Over the past eight years Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, has consistently described the structure and behaviour of the regime of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and Mugabe himself, as "fascist". Biti told a press conference in Harare on 8 April: "There has been a complete militarisation of Zimbabwean society since the 29th of March 2008 . There has been a complete, if you like, rearming and remobilisation of all the pockets of fascism that were used to subject our people to the terror, the deaths that we saw in 2000 and 2002."
Eight years ago, in an interview with Jana Wendt on the programme Dateline on Special Broadcasting Service on 19 April 2000 , Biti made the following response:
Wendt: Well, at the heart of this crisis, as you say, of course is this violence. The farmers' representatives have met with Mr Mugabe. How do you think they are dealing with the situation?
Biti: My knowledge of the meeting is what was reported in one of the state papers yesterday, and if what was reported was true, then the farmers` position, with the greatest respect, is pathetic. You don't appease a dictator, you don't appease a fascist like Robert Mugabe. They should have taken a stance in the interests of rule of law, and a stance in the interests of democracy. I don't think they did that. I think they simply gave in and appeased the ego of that madman, if you like. (For full interview, see here)
In an interview with Violet Gonda on the programme Hot Seat on SW Radio on 8 August 2006, six years later, Biti further developed this characterisation of the Zimbabwean regime:
Gonda: I start by asking Tendai Biti why, in light of the current crisis situation in Zimbabwe, the opposition has not been able to capitalise on so many government failures.
Biti: Well, I think that firstly, you know, you must understand what you are dealing with. And I think what you are dealing with is a very privatised state and a very militarised state. In fact, I would argue that the current Zimbabwean state is what I would call a national security state, in other words, a state where, bar name only, it's really the military running this country, and that the existence of Zanu PF, the existence of regular elections is just a veneer and make up; mascara, to cover what is really a securitocracy, what is really a silent military coup d'etat in respect of which the military has taken over the Zimbabwean state.
And, our problems I think have been that as civic society and as political parties, we have been slow to really understand the fascist military junta that is in fact ruling or misruling us. (For full interview, see here)
Tendai Biti's assessment of the fascist character of Mugabe's and Zanu PF's reign of terror in Zimbabwe is given credence by none else than Mugabe himself. Addressing mourners at the burial of Swithun Mombeshora, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, at the National Heroes' Acre in Harare on 27 March 2003, Mugabe said: "I remember when in 1976 we met with the British at the Geneva Conference and at that time the British and their friends were focused on Mugabe and Nkomo. I was the Hitler of that time. I am still a Hitler of their time. If Hitler fought for the justice of mankind, many nations would not have fought against him. Hitler in Zimbabwe has one objective - sovereignty for his people, recognition of their independence and their rights to freedom. If they say I am Hitler, let me be Hitler ten-fold and that's what we stand for."
Mugabe - who grows a small Hitlerite moustache himself, and ordered genocidal massacre of thousands of Ndebele-speakers in the Eighties - made these remarks in the wake of unprecedented torture, arrests and assaults by state security agents on civilians across the country. Only the previous week, a man had been beaten to death and several others, including opposition Members of Parliament, had been beaten up and/or arrested when soldiers, the police and Central Intelligence Organization agents brutally attacked residents they suspected of participating in a two-day mass stayaway. (For one report, see here)
The same syndrome of "Hitler"-sanctioned state violence has now been unleased again in Zimbabwe, in what Mugabe himself acknowledged could well be described as an epidemic of African or black fascism. The following passages from two respected histories make possible a comparison of the regime of Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the regime of Benito Mussolini in Italy.
MUSSOLINI: THE SEIZURE OF POWER
"Among the leaders of the socialist parties, Mussolini had been the most gifted revolutionary agitator.... On 23 March 1919, Mussolini and a few dozen followers founded the first ‘Fascio di combattimento', or fascist fighting unit.... The fascist action squads violently destroyed the socialist peasant leagues and co-operatives, and later those of the popolari as well. These squads consisted of young men from the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie of the countryside and of provincial towns. Many were students, but some were socially humbler and there were working-class youngsters among them as well: a mixture of idealists, spoilt brats, misfits and hooligans. Some of them were demobilized officers or else sons or younger brothers of demobilized officers. They were all young, some very young, proud of their youth and of the war they had fought in or merely dreamed about, and in their violence they employed methods used by shock troops in the war. The life and dignity of others mattered little to them; indeed, it might even seem right and creditable to humiliate them....
"On the whole, Mussolini managed to manoeuvre cleverly, showing remarkable opportunism and tactical sense, concentrating or trying to concentrate his fire on those who were becoming or seemed to be the institutions which bore up the liberal state. ...Mussolini used legal and illegal weapons at the same time: both parliament and the fascist squads. With the first, he reassured people, with the second he struck at them.... The March on Rome [which brought Mussolini to power as prime minister in October 1922]...was a show of strength against the parliamentary majority....
"During the period of the elections, up to a few days before they took place [in April 1924], Mussolini's tactics were to use force and illegality. Many local and provincial councils, in which the fascists were in a minority, were dissolved by the government. All working-class associations were placed under the surveillance of the prefects. A large number of incidents took place during the elections. The result of these elections...was a victory for the government candidates, although with a smaller majority than had been expected....
"Once the elections were over, Mussolini took up his double policy of toughness and gentleness.... In parliament Mussolini spoke brilliantly, cleverly, moderately. He asked his enemies to collaborate with him or else to oppose him in a considered, constructive way. What he could not accept - he said - was opposition on principle.... A few days later [on 10 June 1924 ] the unexpected, tragic scandal of Giacomo Matteotti's murder broke out.
"Once in power, Mussolini centralized the party and imposed discipline upon the ras [local fascist chieftains] and their followers. Violence was allowed much less than it had been before and rarely occurred. On the other hand, his subordinates at the Viminale [Ministry of Interior] had formed a secret group whose object was the undertaking of violence on orders, direct or indirect, from Mussolini himself. Its enemies later called this group the fascist Cheka [Bolshevik secret police]....
"This so-called Cheka attacked two dissident fascists, Cesare Forni and Alfredo Misuri, as well as [the constitutionalist Giovanni] Amendola and the Reformist Socialist Matteotti. These attacks were made on opponents who, at that particular time, were giving Mussolini most trouble. The victims were not killed, at least not immediately. Severe beatings and other acts of violence were used to weaken their resistance, both moral and physical. Certainly as far as Matteotti was concerned particularly tough measures were planned, including imprisonment for a while. It was not known how far they were prepared to go before killing him. He was picked up in Rome by a closed car, and as he struggled and shouted his kidnappers were afraid of being caught red-handed and killed him.
"The murder aroused great anger in Rome and other cities. The widespread sympathy which fascism had aroused diminished or melted away, and in the week that followed the crime the government might easily have been toppled. Mussolini was frightened. Luckily for him, none of his opponents was up to the situation. All they did was walk out of the Chamber as a protest.... Mussolini got the situation in hand again, and, thanks to the persistent support of the fascist country districts, kept it so."
- Giampiero Carocci, Italian Fascism (Penguin, 1974. Translated by Isabel Quigly. pp.17,19,25,27, 31-33).
MUSSOLINI: "OUR FIERCE TOTALITARIAN WILfL"
"A new electoral law was passed which worked heavily in the Fascists' favour and made them the largest party in parliament after the elections of 1924.... When Giovanni Amendola, the parliamentary leader of the opposition, published the evidence of Mussolini's knowledge of some of the acts of violence (though not apparently this one [the murder of Matteotti]) organised in his own secretariat, Mussolini acted to silence his opponents, using his militia to arrest many members of the opposition, increasing the censorship, removing unreliable officials from office and thus demonstrating that the opposition, caught in their own loyalty to constitutional proceedings, were unable to stop him doing whatever he wanted to do. In November 1926 the opposition deputies were finally and formally deprived of their parliamentary seats and the last vestiges of the constitution disappeared. Italy became a one-party dictatorship. Mussolini had demonstrated what he once called 'La nostre feroce volonta totalitaria' ('Our fierce totalitarian will'), and started to carry out his intention of 'making the nation Facist' ('Fascistizzare la nazione'). He had given two sinister words to the twentieth century political vocabulary, Fascism and Totalitarianism".
- James Joll, Europe since 1870. An International History (Penguin, 1976, p.268).
