STATEMENT ON THE FALL OF MUGABE IN ZIMBABWE
RCIT International Secretariat, Africa Secretariat and ELA Zambia
Zimbabwe: The Fall of Mugabe, Victory for the Masses or the Military-ZANU-PF Alliance?
- Zimbabwe’s weeks-long political turmoil brought about by the military’s siege on political power, and subsequent house-arrest of Zimbabwe’s long-time President Robert Mugabe, finally come to an end yesterday on 21st November 2017. The Zimbabwean Defence Forces (ZDF) led by General Chiwenga has finally forced Mugabe to resign as President of the nation, and abdicate his leadership of the ruling Party ZANU-PF, a liberation party which he founded and led for 37 years after winning Independence from the British backed Ian Smith settler regime in 1980.
- Mugabe led Zimbabwe as a dictator, brutally repressing any dissent or opposition against his leadership. His leadership has come to an end, but the repressive regime (ZANU-PF) he built around him remains. The question therefore stands, does the removal of Mugabe from power via a military coup constitute a victory for the working class, peasants and poor and oppressed masses of Zimbabwe, or does it represent a victory and continuation of a capitalist faction of the oppressive ZANU-PF whose preferred successor to Mugabe is Emerson Mnangagwa?
- The RCIT holds the view that while the ousting of Mugabe as a dictator is a relief to the masses from long years of oppression, it does not however entail freedom and progressive change for the masses of the Zimbabwean people. The very fact that Mugabe has been deposed from power via a military coup d’état, and not by a mass popular uprising by the people, is evidence enough that the reactionary regime of ZANU-PF is very much in charge and ready to continue and maintain the status quo under another leader of the military favored faction of the ZANU-PF.
- Therefore, what we see is a classic case of the Zimbabwean military and ZANU-PF political elite alliance capturing political power in the name of saving the people from Mugabe’s dictatorship. In reality, the General Chiwenga and Mnangagwa military-political tag-team has usurped the will of the people under the pretext of ‘protecting and advancing the revolution’, whilst in actual fact, they will still maintain a stronghold on political power under a capitalist economic formation, and will continue to serve the political and economic interests of their own class – those of the political, military, bureaucratic and capitalist elites, and all to the exclusion and detriment of the long-suffering ordinary masses of Zimbabwe.
- The RCIT and ELA therefore calls on all the peoples of Zimbabwe, and all Socialist and progressive formations across the world, not to consider the military coup and installation of the military’s choice puppet leader Mnangagwa as a revolution nor victory of the people of Zimbabwe; but rather, to view such a military induced succession as a replacement of one dictator by another! In real terms, there is no change at all because the oppressors have not been overthrown by the people’s insurrection!
- We therefore call upon all oppressed people of Zimbabwe to immediately mount a counter- offensive against the military-political alliance if they are to truly liberate themselves. Such liberation must not be led by the bourgeoisie Movement for Democratic Change MDC or any other reactionary political force in Zimbabwe, but must be led by a revolutionary Party with a Socialist program that will deliver the demands of the working masses, peasants, students, women and youths of Zimbabwe. The people of Zimbabwe must, in a word, take political power back from the generals, and by any means necessary, and wield it in their own hands for the purpose of serving their own political and economic interests! The ZANU-PF is a spent force, and compromised political entity that is of no value to the modern and historical demands of the masses of Zimbabwe, and is therefore, incapable of inspiring a revolutionary change under one united socialist front with a revolutionary program, for the true emancipation of the toiling workers, peasants and oppressed masses who shall then elect and install their own revolutionary party and leader to serve the interest of the popular masses, and not an elite capitalist cabal that has entrenched itself in the decadent ZANU-PF!
Down with the military-political coup of the General Chiwenga-Mnangagwa faction!
All Power to the masses of the people of Zimbabwe!
Long live the struggle for Socialism and Liberation of all Africa!
Signed: Cde Mainda Simataa
ELA General Secretary/RCIT Africa Bureau
Lusaka, Zambia