By Norm Dixon
Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's claim that his regime's military expedition into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is motivated by a selfless need to turn back "foreign aggressors" has not been enthusiastically accepted at home. Dissatisfied by Mugabe's failure to reverse the legacy of colonialism since liberation in 1980, the country's landless rural poor and urban workers see few benefits in the intervention.
Some commentators have suggested Mugabe's rush to war contained an element of the Wag the Dog syndrome — diverting people's attention from domestic political concerns by staging a foreign military adventure. If that was the case, it seems not to have worked.
The government has tightly controlled the news of the number of Zimbabweans killed and injured in the battle. It has only admitted to a handful of deaths, while rumours in Harare's working-class suburbs put the death toll at more than 50. "People should rise and take to the streets, otherwise more soldiers will be killed", a taxi driver told the South African Weekly Mail and Guardian on August 28.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has condemned the intervention. "One dead body is not warranted. We are paying for our leader's unwarranted adventurism", a ZCTU official said.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said that "even if there were no deaths, the decision to send troops to the DRC would be just as bad. It was a bad idea from the beginning."
On September 1, Zimbabwe's churches, trade unions and human rights activists issued a statement calling on the government to bring the troops home.
Criticism has also be voiced from within Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. ZANU-PF MP Mavis Chidzonga pointed out that "in Zimbabwe, people are suffering, dying from hunger, there are no roads, no clean water, but we can afford to fund a war in Congo. We are very bitter about it. Where is the money coming from?"
According to reports in Harare's newspapers, retired army chief General Solomon Mujuru challenged Mugabe's decision to send troops to the DRC in the ZANU-PF's politburo meeting.
Capitalist agenda
Zimbabwe's military commitment to the DRC is estimated to cost as much as Z$1 million a day (US$100,000). Defence spending is the largest single item in Zimbabwe's budget, ahead of health and education. Inflation and unemployment are more than 30%.
Austerity policies, imposed at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, have resulted in government spending being slashed and jobs in the public sector disappear. The government is committed to the privatisation of government assets.
Zimbabwe's capitalists have not joined the criticism. Nhlanhla Masuku, president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), said simply: "Whenever people go to war, there are bound to be casualties. We mourn our departed brothers."
Zimbabwe has developed strong political, economic and trade ties with Kinshasa since Laurent Kabila came to power, and Mugabe and the ZNCC don't want them jeopardised by a change of government. Zimbabwe also hopes the war can be a basis for building a political and economic bloc with Kabila, Angola and Namibia, as a regional counterweight to the economic power of South Africa.
Land reform backdown
Mugabe's regime is increasingly unpopular with Zimbabwe's working class and poor.
Last October, accompanied by great fanfare and "anti-imperialist" bluster, Mugabe announced a plan to seize some 5 million hectares of mainly white-owned commercial farm land, to be redistributed to 150,000 poor black families in five to 10 years.
In public, Mugabe and his ministers have militantly — and repeatedly — vowed not to back down on the plan in the face of pressure from western powers, and that no compensation for the land would be paid to the rich farmers.
In private, however, Mugabe and his cronies have sung a very different tune. Harare has repeatedly assured western governments and the IMF that any land redistribution will be "orderly", with full compensation paid at market prices to farmers, and at a pace that would not blow out the government's IMF-imposed 4% budget deficit.
In recent months, Mugabe has been under pressure from a rash of militant land occupations by disgruntled rural people impatient for the long-promised land reform to begin.
A meeting of western governments began on September 9 to discuss funding Zimbabwe's proposed land reform. Mugabe had requested Z$25.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) — 60% of the cost of the program — from western donors.
True to form, Mugabe meekly promised at the donors' meeting that the government would scale-back its land reform program by reducing the number of farms to be acquired, pay compensation at market rates, and extend the period of time over which the process will occur.
Working class unrest
Mugabe's relationship with the country's working class is no better than his standing amongst the peasants. Last December, workers staged the largest general strike and mass rallies in the country's history in protest at sales tax hikes and a 5% "development" levy to pay for pensions promised to war veterans. Mugabe promised to drop the levy.
On January 19, a massive spontaneous three-day rebellion erupted in the poor suburbs of the capital, Harare, after the government approved a 21% increase in the price of mealie meal (corn flour, a staple for Zimbabweans), the third rise since October. The government quickly cancelled the increase.
On March 3 and 4, Zimbabwe was again brought to standstill when the ZCTU defied the government and called out its members in a general strike. More than 80% of the workforce heeded its call. The strikers were demanding the government scrap a 2.5% increase in sales tax and bring down prices of basic goods.
On August 1, Mugabe attempted to ban strikes in the finance and commerce industries by declaring them "essential services". Under Zimbabwean law, incitement of strikes in essential services can be punished with prison terms of up to 10 years.
Hospitals, firefighting, communications, transport, water and electricity are already classified essential services. The government also imposed harsh new regulations to limit unions' right to demonstrate. The resulting uproar forced the government to back down, claiming the regulations were "published in error".
Immediately prior the decision to intervene in the DRC, the ZCTU was threatening to set a date for the start of a five-day general stay-away — again to demand that the 2.5% increase in sales tax be dropped and that the government's promise of the abolition of the 5% levy to be fulfilled.
On September 4, the government — under pressure from the country's capitalists — averted the general strike and gave into the ZCTU's key demands.
Meanwhile, in Namibia, as the first body bags began to arrive from the DRC, Namibia's high commissioner to London, Ben Ulenga, resigned in protest. Ulenga was jailed on Robben Island by the apartheid regime between 1976 to 1985 and was a leader of Namibia's trade union movement following his release.