Zim’s Determination Inspiring

By Obi Egbuna

ANYONE travelling from the United States in the second week of November went through the Democratic Party’s smokescreen, which was thicker than the fog of London.

The victories US imperialism’s liberal political arm enjoyed in elections for the US House and Senate had adults who voted Democrat excited like children opening presents on their birthdays or on Christmas morning.

This excitement and pandemonium was on full display in the African community within US borders where 95 percent of the voters are loyalists to the Democratic Party, where many of them will tell you in open conversation, the sweet tooth for liberals is only a tactic not a sacred principle.

One can usually respond to these feelings by reminding them Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were murdered in cold blood under the watchful eye of a Democratic Party president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and no tears rolled down his cheeks.

Our comrades in Cuba never hesitate to tell true blue Democrats that the blockade imposed on them in 1962, which 180 countries voted against at the United Nations this year, was the brainchild of John F. Kennedy, a Democratic president.

In the year which marks the 40th anniversary of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s overthrow in Ghana (February 24 1966) at the hands of the CIA and British intelligence while on a quest to stop Johnson’s war of genocide in Vietnam, we say yank that sweet tooth for it is rotten to the core.

While returning to Zimbabwe to continue solidarity and support work on the ground with our comrades in the ruling party Zanu-PF and Government, it wasn’t difficult to remain true to these convictions. After all, it is a liberal British prime minister, Tony Blair, that many in the US consider a cheap imitation of Bill Clinton that is leading the charge to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, and made George W. Bush march to the beat of his drum.

The resolve and character shown by Zimbabweans makes it truly a joy and pleasure to join them in the fight to defend the nation’s sovereignty; anyone involved in this work can attest to that. We just hope at the end of the day we get the results the country needs.

During a two-month visit to the US to report on work being done in Zimbabwe and to identify more organisations willing to be part of the support and solidarity efforts, it became evident that the main supporters of the ZCTU/MDC inside our community, Jos Williams of the AFL-CIO and William Lucy of the Congress of Black Trade Unions, while willing to attack Zimbabwe on radio or in the print media, were not too keen on debating pro-Mugabe/Zanu-PF comrades.

The reason Williams gave was he was too busy working around the elections, he also gave a condition that a private meeting was necessary to discuss differences around the issue.

He said Lucy would be there also. This was an effort to avoid debate because no private conversation would change anything.

When one is aligned to the rightwing think-tank the National Endowment of Democracy and US State Department/US Congress initiative to empower trade unions they deem as democratic like ZCTU, this means it is them, not South African President Thabo Mbeki, who are Bush’s point people in Zimbabwe.

The work on the ground in Zimbabwe has unlimited potential because it has both a political and humanitarian dimension. A Brother and Sister Communication Campaign is at work, where a strategy has been developed to get different entities of the ruling party and Government to engage their counterparts in the US on the developments here in Zimbabwe.

This strategy is aimed at having the illegal sanctions imposed on the country and people lifted once and for all. We want to see Vice President Joice Mujuru dialogue with women like the godmother of the civil/human rights movement National Council of Negro Women president emeritus Dr Dorothy Height, Children’s Defence Fund director Dr Marian Wright Edelman and other women in national leadership positions in the US.

We feel that if African women in the US interact with Vice President Mujuru it automatically raises Zimbabwe’s profile the same way Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf played a role in giving her country much needed positive coverage and improved public relations.

The journalists in Zimbabwe who know that empowering anti-Government media through websites, opposition newspapers and international coverage is one of the focal points of the illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe can engage the leadership of the National Newspaper Publishers’ Association and the National Association of Black Journalists in order to ensure that the truth about the country is reported throughout the US.

The opposition newspapers will continue to ignore the pleas of the late Minister of Information and Publicity Ambassador Tichaona Jokonya and Zanu-PF Secretary of Information Dr Nathan Shamuyarira who urged these journalists to be more patriotic, because they are empowered by Zimbabwe’s enemies to do their bidding.

The Church leaders who have vowed to work with the Government to confront the nation’s challenges must begin to reach out to the Progressive Baptist National Convention, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, United Church of Christ, Nation of Islam and other numerous religious institutions to let them know they must not let wolves in sheep’s clothing like Bush impose their will on Zimbabwe.

A Martin Luther King Centre similar to the one in Cuba, can be built in Zimbabwe and help with food and clothes, HIV-Aids work and strategies to push for the sanctions to be lifted.

While it is great to see high profile ministers like Bishop Eddie Long come to Zimbabwe and commit themselves to being goodwill ambassadors between Zimbabwe House and White House in Washington, which is a noble gesture indeed, building an institution to generate maximum support will serve Zimbabwe better down the line.

The centre in Cuba scared Washington so much that the US State Department began terminating licences for churches ready to travel there.

The American Medical Students’ Association, the largest medical student group through their global Aids division, has agreed to co-sponsor a resolution showing that Zimbabwe being deprived of humanitarian aid to fight HIV/Aids on political grounds is a violation of human rights.

We are targeting the key medical groups in our community in the US like the Black Nurses’ Association, National Medical Association, National Black Leadership Commission on Aids, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People — the pioneering civil rights movement in the US) and Nation of Islam’s medical directors.

The resolution will go to the United Nations and World Health Organisation on Martin Luther King’s birthday. There are some people in the US who are now saying that too much energy has been invested in the fight against HIV and Aids in Africa and not enough around our challenges within the States.

This is an indirect ploy to divert attention from Zimbabwe because if you talk about the African continent, you have to discuss Southern Africa, which means you have to talk about the country making the most progress and highlight its political will and courage and attack anyone trying to undermine it.

Some discussions have begun about a major HIV and Aids concert in Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Information and Publicity, Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and National Aids Council.

Dialogue must begin with the Minister of Justice, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, and the National Conference of Black Lawyers for the purpose of developing a legal strategy to demonstrate how the attempted political siege of Zimbabwe by the Blair government and Bush administration is a violation of human rights.

The business community in Zimbabwe must reach out to the business groups in the US and explain the impact the sanctions have had on the economy and what economic potential the country has. This will demonstrate patriotism to the nation and also give the African community in the US exposure to businesspeople here who are patriotic.

The US State Department and US Embassy in Zimbabwe have embarked on a project to recruit students from Zimbabwe to go to the United States under the guise of offering them an opportunity of a lifetime. They are hoping to pollute their minds so they can assist in the efforts to demonise and isolate their country of birth to advance the US imperialist agenda in Zimbabwe.

How can the same State Department that on its website openly discourages US citizens from visiting Zimbabwe citing excessive violence as the reason, now come to host its youth as their guests under the guise of academic diplomacy? They seek to exploit the influence of imperialist popular culture plain and simple. The international solidarity work with the Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association and reviving the Zimbabwe-Palestinian work is also a high priority.

These are crucial links that will resurrect anti-imperialist resistance where it is dead in Africa and intensify it where it is strong.

When future generations of Africans read the history of Zimbabwe, the political value of the travelling that President Mugabe has undertaken to ensure the country was never misinterpreted through the eyes of its most hateful enemies must never be overlooked.

In September, he went to Cuba for the Non-Aligned Movement Summit. From there, he connected to New York for the United Nations General Assembly Summit which was symbolic, especially since outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan endorsed the President’s recommendation to make former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa the mediator between Britain and Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe’s presentations at the UN made one think of the story about David and Goliath in the Bible, because based on the applause he receives year after year, the slingshot never misses the target, which is usually the Siamese twins of imperialism — Blair and Bush — because of their dogmatism and intolerance towards Zimbabwe.

The President’s visits to Djibouti for the Comesa meeting, where he gave the best proposal for economic development, and his trip to Iran to meet his counterpart President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to develop plans for co-operation and partnership between the two nations.

The trip to China for the China-Africa Summit helped showcase the Look East Policy, which appears to be inspiring the entire continent of Africa at the same rapid pace the land reclamation programme did a few years back.

The President was recently in Sudan where he attended the African Caribbean and Pacific Summit that discussed partnership and bilateral relations, among other critical issues.

Zimbabwe’s determination should inspire everyone fighting on its behalf outside the country to intensify their efforts. Inside the US the Congressional Black Caucus, members must be aggressively challenged to change their votes on the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001.

This can be done by targeting the four CBC members who are on the Committee of International Relations — Congressmen Donald Payne and Gregory Meeks and their female counterparts Congresswomen Diane Watson and Barbara Lee.

The history of support and solidarity work in the US has helped many comrades in the world come to power. History now imposes the challenge on Africans worldwide to defend President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe, which means history will remember how we responded.

l The writer, Obi Egbuna, is a member of the Pan-African Liberation Organisation and Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association.