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- Subject: [21stcenturysocialism] IMPERIALISM: Zimbabwe....Harking back to Chile 1970
- From: grok <grok@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:57:30 -0700
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Half of the Left are still suckers for every imperialist
line that comes their way -- viz. all the fools who support
the MDC 'election winners' in Zimbabwe: taking this
bourgeois-style snapshot of reality completely out of
dialectical context. How convenient for somebody, eh?
Just because the Mugabe rÃgime is thoroughly corrupt,
exploitative and brutal itself, is no reason to be supporting
the local frontmen for a 'New & Improved' western (british/
U.S./EU/NATO) imperialism. And the imperialists will ALWAYS
be able to find sellouts anywhere they look, won't they
now..?
Fact is, the Left will never get past this gullible idiocy
without having a clear understanding of what it believes in,
and what its goals are -- and what the 'lay of the land' is,
for that matter. And one of the first things we have to
understand is that bogus concepts like "civil society" and
"social justice" are just two of any number of imperialist
codewords _actually meaning something else entirely
different_ from what the fools who mouth them generally
mean.
Fact is: there is no alternative to overthrowing capitalism
and installing a new socialist order worldwide. None.
Do NOT support the imperialist intrigue in Zimbabwe --
and the rest of Afrika for that matter.
- -- grok.
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "james daly" <james.irldaly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 6:46 AM
Subject: [A-List] Zimbabwe
>Zimbabwe's trade unions are appendages of the imperialist-sponsored MDC.
>The
>ZANU-PF government was in the past imperialist-sponsored. The IMF SAPs
>adopted by Zimbabwe's ruling party in the 1980s, following an agrreement
>signed between the national liberation movement and Britain were not
>liked
>by the trade unions and for good reason. But now the Zimbabwe Congress of
>Trade Unions appears perfectly happy to be sponsored by these same
>aggressive imperialist capitalist powers, against the interests of the
>Zimbabwean masses, and especially the rural Zimbabwean majority.
>
>There follows an article by the head of Zimbabwe's media about the ZCTU,
>and then an article by the same Tafataona P. Mahoso on the crippling
>santions (which the MDC and ZCTU are either silent about or openly
>support -
>theirs is a broad church) imposed by imperialism on Zimbabwe.
>
>______________________________________
>
>
>Sponsored politics, myths of civil society
>
>AFRICAN FOCUS By Tafataona P. Mahoso
>
>ZIMBABWEANS have just witnessed yet another spectacle of the defeat of
>sponsored politics in the form of the imagined mass demonstrations by a
>few
>leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) against the real
>aspirations and interests of the majority members of their own
>organisation.
>
>The ZCTU was the original base used by imperialism in the 1990s to stage
>the
>three-phase process, which produced the sponsored opposition Movement for
>Democratic Change (MDC). In June 2003, the MDC attempted a similar form of
>"mass action" without the masses which was called the "Final Push".
>
>The spectacular failure of the June 2003 "Final Push" to take off explains
>why this time the two factions of the MDC decided not to officially "own"
>the most recent "mass action", but rather to allow the ZCTU to try to
>rehabilitate its discredited image by standing and marching alone as a
>trade
>union. Thanks to the masses of Zimbabwe, the mass action has turned out to
>be the ZCTU leaders' equivalent of the MDC leaders' "Final Push" which, in
>fact, tuned out to be the "final yawn".
>
>However, the people of Zimbabwe should not sit back and relax. Sponsored
>politics is big business and it is here to stay, until the people learn to
>discard completely the twin myths of "civil society" and "multiparty
>democracy", the key mythologies used to justify the sponsorship of puppet
>politics in Africa and the rest of the South.
>
>In the case of Zimbabwe, the ZCTU and the MDC tried to present themselves
>as
>homegrown alternatives to the liberation movement in Government, Zanu-PF.
>They were going to meet a supposed deficit in Zimbabwean politics as
>defined
>by white imperialist powers.
>
>As the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Stan Mudenge said at the
>Conference of Former Liberation Movements in April 2004: "The British
>Labour
>Party, like other European socialist oriented parties that strongly
>believe
>in control politics, figured out that they could exert their policies over
>African trade union leaders, but not on leaders of the liberation
>movements,
>who were deemed to be too independent [to be so sponsored and
>manipulated]."
>
>So, in order to quickly sweep away the legacies of former African
>liberation
>movements as governments, trade union leaders would be chosen because they
>already maintained many so-called "civil society" ties to Western donors
>through Western-sponsored NGOs.
>
>According to Dr Mudenge, "This selection came to include trade union
>leaders
>such as former President Frederick Chiluba in Zambia; Mr Chakufwa Chihana
>of
>Malawi; Mr Ben Ulenga of Namibia; Mr Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa; and
>Mr
>Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe. The defeat of President Kenneth Kaunda in
>Zambia's 1991 presidential election by Mr Chiluba was to greatly encourage
>the European trade unionists."
>
>In fact, the Minister understated what happened. The Chiluba victory
>excited
>the sponsors as well as the sponsored parties and NGOs. It also fuelled
>gross exaggerations in the myths of sponsored "civil society" and
>"multiparty democracy".
>
>The effect was that civil society organisations came to be seen as
>incorruptible political saints who were not only anti-establishment, but
>also anti-indigenous and donor-sponsored.
>
>The people of Svosve and Nyamandlovu communal areas, who led the African
>land reclamation movement, were treated as too native and too radical to
>be
>accepted as "civil society".
>
>Likewise, North American and European political parties who tolerated only
>two major parties per country at home, treated Africa as a place where
>even
>hundreds of sponsored political parties were considered ideal. Hence, we
>have a situation where the US and the EU have used their political
>foundations and NGOs to sponsor more than 300 political parties and more
>than 30 candidates for president in the Democratic Republic of Congo
>(DRC).
>Surely, 300 political parties and more than 30 presidential candidates are
>just too many. And no one should be fooled into believing that the
>resulting
>confusion and cost represents evidence of "emerging democracy".
>
>What the North Atlantic states are funding and encouraging as trappings of
>democracy in the Congo, they themselves rejected long back. Between the
>Versailles Treaty ending the first European continental war and the
>beginning of the Hitler wars, US industrialist Henry Ford wrote against
>the
>sort of confetti democracy we see being celebrated in the DRC as well as
>against the role of the mass media in promoting such confusion: "No one
>who
>considered the list of [sponsored] dreams and vagaries and theories that
>have swayed the people through the centuries can doubt this . . . The more
>utopian, the more butterfly-like the theory [or myth], the more it
>commands
>public adherence . . .
>
>"The method is one of disintegration [not democracy]. Break up the people
>into parties and sects. Sow abroad the most promising and utopian ideas
>and
>you will do two things: You will always find a group to cling to each idea
>you throw up; and you will find this partisanship [multipartyism] dividing
>and estranging the various groups . . .
>
>"Not one idea, but a mass of ideas are to be thrown up and there is to be
>no
>unity among them."
>
>Henry Ford predicted the sort of confusion, which was later to engulf the
>North Atlantic states during the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism
>and
>Fascism. The mass media were both the fuel and conveyer belt for the
>confusion and bewilderment.
>
>According to Ford: "Bewilderment characterises the whole mental climate of
>the people today. They do not know what to believe . . . In this manner,
>theory after theory [myth after myth] has been exploited among the masses;
>theory after theory has been found to be impracticable and has been
>discarded, but the result is precisely what the programme aims for."
>
>This is pretty much what the people of Zimbabwe have been subjected to,
>using the myths of civil society and multiparty democracy.
>
>In 2000, they were told that civil society and the sponsored multiple
>parties were going to overthrow the Government and the liberation movement
>of Zimbabwe "violently".
>
>In late 2002, they were told that change would happen through sponsored
>genocide which would take place by January 2003.
>
>In June 2003, they were told that the multiple parties and their civil
>society would kick out the Government and the liberation movement via a
>peaceful "Final Push."
>
>In 2004, they were told that there would be a new government in Zimbabwe
>made up entirely of MDC elements by November, although the means by which
>this was to happen were not revealed.
>
>Indeed, there have been so many threats and promises that it is no wonder
>that this time (September 2006) the people refused to listen to the ZCTU.
>Even the MDC could not officially own up to the planned mass action.
>
>All the same, the two myths have to be destroyed by exposing the fraud
>behind them. As long as there are rich sponsors, there will be puppets to
>accept the sponsorship, unless the society educates its own children
>against
>the practice.
>
>______________________________________________________________
>
>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5391/is_200705/ai_n21288057/print?tag=artBody;col1
>
>How sanctions are making the economy 'scream'
>
>Mahoso, Tafataona
>
>Britain and its Western allies claim that they have only imposed "targeted
>sanctions" and "travel bans" on the Zimbabwean leadership and not economic
>sanctions on the whole country. "Who do they think they are deceiving?,"
>asks Dr Tafataona Mahoso, head of Zimbabwe's Media and Information
>Commission.
>
>There is a campaign of what I call "economic terrorism" against Zimbabwe
>mounted by Britain and its Western allies. "Economic terrorism" is what
>was
>meant by the former US president, Richard Nixon, when he instructed US spy
>agencies to ''make the economy of Chile scream".
>
>On 15 September 1970, Nixon called a meeting which was attended by (among
>others) National security Adviser Dr Henry Kissinger, Attorney General
>John
>Mitchell and ClA Director Richard Helms.
>
>Helms' notes of that meeting show that the US used its global power over
>financial institutions, international corporations and aid agencies to
>throw
>basic economic factors in the Chilean economy completely out of control
>and
>therefore precipitate social and political havoc.
>
>That is what Nixon meant by "make the economy scream". Because the
>economic
>havoc would start after the popular election victory of President Salvador
>Allende, the people would be made to believe (through massive media
>propaganda) that the turmoil was being caused by Allende's "mismanagement"
>of the economy.
>
>In Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins confirmed in 2006 that
>the economies of targeted countries were made to "scream" and collapse not
>just through the actions of the CIA and other spy agencies alone, but also
>through the action of genuine-looking multinational companies which the US
>National security Agency set up in order to make sabotage look like free
>enterprise. Sabotage schemes had to be made to look like normal business.
>
>But how was the Chilean economy to be made to "scream"? The following were
>some of the ways: According to the US National security Memorandum 93,
>America was to mobilise all its institutions and agencies to create a
>worldwide impression, starting from November 1970, that Chile was no
>longer
>"creditworthy". In Zimbabwe, the economic saboteurs have also been pushing
>the same claim since the implementation of the African land reclamation
>programme.
>
>In Chile, the US would influence all donors and financial institutions who
>used to extend lines of credit to the country to stop doing so. The US had
>veto powers not only in the UN security Council but also in all major
>international finance institutions through the IMF and the World Bank.
>
>Chile was immediately struck off the list of countries eligible for US
>loans, for ExportImport Bank loans, for Intet-American Bank loans and for
>World Bank and IMF loans.
>
>The immediate effect of this was that Chile was demoted from credit-rating
>category B to category D, which meant that by fiat, the country was
>unilaterally and arbitrarily reclassified among the least solvent nations
>in
>the world, even though this was far from the truth.
>
>The US used its power and influence to demand from Chile speeded-up
>repayments of loans which were otherwise not yet due. The US influenced
>international companies inside Chile to make their own extortionist
>demands
>on the country in order to make sure the economy would "scream".
>
>The funding and credits denied to the government of Chile were selectively
>given to organisations and institutions inside Chile which were
>anti-government and were part of the US regime change agenda.
>
>Because copper was the most valuable Chilean export, the US and its
>companies inside Chile asked European courts to block payments to Chile
>for
>its copper in order to deny the country foreign currency earnings. In
>Zimbabwe, we have seen similar efforts to have the country's diamonds
>condemned as "blood diamonds".
>
>Finally, the US set aside an economic destablisation fund to be used to
>make
>the economy "scream". Some of the money was used to pay transport
>operators
>to park their vehicles in order to make commuters stranded.
>
>Some of the money was used to pay certain unions to stay away from work in
>order to cripple production. Pare of [he fund also went to finance
>anti-government and pro-US media inside Chile in order to whip up support
>for the "economic terrorism" programme.
>
>Making the economy scream means making the majority of people suffer
>economic hardships. The same template is being used in Zimbabwe today, or
>has been used since 2000 when the African people started to reclaim the
>land
>that once belonged to their ancestors.
>
>You can substitute the name Zimbabwe for Chile, and everything you have
>read
>above has happened in the last six years since President George Bush
>signed
>the obnoxious Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act into law.
>
>There is very little difference between a man whose house has been
>petrol-bombed and burned with all his household goods bought over a
>lifetime
>(this is terrorism) and a worker who finds that his salary which supported
>a
>family of eight last year can no longer buy one litre of cooking oil (this
>is economic terrorism). This has been exactly the impact that the Zimbabwe
>Democracy Act and other economic sanctions imposed by Britain and its
>Western allies have had on the Zimbabwean people.
>
>To talk about "targeted sanctions" and "travel bans" on the Zimbabwean
>leadership is to put one's head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich.
>
>Zimbabwe cannot even borrow or get any credit from our own African
>Development Bank and the African Development Fund because the Americans
>say
>so.
>
>Meanwhile, the IMF and World Bank have been calling time on their debts,
>asking Zimbabwe to speed up the repayments as if there is no tomorrow. On
>several occasions the country has been threatened with expulsion from
>these
>institutions if it didn't pay up.
>
>At the local level, the "economic terrorism" translates into the following
>actions and processes:
>
>Every morning, wholesalers and retailers of basic goods and fuel, as well
>as
>money changers on the illegal currency market are provided with a rate for
>the day which is always higher than that of the previous day.
>
>The rate during the last week of March was responsible for the hiking of
>the
>price of imported cooking oil from about ZS30,000 per two-litre bottle to
>Z$70,000, and for the price of petrol to jump from about Z$10,000 per
>litre
>to $22,000 per litre. This means that someone is coordinating the price
>hikes, and the economic ministries should know the centre of such
>coordinated sabotage.
>
>On 3 April, the government, no longer able to look on while prices went
>through the roof, called a meeting of business leaders and strongly warned
>that it would not hesitate to take sterner action if the arbitrary price
>hikes continued. The industry and international trade minister, Obert
>Mpofu,
>rold the business leaders: "We are worried about these price escalations
>which clearly show no consideration for the public, and as a government,
>we
>want to know from you where the problem is before we take certain measures
>to protect the public."
>
>The minister said there was no justification for the price adjustments,
>some
>of them done on an hourly basis. "As a government, we will be forced to
>take
>sterner measures against those overpricing," Minister Mpofu added.
>
>As he spoke, a loaf of bread which should cost ZS825 was being sold at
>between Z$5,000 and Z$7,000, a twokilo packet of salt that sold for
>Z$4,000
>the previous week was selling for S18000, and a bar of locally-made soap
>had
>
>jumped from Z$17,000 to Z$35,000. Business leaders blamed the price hikes
>on
>the falling value of the Zimbabwean dollar, officially pegged at 250 to
>US$1
>but trading on the parallel market at sometimes as high as 30,000 to US$1.
>"If the US dollar rate moves from Z$3,000 to Z$30,000, what do you
>expect?",
>asked Calisto Jokonya, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe
>Industries, who was at the meeting. "The government should look at what
>really is causing the price increases and deal with that. Industry is only
>responding to the cost increases on the parallel market."
>
>Some members of the Zimbabwean elite are also being encouraged ro purchase
>cheap shares overseas from companies which are also quoted on the Zimbabwe
>Stock Exchange (ZSE). They then sell those shares on the ZSE where the
>value
>is higher, and then obtain Zimbabwe dollars to buy foreign currency to buy
>more cheap shares abroad and continue with the same cycle.
>
>Major manufacturers of basic goods are under-invoicing their exports in
>order to make quick foreign currency or externalise the portion by which
>the
>goods are underinvoiced. This process triggers shortages of the basic
>goods
>and also fuels price hikes.
>
>The strategy of these manufacturers is to recover some of the cost of
>under-invoicing foreigners from the local population. Faced with the
>resulting extreme shortages, the local population has no choice but to pay
>the hiked prices and to make up for the under-invoking of exports.
>
>Foreign embassies in Harare are also being used by the big powers to bring
>in foreign currency for economic sabotage purposes. A few months back,
>some
>companies m Zimbabwe were told by the US government to stop manufacturing
>goods based on produce from farms which were taken from white Rhodesians.
>Such companies are actually paid to enforce sanctions against the people.
>
>The UNDP has also been instructed to stop supporting national economic
>programmes but instead to engage in remedial social work and political
>governance issues. The result is that, while the UNDP, the World Bank and
>the IMF should have been the biggest providers of capital for the truly
>national integration of land ownership and agriculture, they have turned
>out
>to be the greatest detractors of the programme.
>
>Both the perpetrators of violence against the state and economic terrorism
>against the people have sought to reduce the effectiveness of the state so
>as to make the country ungovernable. In their propaganda, the state is
>presented and resented as a mere impediment to economic "reform" and
>prosperity. That is the misperception which the enemy wants and continues
>to
>cultivate because it generates cynicism and defeatism.
>
>Copyright International Communications May 2007
>Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
- ----- End forwarded message -----
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