His 'honeymoon' period is over MUGABE FACES MORE OPPOSITION

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Pro-Mugabe guerrillas: their courageous struggle has resulted s.

In recent weeks Zimbabwe: Prime Minister Robert Mugabe has taken tentative steps to deal with some of the mounting opposition to his leadership.

In a move which underlines the increasing tensions between Mugabe's government and sections of the ZANU party bureaucracy, he sacked ZANU secretary general Edgar Tekere from the cabinet.

At the same time-no doubt in an attempt to appease Tekere supporters in ZANU-he also demoted Joshua Nkomo, who was joint leader of the Patriotic Front with Mugabe until the Lancaster House elections.

The first move of Nkomo's successor, ZANU bureaucrat Richard Hove, was to renew the wideranging military/police powers of Smith's state-of emergency laws (in force since UDI in 1965).

In taking these measures, which are aimed at consolidating his own position, Mugabe is only exposing his regime's instability, which has continued unabated despite his massive electoral majority.

The expectations which Mugabe's pre-election "socialist" rhetoric fuelled amongst the guerrillas, the low-paid workers, the landless peasants and rural poor, have in no way been met by his bosses' Opportunist elements within the petty bourgeois leaderships of ZANU and ZAPU have manipulated this mass discontent and frustration as they themselves have come to realise that Mugabe's policy of collaboration. with big capital and the existing state institutions has not produced an abundance of In 1976 the BBC screened a talk-in called What Do You Think Of It So Far. The subject of the programme was television's record over its first twenty-five years.

During the course of that programme Jonathan Dimbleby voiced strong criticism of what he called 'a high level cover up' of trish news.

The public responded to these remarks with an unprece dented 500 letters to this late night BBC 2 programme.

They overwhelmingly supported Dimbleby's criticisms. A year later the BBC radio programme You the 'Jury debated whether the British public was being told the truth about Northern Ireland.

The verdict of its typically middle aged and middle class audience was, by a 2:1 majority no.

Some will say that it is not surprising that media coverage is what it is. In one sense I agree; we should not be surprised by it. Perfectly logical motives lie behind those practices which constitute 'censorship'.

But this does not exempt us from a responsibility to try to do something about it. The NUJ Code of Conduct commits JIM FARNHAM looks at the background to recent events in Zimbabwe.

positions of wealth and power for careerists. •Rank and file members of ZANU and ZAPU, and lower rank leaders more directly connected with the masses, are growing more and more impatient as they come up against the fact that changes in the law and a parliamentary majority have been almost powerless in the face of the big capitalists, the existing state apparatus and the secret government organised between Mugabe, the bosses, the civil service tops and the army generals.

While property remains in private hands;' while the capitalist state remains intact, while the whole economy is geared to production for profit, Mugabe's class collaboration and his position in government can only be maintained at the increasing expense of. the masses.

To try to maintain a hold over the people who elected him, Mugabe is forced to take measures to try to meet at least some of their demands.

He knows that the mobilisation of the Zimbabwean masses on any major issue would threaten the very foundations of his government.

He is forced therefore to ensure that changes are brought about bureaucratically and administratively without any us to 'strive to eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship'.

Any critical examination of media coverage of Ireland imposes a considerable responsibility on us.

In fact, I believe, that if we are at all serious about press freedom coverage of the war in Northern Ireland shouid, more than any other issue, give us cause for concern.

As far as news of violence in Northern Ireland is concerned the principal source of information is the Army. The Army takes news very seriously.

Army statements have been carefully tailored, even doctored to serve a military purpose. The coverage of the bombing of McGurk's bar in 1971 is a good example of the Army manufacturing news.

Responsibility at the time of the bombing, in which 15 civilians died, was claimed by 'empire loyalists' and five years later a loyalist was convicted of the crime.

But the Army's story at the time was that intelligence information indicated that the bomb was in fact an IRA bomb in transit which had gone off when the pick-up hadn't been able to reach the bar because of heavy army surveillance in the area. mobilisation which could rapidly pass out of his control.

Having nationalised the five main newspapers Mugabe now has almost all the propaganda organs under his control.

There can be no doubt that he will use this control to portray every measure he takes as progressive and, in the interests of the masses.

But in each reform that he carries out, in response to mass pressure, he is also forced to ensure that it does not antagonise the capitalists on whom he relies.

In reality, he carried through the nationalisation of the newspapers entirely within the framework of business transactions.

Purchased

They were purchased with generous compensation to their South African capitalist owners.

The fact that Mugabe used an aid package from the Nigerian government for the compensation deal, brings out the way in which aid that is directed, received, and used under the control of capitalist governments can in no way be relied upon to serve the interests of the oppressed masses.

In this case, aid that should have been turned to the needs of the Zimbabwean masses, was used to compensate monopoly capitalists.

The struggle to direct foreign aid to the needs and interests of the Zimbabwean masses demands a fight in Zimbabwe and in the aid giving country for workers' control of the In the international working class, particularly in the imperialist countries, the demand the case for a full discussion on media censorship.

ine story was clearly aimed at undermining IRA support in the Catholic community: McGurk's was a Catholic bar.

As well as managing news the Army also manages journalists. Close surveillance of journalists is kept up at all times and journalists may run the risk of arrest. Time Out journalist Ron McKay was arrested under the PTA on his way back from Belfast in 1979.

The Army also cultivates relationships with journalists. Hardly a provincial newspaper office in the country doesn't have a reporter on its staff who has been given the Army guided tour of the province.

NEXT WEEK Pressure on journalists Labour Movement Conference Media Censorship and convened by National Union of Journalists Saturday February 28 Birmingham Details from Ron Knowles, NUJ, 314 Grays Inn Road, London WCI mograbeme of did based on the programme or ala Dasea on ut the zimbabweand stress and peasants.

The fight to implement such a peuglammo Ivyuuro m muuu- a nenoramme rerinites the mohilisation of the working class in the struggle to build increasing levels of control over the government's plans and packages, as part of the struggle for a planned socialist economy under a workers' governmentthe only form of government capable of promoting the interests of the working masses of the world.

Inside LIC Innida Timhahuo tha demand must be raised in the working class for aid to be turned to the needs of the people, not the protits of the capitalists and the privileges of the ZANU bureaucracy.

The fight must be taken up in the working class for the building of committees of It was the week of bodies of armed men.

First the inquest into the deaths at the Iranian embassy revealed that murder is a glorious thingso long as the right people are doing it. • The SAS-who have names like 'H' and L.L.'had captured the gunmen and ushered the hostages to safety.

According to the evidence the captured men then proceeded one by one to twitch' as if going for grenades and get drilled with up to 21 shots in the back.

After some hesitation and a tongue lashing from the : Westminster Coroner ("You must consider the implications to the country if a verdict of unlawful killing is recorded") the jury duly recorded justifiable homicide.

The press had a field day with their real life action men.

The Sun recorded a drooling account of the last lay the the workers and peasants to assess their needs, make requests to the international labour movement, and organise the struggle for control over the distribution and use of aid.

This struggle for control requires a struggle against secret diplomacy and goes hand in hand with the struggle against business secrets and for workers' control of trade.

Demotion At the present time, the annacition to Murahe ic arnuin on every front. The demotion of Nkomo should not be seen as a final split.

The particularly harsh treatment meted out to traditional ZAPU supporters by the ZANUdominated government has served to fuel the grievances and unrest amongst them.

Nkomo has been opportunistically exploiting this situation sight their victims must have had, revelling in the fearsome aspect of these psychopaths.

'Artists' impressions filled the pages of the papers and glowing accounts of these heroes.

Somehow, despite this, there was an atmosphere of disbelief even in the gutter press.

blood Murder in cold blood hard to disguise.

But lan Paisley managed to upstage even the creme de la creme of the British army with his, 500 men waving arms certificates on a hillside.

Even the Daily Mail was moved to ask:

"How were his men able to assemble, even at. midnight on a stormy night, without the security forces knowing?"

That answer no doubt in Paisley's evasion of question as to whether 500 included RUC and far only in a bosses' to entrench his own hold over his base. He retains the leadership position in a powerful and relatively stable political machine, which cannot be ignored by Mugabe-and which mav seem increasinglv attractive to him in the future.

Forced more and more heavily to rely on the state machine, Mugabe is nonetheless capable of the zig-zags of any embattled class collaborator.

Every reform he is forced to take must be defended and extended by the independent strength of the working class.

Through building and relying on their nurn slace strenoth and un wive uwu vass suenge, dul fighting for. their own class interests against Mugabe and his bosses government, workers must build a defence against capitalist reaction and lead the oppressed masses in the struggle for the only solution in their interests-the workers' and peasants' government, based on the independent organisations of the working class.

UDR "security" forces.

The spectacle of being threatened with a firearm certificate is at first sight comic but on second thoughts sobering.

Paisley was not saying less than 500 guns but more.

What he was saying was not only could he provide 500 armed men but 500 men who were armed with the full permission of the state.

Ironically on the same day Atkins announced that he would not ban the UDA despite open radío admissions by Andie Tyrie that the organisation carried out sectarian assassinations.

The true nature of Paisley's demonstration was of course covered up by the press, asking if it was a 'stunt' There were no editorials demanding the dismissal of the journalists; no demands for immediate arrests. • Paisley may not quite be the SAS. But he is a viable alternative.

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Page 4 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday I1 February 1981

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NUJ. NEC member Simon Collings argues.

PRESS GANG