By WILLIAM POMEROY

LONDON — In recent weeks the
western press, with its usual double
Standard reporting, has been playing up
episodes of conflict and tension in Zim-
babwe. The picture of instability that it
presents gives a reason for not providing
the economic assistance that Zimbabwe
Needs to overcome the colonial inheri-
tance with which it was saddled upon
gaining independence last April.

~The conflict receiving most attention is
between the party led by Prime Minister

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe African
National Union (ZANU), and that led by
Home Affairs Minister Joshua Nkomo,
the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union
(ZAPU) or Patriotic Front as it is now
termed. The largely tribal-based rivalry

’ between these groups existed throughout

the armed liberation struggle against the
Tacist Ian Smith dictatorship, during
which full unity of ZAPU-ZANU was
néver attained, and has continued into
the independence period.

This splitting of the national liberation
movement was carefully developed and
encouraged by British imperialism and
the Smith regime. Since the April in-

dependence it has been subtly nurtured —

by white minority and foreign investment
interests, one form of influencing being
to prod ZANU leaders to raise a call for.a
one-party state that would mean the total
freezing out of Nkomo and ZAPU frony
government. -

The bloody clash near Bulawayo (a
ZAPU center) between guefrilla forces
of ZAPU and ZANU on Nov. 10, result-
ing in nearly 60 dead and over 300
wounded, was sparked off by an inflam-
Matory speech in Bulawayo by the
Mugabe finance minister, Enos Nkala,
who called for a one-party state, thus
provoking ZAPU forces in their home
ground.

Disunity in Zimbabwe benefits only
the white minority that continues to own
Most of the fertile land in the country, to
dominate the business sectors, and to
hold key posts in the civil service and
Judiciary. It enables foreign investment
and loan interests to intrigue and man-
oeuvre for the maximum concessions.

Land Is key issue
In the struggle for national liberation

the land question was the revolutionizing _

issue. Masses of Blacks supported the
guerrilla movements because they ex-

COLONIAL INHERITANCE ;LEAVES LITTLE ROOM TO MANOEUVRE

“Liberation doesn’t deliver

- promises in n

pected white-owned land to be ex-
propriated and distributed to the landless
majority. In the British-run negotiations
that ended the liberation war and the rule
of Smith, there were unwritten pledges
that the capitalist powers would extend

- Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
the financial means to buy out the whites
and redistribute the land.

Indeed, when Henry Kissinger, as
U.S. secretary of state, participated in
bringing about such negotiations, he
floated the promise of at least $1 .5-billion
to assist an independent Zimbabwe.
This, however, was offered at a time
when puppet Bishop Muzorewa was .ex-
pected to win power.

When the Muzorewa hope was disin-
tegrated by the sweeping ZANU-ZAPU
election victory in April 1980, the im-
perialist promises of aid shrivelled up.
To date, piecemeal promises of $350-mil-
lion, spread over a period of three or
more years, have been tentatively made
by Britain, the U.S. and EEC countries.
This would barely start the reconstruc-
tion of- the war-ravaged Zimbabwe
economy, let alone land purchase.

Far from aiding Zimbabwe, British
and U.S. companies have been insisting
that the Mugabe government release

$140-million in blocked profits that had
accumulated during Ian Smith's illegal
rule.

Discontent among Zimbabwe’s people
has grown because Prime Minister
Mugabe has had to back away from a

Home secretary Joshua Nkomo.

pledge to solve the land question. Instead
of expropriating white farmers, he
shifted to redistribution of only unused
Jand not in cultivation on white estates.
He had to beg credits of $50-million from
Britain to make a start on this. In
November the first 4,800 acres were

available for African purchase, near Um-

tali, one of the regions of bitterest armed
struggle in the liberation war. This could
provide farms for 417 families, but there
were 14,000 applications for purchase,

an indication of the size of the problem...

White landowners increase

Since independence, however, the
number of white landowners have ac-
tually increased instead of diminishing.
There are now 4,720 white estates, an
increase of 200. This has occurred as the
white minority see the unlikelihood of
early expropriation, and as the Mugabe
government strives to earn as much as
possible from Zimbabwe export crops.

The continued existence of 25,000 or

ew Zimbabwe

more ZANU and ZAPU guerrillas armed
in camps established when in-
dependence negotiations occurred, pos-
ing a continual time-bomb of conflict, is
due to the fact that their disbanding
would result in an acute lack of land, jobs
or other opportunity for them and would
augment unrest. Their incorporation into
the Zimbabwe army, which was origi-
nally promised, cannot be done because
the government has no funds to pay or
equip such a force.

Crisis of Expectations

Eight months after independence
there has been taking place **A crisis of
expectations," as the Mugabe govern-
ment’s minister of labor, Kumbirai Kan-
gai, has put it. He was referring to the
wave of unofficial strikes in both public
and private sectors. Between March and
June of this year there’ were 172,000 man
days of production ‘‘lost’’ in such walk-

outs (the previous record of 64,000 days.

was in 1964, just before Ian Smith's sei-
zure of power.)

Taking office with. Zimbabwe's

’ economy chiefly in the hands of the white

minority and of foreign corporations,
Robert Mugabe has had little room to
manoeuvre and has adopted the posture

of ‘“‘moderation’’ and of appealing for .

westernaidand investment. Ithascomein
trickles from imperialist powers that pre-
fer the status quo to any radical change in
matters like land ownership on the bor-
der of their main base in South Africa.

Part of Mugabe's ‘“‘moderate”” stance
has been a withholding of diplomatic
relations with the Soviet Union and other
socialist countries. This led Joshua
Nkomo to make a major speech pointing
to the Soviet Union as the best friend of
Zimbabwe and of southern Africa in gen-
eral. Significantly, Prime Minister
Mugabe reportedly began talks in
November for the establishment of a
Soviet embassy and a GDR embassy in
Zimbabwe.

Someone, at least,

jobs. We rejected, we were

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

our $billions running down the

Soviet authorities to release

instance, are Antonina

had a $5-billion thrill
’ From the time, in 1977,
when Ottawa decided to up-
date Canada’s airforce with
expensive new fighters, until
the Cabinet decided last spring
to choose the McDonnell
Douglas F-18A, the country
thought we were making our
own choice.
There were six new fighter
_planes in the running to replace
the outdated Starfighter. Cor-
poration lobbyists decended
on Parliament: Hill each with
_ his own hype about his fighter
being the best for the bucks (all
$3-billion of them.)
Cabinet agonized. The press
ran details about the choices
we faced. We learned about
technical features and were
treated to full-page ads glorify-
ing the product. Our defense

_ around in the planes piloted by
hot-shots. One politician de-
scribed the experience as ero-
tic.

Jobs became an issue and.
the F-18A, said our leaders, of-
fered Canadians jobs, jobs,.

[|

_ ministers were shown flying ©

told, the F-16 by General
Dynamics, Grumman’s F-14,
the French Mirage and other
exotic machines.

But did we choose?

One company, Austin, of

Cleveland, Ohio, seems to

think otherwise. Happy as hell
with its bonanza as a McDon-
nell Douglas consulting firm,
Austin ran a full-page ad in De-
cember’s Fortune magazine.
“NATO selects the F-18. And
Austin provides a plant to pro-
duce it’’ reads the head. The
plant, by the way, is being built
in St. Louis. .

So we have a U.S. jet fighter
being built by U.S. companies,
utilizing U.S. subsidiaries and

the decisions being made by

NATO. As Canadians watch

drain we might find some con-
solation in the fact that one
cabinet minister at least found
the experience erotic.

Our prisoners. Where
are our prisoners?

On the initiative of Amnesty
International, a number of
people have taken part in a

letter-writing campaign de-—

manding “more rights - and
freedoms” for Soviet ‘‘dissi-
dents”. Amnesty’s campaign
on behalf of “‘prisoners of con-
science’ apparently sucked in

‘people from several Western

countries, including Canada.
But a few things went amiss:
A letter written by Mariana

‘Roessler from Woppertahl,

West Germany, appeals to

Vladimir Bukovsky from his
place of confinement. Bukovs-
ky, it turns out, left the USSR
several years ago. .

Other letters demanded
Georgy Vins be set free. He
left the Soviet Union three
years ago.

A Canadian letter quotes a
newspaper article in ‘‘Soviet-
sky” from the “Republic of

Beludzhistan”’ alleging the re- —

public's supreme court had re-
fused freedom to another ‘‘dis-
sident’’. There is neither such
a Soviet newspaper, nor such a
republic.

Other letters name persons

. who have records as war crim-

inals, nazi collaborators and
common criminals, demanding
they be set free. Named, for

With the selection of the F-18 as NATO's
standard fighter, McDonnell Douglas
Corporation found itself with a need to
rapidly increase sroduetion capacity.
~'aced for

NATO selects the F-18.
And Austin provides a plant to produce it.

for present and future use of a severely
restricted site, and meeting special

“foundation requirements imposed by
poor soil conditions and the plant’s
heavy. re; *

thanks to The Austin Method.

The Austin Method is the integration
of a full range of consulting, design,
engir~ “stion services

Fortune ad indicates Canada’s choice was made easy.

Ginzberg-Mararova who was a
member of a nazi unit during
World War Two and two con-
victed murders — one who de-
tonated a bomb in the Moscow
subway and another who shot
a woman in a robbery attempt.

The letter-writing spate may
become somewhat more
understandable when some
Amnesty’s officials are
examined. There’s Alexander
Sheffler, aleader of Amnesty’s-

branch in Hamburg, FRG. He -

spent time in a Soviet jail fol-
lowing his conviction in 1949
by a Soviet court for taking
part in nazi executions of
people in Byelorussia during
the war.

Theodore Goble, Amnesty’s
man in Concord, New Hamp-
shire, is a former FBI agent
who had.the job of shadowing
Soviet UN personnel and who
travelled to Israel to coordi-
nate activities with Israeli sec-
ret services.

Isn’t all this sad. And we
thought these people were dri-
ven only by altruism derived
from the angels.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 16, 1981—Page 7