Zimbabwe: Police Violence against Peaceful Demonstration
Brutal suppression of the MDC Alliance organized demonstration held on 16th August
Brief report by Daud Sibanda, Correspondent in Zimbabwe, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 26 August 2019, www.thecommunists.net
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, organised a national demonstration in Harare on 16 August. It started in the late hours of the morning, and saw quite a significant handful number of participants.
They marched towards Africa Unity square where they were greeted by an intimidating heavy police presence. However, the marchers were not deterred, thus they pushed forward and the police pushed them back. The police seeing the resilience of the demonstrators decided to use force to disperse and kill the demonstration. This is where we then see the police force brutalizing the unarmed nonviolent demonstrators.
This is the sad story of Zimbabwe being written by the repressive neoliberal comprador regime. Unfortunately it’s a story of two tales of brutality on the one side and exploitation on the other side, by people with the same personal agenda, being pushed from different fronts.
Shamefully, the government not only suppressed the demonstration but also slandered the participants. Government Spokesperson Ndavaningi Nick Mangwana denounced the demonstration as “August 16 Protests Were Acts of Insurgency and Banditry”. The state is viewing any form of descent as a threat to security hypothetically speaking but in actual terms it’s a threat to their continued hegemony and hold to power.
It is important for the workers and youth in Zimbabwe to organize independently and to fight for a socialist future – without neoliberal governments and imperialist super-exploitation!
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We would like to draw the reader’s attention to a number of statements and articles which the RCIT has published on Zimbabwe in the last period:
Daud Sibanda: Zimbabwe: Neoliberal Austerity means Misery for the Popular Masses, 25 July 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/zimbabwe-neoliberal-austerity-means-misery-for-popular-masses/
Daud Sibanda: Zimbabwe: The Economic and Political Situation after the Ouster of Mugabe, 23 April 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/zimbabwe-the-economic-and-political-situation-after-the-ouster-of-mugabe/
Enddy Ziyera: Zimbabwe: The Cyclone Idai and the Clueless Government, 25 March 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/zimbabwe-and-the-cyclone-idai/
Enddy Ziyera: On the Current Situation in Zimbabwe, 08 February 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/current-situation-in-zimbabwe/
Zimbabwe: Stop the Repression! Neither ZANU-PF nor MDC – for an independent political alternative of the workers and oppressed! 4 August 2018, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/stop-the-repression-in-zimbabwe/
The Military Coup in Zimbabwe and the Role of Chinese Imperialism, 29 November 2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/the-military-coup-in-zimbabwe-and-the-role-of-chinese-imperialism/
The Current Political Crisis in Zimbabwe and the Slogan of the Revolutionary Constituent Assembly, 24 November 2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/crisis-in-zimbabwe-and-the-slogan-of-the-revolutionary-constituent-assembly/
Zimbabwe: The Fall of Mugabe – Victory for the Masses or for the Military-ZANU-PF Alliance? 22.11.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/zimbabwe-after-the-resignation-of-mugabe/
Zimbabwe: Down with the Military Coup! No to the dynastic Mugabe Regime! For Independent Workers’ and Poor Mobilisations! For Action Committees of the Workers, Poor Peasants and Soldiers to Advance the Struggle against All Factions of the Ruling Elite! 15.11.2017, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/against-mugabe-and-military-coup-in-zimbabwe/