BY NORM DIXON
Munyaradzi Gwisai, the leading member of the International Socialist Organisation who was elected to Zimbabwe's national parliament last June under the banner of the trade union-backed Movement for Democratic Change, has survived another attempt by the MDC's conservative leadership to silence his militant views. On February 21, the MDC national executive "deferred", to an unspecified date, disciplinary action against Gwisai. The move against Gwisai was the second in 12 months.
The MDC discussed possible penalties against the socialist MP after the state-owned, pro-government Herald newspaper — seeking to split the fledgling labour party and benefit of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) — published a paper, written by Gwisai for an internal MDC seminar, that expounded Gwisai's and the ISO's well-known criticisms of the dominant pro-capitalist wing of MDC leadership.
In the paper, Gwisai warned that the MDC risked losing the support of Zimbabwe's workers, peasants and poor if capitalist elements continued to control the party's policies. In particular, Gwisai argued that the MDC should support radical land reform rather than side with the country's predominantly white rich commercial farmers, some of whom have influential positions in the MDC.
Gwisai pointed out that by siding with the capitalist farmers, the MDC had allowed Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to posture as the champion of land redistribution, even though he had done nothing to fundamentally change land ownership patterns for more than 20 years, and what little land "reform" that had taken place had simply enriched a tiny class of ZANU-PF cronies, white and black.
Gwisai also criticised the MDC leadership's preparedness to work with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to "reform" the post-Mugabe economy and called for a foreign policy that opposed neo-liberal economic globalisation. He also expressed disquiet at sections of the MDC leadership's growing links with conservative political forces in Britain, the US and South Africa.
"The focus becomes completely wrong, seeking to please businesspeople, the commercial farmers and western governments and NGOs, trying to show that we are the most reasonable and most professional as opposed to ZANU-PF rather than focusing on bread and butter issues affecting the masses that support us", wrote Gwisai. "Instead of unconditionally supporting issues of the povo [people] like price controls, national minimum wages, land [redistribution], subsidies, opposing privatisation, exchange controls and interest rates control, the MDC leadership took the opposite direction, allowing Mugabe to parade as a champion of peasants, blacks, the poor etc."
Gwisai advocated mass action, stay-aways, demonstrations and strikes against the government to gain political power rather than relying on parliamentary manoeuvres.
The paper was leaked soon after Gwisai broke ranks with most MDC MPs in parliament and refused to support government compensation being paid to commercial farmers who were to lose land in Mugabe's proposed land redistribution.
Gwisai made it clear he was not endorsing the ZANU-PF, which he and the ISO characterise as a capitalist party. "We want land to go to the children of Zimbabwe", he told parliament. "The only problem is that this ZANU-PF government has taken 20 years to address the issue. The worker is starving because the government has not given land to the people. What does the Z$6 billion compensation mean? What is it for? That money should rather be channelled to the more than 450,000 farm workers affected by the land redistribution exercise."
Popular
The socialist MP has become increasingly popular among the MDC's poor and working-class supporters, especially in his Harare electorate. Because of this, the MDC leadership moved cautiously. Prior to the meeting of the MDC executive, few senior MDC leaders were prepared to publicly criticise Gwisai. Those that did criticise him in the press, or called for harsh disciplinary measures to be taken against him, did so on the condition of anonymity.
It was reported in the Zimbabwe press that the MDC national executive was unable to agree on what action to take against Gwisai and eventually decided to take none. However, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking to 5000 supporters in Bulawayo on the evening of February 21, did rebuke Gwisai, saying that his views were not those of the party. He urged Gwisai to use the "proper channels" to criticise the party.
The MDC leadership's reticence to penalise Gwisai stems from the fact that it was forced to back-down the last time it attempted to move against him.
In July last year, Gwisai addressed a meeting in Bulawayo and, according to Zimbabwe ISO's Socialist Worker, "called upon workers, peasants and war veterans to seize commercial farms on their own, but ignore Mugabe's cynical resettlement process". The August 6 issue of the pro-ZANU-PF Sunday News plastered Gwisai's comments across its front page, under the headline: "MDC MP embraces Mugabe land stance".
Before the ink was dry on the Sunday News front page, Tsvangirai was being quoted in the press as warning Gwisai that he would be sacked as an MP and a by-election called in the socialist MP's Highfield electorate in Harare. Tsvangirai described Gwisai as "wayward". "I find it absurd that a lawyer, who should uphold the law, should promote anarchy", Tsvangirai told the August 7 Daily News.
Gwisai responded by pointing out that the Sunday News headline was deliberately misleading. "I do not support Mugabe. He has failed. Mugabe and his cronies should be sent to jail. ZANU-PF is trying to use the land question to shut put the MDC and to divide the workers from the peasants" but added that the MDC should "support, on a full-scale, the rights of the peasants to land and we will recover money looted by ZANU-PF ministers to fund the program".
On August 25, the government-owned media (soon joined by the privately owned pro-MDC press) again sensationalised statements made by Gwisai in an interview published in the British Weekly Worker (which also appeared in Green Left Weekly #412), under the headline: "Gwisai accuses whites of taking over MDC".
What Gwisai really said in the interview was that the majority of the MDC leadership were "middle-class academics, lawyers or other professionals ... mostly they are petty bourgeois — this class composition is a very worrying... Trade unionists make up only about a third of the national leadership, reflecting the bourgeois and petty bourgeois dominance. White bosses and white professionals are playing an increasingly important role, which will create problems for workers in the party."
Gwisai predicted that as the class struggle intensifies, the ISO's "role will come under the spotlight", adding: "It is possible that the working class will reassert its influence over the party, but we are under no illusions — there will be conflict between our section and the whole party."
Gwisai vigorously defended himself in the press, denying that his comments were an attack on the MDC. He urged Tsvangirai to stay true to his working-class roots. "It is important that he remains with his base. We have broad issues that affect the workers, so it is critical that the leadership address those issues", Gwisai told the August 25 Daily News. The MDC should not compete with the ruling ZANU-PF to be "servants of the rich", he said. He added that there was no split between the MDC and ISO: "ZANU-PF would love a situation where workers are pushed out of the [MDC] so that they can continue with their fraud [that they are a workers' and peasants' party]. We, as a party, have to be dynamic and stop that fraud."
Gwisai endorsed
Gwisai called a mass meeting in Highfield at the Machipisa shopping centre on August 31. He told the crowd of 2000 people that, as a revolutionary, he stood for the "principle of recall". "Should there arise a situation whereby you, the constituents, are no longer happy with my performance, I will voluntarily and immediately step down, so that you can choose a suitable replacement." Gwisai was reaffirmed unanimously by the working-class and poor people of Highfield as their MP.
In the face of this enormous public support, Tsvangirai was forced to retreat. He told the press that he had "overreacted" when he reprimanded Gwisai in response to what he was "purported to have said". Tsvangirai and Gwisai appeared together at a press conference and Tsvangirai stated that there was no divergence between the views of the MDC and Gwisai. "As a party we are at one on the issue of addressing historical inequalities of colonisation ... it is unacceptable for a minority of less than 1% to keep on monopolising land", Gwisai added.
In October, a poll showed Gwisai's popularity among poor and working-class Zimbabweans was growing. In a surprise result, Gwisai was the fifth-most preferred MDC candidate for president, just behind Tendai Biti, who is a former ISO member and defended Gwisai when he was under attack.
The dominant pro-capitalist wing of MDC knows that it cannot defeat Mugabe without the support of Zimbabwe's working class and poor. This explains why it cannot move against Gwisai. Gwisai's preparedness to openly campaign within the MDC for radical polices and to mobilise his supporters in his defence makes it even harder for the MDC right to move against the party's embryonic left-wing without paying a heavy political price.
The MDC was born amidst fierce struggles against austerity and for democracy. Its most popular leaders were, until recently, the leaders of the militant Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Most socialists in Zimbabwe have opted to offer critical support to the MDC because a victory for the MDC will create democratic space for the labour movement to better organise. The defeat of the Mugabe regime will enthuse and give confidence to working-class militants who believe the MDC's politics are further to the left than they really are.
Gwisai and his ISO comrades are positioning themselves well within the MDC to lead the fight against neo-liberal policies of the MDC leadership. Should the MDC leaders force a split, the revolutionary left in Zimbabwe may emerge as a much stronger force than when they went in.