2019 and History

Another year comes to a close, and not only is there a new year on the horizon, but also a new decade. 2019 has seen many anniversaries and events which have parallels in history, so we'll be discussing some of them today. As always, I'm more of a modern historian so I will be gearing this towards more recent history, and I cannot cover everything which has happened this year. Let's see what happened over this year, and what parallels we can find.

100 Years since the Spartacist Uprising

We discussed the Spartacist Uprising back in January, and its legacy would impact the Left for the next century. By the end of the First World War the German Empire was collapsing - setbacks in the war, continued censorship, and rising mortality due to the British blockade was causing civil unrest. Marxist and socialist writers found new audiences in downtrodden and angered masses, and in October 1918 at the port city of Kiel sailors joined with local socialists taking over the city. This started a chain reaction where city after city saw the establishment of workers' councils, the soviets, across Germany. The newly established Spartacists under Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht saw this as the steps to bringing about a revolution, as what recently happened in Russia, so formed the Communist Party (KPD). On January 5 1919 protests in Berlin against the censorship by the new republic of Friedrich Ebert, who opposed revolution, quickly escalated into an armed uprising by workers. However, things did not go well for the Spartacists. Despite earning support from working-class Berliners the uprising was opposed by Berlin's wealthier communities. Splits within the Spartacists and less radical parties weakened them, and soon Ebert made an alliance with the Freikorps - a hard-right paramilitary whose members would later join the Nazis. The Freikorps would murder Luxemburg and Liebknecht, throwing their bodies into the Landwehr Canal. The two would become martyrs on the Left - especially Luxemburg being a Jewish, disabled, woman having to fight antisemitism, misogyny, and ableism. In the short term German socialism was taken over by more authoritarian Marxist-Leninists. Most of the libertarian Marxists were killed in the uprisings or fled to the Soviet Union where they would later be purged by Stalin, although there were still libertarian socialists around - most notably Clara Zetkin and Walter Benjamin. In the long-term the Spartacists offered guidance to new paths to an equal society, and Luxemburg has become a feminist icon.

China's Anniversaries

This year China has seen three anniversaries which offers a troubling legacy for president Xi Jinping. The first is the centenary of the May Fourth Movement. Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the overthrow of the Chinese emperor in 1912, students and intellectuals began an ambitious and radical movement to fundamentally change China. New theorists, such as Lu Xun, began radically critiquing society and started demanding a new China. The abolition of the Confucian social system, anti-imperialism, feminism, policies against footbinding, and socialism all were advocated, and at times implemented. Through this movement the Communist Party (CPC) emerged. This brings us to the second anniversary, the founding of the People's Republic. In October 1949, seventy years ago, the CPC finally won the decades long Civil War as Mao Zedong declared the new system in Beijing. Coming from the ideological roots of the May Fourth Movement it began a radical transformation of Chinese society. The final anniversary is the thirtieth anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre. By the 1980s officials in the CPC had began a series of reforms adopting aspects of market capitalism, enriching themselves in the process. With future job prospects uncertain, and inspired by pro-democracy protests in the Eastern Bloc, beginning in April students started protesting. This was deeply embarrassing for the ruling CPC - while Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev visited students went on hunger strike, and despite the CPC trying to paint the protesters as Western stooges they sang the world socialist anthem, The Internationale. However, the movement was heavily divided about what its aims were, they were united by their opposition to corruption and authoritarianism. Eventually the government cracked down on June 4 - the resulting reprisals killed many, possibly in the thousands. 

These legacies have proved problematic for the Chinese government. Since the 1980s China has dropped socialism, only keeping the aesthetic of socialism, so the CPC has the staggering paradox of having billionaires being members. An authoritarian, state capitalist party had to, therefore, celebrate two moments in history which aimed for the opposite (their achievements can be debated), and trying to suppress any memories of the third. Just as in the past the CPC has recently faced its own crisis of authority. Protesters have found new ways to criticise the state - consequently Winnie the Pooh is banned due to people comparing Xi Jinping to Winnie - resulting in embarrassments for the state. Marxist and Maoist students have been arrested for protesting the government; social media hashtags were shutdown because they were inadvertently revealing intense pollution in rivers; and since 2008 has been facing an underground Maoist movement. The liberatory rhetoric of May Fourth and Mao, (although in practice after 1949 he stopped this), comes at odds with China's current policies in restricting feminist activism, removing LGBT rights, and attempting to destroy Uighur culture through new policies and concentration camps. Xi Xinjing and the CPC, therefore, have to face this stark contrast in legacies.

Bolivia

I want to discuss Bolivia in a wider context of protests globally, but the YouTuber Bad Empanada discussed it well. I have put the link to his video here and I would recommend watching it.

The Death of Mugabe

On September 6 Zimbabwe's aged former dictator Robert Mugabe died aged 95. Mugabe leaves an uncertain legacy for Zimbabwe and the ruling ZANU-PF party. Before Zimbabwe's official independence in 1980 the country was ruled by one of the most unequal societies in the world during that time. A white minority settler government held the land, judiciary and government leaving the majority black African population landless, disenfranchised, and impoverished. With the exception of a few families who managed to get an education, the majority of the black population were excluded from society. Political repression led to a guerrilla war. Mugabe himself became a martyr for the amount of time he spent in prison, and he later became a key figure in the guerrilla movement coming to lead ZANU. When the war came to an end in 1980 he was elected president, and began an ambitious reform policy reducing unemployment, gave Zimbabweans easier access to education, and started tentative land redistribution. However, immense power was given to Mugabe, and he was hampered by how much economic power the settler population had. Land reform was further hampered as it could only happen when Britain paid Zimbabwe to redistribute land. Mugabe himself made things worse. He quickly moved to stamp out opposition - in 1983 he used a new force called Fifth Brigade to destroy the opposition party, Zapu, in what has been known as the Gukurahundi. As parties fell along ethnic lines this led to a genocidal campaign against the Ndebele killing 20,000. Corruption, especially from the 1990s, crept in where war veterans were left without land or employment so Mugabe could enrich his loyalists. The next almost thirty years was characterised by spikes in inequality, corruption, and poverty until Mugabe was ousted in a coup in 2017. His death now leaves a conflicting legacy. Mugabe was the one who broke white settler power in Zimbabwe, but he also snatched its future for his own greed. The current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been described as 'Mugabe's bodyguard', so the future of Zimbabwe has uncertainty in it.

A Year of Protest

Across the world this year we have seen protests against the reversal of rights, or against the status quo. Many of these movements have been led by young or marginalised peoples, and can be compared to the protests which broke out in 1968 worldwide. Then, as today, young and marginalised people took to the streets worldwide to protest capitalism, racism, misogyny, and the complacency of an entrenched elite. This year we have seen protests against aged leaders, (Algeria, Sudan); corruption and economic inequality (Chile, Lebanon, France, Haiti); imperialism (West Papua); racism and the reversal of rights (Bolivia, Hong Kong, India); authoritarianism (Iran); or a mixture (the UK, Brazil, Ecuador). These protests have purposefully created links to the past, or their origins can be found in the past. For example, protests against Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika have described themselves as finishing the Revolution of 1962, the war which liberated Algeria from French rule. Within the last month strikes in France have led to monumental protests and strikes led by radicals, and have directly linked themselves to both the Yellow Vests of last year, and France's radical past ranging from the 1789 Revolution to 1968. Protests in India and Hong Kong have arisen thanks to attempts to centralise authoritarian state power. India's far-right Narendra Modi over this year has removed the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, attempted to isolate that region, and has recently had laws passed which threatens to remove the citizenship of Assamese and non-Hindus, mainly Muslims. As a result, protests have erupted across India opposing this which have been compared to the fight for independence. Quite telling is that one of those arrested is India's most important historian Ramachandra Guha. In Hong Kong an extradition bill was passed which could allow people from Hong Kong to be taken to court in China. Over a million have came out since June to have this reversed, but splits in the movement have meant that they still drag on. A more radical branch, inspired by the anti-colonial riots of 1967, want to make it the start of a more equal and democratic Hong Kong, while others want the status quo - some controversially calling for US aid or waving colonial flags. 

There have been a wave of anti-colonial protests as well. The situation in Assam, Kashmir, and Jammu are legacies of the arbitrary nature of how Britain divided empire. Hindutva, Hindu nationalist, groups, like the far-right RSS, have tried in Assam to forcibly convert the indigenous people to Hinduism. As a result, the protests in these regions have been a way to fight continued colonial attitudes to indigenous peoples. West Papua has similarly come back into attention for the Indonesian government's imposition of militarised forces in the region resulting in deaths. In Latin America, indigenous communities have been out to protest the neo-liberal, or authoritarian, states in which they live as they were most impacted by these policies. Indigenous activists took over Ecuador's capital of Quito forcing the government to evacuate themselves; Mapuche in Chile flew their flags from prominent places in the capital; and indigenous peoples have recently protested against Bolivia's new and openly white supremacist government which came to power when Aymara president Evo Morales was ousted in a coup. Linking this to the past, Mapuche in Chile decapitated a statue of Christopher Columbus and placed the head in the arms of a statue of a Mapuche leader. 1492 still affects indigenous peoples today. Gay pride, worldwide, has become increasingly radical as we have seen the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which we discussed here, and communities across the world have reminded us how much we still need to fight. While there has been successes, (this year Ghana had its first gay pride, Botswana legalised homosexuality, and Austria legalised gay marriage), there have been major setbacks. Transphobia has become socially accepted in the UK in particular, which has been the focus of a new young generation of activists to resist - inspired by Stonewall.

Climate Crisis

It is not surprising that climate change is drastically changing the planet. As I am writing this fires have swept Australia and have already claimed 400 million animals - it is almost certain that we might see the extinction of several species within the decade, including the koala. Intense hurricanes have hit the Caribbean, floods devastated South Asia, and northern England (where I'm from) saw destructive floods as flood systems failed. Intense weather conditions are being caused by climate change, something being caused thanks to the activities of humans. When we discussed the Little Ice Age we saw how climate change deeply impacts societies. Flooding and bad rains destroy crops, drier temperatures cause other crops to fail, and the impact this has on natural habitats destroys local communities. As natural resources fail, just like in the 1600s, this creates conflict. We have already seen this recently. ISIS in Syria managed to recruit from young, unemployed men who had recently moved to the countryside because harsher weather had made farming less profitable. If human-caused climate change is not tackled this could become worse. The future is not too bright. The UK, Australia, US, and Brazil have noted opponents of reform, or outright climate change deniers, in power - Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro purposefully burned the Amazon this year. Consumption in the economically wealthy states means that climate change continues - India and China produce so much carbon dioxide largely to feed the needs of the global north, and the Amazon was burnt to make way for farming to feed the global north. There is a small beacon of hope. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, millions have since taken part in Climate Strikes across the world demanding states act to reduce their carbon output. Key politicians, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the US, have pledged to create a 'Green New Deal' to tackle climate change. 

Trump's Impeachment

Very recently the US House of Representatives voted on December 18 to impeach Donald Trump making him the third president, and only member of the Home Alone 2 cast, to be impeached. The first was Andrew Johnson in 1868; he was Lincoln's vice-president who got the role when his predecessor was assassinated. Johnson had sympathies with the former slave holding planters in the South so had worked to block legislation which would have given increased rights for the former slaves. A tired Congress put him on trial, but he never ended up being formally impeached by both houses. The Senate, twice, failed to vote to impeach him, and the trial was adjourned. As the election was underway, and Congress knew that Johnson wasn't running, impeachment by both houses was abandoned. The second president to be impeached was not actually Richard Nixon (the president I believe is most like Trump), as he resigned before impeachment proceedings could formally happen. Instead, the second one was Bill Clinton for obstructing justice and lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998. Again, the Senate failed to vote about whether to impeach so only the House was the only one to impeach him. As the Republicans currently have a majority in the Senate, and a two-thirds majority in favour of impeachment is required, but then there is also not enough for an acquittal.

Thank you for reading and that's the last blog post for not only 2019 but also the 2010s. What 2020 will bring we cannot be certain, but until then I hope the rest of your 2019 is good. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

2017 and History

Another year has passed, 2017 has come to a close, and we wait to see what 2018 holds. 2017, however, has seen the anniversaries of several important historical events, and many other events which can be explained through history. For 2017's final blog post I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at historical anniversaries and some of 2017's headlines to see how they fit in world history. Due to the amount of things which have happened over the last year I cannot talk about everything and I'll only talk of events which I feel that I can (somewhat) accurately explain. As my specialty are the nineteenth and twentieth centuries most of what I'll discuss will be from these two centuries.

The Reformation 500 Years On

Luther and the Reformation

The first event which we're going to look at is the Reformation. On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther supposedly nailed his criticisms of the practices of the Catholic Church - his 95 theses - on the door of the Wittenberg Church - although it is far likelier that he sent them to prominent bishops and theologians. This started the split between the Western Christian church between Catholics and Protestants. A detailed look at the Reformation can be found in one of my recent blog posts here. Luther was not the only critic of the Church to emerge. In Switzerland Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin emerged, in England Henry VIII formed his own movement when the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and across Europe people sided with either the pope or the reformers. Despite how long ago the Reformation was it still greatly shapes the world we live in. For example, several historians have argued that the Wars of Religion helped lay the groundwork for secularization. The many wars, (such as the Thirty Years War, 1618-48, and the French Wars of Religion, 1562-98), forced a compromise between the warring factions. Limited religious tolerance was offered in the peace treaties which ended the wars; although of course it was only tolerance for the religious sects which fought one another, some of the worst persecution of Jews until the Second World War in Western and Central Europe occurred during the Wars of Religion. In Britain the wars resulted in the strengthening of the parliament, first with Cromwell's rule and later with the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688/9. In many areas of Europe, and the world, the Catholic/Protestant divide is still very prevalent and shapes thought. For example, Northern Irish politics is extremely divided on sectarian lines with the DUP - who are currently in coalition with the Conservative party - running on a very strict Protestant platform. 

India's Two Anniversaries

India witnessed two traumatic anniversaries this year which greatly influenced the forming of today's India. The first was the 1857 Indian Rebellion - although you may also see it referred to as the First War of Indian Independence, Indian Mutiny, the Indian Uprising, or Great Rebellion. For years resentment towards British, and the East India Company which was ruling India. 1857 the resentment spilled over. The East India Company (and Britain) had been using Indians in the army and had introduced a new rifle, the Enfield, which required the user to bite a greased cartridge. A rumor abounded that beef and pork fat were being used which led to many Indian soldiers to refuse to use the rifle. As a result on May 9 the commanding officer of the Third Bengal Light Cavalry in Meerut sentenced 85 troopers to ten years' hard labor and publicly humiliated them. This caused a widespread rebellion from Indian soldiers in Northern India which spread to the Indian masses. Some soldiers around Delhi declared the aged Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah, emperor of all of India. Indian soldiers massacred British citizens when they took towns, cities, and barricades which enraged British troops who committed bloody atrocities against Indians in revenge. By November 1, 1858 the rebellion had been put down costing the lives of up to 806,000 through massacres, battles, disease and famine. Despite early victories the rebellion was defeated for several reasons. The East India Company had three armies - the Bombay, Madras and Bengal - and only the Bengal army mutinied. In fact, some parts of the Bombay and Madras armies were used to fight the rebels. As the Bengal army had helped conquer a Sikh princely state Sikhs were widely used to put down the rebellion in the Punjab. The 1857 Rebellion was only confined to northern India, but if it had happened across India there was a strong possibility that British rule could have ended in India. The rebels were also very divided. When soldiers declared that Bahadur Shah's power had been restored this deterred Hindus, Christians and Sikhs from supporting the rebellion, (the Mughals were a Muslim power). With a divided rebellion it prevented it from being a success. Following the Uprising Indian-British relations were changed. The brutal crushing of the rebellion greatly soured relations and it remained prevalent in imperial (and indigenous) records for the following century. The East India Company was dissolved, Victoria made Empress, the three armies were merged into one, and Indians were declared subjects. Declaring Indians subjects also raised questions for many Indians. Many asked, if we are subjects why do we lack the same rights as the British? Indian nationalism would grow exponentially after 1857.

Refugees after Partition

This brings us to the second anniversary: the Partition of India. Britain continued with the East India Company's policy of divide-and-rule which set different ethnicities, religions and castes against one another instead of creating a united force against the British. More can be found about on my post on Partition here so I shall try and give a brief summary. Thanks to divide-and-rule policies different religions formed their own nationalist, or reform, movements. Two which emerged were the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. Mohandas Gandhi became involved with Congress and turned it into a mass movement attracting millions of supporters. Slowly the movements managed to obtain limited constitutional reforms from the British. However, due to Hindu domination of Congress (something accidentally caused by Gandhi) many Muslims feared Hindu domination in a post-independence India, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah of the Muslim League. In 1933 nationalist Choudhry Rahmat Ali coined the name Pakistan and Muslim activists championed this idea. Until recently it had been believed that Jinnah drove a wedge between Muslims and Hindus leading to Partition, but recent historiography, such as by Ayesha Jalal, has argued that it was a desperate attempt to get compensation out of Congress. Following the Second World War British rule in India collapsed so Britain opted to haphazardly divide India using out of date maps and censuses in August 1947. This left millions of people trapped on the wrong side of the border. A refugee crises emerged as massacres and rapes took place in an attempt to ensure areas were part of India or Pakistan. Around 2% of India's population remained refugees in 1951. This division has drastically shaped the Indian subcontinent since 1947.

Israel/Palestine

On December 6 Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, something which has been vetoed by the UN, causing another wave of protests across Palestine and the world. This came a month after the centenary of the Balfour Declaration which was signed by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. This can largely be seen as the event which set the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into motion. During the late-nineteenth century nationalism was widespread across Europe and the Middle East. Discrimination of Jews was prevalent across Europe so Jewish intellectuals, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, thought of an idea called Zionism. If Jews were to stop being persecution they needed their own homeland, and that they had a homeland before but had been expelled by the Romans. They wanted to reform Israel (as a republic not a kingdom) in Palestine. They also assumed that the Arabs would accept them being a fellow Semitic people, and that they would want 'civilizing' by Europeans (Social Darwinism was very prevalent in the 1800s). Especially thanks to the intense antisemitism of the Dreyfus Affair - where a blatantly innocent French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted of being a German spy - support for Zionism grew. At this early stage the proposed Israel was meant to be a state for Jews - the Balfour Declaration even uses the phrase 'national homeland for the Jews' - not a Jewish state. In 1917 Arthur Balfour declared that Britain would help form a Zionist state despite opposition from Palestinians, non-Zionist Jews, and the fact that Britain had already promised Palestine to Hussein bin Ali to be part of the pan-Arab state. Palestine was declared a British mandate and Britain implemented divide-and-rule policies in the region. Eventually, in 1948 two states were meant to be formed: Israel and Palestine. In the first Arab-Israeli War - sometimes called the Israeli War of Independence or the Nakba - saw Palestine divided between its neighbors. Following the 1967 Six Day War Israel annexed the West Bank and Jerusalem. For political reasons it was largely agreed to recognize Tel Aviv as Israel's capital and Ramallah as Palestine's, or West Jerusalem as Israel's and East Jerusalem as Palestine's, to respect both Israel and Palestine. By recognizing Jerusalem as being Israel's capital this ignores Palestine's claims.

You may be hearing on the news about talks of a Third Intifada. There were two intifadas - the first 1987 to 1991 and the second 2000-5 - which were periods of intense Palestinian uprisings against Israel. Some have argued that Trump's relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem and the IDF's brutal crackdown on Palestinian protesters may cause a Third Intifada.

Climate Change

This summer saw some of the most intense climate events in recent years which included Hurricane Harvey; Irma; floods in Niger, India, and Nepal; intense wildfires in California; and cold winters across the northern hemisphere. These intense bouts of intense weather have been attributed to climate change caused by global warming. Not too long ago I wrote about the Little Ice Age which brought intense climate change caused by a drop in global temperatures. Among these were hailstorms which wiped out crops, frozen lakes in June, and even the Thames freezing over. Understanding the Little Ice Age helps us understand how we can face climate change. Geoffrey Parker in particular has written about how adverse weather and climate affected societies worldwide in the 'Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.' In China the Ming were bloodily overthrown; religious wars ravaged Europe; succession wars hit the Mughals, Ottomans and the Kongo; and famines, floods, and droughts plagued all the world. Although bad weather did not cause these conflicts it made these conflicts worse. As humans continue contributing to climate change by looking at the Little Ice Age we can understand how to cope with global warming.

Centenary of Russian Revolutions

Lenin and the Masses

In 1917 Russia saw two revolutions: the February and the October. These two revolutions shook both Russia and the world. For over a century Russia had been trying to slowly reform itself. In 1905 a revolution caused by frustration over defeat in the Russo-Japanese War caused the creation of a parliament, the Duma, although it was extremely weak and gave the tsar large amounts of power. The First World War brought issues to a head. On International Women's Day Social Revolutionaries handed pamphlets to women in Petrograd (St Petersburg) waiting in line for bread. This escalated into a protest and strike, and eventually into a revolution which caused the overthrowing of the tsar. The new Russian republic began many widespread reforms - including emancipating Jews and women - but it soon became unpopular. Many in Russia, especially the peasantry, wanted a clean break with tsarist Russia, different nationalities wanted increased autonomy, and many wanted an end to the war. Then the Bolsheviks rose to prominence. Under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin the Bolsheviks were originally a faction of the Social Revolutionaries deeply inspired by Marxist theory. The Bolsheviks and Lenin promising peace, bread, land and autonomy struck a chord with soldiers, urban workers, peasants and some minorities. Following the crushing of the Bolsheviks during the July Offensive and the arrest of certain leaders, including Leon Trotsky, sympathy for the Bolsheviks rose. Eventually by November (October in Russia which was still using the Julian calendar), the Bolsheviks under Lenin rose up and seized the Winter Palace in Petrograd. Lenin, walking into the Duma, declared 'We shall now proceed to construct the socialist order.' Thus the most influential revolution of the twentieth century took place inspiring millions around the world to do the same from Mexico to China. Many people today are influenced by Marxist theory - including myself, although I am more influenced by Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci than Lenin and Trotsky - and the October Revolution helped contribute to this. Although clearly bias I would highly recommend Trotsky's own account, called The History of the Russian Revolution, which is a gripping read detailing the events of both revolutions.

Zimbabwe

Mugabe

In November long-term president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, was forced to resign after being in power since 1980. Earlier I wrote about Mugabe if you are interested so I'll do a brief summary here. The prime reason why Mugabe was forced to resign by the military was his replacement of Emmerson Mnangwa with his wife, Grace Mugabe. However, Mugabe remains popular in Zimbabwe, and the opposition leaders and military have stated that because of his legacy they chose to go through legal procedures to oust him. Mugabe was one of the key figures in the War of Independence against the minority, white-rule government with his party, ZANU-PF, being incredibly popular with many Zimbabweans. The first few years of Mugabe's premiership were very well received and if he had resigned in the mid-1980s he may even have been popular in the West; after all he was even knighted by the Queen. It is quite telling with the North Atlantic viewpoint that Mugabe was only criticized for his treatment of white farmers in Europe and the USA, and not his period of ethnic violence called the Gukurahundi. One thing to note about the recent resignation is something which has been prevalent in Zimbabwean politics since 1980: the treatment of veterans. Many critics of Mugabe have noted his abandonment of veterans of the independence war leaving many with no job prospects. Mnangwa is also a veteran so his replacement by Grace Mugabe was seen as an even greater affront.

Japan and Korea

Throughout 2017 North Korea has been in the news for testing nuclear missiles. Although this has partially been thanks to Trump's bellicose rhetoric, including this tweet which I thought was satire by The Onion when he was in Vietnam. You may have noticed that Pyongyang has been firing missiles over Hokkaido. We all know by now why Korea is divided so I thought it would be more interesting to look at why there is hostility between North Korea and Japan. When Japan started to get involved in international politics after 1868 they felt threatened by European and American imperialism so began a course of imperialism themselves. They soon turned on the small Kingdom of Korea to the north; first they muscled China out of the way and began influencing Korean politics to prevent Russian interference. Japanese thinkers believed that Asia had to unite, but only the Japanese were capable of uniting Asians. In 1910 they annexed Korea and began a process of 'Japanizing' Koreans. From 1910 to 1945 Japanese politicians started implementing policies to 'Japanify' Korea including banning Korean in Japan; banning Korean dress; attempting to replace Korean names with Japanese ones; and having Japanese landowners buy land in Korea. I would highly recommend watching the Korean romantic thriller The Handmaiden to see this in effect. During the Second World War Koreans were forcibly conscripted into the Japanese army, forced to work in factories producing arms, and Korean women were forced to be 'comfort women' for Japanese soldiers. Korea was split after 1945 between the communist DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) under Kim Il Sung, and the capitalist ROK (Republic of Korea) under Syngman Rhee. The legacies of Japanese rule, and a lack of apology for said rule, has meant that animosity continues to pervade not only DPRK-Japanese relations but also ROK-Japanese ones. 

Shinzo Abe

This year Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called a snap election, and unlike the UK's snap election which caused Theresa May to lose her majority, Abe's Liberal Democratic party swept the board. The DPRK helped with this victory. After Japan's defeat in the Second World War the Allied powers wanted to make sure that Japan could not threaten them again. On May 3, 1947 (another anniversary) Japan had a new constitution implemented where Article 9 dissolved the Japanese military and forbade Japan from declaring war. Instead Japan would have a Self-Defense Force in case a country declared war on it. This was largely accepted by everyone in Japan: the left as it made pacifism in the constitution itself while the right liked it as it let them focus on getting foreign investment to fuel capitalist growth. Abe ran on a platform of reversing Article 9 where in the light of North Korean missile tests made Japanese voters sympathetic to. Whether it will be passed we'll find out in 2018.

Something in the USA

Much has happened in the USA this year. We could compare Trump's travel bans to the Chinese Exclusion Act and anti-immigration acts; how the Confederate statues link to the South's dark past where millions were enslaved; or how Trump's banning of transgendered soldiers and talks at prominent homophobic events links to the LGBTQ+ community's struggle for rights. We could also compare the Democrats emphasis on Russian interference in the election and anti-Russian hysteria to that of Cold War hysteria (I've seen a few people suggest that Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein being Russian stooges), or how the USA has also interfered in elections (including the 1996 Russian election). However, I want to focus on this one giant mess which Trump caused.

Again, I thought this initially was a joke

In November at an event honoring the Navajo Code Breakers Trump made a Pocahontas joke about Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren in front of a painting of Andrew Jackson. I must admit part of me died hearing that, and there's lots to unpack here. First off Pocahontas. Pocahontas has been deeply involved with America's cultural heritage, but she has become a figure of myth. Pocahontas was the daughter of Wahunsenacawh (called Powhatan by Europeans), the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah. English settlers had arrived in Virginia and by 1607 conflicts over land had caused tension between the settlers and Powhatan. In American lore Pocahontas stopped her father from executing explorer John Smith by jumping over his body before the killing blow. Historians believe this to be fabricated, especially as in his diaries this happens several times. Pocahontas was captured by the settlers in 1613 where she converted to Christianity, we are not entirely sure though if she was forced to or not. In order to create peace Pocahontas, at the age of 17, was married off to tobacco planter John Rolfe in 1614. Rolfe seemed to genuinely love Pocahontas (who went by the name Rebecca) and her accounts seem to suggest that she respected but did not love him. Pocahontas was eventually taken to Britain where she was paraded around as a 'civilized savage' (a precursor to what would happen during later European empires in the nineteenth century). She would never again see Virginia; aged either 20 or 21 she would pass away to be buried at Gravesend.

We have to go to the nineteenth century to understand why it is vastly inappropriate to have a painting of Andrew Jackson when honoring the Navajo Code Breakers. Jackson was president from 1829 to 1837 and was very much like Trump: brash and racist. Other than supporting slavery Jackson loathed Native Americans; while fighting the British during the War of 1812 forced the Creek to give up 23 million acres of land to the United States. In 1816 he would also lead a campaign against the Seminole. Years later he brought his racial hatred with him to the White House. Throughout his presidency he had around 70 treaties made which forced Native Americans off of their land. Perhaps the most famous was the 1830 Indian Removal Land which allowed the president the ability to create treaties with the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southern US. This began the Trial of Tears where thousands of Native Americans were forced from their land to go to Oklahoma, mostly on foot. It is difficult to estimate but almost 20,000 died through famine, disease or exhaustion during the Trial of Tears. Just over 16,500 Cherokee were evicted from their land where between 2,000 and 6,000 died along the way. 

Star Wars

Star Wars fans in 1977

To finish this post I thought it would be best to talk about something on a lighter note. Recently The Last Jedi was released, the same year as the fortieth anniversary of Star Wars. This franchise perhaps the most influential film franchise of all time. Using groundbreaking effects mixing Westerns with samurai movies George Lucas brought us an epic which revolutionized sci-fi and the movie industry. Other than movies Star Wars has spawned toys, comics, TV shows, video games, and even a Christmas special. Star Wars is just as popular in 2017 as it was in 1977.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. For future blog posts please check out our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. If you want to discuss any other of 2017's events please feel free to leave a comment. Have a Happy New Year!

Who is Robert Mugabe?

Robert Mugabe

One of the news stories to dominate the recent headlines is the coup in Zimbabwe which has forced the resignation of Robert Mugabe who has been in power since 1980. Mugabe's rule has been accompanied by ethnic violence, human rights abuses, censorship of opposition, and economic turmoil, but people have been wondering why this coup went through legal procedures to depose Mugabe. In fact the only reason why this coup has seemed to happen is that he made his wife, Grace Mugabe, vice-president. Even the opposition leaders have commended Mugabe, and across Africa he is still widely respected. Mugabe is both hated and loved. Today we'll look at Robert Mugabe's life to understand why this is.

Birth and Background

Mugabe in 1976 with his first wife, Sally

Robert Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family on 21 February, 1924 who were living in the northeast of Salisbury (the modern capital of Harare) in the British colony of Rhodesia. In 1890, just a year after a Royal Charter was granted, the Pioneer Column occupied Mashonaland raising the Union flag in what would become Salisbury. The colony of Rhodesia was dominated by a white settler class and formed a colonial system of rule not dissimilar from that of what would become South Africa to the south. Racial discrimination meant that many rural Africans were landless or tenant farmers while in urban areas they were forced into poor, overcrowded housing. Thanks to discrimination many could not go into higher education; in Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia) only 35 Africans had gained higher education by 1959. Mugabe was lucky enough to go into education although his family life was telling for the situation for Africans in Rhodesian society. Two of his brothers died - one of diarrhea and one of eating poisoned maize - around 1934. He managed to go to Kutama College in order to become a teacher, partially funded by Jesuit missionary Father Jerome O'Hea from which he graduated in 1944. In college he was a loner, often described as 'a bit of a cold fish' and after graduation he never stayed long at one school. In 1949 he won a scholarship to Fort Hare University in South Africa which was the same university in which Nelson Mandela attended.

When Mugabe was in college and university Africa, and the world, was in change. The Second World War had brought many Africans into the political fold of their imperial overlords, and when that was limited after the war they became involved in independence movements. Meanwhile in India, Mahatma Gandhi's independence movement had helped break British rule (alongside the millions which took part in the movement) and would inspire colonized peoples worldwide. The victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany had also brought Marxism into discussions across the world. Gandhi and Marx both helped shape Mugabe's views. In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah's CPP (Convention People's Party) won independence in 1957 and in the same year a Rhodesian branch of the African National Conference (ANC) was founded. The ANC wanted to reform land allocation, abolish discriminatory laws, and extend the franchise (out of 52,000 people eligible to vote only 560 were African). In 1958 Mugabe moved to Ghana, while also doing a second degree, where he met his first wife Sally Hayfron. According to Mugabe it was while he was in Ghana that he became a Marxist.

Revolutionary Years

Joshua Nkomo

Mugabe wasn't the only leading nationalist in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia. Former leader of the ANC, Joshua Nkomo, formed the more racial National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960 when the ANC was banned. Co-founder (who was also a friend of Mugabe) Leopold Takawira said 'We are no longer asking Europeans to rule us well...We now want to rule ourselves.' Takawire convinced Mugabe to remain in Rhodesia who became heavily involved in the nationalist movement. By the early 1960s as nationalist movements had either won independence or were winning independence Britain had started to offer independence, but on their own terms. In 1961 Britain's Commonwealth Secretary Duncan Sandys organised a meeting in Salisbury to draft a constitution for Rhodesia, and he invited Nkomo to represent the NDP. Many whites opposed this as it seemed to be giving the African majority more power. However, Britain planned for the white population to keep their power by only giving some token representation to the far larger African population. Perplexingly the NDP agreed to a compromise which gave Africans 15 out of 65 parliamentary seats. Riots broke out over the agreement so the NDP was banned. In 1961 the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) was formed under Nkomo and in 1963 the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was founded which Mugabe joined causing gang warfare to break out between the two. Meanwhile, the more radical right-wing Rhodesian Front came to power in 1962, and in 1965 to forestall Britain granting African rule the prime minister, Ian Smith, declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).

In 1963 Mugabe was imprisoned and while imprisoned his three-year old son would pass away of cerebral malaria; Eddison Zvobga, a senior Zanu figure, reported that 'He was in tears...he just sat in the corner quietly. I watched him sob.' Smith himself personally saw to it that Mugabe was denied compassionate leave to bury his son. Until his release in 1974 Mugabe retreated into himself acquiring four further degrees. Outside of prison, Zanu's leader, Ndabaningi Sithole, faced a vote of no confidence, and Mugabe was made his replacement. A guerrilla war was being waged in the country with both key parties having their own armed group: Zanu had the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla) backed by China while Zapu had the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra) backed by the USSR. As this was happening South Africa, fearful of African guerrilla activists spilling over the border, started putting pressure on Smith, while Rhodesia's independent neighbors were putting further pressure to have the 'Prison Graduates' released. However, in April 1974 a coup in Portugal led to the independence of Mozambique and the coming to power of the Marxist-Leninist Frelimo removing one of Rhodesia's key allies. After 11 years in prison Mugabe was released and immersed himself personally in the guerrilla war, although he focused mostly on propaganda and left warfare to Josiah Tongogara.

Ian Smith

The guerrilla war was extremely bloody. Guerrilla groups killed white farmers while Rhodesian security forces often killed African civilians. In 1974 16 European civilians were killed to 118 African civilians - meanwhile 345 guerrillas were killed to 96 security forces. Before 1972 David Caute claimed that 'not a single white person died as a result of guerrilla action.' Operating from neighboring Mozambique Zanla troops poured into Rhodesia as Mugabe as he vowed to expel the 'blood-sucking exploiters' and 'sadistic killers' in order to establish a one-party Marxist state. By 1979 20,000 had been killed when a moderate African, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, was elected to replace Ian Smith forming Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. However, he was denounced by both Nkomo and Mugabe as being a puppet, which he was. Eventually, Zambia (where Zapu was based in) and Mozambique forced Nkomo and Mugabe to attend a conference in London in 1979 to organize a ceasefire and elections. Mugabe only agreed to sign when Samora Machel of Mozambique told him that unless he signed the agreement he could no longer use Mozambique as a base. Mugabe later said: As I signed the document, I was not a happy man at all. I felt we had been cheated to some extent, that we had agreed to a deal which would to some extent rob us of victory we hoped we would achieve in the field.' Machel further informed him: Don't play make-believe Marxist games when you get home. You will face ruin if you force the whites into precipitate flight.' Despite violence on all sides Zanu-PF (Zanu-Patriotic Front) won 62 percent of the national vote, most of which were in the Shona population.

When Mugabe appeared on television he seemed to be the opposite of his guerrilla self; Ian Smith even found him 'sober and responsible.' Mugabe himself said:

 The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten. If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequalities that must never be a correct justification that because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power. An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or black against white.

Hopes were high in 1980. Mugabe brought in Ndebele (who had largely voted for Zapu) into his government, and even kept Ken Flowers the Head of Intelligence, the man who had tried to assassinate him. £900 million was donated from abroad, boycotts were lifted, Africans no longer faced racial persecution from the security forces, and whites no longer face military call-up. For the first three years of recognized independence everyone benefited and Mugabe could easily have been seen as positively as Nelson Mandela is seen today. Primary school enrollment rose from 82,000 in 1976 to 2,216,878 in 1985, and secondary school enrollment from 66,000 to 482,000 in the same period. By 1988 the WHO and UNICEF praised Mugabe for providing safe drinking water to over 84 percent of the population. Workers' rights improved, a minimum wage was introduced and labor discrimination based on race was illegalized. Shona and Ndebele were both made national languages, as well as English, and many minority languages including Chewa, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, Kalanga, and Shangani were officially recognized. He even earned the nickname 'Good Old Bob.' This shows that Mugabe saw great improvements to Zimbabwe but the big question is, what went wrong?

British prime ministers, starting with Margaret Thatcher, would often pay Zimbabwe when Mugabe redistributed white land.

End of the Honeymoon
There are several reasons why the honeymoon period came to a crashing halt. The legacies of colonial rule in the form of the Lancaster House constitution meant that very few black families were resettled onto white land, and many areas of resettled land was not suitable for farming. Although 416,000 people were resettled on 6.5 million acres this was not nearly close enough to deal with the issue. Job creation stalled: although 10,000 were made a year this was not enough. Most importantly many former soldiers lacked work and this became a major criticism towards Mugabe as he was seen as abandoning people who fought for both Mugabe and Zimbabwe. It did not take long for Mugabe to abandon socialism and unlike others like him he did not even pay lip-service too socialism. As corruption started to skyrocket, (one of his proteges Phillip Chiyangwa said 'I am rich because I belong to Zanu-PF. If you want to be rich you must join Zanu-PF.'), inflation soared. Human rights started as exemplified by the Gukurahundi.

Members of Mugabe's 5 Brigade

Gukurahundi is a Shona word for 'the rains which blows away the chaff.' Mugabe would boast of another degree, 'a degree in violence,' and during the Gukurahundi from 1982 to 1987 he exercised this degree. Unlike Mandela Mugabe was never a devotee to democracy, and, as according to James Muzondidya, political issues which could have been sorted with diplomacy was sorted with violence. Soon after becoming president he had his own personal force, called 5 Brigade, trained in North Korea so in the future, if the need arose, he could deal with opponents. One of Mugabe's closest advisers was an Ndebele politician called Enos Nkala who loathed Joshua Nkomo and Zapu calling Nkomo the 'self-appointed Ndebele king.' Zapu opposition towards Zanu-PF infuriated Mugabe and in 1982 claimed that Zapu had arms caches and was preparing a coup. Calling Nkomo a 'cobra in the house' he said 'The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head.' Former Zipra soldiers were arrested and Zapu assets were seized in Matabeleland which allowed South Africa to send soldiers 'to keep the bot boiling.' Mugabe accused Zapu of conspiring with South Africa so sent in 5 Brigade. What followed was a series of ethnic based violence in Matabeleland. Already facing a drought relief supplies were cut off as 5 Brigade attacked Zapu supporters. As most supporters happened to be Ndebele this turned into ethnic violence where Ndebele were forced to speak Shona, women were raped, an indoctrination policy was introduced, and villagers were forced to sing Shona songs praising the murders as they danced on mass graves. A report named Breaking the Silence was released after the Gukurahundi found that over 20,000 civilians were murdered during this period. During the guerrilla war Zanu-PF had tried to implement women's rights but during the Gukurahundi, and after, feminist groups were silenced. In December 1987 the Gukurahundi came to an end when Nkomo signed the Unity Accord with Mugabe merging Zanu and Zapu together. On 30 December 1987 Mugabe made himself president which put him charge of the armed forces, allowed him to dissolve the parliament, gave him unlimited terms in office, and allowed him to declare martial law.

Since 1987
Since becoming president in 1987 the current image of Mugabe which we have in the North Atlantic world set in. Due to the amount of things to discuss I'm only going to focus on certain key events of Mugabe's presidency until 2017. It is quite telling that the US, UK and World Bank focused not on the Gukurahundi, which largely affected Ndebele but also affected some white farmers, to instead criticize Mugabe over the seizure of white land without payment in the early 1990s and again in the 2000s. However, this should not overlook the blatant cronyism. As mentioned earlier Mugabe abandoned socialism rather quickly, and in 1991 Zanu-PF dropped all references to socialism, never mind Marxism. In December 1996 a recurring theme in Zimbabwean politics happened. Popular war veteran Mukoma Musa passed away in relative poverty, and at his funeral Brigadier Gibson Mashingaidze criticized Zanu-PF for abandoning their ideals and that he himself had to contribute lots of money to Musa's funeral. 'Some people now have ten farms to their names and luxury yachts and have developed fat stomachs when ex-combatants like Comrade Musa lived in abject poverty. Is this the Zanu-PF I trusted with my life? Is this the same party which promised to care for us in our old age?' By 2000 unemployment had reached had risen by 50 percent, inflation had reached 60 percent, 70 percent of the population were in poverty, and 13 million were 10 percent poorer than they were in 1990.

Morgan Tsvangirai

In 1999 a primarily urban-based socialist party called the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) emerged under former Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC aimed to oppose the 2000 referendum which would have changed the constitution creating the position of prime minister, restricting the president to two terms of five years (Mugabe could hold power for a further ten years), and letting the government seize white farms without payment if Britain cease paying Zimbabwe. Despite a propaganda blitz 55 percent of the country rejected the constitution where the rural population largely abstained. Mugabe blamed the white population and had the army attack farmers and their employees. Throughout the 2000s Mugabe continued his presidency marred by press censorship, corruption and political repression. For example, as a way to punish the MDC and urban populaces Operation Murambatsvina sent soldiers into shantytowns and slums to 'remove criminal elements' where the UN estimated that 700,000 people lost their homes or sources of livelihood. Adding to issues is the immense amount of debt the North Atlantic and China hold over Zimbabwe not improving issues.

The Coup

Tanks in Harare during the coup

Since the mid-2000s Mugabe's rule has wavered. From 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai acted as prime minister until the position was abolished in 2013. On November 8, 2017 Mugabe dismissed his vice-president Emmerson Mnangwa to replace him with his wife, Grace Mugabe, as he showed 'traits of disloyalty.'  This was, and is, unfortunate for Mugabe as Mnangwa has ties to the chief of the army and is a war veteran. Veterans of the independence war are still extremely respected in Zimbabwe so replacing a veteran with his wife was clearly a step too far, as well as replacing an ally of the army. Many veterans continue to say that Mugabe betrayed the revolution. Then on 13 November army commander Constantino Chiwenga threaten to intervene, which happened. However, unlike most coups legal procedures were taken into account with both parties trying to impeach Mugabe until the voluntarily resigned - recently he has been given a $10 million payoff and immunity to his family.

Despite the political repression, economic turmoil, and mass sympathy protests during the coup Mugabe is still very much respected. The legacy of his fight for African liberation and attempts to help the non-white population before his rule became increasingly authoritarian. Opposition leaders during the coup have even praised him for his actions during the liberation war. The media in the North Atlantic world has been quick to paint Mugabe as a dictator, and it is quite accurate to do so, but it is also important to remember that he was not always seen that way. Not mentioned yet but Elizabeth II did knight Mugabe. Robert Mugabe can easily be described as a liberator turned dictator.

The sources I have used are as follows:
-Profile: Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Al Jazeera
-Nick Dearden, The West owes Zimbabwe a Future, Al Jazeera
-David Blair, Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power in Zimbabwe, (London: Continuum Books, 2003)
-Michael Auret, From Liberator to Dictator: An Insider's account of Robert Mugabe's descent into tyranny, (Clarement, South Africa: New Africa Books, 2009)
-Martin Meredith, The State of Africa: A History of the Continent since Independence, (London: Simon & Schuster, 2011)
-Brian Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo (eds.), Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from The Pre-Colonial Period to 2008, (Johannesburg: Weaver Press, 2009)

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