[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Bomba on Zim political strategies

[Patrick Bond]

Creating the Tipping Point: United Front is the Way Forward
By Briggs Bomba

The cruel impact of the Zimbabwean crisis on the lives of ordinary 
Zimbabweans can no longer be fully described through terms such as rate 
of inflation, percentage unemployment, GDP, and so forth. Today one has 
to talk in terms of the complete dehumanization and social breakdown 
that is ripping the nation apart. The breakdown of families, increasing 
levels of domestic violence, the violent crime that is getting out of 
hand and premature deaths and sickness related to the hopeless situation 
of abject poverty that the majority has been condemned to. The crisis is 
now eating away at the very social fabric that defined us as a people. 
Families can no longer come together even in times of mourning because 
traveling costs have become prohibitive. So everyone has been condemned 
to their own lonely space. In the ghettoes, young people whose dreams 
have been mercilessly shattered are now forced to become beasts preying 
on each other. Would have been engineers and responsible community 
members are now thugs and prostitutes on the streets gambling with 
death. So desperate is the situation that thousands of mostly young 
people are braving the crocodile infested Limpopo river for perceived 
greener pastures which mostly turn out to be a dehumanizing nightmare.

On the other hand the Mugabe regime is in a state of thoughtless denial, 
refusing to wake up to the unsustainability of the status qou and 
childishly hoping that this crisis can be contained through repression. 
To show how completely removed from reality the regime has become, last 
week the government splashed hundreds of millions of US dollars on 
fighter planes and luxury vehicles. This at a time when people are 
desperate with no medicine in hospitals, food shortages, perennial fuel 
crisis and company closures due to forex shortages. No wonder why some 
rightly ask if this is a curse worse than Malawi under Banda; rule by an 
irrational dictator who lacks even the decency to die on time.

The main question today is how to unlock the current political stalemate 
and create a tipping point in favour of masses. It is in this regard 
that the recent initiatives through the Christian Alliance to unite 
Zimbabwe’s progressive forces in the democratization and socio-economic 
transformation struggle must be welcomed as a long overdue move. One 
cannot over-emphasize the need to regroup progressive forces to a common 
platform if the democratization struggle is to move forward. The 
Christian Alliance initiative, which resonates with calls that have been 
coming from a number of quarters, is probably the most important 
opportunity yet for a united democratic front and all efforts must be 
made to critically support it. Critical support at this stage is 
indispensable when one considers the fact that we have had a plethora of 
‘Broad Alliance’ initiatives that mostly suffered the same fate of a 
stillbirth. Most of these alliances were exposed when they could not 
mobilize anything near a coherent response to Operation Murambatsvina 
last year. We must be able to say what is different with this new 
alliance so that it does not suffer the same fate. This is the time to 
ask questions why previous ‘broad alliances’ some going by that very 
name failed and what must be done now to create a functional united front.

There should not even be a question on whether a united front is 
necessary. The undeniable fact in any sincere analysis of the current 
status of the broad opposition in Zimbabwe today is that no opposition 
group has the capacity on its own to create a tipping point. A fact 
needs to be acknowledged that the MDC is no longer the lion that roared 
in 1999 when the people broadly endorsed the MDC to carry the mandate to 
lead the process of democratization and socio-economic crisis. At that 
point the MDC became the common platform to which everyone in the 
‘democratization’ struggle ultimately channeled their energies through. 
Unions used the MDC Chinja Maitiro slogan at labour forums, in the 
student movement back then Chinja Maitiro became a war cry at our 
rallies, people in civic society were using their phones and time to 
inform on MDC activities and mobilize support, a lot of groups were even 
selling cards recruiting people. This built a whirlpool of resistance 
that handed Mugabe a defeat in the referendum and almost won the 2000 
parliamentary elections.
Today’s reality is a completely different scenario. Especially after the 
2002 presidential elections there has been a steady withdrawal of 
movements, organizations and individuals to their own sectoral 
platforms. The split in the MDC was probably the lowest point along this 
withdrawal path as the ‘spagetti mix’ of 1999 came face to face with 
contradictions in its ingredients. It is therefore clear that a united 
front that regroups all progressive forces is critically important in 
moving forward the democratization process. A united front built in good 
faith by all stakeholders has the potential create a tipping point and 
unleash another massive wave of resistance that can take down Mugabe 
through the ballot, the bible, or toyi toyi on the streets. Whichever way.

The biggest crisis of broad alliance politics in Zimbabwe is that most 
of the times it is not even top to bottom but just top-level alliance. 
The grassroots is always left out and the broad alliance ends up being 
reduced to a meeting of the top leadership of a few organizations. Such 
a broad alliance obviously is extremely handicapped as a vehicle to 
advance the transformation agenda. To build a massive wave of resistance 
you need a mass alliance and therefore the question of mass grassroots 
engagement is of vital importance. A constant question that must be 
asked is, where are the people? So a deliberate process of going back to 
the masses and consulting on the stalemate itself and the process of 
moving forward is crucial. A new united front mandate and commitment 
must be sort from the people through a thorough process of national 
consultation, which at the same time works to effectively remobilize 
people. This consultation must be at the scale of the VOTE NO campaign 
involving community based processes and engaging all stakeholders. Such 
a consultation is different from rallies. In fact it cannot be done at 
rallies. Because you want people to speak, take responsibility and own 
the process. So this has to be small community and shopfloor based 
meetings. Rallies can only be the culmination.

Building a united front now must be confused as meaning the same thing 
as uniting the split factions of the MDC. The only viable united front 
is one that creates enough space for all progressive forces to make a 
contribution. And yes, including those in or were in Zanu PF. This must 
include all progressive faith based organizations and the progressive 
churches, labour, community based organizations, women’s movements and 
organizations like WOZA, youth organizations, HIV/AIDS groups, 
residents, cross border traders, artists, students, social forum 
constituencies, civic groups, opposition political parties and 
unaffiliated individuals. A strong commitment from the leadership in all 
these sectors to forge an alliance and mobilize their constituencies as 
part of a united front program can create the tipping point and tilt the 
game in favour of the democratic forces. And obviously such a united 
front can only work on the basis of democratic principles and this is 
why some have been playing with phrases like United Democratic Front. 
The progressive church in particular can play a key role in facilitating 
this regroupment.

Beyond the commitment to forge a united front, the next important thing 
is the ideological orientation such a formation assumes. Whilst 
acknowledging the fact that broad alliance politics by definition 
ultimately imply compromising on each one’s maximum program to a common 
denominator, to mobilize the wider masses progressive forces need to 
reclaim the radical democratic agenda that informed the massive 
struggles we waged in nineties culminating in the formation of the MDC. 
Whilst terms like legitimacy, governance, and constitution are 
legitimate the ordinary man and woman on the street interprets the 
crisis more in terms of its socio-economic havoc. Thus we must 
articulate our agenda in terms of questions of hunger, poverty, wages, 
availability of ARVs, affordable sanitary pads, student grants, water 
and electricity cut offs, collapse of municipal services, harassment of 
cross border traders and vendors, food shortages, transport costs, price 
increases, access to land and so on. This is the language that will 
resonate with people’s day-to-day lives and together with the civil 
liberties must form the basis of a People’s Charter. But such an agenda 
for socio-economic transformation cannot be stated in abstract. The 
world over we now know how ESAP and neo-liberalism condemns the vast 
majority of the people to suffer in conditions of desperate poverty. 
Thus progressive forces need to make a commitment to an anti-ESAP agenda 
if we are serious in wanting to resolve poverty. This fundamentally 
means that we must advocate from this very moment for a people centered 
economy.

Lastly there is a question on tactics and strategies. Sometimes you get 
a sense that people are now begging for talks with Mugabe. Whilst we 
must welcome anything positive that can come out of talks we need to 
know that Mugabe never surrenders anything on a silver platter and has 
no ears for words like please. So, in order to create a tipping point, 
there is no option besides rebuilding united mass resistance starting 
with small confidence rebuilding measures. As a united democratic front 
people can then democratically decide on whether to talk, participate in 
an election or engage in an active boycott. Despite Mugabe’s claims of 
recent reincarnation as a ghost with doctor certified bones of a 28 year 
old, the old man is at his most vulnerable. His regime is completely 
clueless on how to contain the economic meltdown, his party is riddled 
in corruption and gangster factionalism, and his traditional social base 
including war veterans and the peasantry is now questioning its loyalty. 
Hence this is the time to organize and prepare for a decisive challenge.

Shinga Mushandi Shinga / Qina Msebenzi Qina! – History is on our side, 
We shall overcome!

Briggs Bomba is a social justice activist; he can be contacted at 
briggsbomba at yahoo.com