ZIMBABWE: Mugabe's terror campaign against workers, urban poor

Norm Dixon


Zimbabwe's authoritarian capitalist government, headed by President
Robert Mugabe, has unleashed a massive wave of police brutality and
destruction in an attempt to terrorise the country's fiercely
anti-government urban working class and other poor city dwellers.

Thousands of riot police have invaded working-class urban townships
in the dead of night, looting and torching small traders' market
stalls, roadside ``tuckshops'', carpenters' workshops, and arresting
and fining anybody suspected of ``informal'' economic activities. The
wave of repression began in mid-May, reached a crescendo in late May and has continued into June.

Police are also evicting tens of thousands of backyard lodgers and
impoverished residents of urban ``squatter camps''. Families' homes
and meagre personal possessions have been bulldozed, leaving them
without shelter from southern Africa's frosty winter nights.

According to the Combined Harare Residents Association, more than
half of Harare's 3 million residents live in makeshift housing.

Late on May 26, more than 10,000 people were driven from their homes
in the informal settlement of Hatcliffe, northern Harare. Many of the
victims were supporters of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), settled there in 2002 by the
government. As in other raids, huge quantities of merchandise -
especially scarce staples such as maize, sugar and petrol -- as well
as foreign currency were seized, whether or not the owners had
licences to operate.

On May 24, Zimbabwe police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka told the
government-owned daily Herald that the raids had so far netted Z$900 million (A$120,000) in fines and Z$2.2 billion worth of goods. On
June 1, the Herald, quoted Zimbabwe assistant police commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena's boast, ``We have so far arrested a total of 22,735
people and recovered 33.5kg of gold ... and 26,000 litres of fuel''.

The official unemployment rate is running at more than 70% and tens
of thousands of rural workers have sought refuge in the cities after
being violently driven off farms. As a result, the vast majority of
working-class Zimbabweans eke out a living in the ``informal''
economy. Even those still in jobs must supplement the wages in the
informal sector, as their incomes are ravaged by 129% hyperinflation.

There is no love lost between the Mugabe regime and Zimbabwe's urban masses. In the March 31 general election, despite widespread poll rigging, ZANU-PF was defeated in all but one of Harare's 18
electorates. Similar result were recorded in other cities.

Dubbed Operation Murambatsvina (translated literally as ``drive out
the rubbish'', or euphemistically as ``restore order''), the
government claims its purpose is to root out ``economic saboteurs''
and criminals, and rid the cities of ``illegal structures''.

In truth, Mugabe's paramilitary invasions are designed to disorganise
and discourage any resistance to May 28-29 price increases for maize
meal (up 51%) and bread (up 29%). In the past, such increases have
triggered massive urban rebellions in Harare.

The Mugabe regime also needs to prevent organised working-class
resistance to austerity as it embarks on a campaign to win support
from local big business and foreign capitalists, and eventually repair its relations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has declared 2005 ``the year of investment attraction''. Gono declared soon after the Mugabe regime's March 31 election victory: ``we must realise as Zimbabweans that we cannot postpone the 'turnaround' [in economic policy], we have to take the pain like grown-ups and must know that the responsibility to turn around this economy squarely lies on our shoulders.''

According to Munyaradzi Gwisai, the former MP for the Harare seat of
Highfield and a leading member of the International Socialist
Organisation of Zimbabwe (ISOZ), Mugabe and Gono ``are intent on
sending a clear and unambiguous message to their capitalist
paymasters ... that the country has turned over a new leaf and is
ready to do everything it takes to advance and protect private
property, and the wealth of the capitalists and the rich.''

The government's attacks have met with some resistance. In the most
determined response, on May 25 thousands of residents of Glen View
and Budiriro, in Harare, blockaded streets and, armed only with
stones, fought running battles with the paramilitary invaders for
several hours. A protest march to the Glen View council hall was held
before the residents dispersed.

One resident described the events to Zimbabwe's Daily Mirror: ``The
whole of Glen View was here. This is a protest ... ZANU-PF, MDC
[Movement for Democratic Change] ... supporters were all involved,
they are fighting back. They hit back soon after police had destroyed
the vegetable markets. People have been driven to the edge by the
destruction of the ... major sources of their livelihood.''

The Zimbabwe Standard on May 29 reported that the cops marched into the area singing: ``You haven't had enough of being beaten up. We are famed for roughing up people.'' The BBC reported on June 1 that residents of Zimbabwe's second major city, Bulawayo , fought a
two-hour battle with riot police the previous night.

According to the May 30 Zim Online, hundreds of residents attended a
public meeting in Sakubva, a working-class suburb in Mutare,
Zimbabwe's fourth-largest city, to demand that their member of
parliament, the MDC's Innocent Gonese, find arms so that the
government can be fought. The MDC has continued to discourage mass action against Mugabe since the election and instead argued for legal action.

A national day of action against Mugabe's attacks has been called for
June 18 by the activist group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), and
supported by a number of activist organisations, including the ISOZ
and the Zimbabwe Social Forum.

 From Green Left Weekly, June 6, 2005.