The politics of loyalty (and investing in hope)

Young Fabian International Officer, Adrian Prandle, looks at the democratic struggle in Zimbabwe on the ACTSA youth delegation to southern Africa.

Meeting with Munjodzi Mutandiri, an activist in the MDC who works at the Johannesburg desk of the NCA, a pressure group  fighting for a democratic constitution in Zimbabwe, and Chiedza Gadzirayi, International Relations Secretary of ZINASU, the Zimbabwe National Students Union, gave an enlightening insight into the state of affairs in Zimbabwe since Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC entered the government.

Loyalty to political leadership is a fascinating topic (this isn’t going to be about Gordon Brown and his Cabinet by the way). There were some very direct parallels between the attitudes of these two passionate young Zimbabweans and those in Labour’s youth movements here – Young Fabians included. Though of course fighting our campaigns in the UK doesn’t result in you being a political prisoner in jails unchanged since the colonial 70s, sharing space with real criminals, as Chiedza had devastatingly experienced. Does loyalty to leaders, structures and hierarchies, and the institution itself (Labour and the MDC in this case) help young people in getting their views on the agenda? Or does it simply merge them into the status quo, stymieing their healthy radicalism and innovation? Does such loyalty help or hinder political careers? And at what stage should young people have the confidence to stand up and say this isn’t working?

In terms of the Labour movement in the UK, perhaps the least contentious question to deal with is that of political careers. This is a generalisation, but I think it is fair to say that within Labour’s youth movements, loyalty to leadership and policy is more likely to get you up and running, and as such is practised more than it is rejected.

I have no reason to think that the views of Chiedza and Munjodzi were career-oriented and every reason to think they were passionate for their cause(s). However, something is causing a difficult contradiction in the story they tell of Zimbabwe in 2009.

It’s a story of ZINASU’s relationship with the MDC – for whom they had actively campaigned – breaking down as the MDC became effectively a ruling party and the subsequent vacuum in ZINASU’s position on the party and the new government. As they make little ground in their campaign for the reinstatement of students expelled from university for political reasons and their push for measures that will lead to the reopening of the 29 of Zimbabwe’s universities (about two thirds of the total) that are closed, Chiedza tells of a ‘relationship really turned sour’ with the MDC.

The Education ministry is one still controlled by a ZANU PF minister reluctant to engage. And there is understanding but frustration that Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s hands are basically tied with no money in the economy and Robert Mugabe retaining greater power and a bullying approach to the new members of the government. But at the same time, relationships with civil society are already ‘very strained’, says Munjodzi. There are criticisms that Tsvangirai is betraying certain values and showing too much willing to defend Mugabe. Despite a background in the unions and in campaigning on constitutional reform, he is not living up to expectations.

Nevertheless, both comrades were clear that they still had confidence in Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of the democratic cause and a firm belief that MDC Congress would vote him out of office if it came to the point where such action was necessary.

I’m less sure. But when your struggle has got this far, it is no surprise that an investment in hope finds its way to the forefront and the question of when to stand up and say ‘this isn’t working’ is left for another day.