Re: [A-List] Zimbabwe: US to initiate "rescue"?

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Oh dear. I was just waiting for this. I did not expect it would come so
soon. They must be getting more confident about handling Iraq.

Yes I admire Patrick Bond too. Yes, there are serious violations of
bourgeois legality in Zimbabwe. Yes redistributed colonial farms may not be
run in a competitive economic fashion, though neither side tells us much
about any plans for democratic collectives. Yes the agricultural
proletariat on these colonial farms are getting disposessed in the process.

BUT the land was seized by British colonists a century ago on arbitrary
legal grounds, and as a Brit I must defend the right of another people to
expropriate their own land back again. Yes land redistribution has been a
common feature of bourgeois democratic revolutions and this is not
socialism but compared to some bourgeois democratic revolutions in history
the level of violence could have been much worse.

I dislike the racism implicit in the assumption that white people would do
better.

How can we impede this aspect of the onward march of Bush's global governance?

Chris Burford

London


At 07/11/02 13:16 -0800, you wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>
>
> > US may intervene to save Zimbabweans
> >
> > The US government warned yesterday that it might take "intrusive,
> > interventionist measures"
>
> *snip*
>
> >
> > Washington is considering measures that would challenge Zimbabwe's
> > sovereignty, the Guardian was told by Mark Bellamy, the principal deputy
> > assistant secretary of state for Africa.
>
> *Snip*
>
> > Mr Bellamy, who develops US policy on Africa,
>
> *snip*
>
> > He said Mr Mugabe was "holding his people hostage the way Saddam Hussein is
> > holding his people hostage".
> >
> Beautiful example of imperialism at work: first, explain how Mugabe is
> starving
> the people, then invade the country to "feed" them.
>
> When will we state the obvious truth? This is, and remains about the land
> seizures. Badly done land reforms are far better than well-managed, properly
> "democratic" "commercial" farmers. Imperialism knows this, and we know why
> they
> are attacking Zimbabwe.
>
> Everyone said "Mugabe is only saying he'll carry out a land reform" as an
> election tactic. When ZANU start to carry out the land reform, they are
> doing it
> wrong, or at the very least not for the right people...
>
> I hate that kind of arm chair revolutionary. Yet, I love Pat Bond so go
> figure...
>
> Macdonald
>
> Macdonald
>
> Macdonald