Debating Zimbabwe's Land Reform - book review

DEBATING ZIMBABWE’S LAND REFORM book review 

Ian Scoones 

In 1968, Malcolm Rifkind, then a postgraduate student, wrote in his thesis on Land in Rhodesia: “Land is a burning issue for Africans but not for Europeans….but a settlement opposed by 95% of the population cannot be declared to be final.” In 1980, Rifkind was the Foreign Secretary when Rhodesia became newly independent Zimbabwe. 

The land question remained in place until 2000 when war veterans led the invasion of Zimbabwe’s commercial farming sector. According to the international media this simply led to chaos, destruction and violence with the only winners being the cronies of Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party.

Sussex University Professor Ian Scoones offers a more considered appraisal in a book based on the influential www.zimbabweland.wordpress.com blog. Scoones has worked in Zimbabwe for over 25 years and thirteen years research in 16 land reform sites and 400 households in the Masvingo province underpin his latest work. He found that 5% of the beneficiaries of the land grab reforms were cronies. This was ten times less than the internationally quoted ZimOnline figure of 50% and for which no data has ever been released.

The changes since 2000 have been significant. Ten million hectares has been formally transferred from 6,000 mainly white farmers into the hands of 175,000 households minimum with possibly similar numbers on ‘informal’ settlements. These small and medium sized farms are experiencing mixed results with those harvesting cotton, sugar and tobacco doing well whilst production of wheat, coffee and tea has declined. 

Scoones identifies half the farmers as being able to generate surpluses and schools have been built, new roads constructed and dams dug. The economic development generated has meant further small scale employment in the supply of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. 

Nevertheless, international sanctions are restricting aid to farmers who are desperate for investment and finance and for new infrastructural developments of which the most urgent are clean water projects. Many more schools are also required to help raise educational levels. Scoones believes efforts by the likes of the UK to restrict economic recovery ultimately stymies democratic renewal as it makes it easier for Mugabe to manipulate the political process. 

Scoones provides examples of where land redistribution has radically improved the circumstances of the dispossessed rural and urban populations in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam but only when there has been sustained state support and investment. Zimbabwe though is bankrupt and faces compensation claims by removed white farmers. Nevertheless, change is coming and 95% of Zimbabweans last year voted through a new constitution. Farmers’ organisations have emerged from a sector they now control and Scoones believes that with “support and commitment from outside, these new farmers can drive forward a vibrant agricultural revolution in Zimbabwe.” 

Buildings of the labour movement book review

Buildings of the labour movement 

Nick Mansfield 

Foreword by Tony Benn 

Published by English Heritage 

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/buildings-labour-movement/

Interest in labour movement buildings has grown in recent years. This excellent book, written by the former director of the People’s History Museum in Manchester, is to be commended for bringing alive the built culture of the oldest labour movement in the world.

Although too many buildings have been lost over the years, there remains a range of communal buildings of the early 19th-century political radicals, Owenites and Chartists, through Arts and Crafts influenced socialist structures of the late nineteenth century. There are chapters associated with the hidden history of radical ex-servicemen, rural buildings such as the Burston Strike School and clubhouses of idealistic socialist cyclists. Buildings associated with key labour history events such as the Manchester Mechanics Institute, the birthplace of the TUC in 1855, are also included along with an outline of recent struggles to preserve buildings that stand as powerful symbols of a better future and working-class heroism. 

In the foreword, the late Tony Benn, wrote: ‘Though many buildings have been lost over the years, the book outlines the recent struggle for their preservation, and details many that can still be visited. The rich photographic records of the English Heritage Archive have been used to help trace some of what has been lost, and English Heritage should be congratulated for supporting this record of labour movement buildings. I am delighted to champion the project.’ 

Female Union Society, Holcombe Brook, Ramsbottom

In the second decade of the nineteenth century, a lack of suffrage (more than half of all MPs were elected by just 154 votes) and the poor economic conditions that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 combined to create a mass movement that demanded reform of parliamentary representation. On 16 August 1819 at St Peter’s Field, Manchester a cavalry charge resulted in the deaths of 15 demonstrators from amongst a crowd estimated at between sixty and eighty thousand. The massacre was to become known as Peterloo, an ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.

Amongst the crowd were many women. Nevertheless, radical policy at this period was generally to press for universal male suffrage. Some female campaigners were not content and organised Female Union Societies to demand a vote for all, male and female. Many societies were established in the North-West of England industrialised cotton towns, including at Holcombe Brook, Ramsbottom, just north of Bury. 

An inscribed stone at a cottage in Holcombe Brook is the only surviving evidence of this particular women’s organisation. 

Horse deaths on course rising

Taken from the current edition of the Big Issue in the North magazine, please buy a copy when you see a seller. 

The horseracing industry has denied claims by a leading animal welfare organisation that it is failing to keep horse fatalities to a minimum.

Horseracing combines three sectors – sport, betting and the rural economy. The industry is second only to football in terms of attendances, jobs supported, tax contribution and capital investment. However, each year, hundreds of horses are killed competing in races that vary widely in format and can include hurdles.

 Animal Aid campaigns against horseracing deaths. The organisation wants the Grand National at Aintree banned, arguing that “it is a deliberately hazardous race”.

In March, Animal Aid recorded 22 horses being killed. Two were killed at Sedgefield and two at Newcastle on the same day. The total death rate was four times higher than in March 2013, when five horses died.

Animal Aid recorded a total of 445 deaths in the three years from January 2010. A parliamentary question last year revealed the true figure was 617, with over 70 per cent dying jumping in races with fences and ditches.

‘Rising costs’

Animal Aid horse racing consultant Dene Stansall said: “Horses are being over- stretched, especially during jump races. The situation is worsening because horses are being rushed to race at an early age due to the rising costs of keeping them.

“Owners hope to recoup some funds by winning races. When the majority of horses don’t succeed they can end up going to abattoirs or being fed to hunting hounds. Only a few hundred horses from amongst 7,000 are retrained annually.

“We want the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to admit there is a problem, then do a proper course assessment on each death and afterwards adopt best practice. Why are there fewer deaths at Hexham than Cheltenham? It is because races at the latter present horses with a challenge that is harsh and unnatural.

“If the industry won’t tackle the problem the Government should introduce an independent regulator – someone who understands the industry but has no vested interest in maintaining its current practices that are killing horses.”

Animal Aid wants the British Horseracing Authority, the regulatory body for horse racing, to publish the on-course death toll on an ongoing basis and explain why the March 2014 death rate was significantly higher than the previous year. Animal Aid would also like the numbers on racehorse fatalities during training to be collected, which does not currently happen.

Robin Mounsey, BHA media manager, defended the industry.

He said: “British racing is among the world’s best regulated animal activities. Together with the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare, the BHA is a leading signatory of the National Equine Welfare Protocol under which all 1,450 racing fixtures are held annually in Britain.

‘Inherent risk’

“Six-thousand people care for 14,000 horses that enjoy a quality of life virtually unsurpassed by any other domesticated animal. Despite everyone’s best efforts there is an inherent injury risk in a sport involving speed and athleticism. Yet, in 15 years, the equine fatality rate has fallen from 0.3 per cent of runners to 0.2 per cent.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which oversees animal health and welfare in the UK, said: “We are satisfied that the BHA, who work with other animal welfare organisations, does take the necessary steps to make racecourses as safe as possible for horses.”

John Londragan, International Brigader

Many thanks to Unite member and Aberdeen Councillor
Nathan Morrison for this photograph

This information is taken from the Rebel Road

pages at Unite education. 

Aberdeen Trades Union Council offices are named after John Londragan and the premises at 22a Adelphi have a plaque which states: John Londragan House: Communist, International Brigadier and Life Long Trade Unionist, 1911-1993. The plaque was erected in 1993.

An article by John Landragan appears in the book Voices from the Spanish Civil War: personal recollections of Scottish Volunteers in Republican Spain 1936-39, edited by Ian MacDougall. The railway worker describes his motivation for risking his life: ‘Being a member of the Communist Party and being an anti-Fascist I though it was my duty to go and help the people in Spain.

‘And the fight, whether it be here in Aberdeen against the British Union of Fascists or against Hitler and Mussolini in Spain, was exactly the same to me, no difference at all.’

The Scotsman served in the Anti-Tank Unit of the XVth International Brigade at Jarama, which is south-east of Madrid, before being sent to Brunette, which is where he got wounded in the leg and arm. This finished his career on the military side but when he came out of hospital he was employed on the organisational side of the Brigade. Londragan later served – again in an Anti-Tank Unit - in the British Army during the Second World War.

Writing in 1986, the Aberdeen man wrote: ‘ Looking back, there isn’t a thing changed since 1936 as regards my views…..When I went to Spain I thought I was trying to halt Hitler and Mussolini and their exploitation of Europe……..so when we went to war in 1939 I did exactly the same job…… Both were anti-Fascist wars.’

John Londragan (left) and a fellow International Brigader with the two young daughters of a Spanish
family they befriended 

Muted first anniversary celebrations at Barnsley Unite/NUM community centre

The economic squeeze that is being imposed on most working class people will ensure that any first anniversary celebrations for the Unite/National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) community centre in Barnsley will rightly be muted. Far too many people are struggling against a barrage of government attacks on welfare benefits, rights at work and public services for champagne corks to be popping in honour of the many successes achieved by the Unite community members who have provided welfare advice services to local people on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10am to 3pm since it opened in June last year.

By the end of April 2014, Unite community members at the centre had dealt with 61 closed cases with 26 ongoing. Support for employment support allowance (ESA) claimants comprised almost half the cases. ESA, which is paid because of an illness or disability, has been heavily criticised by many organisations, including the Citizens Advice Bureau, due to the fact many claimants have been found fit for work after being selected for the work capability assessment. (WCAs)  Following campaigning – in which Unite community members have participated - by disabled organisations, the Department for Work and Pensions has recently stopped outsourcing company ATOS from carrying out repeat assessments until another company can be found to do WCAs.

Unite community members picketing the ATOS headquarters in Sheffield 

Linda Laurie, Disabled People's Direct Action Network, demonstrating
outside ATOS in Sheffield.
Photograph courtesy of Mark Harve. Copyright Mark Harvey. 

The centre at Barnsley has helped 6 claimants appeal against an ESA decision to restrict their benefit. Four were won including Ms P whose successful tribunal hearing helped increase her benefits by £28.45 a week. By helping Mr R with his Working Tax Credit the centre helped him recover a total of £4,795.68. Five bedroom tax appeals helped ensure two people had more money in their pockets and with Ms C’s success also being combined with a successful claim for personal independence payment and carers allowance then her benefit levels rose by £184,80 per week, She has joined Unite.

“We have helped many people raise their income, By doing so we have raised people’s hopes that there are people on their side,” said Richard Vivian, a life-long trade unionist and retired professional benefits advisor who volunteers at the centre.

Richard and Mohammad Tariq, who got involved in the centre in October 2013, designed the two-day welfare advice-training course, which was held for 16 Unite members from across Yorkshire earlier this year. All aspects of welfare rights and benefits were covered including protecting client’s rights and Data Protection. Unite community members have also undertaken two days training on welfare rights provided by the Child Poverty Action Group. “People need representation but we can only provide it if we are properly trained and familiar with the complexities of the benefits system,” said Mohammad, who since joining Unite has become much more conscious of the widening gap between rich and poor. He now wants to particularly encourage young people and ethnic minorities to join the union.

In addition to providing welfare right advice the Barnsley centre, which is based in the NUM Headquarters that is the world’s first purpose built trade union headquarters, (see below) also runs computer classes. People have attended Learn My Way computer basics

classes and others have come in for assistance in setting up an e-mail address and help with writing a CV. “We are giving people opportunities to improve their skills. All benefit applications now have to be done online and the government wrongly assumes everyone has got a computer and internet connection,” said Brian Clarke, a former engineer who has been a trade union member since 1955 and whose last job before he retired was general manager at Wortley Hall. Brian became an active volunteer at the Barnsley centre after seeing an advert in the Morning Star and is enjoying helping people.

The professional advice provided by Unite community members to the folk of Barnsley is becoming increasingly important in an era when many advice organisations are struggling to survive and cope with the increasing demands placed on them. Maximising people’s benefits is vital work but it cannot be a long-term solution, especially when benefit levels are so low and are not even being increased each year to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Unite community members thus try to help people understand what lies behind the government’s austerity drive that has driven down people’s living standards and raised inequality levels back to those seen in the 19^th century. There has been a conscious effort to challenge media misrepresentation that the jobs crisis can be blamed on immigrants.

Rather than sitting at home worrying, people are encouraged to get involved in campaigns around the effects of government cuts to working people. Centre activists have supported the local campaign against the bedroom tax, joined protests against the workfare programme and supported workers taking industrial action.

“Working people have power if they are organised. Unite community members can help raise awareness and help encourage a culture of resistance. I remain optimistic we can change society for the better,” said Richard, who as a young man was forced to retrain when he was blacklisted by engineering employers across Scotland.

NUM Headquarters, 2 Huddersfield Road, Barnsley S70 2LS

Opening times: 10am to 3pm

Wednesdays and Thursdays

• The NUM Building in Barnsley was the world’s first purpose-built trade union headquarters when it opened in 1874. It was designed by Wade and Turner of Barnsley in a Scottish Baronial style and featured a tall, French-Gothic entrance. The moving force behind the centre was the secretary of the South Yorkshire Miners’ Association, John Normansell, who said at the time of the opening: “you are most welcome into a house that is built by your fellow miners at their own cost and expense in every way.” Normansell died soon afterwards and is commemorated by a monument outside the building. A meeting hall, the windows of which record major elements of miners’ working lives, supplemented Wade and Turner’s design in 1912. In more recent times a statue has been erected that commemorates those miners who lost their lives in supporting their union in times of struggle. These include David Jones and Joe Green, who lost their lives during the year-long strike in 1984-85 and who every year in March are remembered in a special ceremony.

Information taken from Buildings of the labour movement by Nick Mansfield and published by English Heritage.

Meeting Hall - photograph courtesy of Mark Harvey. 

Blue plaque to commemorate Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, and Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943

 

Erected in 1981 by the Greater London Council, there is a blue plaque to Beatrice and Sidney Webb at 10 Netherall Gardens, Swiss Cottage, Camden, London.

 

Beatrice Potter was the granddaughter of Richard Potter, the Radical MP for Wigan. In 1886 she went to work for Charles Booth, who was studying the lives of working people in London. She studied the lives of the dock workers in the East End and supported the London Dock Strike in 1889.

 

Sidney Webb’s father also held radical political views and in 1885 he joined the Fabian Society, which described itself as a ‘fact-finding and fact-dispensing body’ and it produced pamphlets, many written by Webb, on a wide range of different social issues.

 

Sidney and Beatrice Potter married in 1892 and later worked on several books together including the History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897). The research they carried out for these books convinced them of the need to establish a political party that was committed to obtaining socialism through parliamentary elections.

 

On 27 February 1900, the Fabian Society joined with the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and trade unionists to form the Labour Representation Committee, which stood 15 candidates in that years General Election and won two seats with Keir Hardie and Richard Bell both elected. The LRC was to change its name to the Labour Party on 12 February 1906.

 

The Webbs were though willing to work with any party in order to obtain policies they believed in and in 1902 the pair helped draft the Conservative’s Education Act.

 

Beatrice Webb served on the 1905-09 Poor Law Commission and when she found herself in disagreement with most of the Commission members she and Sidney wrote and published a minority report.

 

In 1913, the Webbs helped start a new political weekly, the New Statesman. In 1923, Sidney Webb was elected as Labour MP for Seaham, County Durham. He subsequently served as President of the Board of Trade under Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister. Sidney later served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald’s second Labour Government.

 

The ashes of Sidney and Beatrice Webb lie in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey. The small lozenge stone bears their names and the years they were born and died.