THE Tory government — which once threatened to bludgeon its way towards recognition of the white regime than any of its predecessors in its search for a negqtiated settlement in Zimbabwe. But if the British solution is imposed, history will assign the credit - or blame -diplomatic wizardry, but to the collaboration of the leaders of the front-line states.
They were the ones largely responsible for the constitutional conference taking place at all, and now they have delivered the Patriotic. Front negotiators back to the conference table.
The fate of the talks was decided not in the hotel rooms of ZANU and ZAPU in London but at the front-line summit in Dar es Salaam. even before the summit Tanzanian President Nyerere had announced the formula would allow the Patriotic Front to back down on the disputed question of expropriated land:
"The only real problem is the issue of who provides the money for compensation to settler farmers. This is not a constitutional question but a simple policy question, and it could be easily resolved by Britain and her allies.' The Front's statement on returning to the mirrors this exactly: obtained assurances that, successful outcome of the conference, the United States and other participate in a multinational financial donor effort to assist in land, agricultural and economic development programmes'.
But this is not an adequate explanation. plan for such an international fund has been KnOWI since the Lusaka conference. Nyerere referred to it then quoting the example of the compensation of Kenyan settlers. mentioned under the 'Commonwealth Resettlement Fund'.
'Indeed a "Zimbabwe Development Fund' or something similar — a multinational effort to compensate the whites and underwrite a new black ruling class — has been a feature of every British scheme since thé days of Crosland and Kissinger.
The Patriotic Front's position on land reform has been inconsistent in the past. On occasions leading members have suggested that it would nationalise uncultivated or settler land, Angola, leaving multinational untouched.
Yet the dispossession of African land - which a compensation fund would not redress the root of Zimbabwean politics, since the very basis of the Rhodesian state is the defence of white settler interests. this that the Patriotic Front decided to make its stand on the land issue.
The statistics on land tenure in Zimbabwe speak for themselves. ana zwooo wintes are cach assignco almost exactly 45 million acres of land. In late 1976 there were about 680,000 African farmers and 6,682 duropeans.
WHEN the Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee called its national demonstration on Il November it was timed to coincide with the debale on the renewal of Rhodesian sanctions.
But with the Lancaster House conference and the success so far of Tory manoeyures it becomes cycle vane.
The representatives of the liberation struggle now in London spend much of their time with Africa. The British labour movement could play a vital role in saying: untie their hands. Let the peuple of Zimbabwe determine their on n future!
misery - has now made greater progress whites. support 80 • not to Lord Carrington's 16,000 acres, Yet the as1 which potential.
'We have
depending Britain, countries WIll The Commonwealth by Margaret Thatcher north of security abandoned post-independence issue. agribusiness - 1s at It was in recognition of The six million Africans Britain and its clients in in the African Purchase because of the poor quality of the soil.
What the bare statistics cannot convey is the and starvation allocation of land. The division of land was not arbitrary — all the best farming land went to the And the inferior African land has to per cent of the rural population compared to 20 per cent in the white areas.
White land produces the overhelming bulk of crops for export. The average size of tarms in more than 77 per cent of the European areas is compared with ten acres on the 'tribal trust lands' which comprise most of the African area. Without a radical land reform white interests will continue to maintain a stranglehold on the rural economy.
Compensation of the former white owners is thing that scarce development funds should be spent on. Far more urgent is the resettlement of the black population on land that can support them. The result of overcrowded and sub-standard soil in many areas has been the virtual exhaustion of the earth's agricultural harens caused by low rainta this year, only add Natural disasters, to the problem.
On top of all this comes the war. About 95 per cent of the tribal trust lands are under martial law. The white troops have the legal power to destroy crops, livestock and homes; to uproot whole populations and to recruit them for forced labour. They don't hesitate to use it.
Undernourishment and the veterinary services have left livestock vulnerable to disease. An estimated 30 per cent of the cattle in the tribal trust lands has already died this year.
the land becomes more than a debate about the country's future — the question is whether large sections of the population will even live to Zimbabwe. Famine has already hit areas in the line country and without measures it will spread.
Land reform, therefore, cannot be postponer or ten years (or for ever) as in the Carringtor constitution. It is one of the two crucial questions facing the Zimbabwean struggle.
The other, unsurprisingly, is who controls the forces. The present Lieutenant-General Peter Walls, has arrived in London to boost Bishop Muzorewa's flagging as well as to establish privately with the British delegation a joint approach to the security Carrington must be pleased with progress so far. There will be no problem agreeing a common formula on the transitional period with Walls, so the next step will be to repeat his brinkmanship over the land issue on control of the army. No doubt the telephone lines to Dar es Salaam and Lusaka have been left open.
Zimbabwean girls at Victory Camp, Inset: Thatcher and Zambia's President Kaunda money can buy nev had Areas remain vacant causea by this toppled ACION km Romero to unleashed by absence of Portraying the disbanding amnesty for see a new clean-up drastic incumbent, imperialism's same time forces.
But mobilisations Guillermo Revolutionary links Earlich, Zambia.
junta. THE SHOCK WAVES from Nicaragua have _ the dictator of neighbouring Salvador, General Carlos Humberto Romero. But the coup of 15 October was, as predicted by a spokesperson of the opposition United Peoples Front [FAPU] in Socialist Challenge three weeks ago, 'one intended to speed up imperialism's favoured 'democratic' opening'.
HONDURAS I SALV PACIFIQUE The coup leaders, Colonel Abdul Gutierrez and Colonel Arnolda Mejano, declared that the "the inability reason for welr acuon was control the wave of the subversiye organisations'. themselves as 'moderates', called on Romero's opponents to lay down their The new regime has promised elections next year, freedom for political parties, of fascist paramilitaries, an political prisoners and exiles, a of fascists in the non-aligned foreign policy.
But at the same time it has instituted martial law and a curfew from 10pm to Sam, and banned political meetings of more than three people. By Thursday of last week 28 people had been killer and 72 wounded as the army moved against left-wing strongholds.
The directing hand of US imperialism was obvious from a State Department admission that the coup 'certainly did not take us by surprise'. It fits in with the 'Carter Plan' being carried out by US representatives Vance, Vaky and Browdler under the suspicious eyes of the Direct US military intervention to prop up dictatorships is almost ruled out at the moment in the wake of Vietnam and setbacks such as Angola and Iran. Instead the aim is to secure interests through operations which maintain the effectiveness of the armed forces while at the integrating moderate Events in Dominica, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru have all reflected this plan. Nicaragua upset its progress in Central America in El Salvador has the additional aim of trying to isolate the Sandinista-led revolution.
HEW junta faces
implementing eyen partial reforms. The hardline right prevented Romero's predecessor, Molina, from pushing through a limited land reform in 1976. What is more, reforms cost money - US money. And the present economic situation is hardly helpful in that respect.
The other precondition is to quell the mas by splitting off the reformist opposition and isolating the revolutionary left parties of the United Opposition (UNO], who 'lost' the last two fraudulent elections, seem to be giving the new regime their guarded support.
Indeed, one of the junta's civilian members is Ungo head the Movement MNK), with the Socialist International. Morales Christian Democrat leader, commented on national radio that the regime's aims are the same as his party. Most significant, because of its trade union support, is the Communist Party's endorsement of the movements_ and the UNO has representing American "increased insurrection'.
EI new junta.
Premature cals fo struggle for possible violence Isleworth, Middlesex. ther presidential and Telegrams : CIA and the By Clive Turnbull 'cleansing' THE revolution which overunity and threw Somoza was not just a opposition victory for the workers and peasants, it was : victory for the exploited an oppressed the world over. - and the coup tinues. As the FSIN says: We Today have overthrown Somoza, but problems in the revolution has only begun.
price the people for their victory:
alone, WILl wounded. *40 per population left without adeNational quate food industry severely penaged by *More than 25 bombing. half National population unemployed. which has Already there has strong to the needs of the Nicaraguan has peopic Despite resources, Cuba has sent large quantities cluding milk agricultural and medical supThe response of the 'revolutionary' n guerrilla дг Marti been different. Marti the allegedly 20,000-str Revolutionary Peoples Bloc (BPR), denour the coup as 'one more example of the handiv and called Latest news suggests, however, that a pop uprising against the coup is not materialis The emphasis placed by these groups on ar action means that they have not develom rounded political alternative to the electoral and pressure polities of the reformists, means that there could be many illusions in insurrection can substitute for a political fight with the reforn around demands that mobilise the masse gentle land reform. disbanding of the repressive forces, comp constituent assembly. In this process, of cou the people must hold on to their arms.
More is at stake than the revolution i Salvador. The fight to turn this opening in struggle to overthrow the 50 families who ow Salvador and their imperialist backers is the defend and strengthen revolutionary gains in Nicaragua.
Solidarity with the revolutionary mobil tions in El Salvador must be added to the age of all meetings and events organised in solida For contact: Latin American Bureau, 1 Cambri Terrace, London NW1; and Central Ameri Human Rights Committee, 59a High Street, Trotskyist Rica Cisneros Castro, José Humberto Sorto Escol and Raúl Mercado Bernal — were kidnapped Romero's National Guard on 17 Septembel part of a drive against trade union activists. demand news of these militants from the should be sent to:
Presidencial, El Salvador, Centroamerica.
plies, teact in Cana darity had Canadian the tirst o dispatched Somoza's Solidarity struggle fact-findin A recen just Germany s European Somoza extracted a bitter list was the long-term I *35,000 dead in the last year and gove over 100,000 reconstruc nur of the projects v solidarity COULILI undertake Britain the committee the active campaign Esteli. been a Solidarit Coordinati limited which pr of foodstufis, in- mittee can for babies, Compton Ther
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Hands Off Zimbabwe!