It is reported that many peasants\nat the moment are feeling there has been an improvement in their life. Most are\nloyal to the ruling party, and the squatter movement is very quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a class the peasants have all\nthe problems of putting forward their common interests when they are scattered and\nunorganised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it is not at all ruled out\nthat there can be a movement of the peasants in the future. This is inevitable\nin fact because of the international capitalist crisis which is deepening the\nexploitation of the former colonial world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ironically, the fact of good\nrains and a better harvest is not a guarantee of peasant docility. On the\ncontrary, we can expect increased demands for land from peasants who up to now\nhave not been able to work more land because of the drought or poor financial\nsupport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Increasingly, this layer of the\npeasantry (a middle peasant rather than a genuine kulak or ‘rich peasant’\nclass) will find its advance being cut off by party bureaucrats and the rising\nblack land-owners well supported by the banks and monopolies\u2014termed the ‘telephone\nfarmers’ by the press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The struggle for the land will\nsoon expose these elements and open up splits between the rank and file and the\nZANU(PF) leadership. The huge inequalities on the land have yet to be tackled.\nUp to the present only some 35,000 families out of over 350,000 needing land\nhave been resettled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the government states\nthat resettlement is a top priority, more money has been spent on the Sheraton\nHotel alone than on resettlement in the whole 5 years since independence!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The capitalist farmers still have\nthe use of 71% of the very best land, while the communal farmers have only 13%.\nThere is explosive population pressure on 40% of the communal lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is estimated that by the year\n2000 the number of people in communal areas will have doubled\u2014 a fact which\nshows how out-of-date the targets for resettlement are becoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In these areas there is general\nlandlessness among young families, and a high proportion of the peasants do not\nhave any cattle or sufficient draught animals to plough. Increasingly they are\ndependent on the income of migrant workers in the urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the rural areas there has been\na considerable development of the co-operative movement despite peasant suspicion\nthat co-operatives were to substitute for more generous land allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the co-operatives which are\nprojected by the party leadership as the solution to all problems and the way\nforward to socialism complain they do not get the state support they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A disproportionate amount of\nstate finance goes to the capitalist and ’emergent’ black farmers who are being\nhelped to buy big farms. In 1984, for example, $49,2m was granted to 88,000\npeasant farmers while 1,400 capitalist farmers were granted $115m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1980 it was reported that the\npeasants could not understand why the workers had taken to the road of mass\nstrikes. In the years to come, the high prices of consumer goods and general\nshortages will bring a greater understanding of the capitalist crisis to the\npeasantry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, in turn, will provide the\nbasis for the coming together of the movement of the peasants and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking up the problems and demands of the peasantry, the organised workers will be able to win increasing peasant support in the battles ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n