[Marxism] Gowans fires back on Zimbabwe,

[dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Small point on Land Reform.

I don't defend white farmers in Zimbabwe. If the country there wants to 
expropriate them, 
this is their sovereign right to do so. But...there is land reform and there is 
land reform. 
My understanding of the land reform instituted (extremely late by the gov't, 
BTW, decades 
after coming to power) there was that this was NOT a land-to-the-tiller 
movement by land
distributed to urban based ZANU-PF members almost exclusively. That in fact, 
most peasants were 
*excluded* from the land reform process altogether. I have heard this from ONE 
Zimbabwean
activist some about 1 1/2 years ago. IF this is the policy, then so much for 
"land reform" except
as it served to expropriate white owned lands.

In Venezuela by contrast, the small amount of land reform there, measured as it 
is, is based on 
land going to those that actually do the work and have a connection with the 
land. I oppose everything the 
imperialists are doing to unseat Mugabe as a matter of course. But I've seen 
nothing...including his "opposition" 
to IMF imposed reforms being no more than paper thing (especially after 
IMPOSING neo-liberal policies for
a decade previously!).

David

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