Market Socialists

"He believed profoundly in his people, the living as well as the dead. You can say of some Africans that there is a thin veneer of civilisation as we know it in the West. But Mugabe, who was undoubtedly civilised and much better educated than most of us, still held African beliefs very dearly in his heart. I think this is one of the reasons he pushed the white farmers off the land. He was always acutely aware that African beliefs reside in the soil. He always believed very, very strongly that nobody had the right to give or take away the land of the people because that meant giving away the ancestors who held the whole nation together."

"We are totally opposed to the concept of multi-racialism because it assumes in the first instance that people have got to be arranged in compartments based on colour... you have Europeans in one compartment, Asians and coloureds in two other compartments and Africans in another compartment... And immediately you talk of multi-racialism, you are accepting as a starting point that the races are different and this difference must be recognised. We are non-racialist in our approach and that everybody must be accorded his full political rights – whether he white or black, educated or uneducated, rich or poor. And this is why we are at the moment struggling to earn for our people one-man-one-vote."

"Why have the leaders of the most powerful country on the African continent (Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma) succored the leader of the most corrupt (Mugabe)? These South African strongmen were, in a manner, saluting the Alpha Male Mugabe by implementing a slow-motion version of his program. When he socked it to the whites, Mugabe cemented his status as hero to black activists and their sycophants across South Africa."

"Seeking refuge in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Mengistu Haile Mariam found a man after his own heart. For Mugabe is responsible for the murder. of thousands in the Matabeleland massacres, and for plunging his country into a state of economic and political despair. Mugabe had all the credentials to be a hero for Zimbabwe’s black majority. From the 1960s he became a key figure in the opposition to the minority white rulers of the country, then known as Rhodesia, and was imprisoned for ten years for subversion. In 1975 he emerged as the leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which launched a guerrilla war against the white regime. When in 1980 peace was restored and black-majority rule instituted, Mugabe was elected prime minister, Initially he proceeded cautiously, seeking a broad base of support among both whites and blacks, but before long he moved against his black rival, Joshua Nkomo, who spoke for the Ndebele people, while Mugabe derived his support from the majority Shona tribe. As tribal tensions increased, clashes in Ndebele areas such as Matabeleland were dealt with bloodily by Mugabe’s troops."

"In 1984 Mugabe effectively established a one-party tyranny. He became the country’s first executive president in 1987, and subsequent elections have been characterized by widespread intimidation and violence. Mugabe has also encouraged his paramilitaries and thuggish war veterans to seize the remaining land still held by whites, and the resulting chaos has led to a catastrophic decline in agricultural output. In recent years, the black community has also suffered displacement following large-scale schemes to destroy shanty towns in areas where the opposition is strongest. Despite the opposition of the Movement for Democratic Change, corruption and intimidation ensured that Mugabe’s party managed to hold onto to its grip on power in the elections of 2000 and 2002. Meanwhile, any sign of dissent was mercilessly suppressed by his secret police, the Central Intelligence Organization."

"Mugabe has presided over the destruction of a nation. The country boasts great natural resources and rich farming land that once made it one of the most prosperous countries in Africa — but now there are frequent food shortages, and raging inflation. In 2008, Mugabe lost an election but he consolidated his tyranny and defied the world, using widespread murder, torture, arrests, violence and election fraud."

"He is a very disciplined man. He treated people with respect. He wasn't lavish in his lifestyle but he did have clear standards. He dressed well, invariably in a dark suit with a silk tie and matching handkerchief, but without ostentation. He wore a good watch but nothing flashy. You could tell that money and acquisitiveness were not part of his motivation. There was another motive that drove him."

"I'll be honest with you, I'm heartbroken when I see what's happened in Zimbabwe. I think Mugabe is an example of a leader who came in as a liberation fighter and—I'm just going to be very blunt—I do not see him serving his people well. And the abuses, the human rights abuses, the violence that's been perpetrated against opposition leaders, I think, is terrible."

"It's been a great pleasure to have had the opportunity today to meet with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of the Republic of Zimbabwe. As the first Prime Minister of Africa's newest independent state, his wise leadership has been a crucial factor in healing the wounds of civil war and developing a new nation with new opportunities."

"Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done, to a lot of – and in the end there's nothing. So as far as I'm concerned from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe's gone."

"He was a very clever bloke and he worked with me for as long as he thought it was going to help him. Once again, it was just to keep himself in power. I give that answer to all questions about Mugabe because that is all there is to it. Everything he has ever done is about keeping himself in power: Dictators and fascists all over the world think like that."

"After leading a successful anticolonial war of liberation, Robert Mugabe was elected the first president of independent Zimbabwe. It was hoped that, like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe would guide Africa to a new era of democracy. But with each year that has passed, he has turned increasingly dictatorial, and he has run his country into the ground. Since 1988, life expectancy in Zimbabwe has plunged from sixty-two years to thirty-eight. The destruction of the health of his people is as much as an abuse of human rights as arbitrary arrest and torture."

"Well, I mean, one difference is, is you see the end of the constitution of Venezuela. And this is happening obviously at an accelerated pace in recent months, in the Maduro regime. But this is a process that has taken, really, two regimes to really restrict Venezuelan democracy. And by designating Maduro himself, he joins a very exclusive club -- including Mr. Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad, and Kim Jong-un in terms of the brutal repression of his people and, in this case, the abrogation of the constitution with the constitution -- with the constituent assembly"

"Africa must revert to what it was before the imperialists divided it. These are artificial divisions which we, in our pan-African concept will seek to remove."

"It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones."

"Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people's votes and the people's guns are always inseparable twins."

"Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity."

"I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House agreement."

"It was from Tito that I drew inspiration while searching for the best road to take and when making crucial decisions during our liberation struggle. I often thought, what would Tito do at that moment?"

"We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair 'expresses its dismay'."

"It was an act of madness. We killed each other and destroyed each other's property. It was wrong and both sides were to blame. We have had a difference, a quarrel. We engaged ourselves in a reckless and unprincipled fight."

"What we hate is not the colour of their skins but the evil that emanates from them."

"Of the twelve million hectares that the farmers have, we said we needed about half of that for a start. Even then you will say, of course, "Take all of it!" (laughs) Even deep down as we stand by our revolutionary principles, we still recognize that there should be some little measure of charity. No? Well, I will take your message back home."

"Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy!"

"The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans."

"We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…. So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe."

"I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for.""

"Let Blair and the British government take note and listen. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. Our people are overjoyed. The land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe."

"If the choice was made for us, one for us to lose our sovereignty and become a member of the Commonwealth or to remain with our sovereignty and lose membership of the Commonwealth, then I would say, then let the Commonwealth go. What is it to us? Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe."

"The Commonwealth is a mere club, but it has become like an 'Animal Farm' where some members are more equal than others. How can Blair claim to regulate and direct events and still say all of us are equals?"

"We are now being coerced to accept and believe that a new political-cum-religious doctrine has arisen, namely that there is but one political God, George W Bush, and Tony Blair is his prophet."

"We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can’t have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force."