[Marxism] Re: The Black Scholar Editorial on Zimbabwe

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry, I don't have time to explain this as I've not studied the 
matter in great detail. No, I don't think the workers are agents
of imperialism, but then, asking a question in that form is akin
to asking me when I stopped beating my wife.

There is a world-wide imperialist campaign to attack Mugabe and
the government he leads. My sense is that these campaigns by a
number of voices on the left regrettably tend to dovetail with
the campaign which we're all subjected to daily in the media of
the capitalist countries. Write analysis of the conflicts and
contradictions in Zimbabwe all you like. But joining up in the
media's campaigns against Mugabe and others is, in my opinion,
not a project which socialists in the larger capitalist countries
should engage in. I feel similarly about those continuing efforts
by some on the international left to expose and attack what they
feel are the deficiencies and betrayals of the South African ANC
government. The ending of white minority rule and the beginning
of black rule in Africa is a thoroughly progressive development.

These black-governed countries are capitalist in their structure
and are riddled with problems and contradictions. Understanding
and learning from these things is important for all socialists.
Black rule isn't the same as socialism, either in South Africa
or in Zimbabwe, though no one has claimed any such thing. 

It's dismaying to see how little understanding there seems to be in
some circles of the importance which the victory in overthrowing
apartheid represented. Racism is a profound curse on modern life. 
It can't and won't be eliminated with a change of administration, but
the removal of white racist minority regimes and their replacement by
black majority governments is a profound accomplishments. Political
leftists, especially in the so-called "advanced" capitalist countries,
really must appreciate that.

Since I'm not a member of any organization with a full political
program, I'm free to pick and choose those issues on which I'm
going to focus my time and energy. 

The GREEN LEFT WEEKLY is a voice I appreciate and a paper which
I've written for in the past, and would happily write for again 
on the subject I know most about: Cuba. But there are some areas
where we don't agree, and this is one of them. I don't find it 
fruitful to argue with friends over matters where we disagree,
since what we share in common is more important in my opinion.

Respectfully,


Walter Lippmann
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
====================================================================
Perhaps Walter can explain how this sanitised account of Zimbabwean
history explains the Mugabe capitalist regime's continuing, relentless
assaults on that country's working class, urban poor and farmworkers
(see the link below from 2005)? Does he really believe that the
country's vast majority of workers and urban dwellers are simply
agents of imperialism? If not, is not the workers' movement entitled
to resist that regime? Should we not heed the views of the Zimbabwean
socialists and the organised workers' movements in Zim? Should we not
offer them our solidarity, while at the same exposing the hypocrisy
and double standards of Western governments seeking to expoit the
situation for their own ends?

I'd again urge Walter and other to read Dale McKinley's 2000 & 2001
articles on the true nature of the Mugabe regime at
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2000/404/23768 &
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001/441/26463

Norm.



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