Zimbabwe

Bill's first interest in politics came about at the time and because of the oppression of the people of Zimbabwe - Southern Rhodesia as it was then called - and the failure of the British Government to tackle the illegal white racist regime of Ian Smith. The success of the liberation movement led by Robert Mugabe was a great step forward for Zimbabwe and all Africa... so what has happened? It is a very complex issue - but here in a speech delivered to the TUC 2007 (with the constraint of a maximum of 3 minutes) Bill offers some insights not often mentioned in the media...

Comrades, we could not do anything other than add the voice of the National Union of Teachers in support and with total solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe struggling both for their trade union rights and for their very survival in many cases. Robert Mugabe's government has degenerated from a great beacon of change and liberation, as it was just a few decades ago, to one of tyranny, corruption and oppression.

However, in raising our voices in support of our trade union comrades and the people of Zimbabwe, we must not give credence to the racist and imperialist view that the economic and political problems faced in Africa are simply the result of bad governance, corrupt politicians and officials, that somehow Africans are less able to manage their affairs than Europeans were or are.

Of course, the British state in Rhodesia and the racist white regime that followed it offered no democracy or rights, only oppression and violence. Some of those very imperialists and racists now have the nerve to raise their voices to lecture Africans on democracy.

The degeneration of Mugabe's regime from a vehicle for liberation to one of tyranny is not unassociated with imperialism and the interventions during the past two or three decades; the first at the time of liberation which said that there would be no land reform for 10 years and imposed that on Mugabe’s government. In the early 1990s, the IMF and the World Bank imposed a structural adjustment programme that wiped out 30% of industrial capacity. In the late 1990s Mugabe’s government revolted against the programme and imposed tariffs to protect industry, stopped the privatisation programme, started land reform and allowed compulsory purchase of land.

At that time the all-white Commercial Farmers Union controlled 90% of all marketed produce. Britain and America took action against Mugabe's programmes and suspended payments for land purchase that had been agreed under the Lancaster House Agreement. Furthermore, Britain and the US established a Zimbabwe Democracy Trust. Bush and the US Congress introduced a Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. That gave the US power to impose economic sanctions. They instructed US representatives on the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, plus others, to vote against all credit facilities and loans for Zimbabwe and to claim payments on existing loans. Zimbabwe has received no loans or credit since 2000 and has had to cease buying oil and fertilizer on the international market.

The effect of drought and these sanctions has caused the nose dive of the economy. When our comrades then protest in the trade union movement that they should not be the brunt of this, Mugabe falsely accuses them of being the allies of imperialism, rather than the victims of it and attacks them politically, economically and physically.

So when today we declare our support for them and our solidarity with them, we recognise the fact that that unconditional support in their brave struggle against the degeneration of that Government, which held out so much promise three generations ago, is also our support for them in resisting the effects of imperialism. Vote for the motion. Solidarity for ever.