Zimbabwe's interesting new role as a melting pot for political ideas

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

If one is asked about the best thing coming out of the current Zimbabwean question, one can confidently say it is the growing space for contestation of political ideas. Barely a day passes without one coming across a pointed comment on Facebook or Twitter alluding support for one of the various economic, political and social ideas being forwarded by certain individuals, institutions, social movement organisations like #Tajamuka, #ThisFlag, civil society, politicians, economists, activists and even by the public and ruling party characters.

Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Some progressive commentators in Zimbabwe are taking debates beyond social media and embarking on the further energetic step of penning opinion pieces and articles in support of their ideas. Contestation of ideas is dominant in alternative media platforms such as blogs and diaspora media websites. In just this past week, one encountered thought-provoking writings from people like Takura Zhangazha, Miles Tendi, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tamuka Chirimambowa and others.

 The exchange of radical and reactionary ideas is almost a reminder of the stories and pictures we have seen in history books about the political cafes that dominated revolutionary France in the 18^th and 19^th century.

The place for theory

Any serious movement for economic, social and/or political reforms should be backed by progressive ideas/theories otherwise the result would be senseless anarchy or fatal defeat. The Arab Spring remains a living reminder of the futility of movements that lacked clear ideological foundations.

 In the words of Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary leader, theorist and historical figure in his 1902 political pamphlet entitled What is To Be Done? Burning Questions of our Movement:

“Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity… the role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory”.

Lenin is a man whose books, theories and tactics delivered the great October socialist revolution where for the first time the working class overthrew a tsar and took over the running of a society. It is such ideas that should be revisited in the Zimbabwean context where all leading formations are trying hard to capture the eternally relevant and potentially revolutionary urban and rural working class.

When people are focused on political debates, a small segment even argue for otherwise hidden ideas such as Marxist theories. Hence is encouraging for people like this writer who in other times barely comes across encouraging progressive content in the media. So it was highly interesting to read about classes once again in a recent article by Takura Zhangazha. it is a pity though that he identifies himself as a social democrat. He would make a good communist.

The good and the bad of political debate

The contestation of ideas is both healthy and bad. The good thing is that the environment opens up for debate and progressive ideas and even gives voice to some people who under ordinary circumstances prefer to be silent. The focus on ideas eventually leads people to seek opinions and writings in non-traditional mediums and this is a worthwhile pursuit.

The bad thing with political debates is when some cadres take things personal. For instance, there is a rising culture among some activists that says certain characters should not be criticised. These say we have reached a stage where some people should be regarded as sacrosanct in order to avoid the struggle being compromised. To them, criticism is unwelcome. Unfortunately, such sentiments are the bedrocks of a totalitarian society.  One of the features of a totalitarian society has been defined as “centralisation of power and values in the hands of the leader. This centralisation of power allows the decisions of the leader to reach and influence the people without checks or mediation from other institutions with their own political agenda or values.” These sentiments should not be a feature of the current wave of pro-democracy movement-building in Zimbabwe. Every idea and every person should stand the test of criticism and democratic debate.

The future

In a nutshell, the future of viable political ideas contestation in Zimbabwe should involve unfettered debate, even when such involves the criticism of some people’s heroes. There must be debate on social media and on the ground. Discussion forums initiated by residents’ movements, students’ unions, civil society and other groups have never been more necessary. There is need for this society to allow free debate and the testing of alternative theories, political ideas and ideological questions. Such debate and robust contestation of ideas can never be adequately exhausted on social media, moreover on Twitter with its 140-characters-per-tweet limitations.

Everyone, led by the intelligentsia, needs to effectively strengthen, initiate and participate in the current discourse on Zimbabwe’s economic, political and social future. That is genuine freedom of expression.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is an activist, lawyer and researcher based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He tweets at @LeninChisaira and blogs at www.cdetinashe.blogspot.com]

The rise of organic protest, opportunism and the private press- #ShutDownZim

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Riot police beat up an ordinary protester in Mufakose during the 06 July protests (Source: Newsday)

The first week of July 2016 has started on a fiery note. Harare, Beitbridge and Bulawayo have been burning.  Questions have been asked about the faces of the people or individuals behind the general July people’s protests and the 6 July stay away. Some sectors of the society, for their own interests have begun to dishonestly ascribe to some social media characters these obvious results of general resentment against the bad governance in Zimbabwe. They have chosen to ignore that touts can organise themselves, and likewise cross-border trades do not need social media prodding to agitate their grievances. The same with civil servants who had virtually had a months’ salary taken away from them by the Ministry of Finance.

Organic Protests

The July protests by Zimbabweans were organic. That is the answer. At Beitbridge, informal traders were incensed after the Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued SI 64/2016, also cited as the Control of Goods (Open General Import Licence) (No.2) (Amendment) Notice, 2016 (No.8) on 17 June 2016. The statutory instrument (SI 64/2016) is a law which seeks to control the import of basic goods and foodstuffs into the country. The merits or demerits of the SI are not the subject of this opinion. However, it cannot be doubted that people were not consulted. Hence the major grievance seemed to have been on lack of consultation and adequate notice from the government. Due to its usual disregard of the people’s views, the government got its just deserts when the border town of Beitbridge burned.

With the heat from Beitbridge still on, touts and public transport operators staged some powerful protests in Harare and Bulawayo, notably in the poor, working class suburb of Epworth, just outside eastern Harare. Epworth is a community which lies in the forgotten periphery of the capital city, and is usually associated with prostitution, school dropouts and crime. This is also a community which is not really the territory for social media activisms and where there is virtually little to no Wi-Fi availability. But where people suffer the worst of economic crisis. It is a community where the majority of unemployed youths, decided to say enough s enough and to face down the ever-worsening harassment by traffic police on combis, which was their main source of livelihood.

Whilst these protests were ranging, civil servants were mobilising for strike against lack of payment of June wages by the government. Organisations such as the Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (RTUZ) had been calling for action since the day the salary postponement was announced (which incredibly was the same day SI 64/2016 was gazetted). Likewise, the youth coalition/movement known as #Tajamuka had been fearlessly leading protest-actions from the front, at bank queues and at courts.

Media bosses and fear for radical actions

Now despite the actions by these various organics groups and movements, it shocking when on the day after the stayaway, the private press have decided to ascribe the people’s efforts to have been caused by a mere call from a certain social media character. The intention behind that is obvious and shall be analysed here.

Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Most of the private press in zimbabwe is owned by business interests. These interests, no matter how they may try to support pro-democracy activism, themselves fear the rise of anti-capitalist sentiments. They feel threatened themselves when they witness organic movements calling for the burning of business and private property. This is because media bosses also attend meetings and play gold with fellow business executives from targeted sectors. In addition, media bosses also invest in various businesses such as in the transport and supermarket sectors.

They try to water down radical protest and place moderate characters as front men, denying credit to the grassroots. The Daily News and Newsday editions of 07 July 2016, have gone at length to claim that the recent 06 July #ZimShutDown2016 / #ZimbabweShutDown / #ShutDownZim action was called by people whose recent disregard for vibrant protest and whose efforts at demobilising and dismissing visible ground protests by groups like #Tajamuka, opposition parties and the general populace have been well known and well documented. Genuine people and their grievances as well as the frontline actions of organic movements like #Tajamuka are deliberately and shockingly being side-lined.

In a nutshell, through it is good to acknowledge the power of social media, it is also pertinent that we do not forget the most factual conclusion that can be carried away from the events of these weeks. The fact is that it is the people’s actions on the ground that can shake a system, i.e., the vibrant actions of ordinary people who rise up and express genuine grievances against, among other things, police harassment, corruption and the exploitative taste for lavish living by government elites. It can never be sole twitter and social media activisms that can uproot a system. Social media activism is good, but only when it supplements vibrant action on the ground.

At the other end, throughout history, the private press and the state media have almost always tried to hijack or distort people’s efforts. This is due to considerations for profit-making, politics as well as  the protection of private business interests and property. However, history will be the judge. Bravo, the ordinary people of Zimbabwe and those in foreign lands who are in solidarity.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is an activist and lawyer by profession. Twitter: @LeninChisaira ; Website: www.africafightnow.org ; Blog: www.cdetinashe.blogspot.com ]

Bond Notes: Are the fears genuine? - Part 2

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Gov. John Mangudya of the RBZ at the launch of bond coins in 2014

In this part 2 of this writer’s bond notes opinion, there is need to look at how the law should be used to protect the aspirations and needs of the ordinary person and not just those of the elites. The law must be flexible. Hence this part will invoke some basic legal arguments for the practical need for bond notes by the bank-queuing public. One must hasten to remind the reader that the writer is openly supportive of radial economics and anti-neo-liberalism.

The law must serve the ordinary people.

Zimbabwe is founded on respect for certain values and principles (section 3 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe) which values include recognition of the worthy and inherent dignity of each human being and respect for the country’s diverse cultural and traditional values. The state must ensure that its people, especially pensioners who selflessly built the nation in their younger years, must be able to enjoy comfortable lives devoid of indecent queues and the indignity of cash shortages. Section 68 of the Constitution provides for the right to administrative justice. The elderly, and the workers and peasants are equally entitled to administrative conduct that lessens burdens on their lives and that is prompt in addition to being impartial, proportionate to the extent of the economic problems and reasonable in a real economic crisis.

The Law must be progressive and responsive to the aspirations of the people, including economic aspirations. Therefore, the government of the day, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), big business, professionals, elites, etc. must be pro-people and organic in their conduct. The law should never have a narrow and inflexible interpretation.

It is within the rights of the central bank to safeguard hard currency since it is prone to abuse by business and the elites. Section 49 (1) (b) of the RBZ Act gives the RBZ the power to maintain international reserves which can be in the form of foreign exchange in the form of notes or coins or account balances held by the bank in foreign currencies. It suffices that the Constitution already gives the central bank the powers to regulate the monetary system, to protect currencies in the interests of balanced and sustainable economic growth and to formulate and implement monetary policy. (Section 317(1) of the Constitution.) The RBZ, as the institution empowered by the Constitution and by Section 47 of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 22:15] to deal with exchange rates and monetary policies in Zimbabwe must indeed be a bank of the ordinary people. The RBZ must act to ease the suffering of the people in a cash shortage environment. It must come up with measures that address bank queues; that alleviate the plight of people who are travelling long distances to banks and who will be awaited by hungry families and dependents.

Flexible solutions

Rather than mere fault-finding, there is need for the Zimbabwean society to understand that the Zimbabwean crisis needs wholesale reforms in the long run. But in the short run there is also need to strategically built our economy through flexible and creative solutions that alleviate the plight of our people.

Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Big business needs to incentivise or re-initiate the use of currencies such as the South African rand. Businesses that import goods from South Africa, should likewise mostly sell their goods locally in SA Rand, rather than in US dollars. Instead of mere denigration of the use of bond coins and notes and amplifying their disadvantages in the import sector, business should rather encourage the wider usage of alternative currencies such as the Rand. The rand fell into general disuse some time ago yet Zimbabwe gets a whopping 60% of its import from South Africa. For the sake of economics not politics, big business need to explains how currencies which were both at 49% usage at the start of the official multi-currency era in 2009, later transformed into a 95% usage for the US dollar versus 5% usage for the Rand in 2016.

The banking and financial service sectors need to encourage people to adopt the use of plastic money. Ecocash and Steward bank are commendable in this respect. These sectors should also encourage the use of real time gross settlement (RTGS) services. In that regard it is critical that points of sale machines be available in almost all places where cash transaction ordinarily, including rural areas, farms, mines, shops, service stations, vegetable markets, council offices and growth points.

All this is not hidden or bookish information. The problems is when vocal people overlook economic and legal information that is available in the public domain. The capitalist system is one that requires research and reluctantly, some caution, before we unwittingly make life difficult for the ordinary bank-queuing person through narrow elitists legal interpretations, ignorant alarming and massaging the ego of big business and the elites.

Last but not least- Arrest the Corrupt.

On another note, and beyond economics, it is worthwhile for the government and the central bank of Zimbabwe to note that public confidence in them has been eroded. Everyday news features scandals of massive abuse of public resources. The culprits always seem untouchable. Without doubt, if government changes course and starts fighting corruption through imprisonment of perpetrators and recovery of stolen assets, the trust may come back. Economics is about people and the solutions should mainly centre on the ordinary, working people.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is a lawyer and former student leader at UZ. He is a student of Economic Regulation and writes here and at www.africafightnow.org  in his personal capacity. Twitter: @LeninChisaira]

Bond Notes : Are the fears genuine? - Part 1

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Many voices and temperatures, have arisen over the proposed introduction of bond notes by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). In a statement issued on 4 May 2016, RBZ Governor, John P. Mangudya, announced the forthcoming issue of $2, $5, $10 and $20 bond note denominations. Bond currency is not a novel idea, considering that Zimbabwe has been using bond coins since 2014. However, the notes have become the most prominent of a raft of measures proposed to deal with cash shortages. These shortages had metastasised societal   inequality. Disproportionately, the burden of cash shortages almost always falls on ordinary people, vendors, workers, civil servants, soldiers, policemen, small scale farmers, small scale miners and pensioners. These people brave the winter in bank queues awaiting uncertain cash withdrawals.

A bank queue in Harare: A result of cash shortages

Yet it seems that the few corrupt, politically connected individuals and corporates who have contributed to this severe cash shortage through externalisation are being shielded from responsibility for this mess. They seem to be shielded behind monetary policies that are camouflaged to appear as if there are pro-poor. Focus seem to have been shifted from bringing culprits to book as part of immediate diagnostic measures. Without justice, a situation where the poor will continue to be discriminated against in terms of access to the dollar and will be left to largely transact in much maligned bond notes which are at risk of transactional loss of value against multi-currencies, seems imminent.

A matter of basic economics

It is Government credibility however, not economics, that is at stake. The fear and mistrust run deep.

When economic rationale is used, bond notes appear to be a sanitiser in the current Zimbabwean economic situation.

As a background, the current debate on bond notes sprang up after the country secured a US$200 million loan facility from a development bank known as the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The facility was meant to stabilise foreign currency exchange and to incentivise foreign exchange earnings. This money is not immune from externalisation.

Externalisation and a skewed balance of payments, or simply the unsustainable model of importing more that the country exports, are among the main reasons why Zimbabwe went into a punishing hard currency shortage. On imports, the country has already gone deep into the mode of importing basic goods that should ordinarily be produced locally such as maheu, bottled water, milk, potato crisps, cereals, fruit juice and even camphor creams and petroleum jellies.

It is interesting to note that resistance against the bond notes has been mainly instigated and initiated by elites in society, made up of supermarket owners, big business, professionals and churchmen people. These and other well-to-do sections of the society have hyped up the resistance against bond notes to an extent where the so-called ordinary person on the street has become bewildered, alarmed and more confused. This is despite the fact that the same ordinary person has been enduring winter nights in bank queues with fellow ordinary people.

 To the ordinary person in the bank queues, bond notes can be a life saver. On the other hand, to big business, professionals or rich clergyman intending to externalise hard currency, it is a raw deal.

Bond notes and resuscitating local industry

It is apparent to anyone with a knowledge of basic economics that as long as the country imports more than it exports, there is trade deficit. The country experiences a skewed balance of payments. In such a situation, there is great need to work towards the resuscitation of local industry rather than importing more. An exclusively Zimbabwean medium of exchange, is an incentive towards such resuscitation and uplifts the livelihoods of vendors and small scale producers in mining, farming and industry.

The bulk of our sources of hard currency (which I won’t refer to as liquidity) is derived from exports and for this to occur, we need to incentivise the main producing areas, and these are not banks or supermarkets or churches, but small scale farmers, tobacco farmers and small scale miners and their support service providers in the form of vendors and siyasos in addition to large scale miners of gold, diamond and ferrochrome. Therefore, the bond notes are going to be welcome development to vendors, tobacco farmers as well as small scale gold miners, who desire immediate cash after selling their product, which produce in the long run can enable Zimbabwe to get back into meeting its balance of payments.

Admittedly, to get hard currency we also need foreign direct investment just as we need money from our people in the diaspora as well as lines of credit. But these two areas contribute just a mere 20% to our sources of hard currency.

It is apparent that the economic case for bond notes should be balanced against the re-assurances of trust in the government. For the confidence to be achieved, the government must exit its willingness to sanction the externalisation of currency and to bar corruption. These ills have an adverse effect on the resuscitation of local production.

-To be continued

 [Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is a lawyer and former student leader at UZ. He is a student of Economic Regulation and writes here and at www.africafightnow.org  in his personal capacity. Twitter: @LeninChisaira]

A year of Lumumba's sex-tape, UZ HIV students and state-led objectification of young women

By Daphne Jena and Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

The Day of the African Child is commemorated each year on 16 June. The day is held to remember schoolchildren who were massacred whilst protesting apartheid-education policies in the Soweto township of apartheid South Africa in 1976, exactly forty year ago.

Co-author Daphne Jena (right) speaking at an AfricaFightNow.org event

And exactly 40 years later, the year 2016 has been an eventful year in the victimisation of the young in neighbouring Zimbabwe, especially young women.

In May 2016, state papers in Zimbabwe screamed headlines claiming that almost half of the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students were HIV positive. Within a month the same state media was to expose former Zanu-Pf activist and parliamentary candidate Acie Lumumba’s sex tape featuring an unidentified young woman.

The two incidences are dangerously linked. For starters, both were exposed by the state media. Secondly there were openly aimed at victimising vocal sections of the Zimbabwean society. The report stating that “almost half of students who underwent HIV testing at the University of Zimbabwe were positive” was immediately buttressed by calls for the limitation of free association in campus’ halls of residences.

The second incident, which was poorly disguised as a scoop, was aimed at punishing former Zanu Pf Harare Provincial Executive member and shadow MP for Hatfield constituency, Acie Lumumba who had just resigned from the ruling party citing rampant corruption and lack of good governance in party and government. He claimed his sex tapes got into state hands after police searched his house in June 2016. The sex tape immediately came to a government-owned tabloid, H-Metro and the same day, the video began to circulate on the internet. So much for state spying on people’s bedrooms.

In as much as the 47% HIV article article published by Herald and the Chronicle on a research purported to have been done by the National Aids Council seems to tarnish the image of the institution, it also compromises the reputation of the students especially female students. The Lumumba sex-tape on the other hand, highlights the patriarchal notions of treating young women as objects that can be used to settle political scores without even the courtesy of consent or offering dignity to young women.

The state paper could have done by covering the face of the young woman rather than splashing her image and body on the public eye. Basic human dignity and respect for citizen privacy should have entered the conscience of the alleged police searchers, political bullies as well as editors of the tabloid.

Blaming female students and young women

Each time there is a discussion on the sexual behaviour of people, be it in society as whole or about students in tertiary institutions, most of the blame seems to fall on female students and young women. Female students and young women are often judged based on the rumours on their morality and sexual behaviour in institutions and in general society.

This is mainly perpetuated by the assumption that most female students and young women engage in sex work with rich married men in exchange for money and other material favours. Such rumours have been with us for so long such that, they have been slowly accepted as truth for almost every female student and young woman in the country. This excuses men in general and male students in particular from playing a part in any of the sexual activities in society and in tertiary institutions.

The article which stated that 47% of students at UZ who underwent testing are believed to have been positive, is likely to have a negative impact on the female than male students. When the UZ Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura gave a comment, he pointed to the fact that an increase in the number of pregnant students was a cause for concern as if that is a direct relation between being pregnant and being HIV positive. Furthermore, his comments make falling in pregnancy as a crime. Already in his comment, Professor Nyagura ignores the fact that for a woman to conceive, there is a man involved.

Such statements perpetuate the attitude which is already deep rooted in our society that a woman is to blame for every relationship between two people. It is rare for men an d male students to be judged based on where they learn or what they do, it is always the women and female students who are at fault. Unfortunately, this does not end with street talk but it even translates to the abuse that female students, young women or employees experience in workplaces.

We have heard of cases of female students and young women who are sexually harassed when they go for work related learning, and some even fail to secure places as a result. The assumption among some men that female students and young are easy or are of loose morals are based on the rumours and beliefs that always implicate female students.

If someone has heard that students from a certain institution are ‘easy’, that person may decide to try their luck on any student from that institution expecting to get a positive response. A negative one, will lead to disappointment and hence opens way to for abuse. To compensate for the rejection, one may then decide to offer the opportunity that the student is seeking in exchange for sexual favours, worst cases end up in sexual harassment or rape.

No more patriarchy

To sum it all, it has become a sad development that state organs themselves are taking centre stage in the perpetuation of such stigmatisation. The UZ reports and the Lumumba sex tape expose state-sanctioned patriarchy at its worst. It is the duty of ever responsible citizen to defend violations of individual liberty and to protect victims of a bulling patriarchal society.

To that end, though the UZ retracted its statements as a face saving measure and a young women exonerated herself from the sex tape, the media and law-enforcement organs in Zimbabwe must look at their consciences and ensure that they do not become such sadistic pawns and perverts in the broader political game.

A continuation of such victimisation and patriarchal bigotry against female students and young women will only serve to destroy the hopes, healthy sexualities and freedoms of an already-suffering demographic, populace and nation.

[Daphne Jena is a women’s rights activist. Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is a former SRC Vice-President at the University of Zimbabwe. They write in their activist capacities. Twitter: @DaphneJENA and @LeninChisaira .First published on 17 June 2016 on NehandaRadio]

#ThisFlag: A good idea, but the Zimbabwean struggle will not be tweeted.

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

The social media craze in Zimbabwe going under the hashtag #ThisFlag has been around for a little over a month now. The campaign is also heavily subscribed by Zimbabweans in the diaspora and by other sympathisers beyond borders. As of the third week of May 2016, newspaper editorials and opinions have begun to be written about the social media campaign. Indeed, critical questions around the issues of corruption, abuse of power, economic mismanagement and general lack of good governance are being raised under the #ThisFlag campaign by Zimbabweans and other netizens. 

Ambassadors and government officials are also part of the showcase. What is missing and scary about it, is that it has shifted struggles from the streets to the internet. Many brave people whose track record in fighting democratic struggles in Zimbabwe is undoubted, have also regrettably fallen for the exclusive social media campaign and hashtagging.

The campaign, sadly remains an exclusively social media one, without any meaningful offline presence. This raises questions about its real objectives, ideology and program of action.

Respectfully it is a good idea, and an attractive one for social media, photo galleries and for those wishing to exhibit Photoshop expertise. But for any meaningful struggle against the Zanu-Pf government or any government or oppressive system in the world, the social media only works whilst mobilising for real-life protest, campaigns and mobilisation efforts. This is what the Zimbabweans rallying behind the campaign have failed to grasp. Characteristically, social media without offline presence is a demobilising factor.

2016 is a year of resistance dumped on the internet

The Zimbabwean flag

Any person who follows protests and believes in them, would have regained hope in 2016  being a  year of resistance. There were powerful occupations and strikes at two giant parastatals by disgruntled workers just a few months back. In…. workers stuck camp and occupied the Grain Marketing Board’s (GMB) head-offices in Eastlea. Within a few months, rail workers and their families embarked on another powerful industrial action and occupation of the National Railways of Zimbabwe’s (NRZ) Rugare marshalling yard. The country’s biggest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), after a long period of sleeping on duty, eventually managed to mobilise and carry out a powerful and massive demonstration in the streets of Harare. The latter action prompted the ruling party’s youth league to organise its own ‘One Million Man March’ in support of the 92-year old president of the Republic, Robert Mugabe.

Hence 2016 was promising to be a year of the streets. Painfully, within a few weeks, all the anger that should have been poured on the streets was relegated to social media. People began to find comfort in tweeting the #ThisFlag hashtag with whatever issues they have and ending at that. Even the so-called leaders of the #ThisFlag campaign, whom this writer, shares certain WhatsApp groups with, openly declared that the movement was not going to pour into the streets .In other words, #ThisFlag was going to continue raising issues and expressing grievances with the way government was running the country, but only by (ab)using individualistic methods of posing for photos with wrapped flags, and posting the photos on social media. In a few weeks’ time, street activists and faceless social media accounts began a backward trend of clicktivism over activism.

Social media should supplement, not substitute direct action

Social media had been utilised and achieved great results for physically protesting people (emphasis on ‘physically protesting’) during  the Arab Spring  uprising in Egypt and Tunisia, the Occupy movements in the United States, the #FeesMustFall campaign in South Africa (which this writer was physically part of and of which he wrote an article on Nehanda Radio ), and recently during the campaign of a socialist candidate Bernie Sanders in the United States. In all these occasions, social media was used to supplement direct action and to mobilise for living campaigns. Never was a government or system removed by clicktivists using the social media aloneas their sole arena for resistance as is the case with Zimbabwe’s #ThisFlag social media campaign.

Similar Flag but we are different Zimbabweans

Whilst the intentions of the organisers of #ThisFlag may indeed be noble and innocent, real politics and ideological understanding would show that trying to bunch together fellow Zimbabweans for just being under the same flag, without regard to social classes, is a gross and dangerous misrepresentation of patriotism. As a poor African, I have more in common with a poor African in another country than I can ever have with a ‘fellow’ Zimbabwean  government minister , capitalist or rich pastor or preacher. Hence to bundle all and sundry on the grounds that we accidentally share the same nationalist flag takes us nowhere. A genuine movement can only be class-based and even transcend borders and not be brought together by a nationalist flag. The world is now a global village and many of our citizens are more concerned with people to people solidarity across borders and not fake comradeship under a flag. A company director, rich church pastor or a cabinet minister may share the same nationalist, albert same flag with a vendor, a sex worker or a street lawyer like myself, but we can never share the same interests. That is a great error on the part of activists rallying under the #ThisFlag campaign. What we want in life and in politics are different. Just last year, most of us wept when the Supreme Court delivered an anti-labour judgement, yet other Zimbabwean businesspeople ululated. It is inconceivable that today we can stand side by side with such ‘fellow’ Zimbabweans, our interests can never be the same just because we share the same flag. As the working class, the poor and radical intellectuals, we will be our own liberators and we will liberate ourselves on the streets not via Wi-Fi.

The Way Forward includes Offline Activism

As a way forward, activists should either get off their backs and smartphones, scrutinise their allies, craft a programme of action backed by progressive ideologies and solidarity with genuine movements within and beyond nationalistic borders, mobilise and get into the streets and face down police baton sticks, teargas and beatings if they want governments to notice. Otherwise  this elitist social media noise only serves to entrenchexploitation, alienate activists from the mass of society and demobilise and undermine people who believe in genuine direct action such as NRZ, GMB and opposition grassroots activists. Unfortunately, Zanu-Pf has already seen the power of offline presence over social media with the adoption of the counter #OurFlag hashtag by the party’s One Million Man March organisers. Photoshop, modelling for the camera with brand-new flags and tweeting in the comfort of private bedrooms and offices is a dangerous illusion that must be broken as soon as yesterday.

Having said that, it is indeed naïve to dismiss the strategic role of social media, but it is only strategic as long as it is used to mobilise and publicise real life actions. I am an avid user of social media myself and an advocate for the use of alternative media as opposed to mainstream media, which is usually controlled by financial or political interests, but never once do I fool myself that when I am on social media alone I am fighting a struggle. Social media is important and democratic, but only when it is used as a support strategy by an action-oriented people. 

In that regard, I sign off with a quote from UK socialist Chris Bruno. He wrote in a 2012 issue of the Socialist Worker newsletter: ‘As a supplement to, not a substitute for, old tactics, social media plays an important role. It has the ability to reach those who have neither the time nor desire to participate in the existing political infrastructure thus far. It provides another effective way to organize and mobilize for our actions, and it provides a truly alternative media — one that is organically created by the masses and gives us a more complete picture of what’s going on beyond our doorsteps.’ (emphasis mine). It is important that we acknowledge social media for what it is - a mobilising tool for real life action - and utilise it as such, but to substitute street action as is the current case, is a historical disaster.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira coordinates AfricaFightNow.org! and tweets at @LeninChisaira. This article first published 3 June 2016 on AfricafightNow,org!]

#BringBackOurGirls from Kuwait Movement: Police Brutality, Activists and Solidarity with Stranded Women.

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira 

Zimbabwean Police’s bullish treatment of activists who would be exercising their various democratic rights to protest and express solidarity with exploited or oppressed members of the society seems to continue unabated, especially when indignity was meted on 06 April 2016 against an activist ‘#BringBackOurGirls from Kuwait’ demonstration outside the Middle Eastern state’s embassy in Harare. The demonstration was organised by activists and powerful emerging movement organisations, namely the Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance (ZIPWA) and the Zimbabwe Activists Alliance (ZAA).

The protesters meet riot police

The democratic action by the activists was targeted at showing solidarity with - as well as expressing contempt over the treatment of - over 200 Zimbabwean young women who were reportedly sold for US$25000 each and who upon rescue remain stranded in the State of Kuwait at the time of writing. The plight of the women had gripped Zimbabwean media in recent weeks. Most of these women who are now held up in the country awaiting passage back home were allegedly lured to Kuwait with promises of jobs, especially offers to work as maids at salaries of US$600 a month, which is a dreamy middle class income in an economically-mismanaged Zimbabwe. Instead they endured sexual abuse, inhuman working conditions and then delays in repatriation. 

 Women are more vulnerable in a failed state

Rampant economic hardships fuelled by over three-decades of governance mishaps in the Southern African country has ensured that its ordinary and working class people become symbols of pity and suffering across the world. As is the norm in the Global South , it is the women and youth who suffer the most from the vagaries of poverty caused by the economic downturn. Hence it is not surprising that the news reports have mostly reported on the plight of young women duped by dubious employment agencies that usually have semblance of organised crime units and that exist to trade in people from Sub-Saharan Africa and other impoverished parts of the world.

When this writer caught up with the Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Activists’ Alliance, Muzvare Lynette Mudehwe after the embassy demonstration she indicated that her involvement in the #BringBackOurGirls from Kuwait issue was as a result of her being not just a human rights defender, but also a woman, a mother and an African. She said, ‘Zimbabwe has become a failed state that can’t provide jobs for its citizens. Hence those citizens have become greatly vulnerable.’

Linda Masarira, the Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance was also incensed at the way the whole stranded women issue was being held at government level, which is the reason why her organisation was part of the demonstration. She said, ‘We feel let down and surprised at the slow pace at which the government of Zimbabwe is dealing with the trapped women in Kuwait after a period stretching about a month now, this is a case of misplaced priorities by the government. It is every government’s responsibility to ensure that their citizens are safe regardless of their geographical position worldwide. We also condemn the continual processing of travelling documents to unsuspecting women by the Ministry of Home Affairs and also to that effect, we don’t see any reason why these bogus employment agencies can still be left operating, they must be immediately banned’

In a state that is on record as being perpetually among top ten most impoverished nations in the world, as well as having other unflattering records of human rights abuses, corruption, institutional failures and a dubious political environment, it is easy for foreign embassy staff and conniving local hawks to take advantage of vulnerable women and girls and ship them overseas where they are treated like wild animals, kicked at, over-worked and virtually kept as house slaves. These human rights violations and indignities have no place in the 21^st century.

 Protest Action and Police responses

When the police silences voices raised against such brazen human rights violations like they did with organisations like ZIPWA, ZAA and others on Wednesday, they just reinforce the notion that the role of a police force in bourgeois society is one do not involve protection of social justice. And the indignity that activists are made to suffer is clearly indefensible and unjustifiable in a democratic society.

‘I am still shocked at the way the police treated the peaceful protestors,’ Muzvare Mudehwe informed this writer during a post-mortem discussion. ‘We were shoved into a riot truck and detained for over an hour before being released without being charged. The police were even dismissive of female legislators who chose to be part of the #BringBackOurGirls from Kuwaiti demonstration. These included Honourable Tabitha Khumalo, Rorana Muchihwa, Ronia Bunjira and Memory Mbondia. Sadly, all these are from the opposition. Zanu-Pf MPs did not want to get involved in the campaign, citing that the government has relations with Kuwait, but that at the expense of innocent stranded women, some of whom are voters in  those same ruling party MPs’ constituencies’

Another activist and journalist, Watmore Makokoba who was part of the demonstration rightfully indicated that zimbabwe, has always had a questionable record against the treatment of women, be it in social or political circles and hence the police action against the demonstrators was not a new thing. He said, ‘Women rights continue to be hindered by disregard shown on women’s plights from the days of child marriages to the current clampdowns on solidarity demonstrations with stranded women.’

Way Forward

 The courageous raising of concerns by activists and other sections of the Zimbabwean society about the plight of the poor women stranded in Kuwait is commendable. Such actions, even if they can hardly be expanded due to the existence of an almost fascist police force in Zimbabwe, can nevertheless provide the right foundations for future mobilisations of the society against a political and economic governance system a society that perpetuates patriarchy and treats Global South women and working class youth as expendable pawns and goods in the evil, racist and profiteering human trafficking business people from the third world.

In that regard, feminists, leftists, Africans and activists from the entire world who are burdened by this unfair capitalist system should be concerned, not merely because they are anti-capitalist or anything, but because these women and other victims of human trafficking and organised crime around the world are human too, who deserve respect, dignity and protection against a sick world.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is, among other things, a former student leader in Zimbabwe and the Editor of AfricaFightNow.org and tweets at: @LeninChisaira. He can be contacted at africafightnow@gmail.com. This article first published on 16 April 2016 on NehandaRadio ]