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Reds and Rights Zimbabwe’s Experiment*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Richard L. Sklar
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Extract

In this day and age, Marxism-Leninism is the leading and least parochial theory of social revolution in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It strongly appeals to intellectuals who believe that capitalist imperialism in “neocolonial” forms perpetuates social injustice on a world scale; and that a “conscious minority’ ‘ or vanguard of the downtrodden should establish a “developmental dictatorship” dedicated to the pursuit of economic and social progress. Since the death of Mao Zedong and the subsequent repudiation of his economic theories in China, collectivism as an economic strategy has been reassessed and found wanting in other countries whose leaders are disposed to learn from China. For example, in the People’s Republic of the Congo, where collectivist methods, inspired by Marxism-Leninism have been discarded in favor of entrepreneurial methods, the minister of agriculture has said simply, “Marxism without revenue is Marxism without a future.”

Type
Insight
Information
African Issues , Volume 14 , 1985 , pp. 29 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1985 

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Footnotes

Page no 29 note *

The author wishes to thank Leslie Rubin for his encouragement and critique.

References

Notes

1. Gregor, A. James, Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

2. Orville Schell, “A Reporter At Large: The Wind of Wanting to Go it . Alone,” The New Yorker, January 23, 1984, pp. 43-85.

3. Justine De Lacy, “The Congo: Western Investors Now Welcome,” The Atlantic, January 1984, p. 28.

4. Report of the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, January 1984, p. 88.

5. Mugabe, Robert, “The Construction of Scientific Socialism in Zimbabwe,” The Herald (Harare), July 10, 1984.Google Scholar

6. I am indebted to Dr. John Hatchard of the University of Zimbabwe School of Law, who made copies of judgments involving constitutional rights and detentions under the Emergency Powers Act available to me together with his guidance. His professional study of those judgments, rendered by the Zimbabwe High and Supreme Courts, is in progress.

7. HC-H-313-83 (mimeographed).

8. 384 U.S. 436: 1966.

9. Constitution of Zimbabwe, Schedule 2, Section 2.

10. Bickle and Others v Minister of Home Affairs, High Court of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 1983 (mimeographed); Minister of Home Affairs v Bickle and Others, Zimbabwe Supreme Court 1984 (2) 439.Google Scholar

11. Author’s notes on Bickle and Others v Minister of Home Affairs, p. 18 (mimeographed).

12. ZSC 1984 (2): 450-451.

13. Granger v The Minister of State, Judgment No. S.C. 83/84, Application No. 25/84 (mimeographed).

14. Constitution of Zimbabwe, Section 13 (5).

15. Africa Confidential 25 (8), 11 April 1984: Manchester Guardian Weekly, May 20,, 1984, pp. 8-9.

16. Legum, Colin, “Southern Africa: The Road to and from Lancaster House,” Africa Contemporary Record 12, 1979-80 (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1981), pp. A10–12.Google Scholar