As a professor of Politics who teaches in the African studies program at the University of San Francisco, a progressive activist, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement and other solidarity struggles with African peoples, the author of a forthcoming book on the liberation struggle in Western Sahara, and a prominent critic of U.S. imperialism in Africa and elsewhere, I categorically reject the false accusations made against me by Stephen Gowans in his 2 April column in the Harare Herald subsequently posted on allAfrica.com.
To correct just a few of the specific inaccurate statements and innuendoes in this article:
I do not and have never singled out leftist governments for criticism and do not think that governments which “pursue traditional leftist agendas of placing control of a country's resources and productive property in the hands of its public, its government, or its domestic business class” are worse than governments which do otherwise.
Indeed, the record shows that I have argued just the opposite.
I do not believe and have never implied that leftist and anti-imperialist governments are more prone to be “corrupt, authoritarian and thoroughly rotten.”
I have never stated and I do not believe that “There has never been a truly leftist, anti-colonial or anti-imperialist government, and can never be one.” Nor have I ever stated or believed that “All revolutions are betrayals and no one should expect that anything good can ever come from left and anti-imperialist forces taking power.”
The language that I use is support for freedom and democracy in my writings is in no way “evocative of the propagandistic bilge that gushes in rivers from White House and State Department speechwriters trying to shape public opinion,” in that I consistently challenge the pseudo-democratic policies of the United States and its allied regimes and focus upon the importance of social and economic democracy as well as a political and civil rights.
I have never defended the practices of the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or other government agencies or right-wing foundations and do not believe that “Leftists should look to these groups to understand what’s going on in countries.” Indeed, I have been quite critical of these groups and have repeatedly challenged their credibility.
I have never stated and do not believe that “Process is more important than outcome.” Nor have I ever stated and I do not believe that “Zimbabweans becoming owners of their own land and natural resources is only half as important as the British parliamentary tradition in Zimbabwe being upheld; only a tenth as important as the freedom and democracy Zunes' celebrates in the abstract; only a hundredth as important as civil society having room to operate to peacefully change the government.”
Furthermore, contrary to Gowans’ assertions, I have consistently opposed the agenda of “wealthy individuals, corporations, capitalist foundations and imperialist governments” and have never implied they were in any way a “wellspring of hope.” Indeed, I have always seen them as threats to the liberation and legitimate aspirations of oppressed people.
I have never followed “State Department narratives.” In reality, I have been an outspoken and consistent critic of such propaganda.
I have never blindly accepted the lies of the mainstream media, the White House and the State Department and have actually done much to expose and challenged them.
There are other misleading statements in the article as well. For example, I do not understand what makes the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, for whom I serve as chair of their board of academic advisors, a “ruling class” group any more than the fact that, like most non-profit organizations, we rely on donations from some people who happen to be wealthy.
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In summary, the article is a sheer fabrication and total misrepresentation of where I am coming from politically or my understanding of the struggles of those peoples and nations struggling against imperialism and repression. I have a web site www.stephenzunes.org which contains most of my recent writings which will demonstrate that Gowans’ portrayal of my understanding of democracy, imperialism and related issues is completely false.
Finally, while I don't know him personally, from what I have gathered from the writings of Patrick Bond and the testimony of former freedom fighters in South Africa who know him, Gowans charges against him are false as well.
