[lbo-talk] Zimbabwe: UK's N Korea

[Chris Sturr]

I am surprised that no one has responded to Peter Hart Ward's post about
Zimbabwe.  I don't feel qualified to respond in full, but I think Bill
Fletcher, Jr.'s articles in Black Commentator (e.g. this one:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/206/206_friends_tortured_zimbabwe_fletcher_ed_bd.html)
are worth checking out.  I don't see how the fact that "we need to focus on
our own problems and fix them" rules out the need for the kind of
international/regional solidarity that the South African dockworkers have
shown for the people of Zimbabwe and for opponents of Mugabe, e.g. the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. And I don't understand the idea that
"internal conditions can only be improved by the citizens not by outside
pressure."  Isn't international solidarity, and the resulting external
pressure, crucial in cases like this? And what exactly is offensive,
childish, and hypocritical about the petition that was posted here?  But
maybe I have misunderstood Peter's post.

In solidarity,

Chris Sturr


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 22:23:02 -0400
> From: Peter Hart Ward <pward at peterhartward.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Zimbabwe: UK's N Korea
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Message-ID: <A7830AA8-9728-412F-84E5-E5D3CFDC1A47 at peterhartward.com>
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>
> Thought it worth commenting on a post made over a week or so I just
> now read urging ?worker solidarity action? to stop arms shipments to
> Zimbabwe.
>
> It is worth noting that it is only in the UK and Commonwealth
> countries that one ever even hears about the Mugabe regime (the US
> media completely ignore it) and it is not clear what distinguishes
> this regime from the previous white ruling establishment with respect
> to human rights violations or what distinguishes it from countries
> today supported by Commonwealth nations such as Pakistan. In fact, it
> would seem, the only fact that does distinguish Zimbabwe is that the
> those who should be ruled took power?i.e., the problem isn?t human
> rights, but that the blacks said ?Fuck you!? to the Privy Council. I
> remember I went to see a documentary on the crisis there in Edinburgh
> (a real crisis, I have not doubt). Following the film was a
> ?discussion?--really a bullying session by the event organizer?where
> a member of the audience, a man actually from Zimbabwe, stood up and
> said, ?Wait a minute, what about corruption in this country? Why
> aren?t you discussing that?? From that point on, my illusions about
> the sincerity of the Britain?s (mainly rhetorical) crusade against
> the regime, which I had held hitherto, I admit, were shattered.*
>
> The situation is surely a terrible one in that country and if any of
> us come from countries that are supplying arms we have an obligation,
> ?under God?, to do everything we can to stop this just as we in the
> US have an obligation to, e.g., stop supplying Israel with weapons
> used to terrorize the Palestinians. On the other hand, no government
> is going to ?press democracy?; internal conditions can only be
> improved by the citizens not by outside pressure, assuming such
> pressure could possibly be enacted without ulterior motive.
>
> I found the petition offensive on a number of levels. In particular,
> for its hypocrisy but also for the childishness of it. Whatever may
> or may or may not get us out of the mess we?re in, it is sure we?ll
> have to become a damn sight more mature and willing to look at
> unpleasant facts than at present the majority of us are prepared to.
>
> *This regardless of whether this man had an ax to grind, which
> perhaps he did. He was still right?we need to focus on our own
> problems and fix them.
>
>
>