Zimbabwe: Revolutionary Workers' Group Launched

The National Coordinating Council (NCC) of the International Socialist Organization of Zimbabwe(ISO-Z) met on the 28th of June for the sole purpose of launching an Organization whose name reflects our detachment with the International Socialist Tendency as well reflecting our evolved ideology and program. The Revolutionary Workers Group is the logical successor of the ISO that split in 2009 and withstood a high jacking attempt in 2010 after the initiation of the reconstitution agenda in 2008 when a new leadership was elected.

Through discussions and debates both internally and externally and interfacing with our collective experience we managed to evolve from a semi-Trotskyist to a Trotskyist platform that utilizes the theory of Permanent Revolution as its political framework on the basis of a Transitional program that guides workers for the sole purpose of seizing power and laying a dictatorship of the proletariat. Central to this is the application of the dialectic as the best tool for social diagnosis and prognosis and provide a revolutionary program that differs from those of a variety of reformist and fake Trotskyist groupings whose main aim is to hijack the revolutionary fervent and channel it into a cynical reformist alley that has brought so much misery and sorrow for generations of the toiling masses.

Our program has as its basis the needs of the masses and the best way of mobilising them as well as exposing their class enemies elements including:

• a sliding scale of wages and prices, price controls on all goods and services
• nationalization of all key sectors of the economy
• redistribution of land to the poor peasants
• state projects to employ the unemployed
• a working peoples convention of rank and file organizations of workers to write a new constitution.
• a workers government on the basis of the armed masses to implement all this.
• building a Trotskyist organization as part of a revolutionary center.
• no to reformism and Stalinism.
• national revolution (in Southern Africa) as part of a regional onslaught on capital.
• no to US and Chinese led imperialisms.

The various so called leftist or socialist organizations in Zimbabwe as a reflection of the international situation have reduced themselves into sectarian, reformist and centrist formations with nothing in common with the revolutionary tradition and agenda. Since the election in 2008 and especially since our special congress in August last year we made a deliberate effort to clarify our outlook and political tools before attempting to claim to be seriously championing the interests of the workers. This launch marks the end of that period as we now focus on political work in view of the impending clash between the workers and capital that is represented by the inclusive government.

Zimbabwe is limping from a position of a semi-colony under economic siege in a degenerating capitalist system that is forced to resort to brutal wars in order to guarantee some stability in a perspective of impending collapse for a system that has ruined livelihoods and survives thanks to the betrayals of the so-called workers leaders. With the working class demoralized and betrayed by these so-called leaders the national end game is now firmly in the hands of the two poles of imperialism as witnessed by the so-called 'u turn' by SADC on Zimbabwe which is nothing but a logical outcome of a managed transition that excludes or manipulates the masses of any nation. China has decided to sacrifice its interests in Zimbabwe for those of South Africa which can be threatened by a shift of political ground in that country and it is also probable that the US promised not to threaten the interests of China.

Internally but to a minor extent Zanu has managed to retain control of the National Bourgeoisie and thereby pitting it against imperialism though the true nature of the relationship still has to be verified. Zanu will definitely lose any election that is to be held in accordance with a strict adherence to an agreed roadmap as this will more or less be a repetition of March 29 2008 though this time both the MDC and its handlers are cleverer. Any election that is not endorsed by SADC or has elements of what the US and its allies call an unfair poll will be disastrous for the regime as this will provide the political grounds for imperialism to intervene. The splits in Zanu as to the holding of the election is testimony of how the party has been manipulated by the West as a basis for an internal crisis necessary for invasion and its probable that the same is true for the military despite its public utterances.

We would like to extend our revolutionary gratitude to the Liaison Committee comprising the HWRS of USA and CWG of New Zealand for their comradely support during this difficult time and we look forward to developing our relationship into one that ensures the revolutionary coordination of struggles in the different regions we come from. This is only the start for our role as the vanguard of the working class to whom we lay all our efforts and gifts as we embark on this historic mission. This to all intents and purposes is the launch of the first Trotskyist organization in this country and probably in the region and we are prepared to share our experience and struggles with our brothers in the region as we prepare for a revolution in Southern Africa as part of the African and world revolution. Despite the institutional challenges that we face we posses the most critical elements for any revolutionary body worth its name that is ideological and political clarity as well as a committed membership.

We still face a challenge in setting up a fully functional office as well as producing a workers paper and we appeal to all working class organizations and individuals who share our objectives of smashing the capitalist system to help. Indeed the global imperialist system is facing a deep crisis that today is threatening key countries like Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Even in the heartland of America the protests by workers is taking on a political character not to mention the aggressive and brutal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya over natural resources. The recent revolts in the Arab countries clearly shows the limitations of the capitalist system in its decaying phase.

Closer home the protests last year in Mozambique and South Africa and the recent ones in Swaziland as well as the current struggles on Botswana proves the inability of this system to play any progressive role.

RWG(EX ISO-Z) NEC
30th June 2011

ZIMBABWE: RELEASE THE 52 COMRADES AND DROP ALL CHARGES!

The International Socialist Organization of Zimbabwe (ISO-Z) condemns in the highest possible manner the arrest of the 52 comrades and demands their immediate release and dropping of the so called treason charges. 

The arrest by the ZANU controlled security machinery clearly exposes the fear of elements of the imperialist controlled Government of National Unity (GNU) and this must be seen as an attempt at pre-empting any action by the working people as a response to the growing exploitation and degeneration of the capitalist imperialist system that has ruined the lives of so many. ZANU is really afraid of the repetition here of events still rocking the middle east and promising to engulf the rest of Africa, that has seen Mubarak go and the imminent fall of Gaddafi. On its part the MDC is desperate to control any regime change agenda and is wary of mass protests which it knows will go beyond its neo-liberal capitalist agenda and demand an end to the capitalist system.

It’s obscene that the police could arrest people over a video session and claim that it was a meeting to plot the downfall of the falling coalition regime that has been seriously discredited in the eyes of the workers, students, peasants and the urban poor. But what is revealing is that the regime is so fearful to the extent of harassing groups bent on eliminating only the worst features of capitalism and therefore act as the left leg of the regime in its delicate attempt to manage the economy for both the US and Chinese imperialism.

The political alliance by the main political parties, out of political calculations, clearly fails to offer any respite to the masses in this country. ZANU (PF) working on behalf of emerging Chinese imperialism was forced into any alliance with the US/UK sponsored MDC party in order first to resolve the worst aspects of imperialism and therefore stall popular action by the masses as well as best prepare each party for exclusive rule. To all intents and purposes this alliance can be best described as a ZANU based coalition government with ZANU firmly in control of the security machinery, the judiciary, the SADC grouping and the emerging lucrative diamond industry. Hardliners in ZANU are calling for an end to this settlement  arguing that the original goals of using the MDC to stabilize the economy and decapacitating opposition have been achieved.

On its part the MDC is in a serious dilemma as witnessed by its ambivalence on the constitutional reform process which has been dominated by ZANU using its control of the security apparatus and better organizing skills. The call for elections has exposed the MDC which knows that any election that ZANU has to win will invariable be characterized by violence and rigging even in the presence of a SADC brokered roadmap on elections. With ZANU stalwarts now controlling about 30% of the commercial land and their conversion into a national elite it is impossible to imagine an electoral defeat for ZANU and all it has to do is adopt a scenario midway between the March 29 elections and the 27 June run off that will allow for minimum electoral reform coupled by less severe coercive measures.

This brief scenario exposes the inability of capitalism to resolve the crisis in favor of the working class and its allies in this age of global imperialist degeneration. The masses must organize and pose demands that go beyond salvaging the capitalist system and learn from the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt where the protests where controlled by groups seeking only regime change and giving room to imperialism to determine the nature of the end result which will invariably see the continuation of the inhuman economic exploitation.

The working class must adopt a revolutionary program that guides it towards the conquering of political power as a means to socialize the means of production and ensure a decent life for all. As ISO (Z) we pose the following demands as a means of resolving the national question in the context of the global economic crisis:

1) A sliding scale of wages and prices.
2) Price controls on all basic goods and services.
3) No to privatization of state companies and the nationalization of key sectors of the economy especially the banking sector in order to fund agriculture and mining.
4) Redistribution of all land to poor peasants without compensation.
5) Initiation of state projects to employ the unmployed.
6)Convening of a working peoples convention made up of delegates of workers commitees, peasants represantatives, students represantatives, neighborhood committees and the rank and file of the military to write a new constitution.
7) Creation of an armed workers government to fulfill the above demands as the national bourgeoisie can not defeat imperialism.
8) No to US led and Chinese imperialism that has ravaged the lives of the masses.
9) No to reformism, opportunism and sectarianism.
10) No to Stalinism and fake Trotskyism.
11) Build a revolutionary ISO (Z) as part of a revolutionary international.
12) For a strong revolutionary international center.
13) A revolution in Southern Africa and Africa as part of the international revolution.



ISO-Z National Executive Committee

25 FEBRUARY 2011