manipulation and intimidation, it is likely that its positions on an all powerful executive president and non-inclusion of socio-economic rights will prevail. In any case both MDC formations are now calling for a negotiated constitution, which is likely to be based on the anti-working people Kariba Draft which contains neoliberal anti-working class provisions. If the MDC-T was really sincere it would have called for contentious provisions to be put directly as questions for decision in the Referendum. But it isn’t and seeks to lie to the people that it will facilitate the writing of a new constitution on getting into power. For the above reasons, now that we have exposed in practice the hypocrisy of the elites, we should now start preparing to reject the likely elitist, neoliberal and undemocratic constitution they are brewing…. As we argued in our posters with our interests not included we must mobilize for a Vote No in the Referendum as part and parcel of building a general and united anti-dictatorship and anti-capitalist uprising in this country. It is time we learn from our mistakes as ordinary people that our struggles were hijacked when the MDC was formed. This time we have to do away with the capitalist system and join hands with other fighting working peoples of the world such as we see in France, Greece and South Africa who are also revolting against the system this day. Viva Socialism!
Cde T. Sando
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
WORKING CLASS BEWARE OF A BOGUS BUDGET.
Elitist Budget is not for us, it is for Politicians, the Rich and the Elites.
The 2011 national budget by Minister of Finance Mr. Tendai Biti had positive gains for the social services, i.e., health and education. But it would be naïve to pretend not to see the thinly veiled attack upon the poor unleashed in the Budget presentation on Thursday 25 November 2010. We seek to expose the hypocrisy behind the publicity that was so over-zealously praised by the bourgeoisie media and politicians as pro-poor especially basing on a paltry handout that was promised civil servants and the nation.
The salary increments to public sector workers did not come on a silver platter neither does it fool anyone to think Biti and the ruling class have any benevolence in them especially after the minister gained notoriety for advocating for a wage freeze early this year. Indeed the 100% salary increase came as a result of massive struggles carried out by civil servants for the major part of this year. As a comparison the private sector workers whose struggles were less keen only saw at most a 10% salary increment. To further expose Biti’s cunning, he set the tax-free threshold at $225.Predcisely that’s where him and his fellow ruling class scum desired the salary scale to be (if only it weren’t for next years polls and the militants demonstrated by government employees this year.)
The conclusion is that action works. Jambanja ndizvo. Now further action is more necessary than ever if we are to beat the Poverty datum line which is still a further $200 away. Furthermore Biti’s Budget statement has remained virtually silent on the salaries of MPs and Judges. These were just removed from the civil servants’ Salary Services Bureau but we were not told their salaries. We Demand fairness, transparency and justice, Mr Biti!
Student Loan Fund. The birth pangs of privatisation
Biti promised to resuscitate the Student Loan scheme, to that end he set up $15 million. Never could he have found a more explicit way of privatising tertiary education than what he exposed in his budget presentation. Students might celebrate but they need only question why the government has decided to partner itself with a bank if it was so sympathetic. From experience banks would be vey crucial when it comes to following up on creditors (read poor students) .And we need not mention commercial bank rates!
DESIRABLE BUDGET
Frankly, the budget allocations for the crucial social services sector of education and health are far from desirable neither do they meet the crucial needs of these sectors. Education demands in Zimbabwe go beyond $400m, likewise with Health where no provision was made for the availability of Anti-retroviral Drugs. Penga Murwere Penga. But the budget was never funded by people who rob the nation of its wealth, ie, the rich capitalists and pro-imperialist multinationals. The 2010 budget is being funded by the poor while the rich benefits. So the Budget is being openly funded by the working class and the poor as they go to buy their daily bread(vat) and w2hen they earn their salaries(pay as you earn) and not capitalists who have stricken it rich in our diamond fields of Chiadzwa or past opposition sponsors, the western imperialists..The class war is advancing in Zimbabwe but unfortunately the working class has not been militant enough. Time is now ripe for the formation of a socialist workers party in Zimbabwe that is rooted in the day to day struggles of the poor, workers and students
Cdes Lenin Chisaira & Oscar Simbi
The 2011 national budget by Minister of Finance Mr. Tendai Biti had positive gains for the social services, i.e., health and education. But it would be naïve to pretend not to see the thinly veiled attack upon the poor unleashed in the Budget presentation on Thursday 25 November 2010. We seek to expose the hypocrisy behind the publicity that was so over-zealously praised by the bourgeoisie media and politicians as pro-poor especially basing on a paltry handout that was promised civil servants and the nation.
The salary increments to public sector workers did not come on a silver platter neither does it fool anyone to think Biti and the ruling class have any benevolence in them especially after the minister gained notoriety for advocating for a wage freeze early this year. Indeed the 100% salary increase came as a result of massive struggles carried out by civil servants for the major part of this year. As a comparison the private sector workers whose struggles were less keen only saw at most a 10% salary increment. To further expose Biti’s cunning, he set the tax-free threshold at $225.Predcisely that’s where him and his fellow ruling class scum desired the salary scale to be (if only it weren’t for next years polls and the militants demonstrated by government employees this year.)
The conclusion is that action works. Jambanja ndizvo. Now further action is more necessary than ever if we are to beat the Poverty datum line which is still a further $200 away. Furthermore Biti’s Budget statement has remained virtually silent on the salaries of MPs and Judges. These were just removed from the civil servants’ Salary Services Bureau but we were not told their salaries. We Demand fairness, transparency and justice, Mr Biti!
Student Loan Fund. The birth pangs of privatisation
Biti promised to resuscitate the Student Loan scheme, to that end he set up $15 million. Never could he have found a more explicit way of privatising tertiary education than what he exposed in his budget presentation. Students might celebrate but they need only question why the government has decided to partner itself with a bank if it was so sympathetic. From experience banks would be vey crucial when it comes to following up on creditors (read poor students) .And we need not mention commercial bank rates!
DESIRABLE BUDGET
Frankly, the budget allocations for the crucial social services sector of education and health are far from desirable neither do they meet the crucial needs of these sectors. Education demands in Zimbabwe go beyond $400m, likewise with Health where no provision was made for the availability of Anti-retroviral Drugs. Penga Murwere Penga. But the budget was never funded by people who rob the nation of its wealth, ie, the rich capitalists and pro-imperialist multinationals. The 2010 budget is being funded by the poor while the rich benefits. So the Budget is being openly funded by the working class and the poor as they go to buy their daily bread(vat) and w2hen they earn their salaries(pay as you earn) and not capitalists who have stricken it rich in our diamond fields of Chiadzwa or past opposition sponsors, the western imperialists..The class war is advancing in Zimbabwe but unfortunately the working class has not been militant enough. Time is now ripe for the formation of a socialist workers party in Zimbabwe that is rooted in the day to day struggles of the poor, workers and students
Cdes Lenin Chisaira & Oscar Simbi
WORKING CLASS BEWARE OF A BOGUS BUDGET.
Elitist Budget is not for us, it is for Politicians, the Rich and the Elites.
The 2011 national budget by Minister of Finance Mr. Tendai Biti had positive gains for the social services, i.e., health and education. But it would be naïve to pretend not to see the thinly veiled attack upon the poor unleashed in the Budget presentation on Thursday 25 November 2010. We seek to expose the hypocrisy behind the publicity that was so over-zealously praised by the bourgeoisie media and politicians as pro-poor especially basing on a paltry handout that was promised civil servants and the nation.
The salary increments to public sector workers did not come on a silver platter neither does it fool anyone to think Biti and the ruling class have any benevolence in them especially after the minister gained notoriety for advocating for a wage freeze early this year. Indeed the 100% salary increase came as a result of massive struggles carried out by civil servants for the major part of this year. As a comparison the private sector workers whose struggles were less keen only saw at most a 10% salary increment. To further expose Biti’s cunning, he set the tax-free threshold at $225.Predcisely that’s where him and his fellow ruling class scum desired the salary scale to be (if only it weren’t for next years polls and the militants demonstrated by government employees this year.)
The conclusion is that action works. Jambanja ndizvo. Now further action is more necessary than ever if we are to beat the Poverty datum line which is still a further $200 away. Furthermore Biti’s Budget statement has remained virtually silent on the salaries of MPs and Judges. These were just removed from the civil servants’ Salary Services Bureau but we were not told their salaries. We Demand fairness, transparency and justice, Mr Biti!
Student Loan Fund. The birth pangs of privatisation
Biti promised to resuscitate the Student Loan scheme, to that end he set up $15 million. Never could he have found a more explicit way of privatising tertiary education than what he exposed in his budget presentation. Students might celebrate but they need only question why the government has decided to partner itself with a bank if it was so sympathetic. From experience banks would be vey crucial when it comes to following up on creditors (read poor students) .And we need not mention commercial bank rates!
DESIRABLE BUDGET
Frankly, the budget allocations for the crucial social services sector of education and health are far from desirable neither do they meet the crucial needs of these sectors. Education demands in Zimbabwe go beyond $400m, likewise with Health where no provision was made for the availability of Anti-retroviral Drugs. Penga Murwere Penga. But the budget was never funded by people who rob the nation of its wealth, ie, the rich capitalists and pro-imperialist multinationals. The 2010 budget is being funded by the poor while the rich benefits. So the Budget is being openly funded by the working class and the poor as they go to buy their daily bread(vat) and w2hen they earn their salaries(pay as you earn) and not capitalists who have stricken it rich in our diamond fields of Chiadzwa or past opposition sponsors, the western imperialists..The class war is advancing in Zimbabwe but unfortunately the working class has not been militant enough. Time is now ripe for the formation of a socialist workers party in Zimbabwe that is rooted in the day to day struggles of the poor, workers and students
Cdes Lenin Chisaira & Oscar Simbi
The 2011 national budget by Minister of Finance Mr. Tendai Biti had positive gains for the social services, i.e., health and education. But it would be naïve to pretend not to see the thinly veiled attack upon the poor unleashed in the Budget presentation on Thursday 25 November 2010. We seek to expose the hypocrisy behind the publicity that was so over-zealously praised by the bourgeoisie media and politicians as pro-poor especially basing on a paltry handout that was promised civil servants and the nation.
The salary increments to public sector workers did not come on a silver platter neither does it fool anyone to think Biti and the ruling class have any benevolence in them especially after the minister gained notoriety for advocating for a wage freeze early this year. Indeed the 100% salary increase came as a result of massive struggles carried out by civil servants for the major part of this year. As a comparison the private sector workers whose struggles were less keen only saw at most a 10% salary increment. To further expose Biti’s cunning, he set the tax-free threshold at $225.Predcisely that’s where him and his fellow ruling class scum desired the salary scale to be (if only it weren’t for next years polls and the militants demonstrated by government employees this year.)
The conclusion is that action works. Jambanja ndizvo. Now further action is more necessary than ever if we are to beat the Poverty datum line which is still a further $200 away. Furthermore Biti’s Budget statement has remained virtually silent on the salaries of MPs and Judges. These were just removed from the civil servants’ Salary Services Bureau but we were not told their salaries. We Demand fairness, transparency and justice, Mr Biti!
Student Loan Fund. The birth pangs of privatisation
Biti promised to resuscitate the Student Loan scheme, to that end he set up $15 million. Never could he have found a more explicit way of privatising tertiary education than what he exposed in his budget presentation. Students might celebrate but they need only question why the government has decided to partner itself with a bank if it was so sympathetic. From experience banks would be vey crucial when it comes to following up on creditors (read poor students) .And we need not mention commercial bank rates!
DESIRABLE BUDGET
Frankly, the budget allocations for the crucial social services sector of education and health are far from desirable neither do they meet the crucial needs of these sectors. Education demands in Zimbabwe go beyond $400m, likewise with Health where no provision was made for the availability of Anti-retroviral Drugs. Penga Murwere Penga. But the budget was never funded by people who rob the nation of its wealth, ie, the rich capitalists and pro-imperialist multinationals. The 2010 budget is being funded by the poor while the rich benefits. So the Budget is being openly funded by the working class and the poor as they go to buy their daily bread(vat) and w2hen they earn their salaries(pay as you earn) and not capitalists who have stricken it rich in our diamond fields of Chiadzwa or past opposition sponsors, the western imperialists..The class war is advancing in Zimbabwe but unfortunately the working class has not been militant enough. Time is now ripe for the formation of a socialist workers party in Zimbabwe that is rooted in the day to day struggles of the poor, workers and students
Cdes Lenin Chisaira & Oscar Simbi
ISO SPLIT: MUTERO AND TIGWE AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS...OUTGROWTH OF OPPORTUNISM
Cunning hypocrisy!
Although we do not want to waste any time on the counter- revolution that split our International Socialist Organisation (ISO) in late 2008, recent happenings in the turncoats camp merit some comments.
Were there any convincing ideological reasons for Cdes Mutero and Tigwe to lead a split from the ISO or it was merely high time for opportunists to leave and hunt for their plunder elsewhere? Recent events utterly expose the slanders and cunning hypocrisy that preceded their departure from ISO.
What`s happening to the “pure revolutionaries” now?
Within two years the breakaway comrades have “hitch-hiked” from one tendency to another. What are they looking for? They left ISO to form what they called ISO Zimbabwe. Then they joined the Leninist International Fraction (FLTI),then the Revolutionary International League –Fourth International ( RIL-FI) in their nomadic chase for money and opportunities.
Now they have split again, the Mutero faction has remained RIL-FI whilst and the Tigwe, Manjonjo and Chidavaenzi led faction has turned ISO –ZIM again. What confusion! Reasons for the split are none other than monetary gain and political opportunism. Mutero accuses Tigwe of stealing US$6 000 from a poor people’s housing co-operative in Glen Norah, as well as being an MDC-T front and hitching up with a splinter grouping of the FLTI in the USA and New Zealand in order to get money. Tigwe in turn accuses Mutero of unilaterally changing the name of the organisation to RIL-FI in order to get a salary as part of the FLTI African secretariat, and also getting money under false pretence that he had been evicted from his house for political reasons and that he is a leading member of a reformist outfit called Zimbabwe Action.
Before the 2008 split we suspended Tigwe from the ISO for secretly remaining as a leading member of MDC-T in Glen Norah against ISO resolutions. On readmission he was again soon re-suspended for stealing organisation money, triggering the December 2008 split. At the time of the split we made it clear that the real reasons why Mutero and Tigwe were leading the split were crude opportunism, greedy and taking advantage of a serious unevenness of ideological development in our organisation. The two wanted to turn ISO into a quasi pro-MDC NGO to be used mainly as a vehicle for accumulating money from imperialist donors and unsuspecting left international organisations because of the Zimbabwe crisis. Hence Tigwe is still in the MDC-T Glen Norah district structures and even worked in the MDC Constituency office there.
One needs to go no further than the recent flood of Mutero-Tigwe correspondences on the internet to realise thatl there is nothing fundamentally different between the two other thsan concerns of who should have the most advantageous position to plunder and loot from unsuspecting regional or international left organisations and western imperialists.
.We shoulder the blame for having provided a breeding ground for such opportunists by failing to adequately develop our comrades ideologically.
Firstly: The social composition of the ISO. Before the year 2000 the ISO used to recruit many of its members from organised labour, i.e. trade unions and colleges and universities. From the year 2001 to 2009, which was a period of extraordinary economic catastrophe in Zimbabwe, the ISO went through a massive change in terms of its social composition. We could not continue depending on recruiting from colleges and trade unions for such “institutions” were largely decimated by the crisis. At the height of the economic and social crisis in 2008, many colleges became virtually closed or non-functional whilst many “worker activists” left employment going into the informal sector, rural areas or leaving the country.
This posed huge challenges for a tiny revolutionary organisation, with an even more tiny cadreship base, that is losing its few cadres at a time that was ripe for working class resistance struggle .For survival we had no option than to look for alternative “islands of life” that is social movements which mostly were constituted of the unemployed women, youths and AIDS/HIV activists, who whilst very enthusiastic for struggle were very weak politically and ideologically and particularly vulnerable to the politics of commodification of resistance or bribes from donor – funded civic society groups. This meant we had a mixture of a very small and ever decreasing layer of experienced comrades and a bigger layer of quite inexperienced comrades.
The new situation posed on us two challenges : that is attempting to train this newer and politically weak membership in a context of very low class struggles and at the same time trying to be visible in the broader democratic struggles against the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Secondly, such high levels of ideological unevenness combined with rampant poverty amongst comrades due to unemployment and hyper-inflation and in the context of rampant bribing of activists by the bourgeois opposition and civic society groups, “commodification of resistance,” provided a fertile breeding ground for opportunism, i.e. increasing pressure that ISO be like the other social movements and civic groups by providing “something” for sustenance or survival for its members, especially income generation projects and payment for attending meetings and activities.
Thus it became very much easier for a clique of opportunists in ISO to take advantage of the desperation and underdevelopment amongst many comrades to mobilise against the ISO leadership and its revolutionary programme in an attempt to turn around the ISO into an NGO which they would use to lure donor money. This is the context in which the October 2008 elections which were won by the opportunists were done. However, the ISO principled leadership was able to subsequently win back the support of the majority of members and branches, leading the opportunists to split. In this they were helped by the Cape Town based WIVL, which took an unprincipled and opportunist position to back them, in the hope of recruiting a Zimbabwean section, a decision have lately come to regret.
For our part in our desperate fight to get back hard-won asserts necessary for revolutionary work but now in danger of being sold for a penny by these opportunist renegades , we made some mistakes such as getting the comrades who had stolen virtually all our property, arrested and taking the disputes before the bourgeois courts. However, this was a desperate temporary manoeuvre and we withdrew the charges at the earliest possible opportunity. Remember even, Bolshevik leader V.I.Lenin was once travelled to Russia in a sealed train under an arrangement with the Germany imperial state in 1917.
The ISO has continued with its revolutionary work of rebuilding a socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal movement in Zimbabwe against a rapacious and neoliberal ruling class represented in both parties of the rich and capitalists, Zanu PF and MDC. Today our focus is on rebuilding a new cadreship increasingly drawn from a new radicalising layer of students and workers as well as developing the ideological consciousness of the best of activists from the social movements who were unshaken by the winds of opportunism.
Don’t confuse the working class please. Viva Socialism!
National Co-ordinating Committee,
International Socialist Organisation (ISO)
17 November 2010
Although we do not want to waste any time on the counter- revolution that split our International Socialist Organisation (ISO) in late 2008, recent happenings in the turncoats camp merit some comments.
Were there any convincing ideological reasons for Cdes Mutero and Tigwe to lead a split from the ISO or it was merely high time for opportunists to leave and hunt for their plunder elsewhere? Recent events utterly expose the slanders and cunning hypocrisy that preceded their departure from ISO.
What`s happening to the “pure revolutionaries” now?
Within two years the breakaway comrades have “hitch-hiked” from one tendency to another. What are they looking for? They left ISO to form what they called ISO Zimbabwe. Then they joined the Leninist International Fraction (FLTI),then the Revolutionary International League –Fourth International ( RIL-FI) in their nomadic chase for money and opportunities.
Now they have split again, the Mutero faction has remained RIL-FI whilst and the Tigwe, Manjonjo and Chidavaenzi led faction has turned ISO –ZIM again. What confusion! Reasons for the split are none other than monetary gain and political opportunism. Mutero accuses Tigwe of stealing US$6 000 from a poor people’s housing co-operative in Glen Norah, as well as being an MDC-T front and hitching up with a splinter grouping of the FLTI in the USA and New Zealand in order to get money. Tigwe in turn accuses Mutero of unilaterally changing the name of the organisation to RIL-FI in order to get a salary as part of the FLTI African secretariat, and also getting money under false pretence that he had been evicted from his house for political reasons and that he is a leading member of a reformist outfit called Zimbabwe Action.
Before the 2008 split we suspended Tigwe from the ISO for secretly remaining as a leading member of MDC-T in Glen Norah against ISO resolutions. On readmission he was again soon re-suspended for stealing organisation money, triggering the December 2008 split. At the time of the split we made it clear that the real reasons why Mutero and Tigwe were leading the split were crude opportunism, greedy and taking advantage of a serious unevenness of ideological development in our organisation. The two wanted to turn ISO into a quasi pro-MDC NGO to be used mainly as a vehicle for accumulating money from imperialist donors and unsuspecting left international organisations because of the Zimbabwe crisis. Hence Tigwe is still in the MDC-T Glen Norah district structures and even worked in the MDC Constituency office there.
One needs to go no further than the recent flood of Mutero-Tigwe correspondences on the internet to realise thatl there is nothing fundamentally different between the two other thsan concerns of who should have the most advantageous position to plunder and loot from unsuspecting regional or international left organisations and western imperialists.
.We shoulder the blame for having provided a breeding ground for such opportunists by failing to adequately develop our comrades ideologically.
Firstly: The social composition of the ISO. Before the year 2000 the ISO used to recruit many of its members from organised labour, i.e. trade unions and colleges and universities. From the year 2001 to 2009, which was a period of extraordinary economic catastrophe in Zimbabwe, the ISO went through a massive change in terms of its social composition. We could not continue depending on recruiting from colleges and trade unions for such “institutions” were largely decimated by the crisis. At the height of the economic and social crisis in 2008, many colleges became virtually closed or non-functional whilst many “worker activists” left employment going into the informal sector, rural areas or leaving the country.
This posed huge challenges for a tiny revolutionary organisation, with an even more tiny cadreship base, that is losing its few cadres at a time that was ripe for working class resistance struggle .For survival we had no option than to look for alternative “islands of life” that is social movements which mostly were constituted of the unemployed women, youths and AIDS/HIV activists, who whilst very enthusiastic for struggle were very weak politically and ideologically and particularly vulnerable to the politics of commodification of resistance or bribes from donor – funded civic society groups. This meant we had a mixture of a very small and ever decreasing layer of experienced comrades and a bigger layer of quite inexperienced comrades.
The new situation posed on us two challenges : that is attempting to train this newer and politically weak membership in a context of very low class struggles and at the same time trying to be visible in the broader democratic struggles against the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Secondly, such high levels of ideological unevenness combined with rampant poverty amongst comrades due to unemployment and hyper-inflation and in the context of rampant bribing of activists by the bourgeois opposition and civic society groups, “commodification of resistance,” provided a fertile breeding ground for opportunism, i.e. increasing pressure that ISO be like the other social movements and civic groups by providing “something” for sustenance or survival for its members, especially income generation projects and payment for attending meetings and activities.
Thus it became very much easier for a clique of opportunists in ISO to take advantage of the desperation and underdevelopment amongst many comrades to mobilise against the ISO leadership and its revolutionary programme in an attempt to turn around the ISO into an NGO which they would use to lure donor money. This is the context in which the October 2008 elections which were won by the opportunists were done. However, the ISO principled leadership was able to subsequently win back the support of the majority of members and branches, leading the opportunists to split. In this they were helped by the Cape Town based WIVL, which took an unprincipled and opportunist position to back them, in the hope of recruiting a Zimbabwean section, a decision have lately come to regret.
For our part in our desperate fight to get back hard-won asserts necessary for revolutionary work but now in danger of being sold for a penny by these opportunist renegades , we made some mistakes such as getting the comrades who had stolen virtually all our property, arrested and taking the disputes before the bourgeois courts. However, this was a desperate temporary manoeuvre and we withdrew the charges at the earliest possible opportunity. Remember even, Bolshevik leader V.I.Lenin was once travelled to Russia in a sealed train under an arrangement with the Germany imperial state in 1917.
The ISO has continued with its revolutionary work of rebuilding a socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal movement in Zimbabwe against a rapacious and neoliberal ruling class represented in both parties of the rich and capitalists, Zanu PF and MDC. Today our focus is on rebuilding a new cadreship increasingly drawn from a new radicalising layer of students and workers as well as developing the ideological consciousness of the best of activists from the social movements who were unshaken by the winds of opportunism.
Don’t confuse the working class please. Viva Socialism!
National Co-ordinating Committee,
International Socialist Organisation (ISO)
17 November 2010
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