Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Zimbabwean Crisis and the Challenges for the Left

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03057070600655988

1465-3893

Brian Raftopoulos,

African studies and sociopolitical issues

Abstract The Zimbabwean crisis has generated a great deal of academic and political debate, not the least of which has been conflicting perspectives from the Left. While the politics of land redistribution has been characterised by some as a key marker of anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal politics, others have been equally concerned about the authoritarian politics that has been the modality for the land interventions of the Mugabe regime. This article undertakes a broad analysis of the theoretical questions underlying the Zimbabwe debate, pointing to particular problems relating to the legacies of political economy, nation and race, and the challenges of developing democratic alternatives in the current global context. The article also situates these problems within a broader, critical historiographical reading of the Zimbabwean crisis. Finally, central to the argument of the article is the concern that issues relating to democratisation and human rights, as well as historical agency, are not peripheralised by the necessary demands for economic reconstruction, which can often lead to an overwhelming economism in political analysis. Notes 1 W. Willems, 'Peasant Demonstrators, Violent Invaders: Representations of Land in the Zimbabwean Press' (unpublished paper, 2004); W. Willems, 'Remnants of Empire? British Media Reporting on Zimbabwe' (unpublished paper, 2005). See also a collection of Mugabe's writings in R. Mugabe, Inside the Third Chimurenga (Harare, Government of Zimbabwe, 2001). 2 In the words of George Shire, a prominent ZANU-PF supporter in the UK: 'Another world is possible in which the ownership of land and economic resources in the region are deracialised – and are put to use for the benefit of the people. This economic strategy is what is at the heart of the policies being pursued by ZANU-PF and its allies in the region. This is why Mugabe is seen as a "threat", a "dictator", a "tyrant" and worse by those whose real interests are not compatible with the interests of the majority in Africa'. G. Shire, 'Sinner or Sinned,' African Business (April 2003), p. 15. 3 See also journalistic biographies of Mugabe such as: M. Meredith, Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe (New York, Public Affairs, 2002); and D. Blair, Degrees in Violence (London, Continuum, 2002). 4 The Scrutator (believed to be Ibbo Mandaza, former editor-in-chief of the Mirror Group of newspapers in Zimbabwe, and currently involved in a legal battle over the ownership of the Group with the state's Central Intelligence Organisation). 5 I. Shivji, 'The Life and Times of Babu', Review of African Political Economy, 99 (2003), p. 115. 6 H. Melber, 'Introduction', in H. Melber (ed.), Limits to the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa: The Unfinished Business of Democratic Consolidation (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2003), pp. xiv–xv. Also see the various chapters in A. Hammar, B. Raftopoulos and S. Jensen (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis (Harare, Weaver, 2003). 7 P. Yeros, 'Zimbabwe and the Dilemmas of the Left', Historical Materialism, 10, 2 (2002), p. 4. 8 D. Moore, 'The Contradictory Construction of Hegemony in Zimbabwe: Politics, Ideology, and Class in the Formation of a New African State' (PhD thesis, York University, 1990), p. 222. Stoneman and Cliffe also noted that while these two tendencies 'were overtly articulating views that clearly owed something to Marxism, although of different brands' they 'became peripheral voices in the mainstream of their respective parties'. C. Stoneman and L. Cliffe, Zimbabwe: Politics, Economics and Society (London and New York, Pinter Publishers, 1989), pp. 39–40. 9 J. Brickhill, 'A Brief History of Socialist Politics in Zimbabwe', Southern African Political and Economic Monthly, 12, 9 (September 1999), p. 35. In her recent autobiography Fay Chung argues that during the liberation 'traditional religion, still very powerful amongst the peasantry, became the main ideology in ZANU'S struggle. F. Chung, Reliving the Second Chimurenga: Memoirs from the Liberation Struggle (Uppsala and Harare, Nordic Africa Institute and Weaver Press. 2006), p. 82. 10 I. Mandaza, 'The State and Politics in the Post-White Settler Situation', in I. Mandaza (ed.), Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transition 1980–1986 (Dakar, CODESRIA, 1986), pp. 21–74. 11 S.R. Dorman, 'Inclusion and Exclusion: NGOs and Politics in Zimbabwe' (DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2001). 12 J. Moyo, Voting for Democracy (Harare, University of Zimbabwe Publications, 1992). In the 1990s the writings of Jonathan Moyo were pre-eminent in terms of a liberal democratic critique of the state. However, in 2000, Moyo changed his political allegiance, was appointed a Minister in the government of ZANU-PF, and became a key articulator of the authoritarian nationalism that marked the period after the constitutional referendum of that year. In 2004, Moyo was one of the high-level casualties of the succession battle in the ruling party, and has since reverted to his strong criticisms of ZANU-PF. In 2005, Moyo launched a new party called the United People's Movement advocating a purported 'Third Force' alternative to both ZANU-PF and the MDC. Following Moyo's political career brings to mind the words of Edward Said: 'When individuals get in the habit of switching gods whom they worship politically, there's no end to the number of changes they make before they finally come to rest in utter disgrace and well-deserved oblivion'. E. Said, From Oslo to Iraq and the Roadmap (London, Bloomsbury, 2005), p. 257. 13 For a very good discussion of this problematic in Zimbabwean civic politics see E. McCandless, 'Zimbabwean Forms of Resistance: Social Movements, Strategic Dilemmas and Transformative Change' (PhD thesis, American University, Washington, DC, 2005). 14 L. Adele Jinadu, 'African Intellectuals, Democracy and Development: History of the African Association of Political Scientists (AAPS), 1973–2003', AAPS Occasional Paper Series, 7, 1 (2003), p. 35. 15 M. Mamdani, 'Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism' (paper presented at the First Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora, Dakar, 6–9 October 2004). 16 S. Hall, 'Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance', in UNESCO, Sociological Theories: Race and Nationalism (Paris, UNESCO, 1980), p. 333. 17 Y. Tandon, University of Dar es Salaam: Debate on Class, State and Imperialism (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Publishing House, 1983). 18 G. Arrighi and J.S. Saul, Essays on the Political Economy of Africa (New York and London, Monthly Review Press, 1973). 19 Arrighi, 'Labour Supplies in Historical Perspective: A Study of the Proletarianisation of the African Peasantry in Rhodesia', and 'The Political Economy of Rhodesia', in Arrighi and Saul, Essays on the Political Economy of Africa, pp. 180–234 and pp. 336–77, respectively. 20 C. Stoneman (ed.), Zimbabwe's Prospects (London, Macmillan; Harare, College Press, 1988). 21 C. Stoneman and L. Cliffe, Zimbabwe: Politics, Economics and Society (London, Pinter, 1989). 22 These included an investigation into the economic relations between international capital, the settlers and the emergent black bourgeoisie; the effects of property changes in the postcolonial era on the fortunes of peasants, workers and the middle class; and the class configuration of new political developments, C. Stoneman and L. Cliffe, Zimbabwe: Politics, Economics and Society (London, Pinter, 1989), p. 6. 23 A. Astrow, Zimbabwe: A Revolution that Lost its Way? (London, Zed Press, 1983). 24 Stoneman and Cliffe, Zimbabwe: Politics, Economics and Society, p. 6. 25 G. Williams, 'Political Economies and the Study of Africa: Critical Considerations', Review of African Political Economy, 102 (September 2004), p. 577. Williams's piece covers, in a broader sense, some of the issues I have tried to raise in the Zimbabwean context. 26 J. Moyo, 'State Politics and Social Domination in Zimbabwe', Journal of Modern African Studies, 30, 2 (1992), pp. 305–30. 27 'Non-State Actors Doomed: Moyo', The Herald, 14 October 2003. 28 S. Moyo, 'The Land Occupation Movement in Zimbabwe: Contradictions of Neo-liberalism', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30, 2 (2001), p. 330. 29 I. Mandaza, 'The Zimbabwean Crisis: Myths and Realities', The Sunday Mirror, 22 September 2002. 30 Yeros, 'Zimbabwe and the Dilemmas of the Left', p. 212. 31 Hammar, Raftopoulos and Jensen (eds), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business; P. Bond and J. Manyanya, Zimbabwe's Plunge: Exhausted Nationalism, Neoliberalism and the Search for Social Justice (Scottsville and London, University of Natal Press and Merlin Press, 2002). 32 S. Moyo and P. Yeros, 'Land Occupations and Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Towards the National Democratic Revolution in Zimbabwe', in S. Moyo and P. Yeros (eds), The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America (London, Zed Press, 2005), p. 166. For an interesting critique of this book and in particular the Moyo/Yeros chapter on land struggles in Zimbabwe, see K. Helliker's 'Review Essay' (unpublished mimeo, 2005). 33 B. Raftopoulos and I. Phimister, 'Zimbabwe Now: The Political Economy of Crisis and Coercion', Historical Materialism, 12, 4 (2004), pp. 355–82. 34 Amongst the many writings of Patrick Bond, see Bond and Manyanya, Zimbabwe's Plunge; P. Bond, Uneven Zimbabwe: A Study of Finance, Development and Underdevelopment (Trenton, NJ, Africa World Press, 1998); 'Bankrupt Africa: Imperialism, Sub-Imperialism and the Politics of Finance', Historical Materialism, 12, 4 (2004), pp. 145–72; 'US Empire and South African Sub-Imperialism', in L. Panitch and C. Leys (eds), Socialist Register (London, New York and Halifax, Merlin Press, 2005), pp. 218–38. See also D. McKinley, 'South African Policy towards Zimbabwe under Mbeki', Review of African Political Economy, 100 (2004), pp. 257–364. For a discussion of the new imperialism see D. Harvey, The New Imperialism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003). 35 D. Moore, 'Is the Land the Economy and the Economy the Land? Primitive Accumulation in Zimbabwe', Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19, 2 (2001), pp. 253–66; 'Zimbabwe's Triple Crisis: Primitive Accumulation, Nation-State Formation and Democratisation in the Age of Neo-Liberal Globalisation', African Studies Quarterly, 7, 2–3 (2003), pp. 35–47; 'The Second Age of the Third World: From Primitive Accumulation to Public Goods', Third World Quarterly, 25, 1 (2004), pp. 87–109. 36 D. Moore, 'Marxism and Marxist Intellectuals in Schizophrenic Zimbabwe: How Many Rights for Zimbabwe's Left?', Historical Materialism, 12, 4 (2004), pp. 405–25. L. Freeman, commenting on the Left debate in Zimbabwe, has also criticised the democratic deficit of the so-called progressive politics of the Zimbabwean state: '… the state in Zimbabwe, with its extreme abuse of human, civic and political rights, has operated in ways characteristic of a quasi-fascist state rather than a "socialist" state'. L. Freeman, 'Contradictory Constructions of the Crisis in Zimbabwe' (unpublished mimeo, 2005). For a useful Gramscian analysis of the crisis see S. Rich Dorman, 'NGOs and the Constitutional Debate in Zimbabwe: From Inclusion to Exclusion', Journal of Southern African Studies, 29, 4 (December 2003), pp. 845–63; also J. Saul and R. Saunders, 'Mugabe, Gramsci and Zimbabwe at 25', in D. Moore (ed.), Zimbabwe: Crisis and Transition (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2006, forthcoming). 37 R. Davies, 'Memories of Underdevelopment: A Personal Interpretation of Zimbabwe's Economic Decline', in B. Raftopoulos and T. Savage (eds), Zimbabwe: Injustice and Political Reconciliation (Cape Town and Harare, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and Weaver Press, 2005), pp. 19–42. 38 S. Hall, 'Gramsci's Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity', in D. Morley and K-H. Chen (eds), Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (London, Routledge, 1996), p. 419. 39 D.S. Moore, Suffering for Territory: Race, Space and Power in Zimbabwe (Harare and Durham, NC, Weaver and Duke University Press, 2005), p. 9. 40 N. Alexander, An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2002), p. 22. 41 T. Ranger, 'Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: The Struggle Over the Past in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern African Studies, 30, 2 (June 2004), pp. 215–34. 42 P. Gilroy, After Empire, Melancholia or Convivial Culture? (Abingdon, Routledge, 2004), p. 9. 43 F. Barchiesi, 'Class, Social Movements and the Transformation of the South African Left in the Crisis of "National Liberation"', Historical Materialism, 12, 4 (2004), pp. 327–53. 44 Z. Erasmus, 'Race and Identity in the Nation', in J. Daniel, R. Southall and J. Lutchman (eds), State of the Nation, South Africa 2004–2005 (Cape Town and Michigan, Human Sciences Research Council Press and Michigan State University, 2005), p. 30. 45 N. Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992); J. Nhongo-Simbanegavi, For Better or Worse? Women and ZANLA in Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle (Harare, Weaver Press, 2000); N. Bhebe and T. Ranger (eds), Soldiers and Zimbabwe's Liberation War, Volume 1 (Harare and London, University of Zimbabwe Press and James Currey, 1995); and with the same editors Society and Zimbabwe's Liberation War, Volume 2 (Harare and London, University of Zimbabwe and James Currey, 1995). 46 B. Raftopoulos and I. Phimister (eds), Keep on Knocking: A History of the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe 1990–1997 (Harare, Baobab Press, 1997); I. Phimister and B. Raftopoulos, '"Kana sora ratswa ngaritswe": African Nationalists and Black Workers – The 1948 General Strike in Colonial Zimbabwe', Journal of Historical Sociology, 13, 3 (September 2000), pp. 289–324; B. Raftopoulos and L. Sachikonye (eds), Striking Back: The State and the Labour Movement in Zimbabwe (Harare, Weaver Press, 2001); F.B. Schiphorst, 'Strength and Weakness: The Rise of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Development of Industrial Relations 1980–1995' (PhD thesis, University of Leiden, 2001). 47 T. Ranger (ed.), The Historical Dimensions of Democracy and Human Rights in Zimbabwe (Harare, University of Zimbabwe Press, 2003). 48 B. Raftopoulos and T. Yoshikuni (eds), Sites of Struggle: Essays in Zimbabwe's Urban History (Harare, Weaver Press, 1999); T. Barnes, 'We Women Worked So Hard': Gender, Urbanisation and Social Reproduction in Colonial Harare, 1930–1956 (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann, 1999); M. West, The Rise of the African Middle Class: Colonial Zimbabwe 1898–1965 (Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2002); T. Ranger, 'Urban Violence and the Colonial Experience: Bulawayo, Rhodesia, 1893–1960', Journal of Cultural Studies (forthcoming); also his 'Reclaiming the African City: The World and the Township' (lecture to be published by the Berlin Institute of Oriental Studies, 2005). 49 T. Ranger, Voices from the Rocks: Nature, Culture and History in the Motopos Hills of Zimbabwe (Oxford, James Currey, 1999); J. Alexander, J. McGregor and T. Ranger, Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the 'Dark Forests' of Matabeleland (Oxford, James Currey, 2000); K. Pohjolainen Yap, 'Uprooting the Weeds: Power, Violence, Ethnicity and Violence in the Matabeleland Conflict 1980–1987' (PhD thesis, University of Helsinki, 2001). 50 H. Dashwood, Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transformation (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2000); A.S. Mlambo, The Economic Structural Adjustment Programme: The Case of Zimbabwe (Harare, University of Zimbabwe Press, 1997); S. Moyo, Land Reform under Structural Adjustment: Land Use Change in the Mashonaland Provinces (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2000); H. Campbell, Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation (Cape Town, David Philip Publishers, 2003); C. Sylvester, Producing Women and Progress in Zimbabwe: Narratives of Identity and Work from the 1980s (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann, 2000); Hammar, Raftopoulos and Jensen, Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business; R. Saunders, Dancing Out of Tune: A History of Tune. A History of the Media in Zimbabwe (Harare, Brylee Printers, 1999); R. Saunders, Never the Same Again: Zimbabwe's Growth Towards Democracy (Harare, FES/OSISA, 2000). 51 J.-K. Seirlis, 'Coloureds, Space and Belonging in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, Part 1', Journal of Social Archaeology, 4, 3 (2004), pp. 405–27; also 'Undoing the United Front? Coloured Soldiers in Rhodesia 1939–1980', African Studies, 63, 1 (July 2004), pp. 73–94; J. Muzondidya, 'Towards an Historical Understanding of the Making of the Coloured Community in Zimbabwe, 1890–1920', Identity, Culture and Politics, 3, 1 (December 2002), pp. 73–97; also '"Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans": Invisible Subjects Minorities and the Quest for Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe', in Raftopoulos and Savage, Injustice and Political Reconciliation, pp. 213–35; K. Alexander, 'Orphans of Empire: An Analysis of Elements of White Identity and Ideology Construction in Zimbabwe', in Raftopoulos and Savage, Injustice and Political Reconciliation, pp. 193–212; A. Mlambo, 'Building a White Man's Country: Aspects of White Immigration into Rhodesia up to World War Two', Zambezia, 25, 2 (1998), pp. 1,233–46; A. Mlambo, 'Some are More White than Others: Racial Chauvinism as a Factor in Rhodesian Immigration Policy 1890–1963', Zambezia, 25, 2 (1998), pp. 139–60. 52 B. Rutherford, Working on the Margins: Black Workers, White Farmers in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe (Harare and London, Weaver Press and Zed Press, 2001); E. Worby, 'Tyranny, Parody, and Ethnic Polarity: Ritual Engagements with the State in Northwestern Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 3 (September 1998), pp. 337–54; also '"Discipline without Oppression": Sequence, Timing and Marginality in Southern Rhodesia's Post-War Development Regime', Journal of African History, 41, 1 (2000), pp. 101–25. For an interesting piece demonstrating the insights of postcolonial theory for African Studies see R. Abrahamsen, 'African Studies and the Post-Colonial Challenge', African Affairs, 102 (2003), pp. 189–210. 53 M. Neocosmos, 'The Construction of State Consensus in South Africa: Authoritarian Nationalism, the Depoliticisation of Politics and the Exclusion of Democratic Discourse' (paper presented at the International Conference on 'Re-conceptualising Democracy and Liberation in Southern Africa', 11–13 July 2002, Windhoek, Namibia), p. 35. 54 F. Cooper, 'Conflict and Connection: Rethinking Colonial African History', American Historical Review, 99, 5 (1994), p. 1,539; see also Cooper's 'Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians', African Historical Review, 3, 2 (1999), pp. 1–29. Together these two pieces present a brilliant review and revision of African historical trends and throw up important questions about the contemporary period. 55 For the use of such language in Southeast Asia, see G. Greenfield, 'Bandung REDUX: Imperialism and Anti-Globalisation Nationalisms in Southeast Asia', in Panitch and Leys, Socialist Register 2005, pp. 166–96. 56 T. Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (London, Verso, 2002); and Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq (London, Verso, 2004). 57 R. Rao, 'The Empire Writes Back (to Michael Ignatief)', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 33, 1 (2004), p. 145. See also I. Phimister and B. Raftopoulos, 'Mugabe, Mbeki and the Politics of Anti-Imperialism', Review of African Political Economy, 101, 31 (2004), pp. 385–400. 58 B. Nzimande, 'Towards an Alternative South African Developmental Path: Notes for Input to a Policy Workshop on Zimbabwe – An SACP Perspective' (paper presented at the launch of the Zimbabwe Institute, 27 February 2004, Johannesburg). 59 These remarks are quoted in T. Ranger's, 'The Uses and Abuses of History in Zimbabwe' (lecture given at the University of Uppsala, 24 May 2004). Mahoso's thinking draws heavily on I. Shivji's article, 'The Rise, the Fall and the Insurrection of Nationalism in Africa' (Centre for Civil Society, Report No. 12, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, 2004). In particular, Shivji observes: 'In sum, neo-liberal discourse and political rhetoric has served to debunk African nationalism on the one hand, and to rehabilitate imperialism on the other. The majority of intellectuals have pretty well accommodated mainstream thought. This includes former militant nationalists and socialist intellectuals', p. 9. 60 A. Nash, 'Third Worldism', African Sociological Review, 7, 1 (2003), pp. 104–5. 61 For one such trajectory see P. Blackledge, Perry Anderson, Marxism and the New Left (London, Merlin Press, 2004). 62 M. Neocosmos, 'Rethinking Politics Today: Elements of a Critique of Political Liberalism in Southern Africa', in Centre for Civil Society, From Local Processes to Global Forces (Research Reports, Volume 1, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, 2005). 63 J. Hyslop, 'The Notorious Syndicalist: Interview with Jonathan Hyslop', Wiser In Brief, 3, 1 (December 2004), p. 7. 64 A. Kamete, 'Contestable Nationalism: The Liberation Movement and Urban Constituencies in Zimbabwe' (paper presented at the 'Futures for Southern Africa' Symposium organised by CIIR, ICS, NAI, and SACBC, Windhoek, Namibia, 15–17 September 2003). 65 For various reports on Operation Murambatsvina (Remove the Filth) see: UNDP, 'Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to Assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina by the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe, Mrs Anna Kajamulo Tibaijuka' (Geneva, UN, 2005); Action Aid International, 'Zimbabwe Demolitions' (Johannesburg, AAI, 2005); Solidarity Peace Trust, 'Discarding The Filth: Operation Murambatsvina' (Johannesburg, Solidarity Peace Trust, 2005); Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, 'Zimbabwe: Facts or Fiction. An Audit of the Recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission of the African Commission for Human and People's Rights' (Harare, Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, 2005). See also the articles by A. Kamete and D. Potts in this issue. 66 B. Kinsey, 'Zimbabwe's Land Reform Programme: Underinvestment in Post-Conflict Transformation', World Development, 32, 10 (2004), pp. 1,669–96. Jeremy Cronin points out the importance of the informal sector and other township activities to the anti-apartheid struggle: 'The dense and intricate layer of township and squatter camp activities – spaza shops, shebeens, stokvels, minibus associations, church voluntarism, neighbourhood watches, sports clubs, choirs, etc – were in many respects the "social capital" that supported our liberation struggles. They were our equivalent of the scattered peasantry of the Sierra Maestra, or Yunan, or the hamlets of South East Asia. They continue to be an absolutely critical working class "reserve fund", shock absorbers, breathing space, insurance against retrenchments, casualisations, fluctuations in the Rand/Dollar etc.' Cronin's argument is related to his more general strategic question, namely, 'How does a modern working class, more or less wholly dependent on the capitalist market for its livelihood, sustain itself for a fairly protracted struggle?' J. Cronin, 'Towards a Marxist Approach to the Struggle for "Sustainable livelihoods"' (unpublished mimeo, 2005). 67 Gillian Hart has suggested 'the need to de-link the land question from agriculture and from individual restitution claims, and to re-articulate it in terms of racialised dispossession as an ongoing process … this move extends the definition of the social wage beyond employment-based entitlements or even conventional social policy to insist on basic social security grounded in citizenship rights'. G. Hart, 'Denaturalising Dispossession: Critical Ethnography in the Age of Resurgent Imperialism', in Centre for Civil Society, From Local Processes to Global Forces, p. 17. 68 E. Masunugure, 'Travails of Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe Since Independence', in D. Harold-Barry (ed.), Zimbabwe: The Past is the Future (Harare, Weaver, 2004), pp. 147–92; L. Laakso, 'Where Elections are Just a Formality: Rural–Urban Dynamics in the Dominant Party System in Zimbabwe', in M. Cowens and L. Laakso (eds), Multi-Party Elections in Africa (Oxford and New York, James Currey and Palgrave, 2002), pp. 325–45. 69 Moore, 'The Contradictory Construction of Hegemony in Zimbabwe', p. 223. Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrian Raftopoulos This article was first presented as a Public Lecture at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, on 23 June 2005. I am grateful to Patrick Bond and David Moore for their joint invitation to present the lecture and for their comments on the article. I also received valuable input from other scholars who attended the event, including Norma Kriger, Blair Rutherford, Bill Freund and Gillian Hart. Jeremy Cronin made some useful theoretical observations on the text and provided me with two working papers of his own thinking on some of the theoretical and political problems facing the South African Left. Linda Freeman and Kirk Helliker sent me their insightful reviews of the Left debate in Zimbabwe. Finally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of JSAS for their helpful comments and suggestions.