>From a Victor Mallet article in Friday's FT:
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Curiously, Mr Mugabe has barely mentioned Zanu's real successes after independence, particularly in education. Zimbabwe has one of the best-educated populations in Africa and a large middle class. But it is these educated people -- teachers, nurses, lawyers and civil servants -- who have joined the urban workers as the core supporters of the MDC, a party formed only last year by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai. "Anyone in this area who can read and write supports the MDC," said one Zimbabwean farm manager recently in Mashonaland Central province.
"We're seeing the workers saying no [to Zanu]," says [John Makumbe, politics lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe]. "The young people with very little sentimental link to the war of liberation are saying no. And we're also seeing a lot of the professionals saying no. So it's really across the social spectrum.
With unemployment at more than 50 per cent and the economy expected to shrink 5 per cent or more this year, Mr Tsvangirai has indentified the need for better economic management -- not land reform -- as the important election issue. Mr Mugabe has in turn been forced to seek help from the very people he has failed: the uneducated, rural youths and ageing ex-guerillas.
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Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com