MDC Call a General Strike
A wise move.
It will hopefully cause Zimbabwe to collapse completely and from there it can be rebuilt. Mugabe’s “War Veterans” will struggle to force everyone back into work. The strike is indefinete so it is not a matter of simply riding it out but it is likely that inflation strikes so hard that after a day it would be too late to catch up anyway.
Let us hope that this proves enough to topple him; it’s a tactic that’s been suggested by many socialists already and no doubt not something that the MDC really wanted to resort to. There are certainly disadvantages to the tactic but given that there is no food on the shelves anyway I hardly see what harm can be done by averting a wage. Harm other than that inflicted upon Mugabe’s argument that the people are on his side, that is.
But then, the election displayed that quite decisively anyway. Once again, all us ruthless western imperialist neo-colonialists can do is wait and hope.
As was pointed out on the Today programme this morning, less than 25% of the potential workforce is employed, so a general strike will have limited effects anyway. Should they strike, some of the other 75% would, I suggest, be more than happy to take their jobs.
Striking only works because of the impact upon the economy: Mugabe has succeeded in ensuring that no opposition action could possibly begin to make the economy worse. The MDC might be scoring many goals at the moment, but Mugabe began the game at least 10-nil on aggregate.
Well we’ll see.
My own prediction is that there will not be an employment shuffle of the sort you describe.