The land occupation movement and democratisation in Zimbabwe: Contradictions of neoliberalism

The 1988 land occupations in Zimbabwe received wide public attention by the international media, as a unique phenomenon with significant international dimensions. However, the discipline of international relations, including most of the literature on social movements, has ignored the issue. The arti cle argues that the high profile land occupations in Zimbabwe are not new, but should be understood within the context of a broader political and econ omic environment of the country's neoliberal experience. Furthermore they c onstitute a manifestation of a much larger phenomenon currently underway ac ross the South. The paper focuses on the development of the land occupation movement in Zimbabwe, tracing its origins in the colonial legacy of unfair land distribution, the negative effects of structural adjustment strategie s and the neoliberal formal politics, which perpetuated social inequalities , under the banner of a human-rights oriented framework and false promises of land-redistribution. Furthermore, it is emphasised that the way in which the western media portrayed the occupations, as a spontaneous eruption of violence, concealed the fact that they constituted a complex phenomenon tha t has been manipulated for electoral purposes by all the Zimbabwean politic al parties, while remaining, in many instances, firmly grounded on local po litical demands, expressed by war veterans associations, local farmers and even spiritual mediums. The paper concludes with some general comments on t he character and nature of land movements, and their implications for the s tudy of social movements at a global level.