I WANT TO SAY TO THE The Cold War and AME ICAN PEOPLE THAT I RESPECT THEM•.• I SAY THIS Southern Africa WHOLEHEARTEDLY JOSIAH TONGOGA A Chi Ii Z NU MINISTE OF DEFENSE Zimb The West is worried about "Communist domina­ tion" in our liberation truggle. Imagine that you are a goat and that a hyena has you by the leg. The hyena is not killing you, he is just slowly sucking your blood while allowing you to live and pre' ~uce off-spring whose blood he can al 0 suck. Then in the distance a lion roars. The hyena is tart ed and warn you: "That lion is dangerous; don't let him get near." But how doyou know that lion won't eat the hyena instead of eating you? Joshua Nkomo Co-leader, Patriotic Front We are not a creation of the Soviet Union or Cuba: we are a creation of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe Co-Leader, Patriotic Front As Americans, we are from a very early age fed the NTA DAY WITHOUT ST UGGLE bitter stuff of anti-communism as a preventative for "bad citizenship." It has helped to shape our opin­ NOT AN HOUR WITHOUT ions. In the 1920's anti-communist sentiment was THE MOVEMEN. T used to whip the country into a fever pitch. After OT A MINUTE WITHOUT THE PEOPLE World War II "red-:-baiting" was widespread as politi­ cians destroyed their enemjes with innuendos ?tnd J. Z. MOYO Mr. Dulles coined the phrase "the cold war." Now, in ZAPU VICE-P ESIDENT the era of decoionization and struggles for liberation, KILLED JANUA Y 22, 1977 policy-makers still reach back into the collective American psyche and rattle people's fear of commu­ A dditional copies ofthis pamphlet are available from nism. the Washington Office on Africa for 15C each for 1­ If we begin to understand that our anxieties are 10, 1DC each for 11 -50, 5 C each for over 50 copies being exploited, and that what we are told about polit­ (add 20% for postage). ical struggles in foreign countries is often more myth WASHINGTON OFFICE ON AFRICA than reality, then we can form new views based on 110 Maryland Ave., N.E. new assessments of the facts. Washington, D.C. 20002 Foreign policy based on US-Soviet competition (202) 546-7961 warps our concept of national interests and allies us with governments with which we would not other­ pression of freedom. It will also guarantee that wise associate. the Soviets will have complete control of the With the end of the Vietnam war and the growth of heartiand of Africa ... detente, it seems that the 1960s of peaceful co­ -Senator Jesse Helms, June 26, 1978 existence was easing the tensions between world giants and even fostering mutual cooperation in some areas. The illusion was short-lived. With the liberation of the Portuguese colonies, Kissinger launched a vigorous US effort to "save" another con­ tinent from communism. Joe McCarthy's ghost cast another chill across the world. The cold warrior had returned. Enter the Cold Warrior The cold warrior is appearing at many levels of government and public life, under both national party affiliations. Simplifying issues to the common de­ nominator of communism, the cold warrior believes in the naivete of the "Iesser races" and th~ir suscep­ tibility to being led down communism's primrose path. The call to liberation and self-determination is proof that another "1 ittle brown brother" has been irredeemably corrupted. Cold warriors have always found shelter in the halls of Congress. Their view of Africa in the 1970s was shown by the penalties Congress imposed on the former Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola for liberating themselves. The Shaba crisis in Congress and the Administration May, 1978 underlined Congress' and the Adminis­ The Right was pleased with its ability to get Con­ tration's willingness to back greed and corruption gressional moderates to frame the Case-Javits while refusing to support states dedicated to meeting amendment which helped legitimize the internal set­ the basic needs of their people. The same trend is tlement. 1978 was a good year for them. now taking hold as the people of Zimbabwe struggle Right wing success has been due in part to a White against a regime that the world community has House foreign policy preoccupied with east-west denounced as racist and illegal. issues. Rather than dealing with the Patriotic Front The Rhodesians have made political hay from this on its own terms, the Administration has tried to cold war psychosis. Any package carrying the labels divide it and woo it from socialist states. The Admin­ "democratic," "majority" or "mixed" wins wides­ istration has tried to persuade Nkomo to join the pread Congressional approval; few look inside. And Smith government. Recent New York Times articles the right wing has been eager to sell the American suggest that the Administration may now be promot­ people a bill of goods: ing Robert Mugabe as the man for Smith to strike a ... The Patriotic Front has a position of power .. deal with. because of the massive support which Nkomo The Administration has been far from consistent. and M ugabe are receiving from the Soviets, the As Edgar Tekere, Secretary General of ZANU, put it: Cubans and the Chinese ... The inclusion of the The Anglo-Americans came up with another Patriotic Front ... will guarantee the establish­ proposal. .. in fact amending the Anglo­ ment of a militaristic police state and the sup- American proposal. [Option 8] says no elec- tions before indepdendence What puzzles Zimbabwe: What is the Liberation us was the thinking behind it After everyone Movement? had said "yes" to elections, then Whitehall The Western powers, including America, said no, says you need not have elections. This raises they could not support violence. Yet they had sup­ suspicions. What is the intention of such a ported violence in suppressing us; they had pro­ proposal? vided military assistance to hold us down! Even publications with liberal reputations often Joshua Nkomo reflect an uncritical conservative bias in their report­ ing on Rhodesia. For example, New York Times cor­ My name means "we just stay even if there are dif­ respondent John Burns recently reported that the Air ficulties. " Rhodesia plane recently downed had passed over Joshua Tongogara Urumga tribal trust land where guerillas "move clan­ ZANU Defense Mi~ister destinely from one cluster of thatched huts to The decision for war was not a choice made by the another, terrorizing the black population." people of Zimbabwe-it was a choice that Ian Smith Inaccurate reports such as these reflect economic made for them. Before the Unilateral Declaration of interests. US and other western corporations have Independence (UDI) and for seven years after it, Zim­ large investments in South Africa that are highly babweans sought peaceful change. There were boy­ profi~able. Its minerals are regarded as "strategic." A cotts, strikes and demonstrations-all in the strictest Zimbabwe that nationalized mines and industries in Ghandian tradition. Their only resu It was more the people's interest could be a model and a base for oppression, mo're death, and the jailing of many lead­ change in South Africa too, that would cost multina­ ers including Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. tional companies a lot even if it benefitted the major­ In February 1959, the African National Congress of ity. It's no surprise then that corporate media and Zimbabwe was banned and its leaders detained. Its many politicians paint a scarey picture of the great successors, ZAPU and ZANU, were similarly dealt communist takeover. with. Massive demonstrations were massively re­ There's no need to deny that some members of the pressed by arrests and violence. The belief grew that Patriotic Front, including ZANU leader Robert Mu­ a solely non-violent strategy was counter-productive. gabe, describe themselves as Marxists; they make no Robert Mugabe described the transition to the next apologies for this. But look at their situation for a phase this way: moment the way they do, and it becomes clear that Where people have pursued their struggle for the liberation forces are struggling for the same liberation firstly through non-violence, by ideals that Americans cherish. The people of Zim­ appealing to the powers that be to improve their babwe are determined to be masters of their own lot and bring about change that would ·satisfy destiny. the majority [there was no result. So the strug­ African liberation struggles go through various gle] assumed some measure of violence which stages in the Western media. First they are consi­ was aimed at the destruction of property ... The dered the work of a small group of radical malcont­ violence was not aimed at individuals. ents. Then they are a Communist-backed move­ At the time of UDI in 1965, Britain refused to inter­ ment-never mind that Communists were the only vene militarily to bring about the majority rule it said ones to offer backing-which will destroy the it favored. Instead it sought sanctions which the West country's wealth (obviously they can't destroy then broke with a high hand. The West's hypocrisy democracy, since it doesn't exist under white rule). and Smith's intransigence lit the bomb of guerilla Then, curiously, they become a tribal force. This war which began in earnest in 1972. The people of last media stage is a signal that the policy-makers Zimbabwe do not like violence, but violence was who brief journalists have concluded that the forced upon them. cause of white rule is lost and the only hope for a It was then we decided to go a step further and pro-Western government lies in building up a organize armed struggle ..