Zimbabwe: bitter fruits of petty bourgeois

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mass struggle from develop- bourgeoi ing its own independent and the organs for the seizure of attempt power and the exercise of demobili: control in the interests of There workers and their poor that any peasant allies. operatior independent organisations the exist of the working class and and •sel their mobilisation for the terror sq smashing of the capitalist well-estat state can lay the basis for a It is o workers government and' the and mi planned socialist economy. efforts te start from defending the "supervis: interests of the workers, not The t the profits of capital. state atta irrender and politics on which the rol! dictatorship of the proletarThe struggle of the Zimbabwean masses, whose strength and combativity has withstood the continual murderous onslaught of the capitalist state now stands threatened by the connivance with imperialism of the petty-bourgeois reformists and Stalinists of the Patriotic Front.

The development of the struggle inside Zimbabwe has threatened to disrupt capitalist stability throughout Southern and Central Africa.

New agents As the inability of the Muzorewa regime to contain mass struggle became increasingly clear, so imperialism has been forced to turn to new agents in its desperate efforts to protect its interests.

The Lancaster House talks have been merely the public face of an ongoing process of secret diplomacy and collusion between the Patriotic Front leadership and its imperialist masters.

Mugabe and Nkomo now appear set to emerge with a deal for the reform of the capitalist state to which their reformist petty bourgeois politics has always impelled them.

Caught up in the struggle between capital and labour, the petty bourgeoisie must always turn to the one or the other as an ally in its quest to secure reforms in its own interests.

Balancing , between its imperialist masters and its mass base, the Patriotic Front leadership has zigzagged opportunistically from the socialist rhetoric aimed at its supporters, to the moderate diplomacy aimed at the imperialist bourgeoisie.

Beneath the rhetoric, underlying the posturing, the politics of the Patriotic Front leadership has consistently been the politics of petty bourgeois reformism.

Diplomats

Increasingly • removed from contact with their own rank and file and supporters the Patriotic Front leadership are more closely linked to imperialist diplomats than to the working class. Unemployed blacks in Zimbabwe To control opposition within the guerrilla ranks, it depends on the state forces of the Frontline puppets of imperialism, and on the techniques of political deception developed by Recognising that the continuing development of the struggle threatens to break through its own petty bourgeois perspectives, the Patriotic Front leadership has been easy and willing prey to a "solution" which offers the prospect of power in a capitalist government.

Even if, at this late stage, either or both of Nkomo and Mugabe perform a new manoeuvre and walk out of the talks, their open collaboration with imperialism has sown, deep political confusion amongst militants and layers of the oppressed in he i Muzorewa regime and its South African backers have been quick to exploit this disorientation of the masses in struggle, launching massive attacks on guerrilla camps and on militants inside the country.

The effects of the betrayals far have allowed the Muzorewa regime, under full imperialist support, a new lease of life.

Full endorsement

The indications at the moment are, however, that the Patriotic Front leadership will surface from the slime of secret diplomacy and deals, to announce its full endorsement of the Tory plan for capitalist stability.

Whichever section of the nationalist leadership comes to govern, will do so on the basis of the existing capitalist state structure.

The Zimbabwean masses now face the threat that the Patriotic Front leadership, oming to power on the strength of mass struggle will direct its energies precisely to prevent that Patriotic Front leaders N Only the building of the army wil Only such a regime could bring thei Mobilisation But it is precisely the building of independent organisations and working class mobilisation, which the Patriotic Front leadership and their reformist blend of guerrillaism and diplomacy have refused to undertake.

Drawing on the historical experience of the working class in struggle, Trotskyists have consistently pointed to the reformist politics underlying the "revolutionary" rhetoric of the Patriotic Front leadership.

While calling for and mobilising all support for those in struggle against imperialism, Trotskyists have persistently pointed to the need for the working class to build independent organisations and a party and programme based on its independent class interests and reliance on its own strength.

Bitter The bitter price of entrusting the leadership of mass struggle to petty bourgeois nationalists has been paid for in the suffering and blood of workers and peasants time and again.

The Patriotic Front leadership is set to use its own "authority" , imperialist-officered troops, its Carrington training to build workers' militias inside the country! *For the nationalisation without compensation of all land, factories, mines and banks! *For workers' management of industry and largescale agriculture. For land to the poor peasants who demand it! *For a constituent assembly of democratically elected delegates of the workers and peasants. linked to the dissolution of the capitalist state apparatus! *Build the revolutionary party as part of a reforged Fourth International.

As the treacherous reality of the reformist politics of the Patriotic Front leadership comes fully and dangerously into the open, the task of building an alternative revolutionary leadership becomes Ikomo and Mugabe s frontline backers, even more urgent.

Workers and militants Rhodesian army to within ZANU and ZAPU to disarm and and outside, must draw on se those in struggle. lessons to be learnt from the can be no doubt international working class restriction on the in struggle as well as from is of the Rhodesian their own experience, in 1 be circumventedorder to effectively act ence of clandestine mi-official armed against the dangers posed by the imperialist plan. quads is already a • The task now is not to ›lished fact. replace reformists by organrucial that workers isational manoeuvre, but to litants resist all destroy their politics by › disarm them and revolutionary politics and m under imperialist ion"

It is the strategy of ask, in the face of permanent revolution, the ck, is workers selfdefence- through the working class independence, unshakeable principle of development ent of elected the revolutionary proes of the workers and peasants. nts. transitional demands which gramme of democratic and "supervisi themselve It is ion" of such com- only by placing under the utionary alternative. alone can provide that revolmittees + :hat workers with of a Trotskyist party-for This means the building military t raining will be able to put it unlike Stalinists and reformthe strugg ¡le. at the disposal of ists, Trotskyists. have as their task and goal the *No handing over of development, not the holdarms! ing back, of those forces *No si ialist cont *Cadre with military jat will be built.

Muzorewa