26 March 2007: Opposition picks up in Zimbabwe

Protests have recently become much more visible in Harare, in advance of the general strike which is due to take place on April 3-4. For those who know little of the country's politics, one of the facts I find remarkable about Zimbabwe is the extent to which the national resistance is the product of a tiny handful of key leaders almost all of whom (with the notable exception of Morgan Tsvangirai) were, by the end of the 1980s, Marxists, or influenced by a particular trend of thought within British Marxism. I've written previously about the International Socialist Organisation, which despite its few numbers is one of the most remarkable left-wing parties in the world. Among its former members and fellow-travellers are a remarkable number of the leaders of the MDC left: not least Arthur Mutambara, Lovemore Madhuku and Tendai Biti. 

Some of the history is told here and here. I've also written about ISO Zimbabwe here.  

19 December 2006: coverage of London / Zim protest
From YouTube: here and here.

From NCADC: 24th Day of Hunger Strike by Zimbabwean women

November 12 2005: Prisoners freed, detentions continue

Good news and bad news in equal measure: the arrested trade unionists held in Harare have now all been released. Mlamleli Sibanda from the ZTUC has sent out a victory message as follows, 'We cherish the support we got from all over the world. We also greatly appreciate the pressure you put on Zimbabwe Government, through protest letters and solidarity messages during these four difficult days.' Tafadzwa from the ISO writes: 'l would want to thank all those who phoned and sent faxes to the police putting pressure for the comrades to be released - thank you for your solidarity.  The struggle is not yet over -  prices continue to rise the price of bread is going to double next week.  Inflation is now at 411%.' 

More worrying are the stories of what's happening to refugee Zimbabweans detained in prisons holding centres by the government here. A new article from the Institute of Race Relations backs up claims that I have made, that the government has been trying to overturn a series of legal defeats by falsely reclassifying Zimbabweans as South Africans. 'Home Office officials are choosing not to investigate false passports used by individuals to gain entry into the UK and are refusing to accept evidence, including birth certificates, which proves that the asylum seekers are in fact Zimbabwean, in order to get around the ban.' More background on both stories here. 

8 November 2005: Arrests in Harare

Several reports from Zimbabwe describe a number of arrests today: one talks of demonstrators being removed by the truckload. The BBC suggests that the regime's target was trade union protesters. Another source reports the arrest of Aaron Dhliwayo, John Bomba and Munyaradzi Gwisai, members of the International Socialist Organisation and participants in the recent Southern African Social Forum in Harare. South African unions have condemned the arrests. As far as I can tell, activists are still being held at Harare Central Police Station. The phone number for Harare Central Police Station for protest calls is +263-(0)4-777777, 721212, 736931, 725803. Fax +263-(0)4-771420. Any messages of protest would be extremely helpful. The story shows up again the cowardice of our government, in denying that any refugees could be genuine, and in sending back activists to arrest or worse in Zimbabwe.

4 November 2005: Seven Zimbabweans on hunger strike

I recently received a message from the United Network of Detained Zimbabweans announcing that seven Zimbabweans are currently on hunger strike, while being detained at asylum centres in Britain. 

The government feels that it can justify this policy by claiming that these Zimbabweans are in fact refugees from South Africa living in Britain on utter pretence. Of course, when the authorities have claimed this before, they have been shown to have been lying. 

More to the point, the policy breaches the instruction of the High Court that detained Zimbabwean nationals should be released. Noble Siwanda writes, 'The United Network of Detained Zimbabweans feel that the continual detention of fellow Zimbabwean detainees is infringing against their human rights. The average detention period of detainees is seven months. These women and men have been detained for a very long time.' 

Details of how to affiliate to the campaign are at the bottom of the page.

14 October 2005: Victory again

'A horse and cart has been driven through the government's refugee policy'. That, according to the BBC, has been the response of government ministers to the news of another defeat today, with the Immigration Appeal Tribunal ruling that subjecting Zimbabean asylum seekers to deportation meant subjecting them to 'the real risk of serious harm'. 

You couldn't imagine a clearer defeat to a nastier policy. Good coverage also on the Guardian of the story.

12 October 2005: latest from Zimbabwe detainees campaign

The court case is due on Friday. In the meantime, there have been a number of good reports in the press, including ones here and here.

8 October 2005: more from UNDZUK

Another Zimbabwean detainee, better known as T who was detained in Colnbrook near Heathrow has now been cheated away into the Airport. The immigration Tribunal was sitting this week  for 3 days to decide if it was safe to return any failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe. The decision will be delivered next Friday.
 
But the Home Office is doing a lot of backdoor deportation back to Zimbabwe as T is booked on BA153 at 19:45hrs from London to Harare tonight October 8. This is a notorius, clanderstine and underhand way of dealing with  other people`s lives.
 
T is now at the airport terrified to a fate that is waiting for him in Harare.
 
Noble
UNDZ COMMUNICATION 

5 October 2005: Deported to Mugabe

From: United Network of Detained Zimbabweans (UNDZ)
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 12:17 AM  
Subject: Home Office make a mistake

The Home Office is secretly deporting a failed Zimbabwean asylum
seeker currently held in Harmondsworth detention centre in Heathrow on the eve of a 3 day immigration tribunal hearing that is taking place on the
5th, 6th & 7th October of this week at Field House off Chancery Lane in
London to map out an up to date Zimbabwe country guidance.

Daniel Magobeya from Harare's Eastley is booked on a Kenyan airways
KQ426/KQ426 leaving london Heathrow at 20.00 hours via Nairobi on the 4th Tuesday October.

Daniel came to England on a Zimbabwean Passport and has never used any
alien passport, finds himself without legal presentation and facing
deportation from England tomorrow evening even though the Home Office
has since given a written statement at the High Court that they would
not deport anyone to Zimbabwe until after the test case tribunal hearing
this week take place. How ever they haves uddenly decided that it was an
indeed a good idea just to sign a death warrant for Daniel who is so
terrified by his fate and that why is he the only Zimbabwean Passport
holder currently detained and  facing imminent removal from England to
his demise.
regards

UNDZ COMMUNICATION
Noble Sibanda

5 October 2005: pictures from last Saturday's protest

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/news/2005/Oct05/curr1005_1.htm

2 October 2005: latest on Zimbabwean refugees

It's sad that this coincides with the much more positive news of plans for the next Southern Africa Social Forum in October, but to follow up a story I've mentioned before: the British government decided this spring to resume deportations of 'failed asylum seekers' back to Zimbabwe. 
A number of groups have raised their concerns, including Refugee Action, the lecturers' union NATFHE and most importantly the Zimbabwean refugee campaign UNDZU-UK. When the government here has made so much of Mugabe's violence and contempt for democracy, it is sickening to find the same ministers doing a deal with ZANU-PF to allow democracy activists to be sent back to jail - or worse. 

Back in August a judge ruled that given the likelihood of detainees suffering arrest on their return, such deportations could be an abuse of human rights. The deportations were then halted - with decisions on individual cases to be taken back to the immigration tribunal this week (October 3-5). There was a demonstration yesterday of about 80 people outside Zimbabwe House, on the Strand, members of the above groups, plus a large showing from the MDC and one MP, Kate Hoey. There will be further demonstrations this week outside the court. If the cases go badly, then deportations could resume this week.

30 September 2005: new Zimbabwe blog 

Congratulations to friends in ISO Zimbabwe for launching their new blog. ISO Zim are a small group, but what they say is important. They are opposed to Mugabe and many of their activists have been tortured by ZANU(PF), but they don't give any concessions to the idea of a British recolonisation of Zimbabwe. As a result, they are more reliable than many other sources, in their analysis of what's taking place. 

I shared a platform at a conference last week with two speakers who both claimed that Mugabe had killed 'hundreds of thousands' of people this spring. But the population of Harare is 1.2 million: to clear 500,000 people from the city (another common estimate), Mugabe would have had to lose half his capital, which he has not done. If you don't understand the banality of Mugabe's dictatorship, then it is hard to explain why there has not been even greater anger against him. People fill that gap by creating wild, uncheckable stories, which feed into further despair. 

ISO Zim are unconditional militants: they believe that the people of Zimbabwe can themselves remove their tyrants. Their reports are more accurate because they sense that the workers' movement can only grow if it can judge accurately its tasks.

August 15 2005: new on the site

For people who want to read more about the Zimbabwe story, the following links may be interesting.

Asylum seekers win fresh hearing:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ed86a30a-054d-11da-97da-00000e2511c8.html
 
Zimbabweans allowed to stay in 'safe' country policy review:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1543150,00.html

Zimbabwe deportations remain freezed:

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/asylumbrit36.12941.html
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040805/asylum040805.htm

August 4 2005: Zimbabwean detainees win at High Court