Zimbabwe's Plunge

Zimbabwe's government is tired and discredited. Mugabe's ZANU (PF) party has stretched the country to breaking point. What will come next? Can the society shift from rule by an exhausted nationalist clique, ruling by terror and intimidation, to a "neo-liberal" free-market economy, as advocated by international financiers and the big-business wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)? Taking the plunge in either direction will depend upon whether voters can cast ballots in a free-and-fair March 2002 presidential election, and whether the military will go through with their veiled threat to carry out a coup d'etat if Mugabe loses. No matter who wins, this book argues that Zimbabwe must explicitly confront the myriad of political-economic contradictions that bedevil both nationalists and neo-liberals. An alternative political project is sketched out, drawing upon the Zimbabwean people's own struggles for social justice. The social, political and economic lessons from Zimbabwe are relevant, the authors insist, to any other society in turmoil. This book makes essential international comparisons, and applies great analytical depth to this country's fast-shifting political landscape. Four appendices provide current seminal economic texts from the ruling party, the MDC, the National Working People's Convention and Jubilee South.