[Marxism] AFP: Mugabe trumps West again

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

Ruthless:
 
What would you recommend that their (MDC) strategy be? Guerrilla
warfare  against Mugabe? Civil war? How will they organize against
Mugabe, given the  repression there? Where would they get the arms? Or
the money to buy  them?

Reply:
 
>From the army, the police, from those who already have the arms. 
 
I attended an interesting meeting on Zim here in Edinburgh last night.  
Speaking at the meeting was an MDC activist from Zimbabwe, currently doing a UK  
tour to foment solidarity and explain the current situation.
 
He spoke very well, was obviously a socialist, but he did paint a mixed  
picture and some of what he said chimes with the original piece posted by  Walter. 
He was most clear about the fact that any kind of sanctions were NOT  
desirable, as they were merely adding to the suffering of the majority of the  
people. He spoke about the egregious role of colonialism as creating the  economic 
conditions out of which this crisis arose, or at least Mugabe's  reaction to 
those economic conditions. He had some harsh words for the role of  the Chinese 
in profiting out of the country's suffering with increased imports  and trade 
with Mugabe's regime; and he also had a similar criticism of Mbeki  when he 
pointed out that as a result of the current situation S Africa has  gained 
markets and a valuable source of cheap labour with the huge influx of  Zimbabwean 
refugees into S Africa.
 
Worryingly, he talked about the fact that the MDC have accepted financial  
support from Western governments, which is in accord with the tenor of  the 
piece posted by Walter. This, the speaker admitted, has allowed Mugabe to  paint 
the MDC as a puppet of Western colonialism, which across Africa would seem  to 
be a view which has managed to gain traction.
 
I asked about the role of the army and the police, about whether or not  
there were any signs of them changing sides. He declined to answer directly, for  
obvious reasons, I suppose, but he did allude to something being planned by 
way  of some sort of uprising.
 
The solution to this crisis lies within Zimbabwe itself at this point, it  
would seem.