WRITE TO PROTEST ASSAULT AGAINST STREET VENDORS AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN ZIMBABWE

- WRITE TO PROTEST ASSAULT AGAINST STREET VENDORS AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN ZIMBABWE

I urge you to join more than 200 international human rights and civic groups (including Amnesty International and the Canadian Labour Congress) in voicing protest to the government of Zimbabwe for their massive assault against thousands of street vendors and informal settlements across Zimbabwe.

Squashing the people and physical environments in Operation Murambatsvina (meaning "drive out the rubbish") violates basic Human Rights and due process of the law, and is misguided economic policy. This sector is important as a safety net for the poor, business incubator, generator of economic benefits to the country as whole, and should be a part of any country’s serious effort for sustainable development. Though humble and roughhewn, this sector is essential for achieving the goals of both social justice and efficient economic growth, especially for developing nations.

Below is a sample short message to send to Zimbabwe’s UN Ambassador. You can fax, postal mail, phone, or Email this. Ask your friends and colleagues in your various networks to do likewise. If you have time, also contact your local elected federal representatives to ask them to get involved.

I urge the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe to cease trampling on the Human Rights of thousands of street vendors and informal settlements across Zimbabwe. Please stop Operation Murambatsvina.

For more information:

1. ask to be on the email information list of Zimbabwean William Sparks in Canada whose Email address is <william.sparks_AT_rogers.com>

by Senior Editors of OPENAIR MARKET NET: John Cross, U. of Texas-Pan American; Steve Balkin, Roosevelt U., and Alfonso Morales, U. of Wisconsin (July 16, 2005)

Recently, 10,000 street vendors were arrested in a series of sweeps by riot police in Harare and other cities in Zimbabwe. The actions, carried out apparently in a feeble attempt to divert attention from the collapsing economy and the atrocious human rights record of President Robert Mugabe, have caused untold suffering for the urban poor in that city, many of whom rely on vending to make a living, and many more as a source of goods and services that are increasingly difficult to obtain in regular stores at accessible prices.

As concerned scholars who have studied street markets around the globe, we are increasingly worried about these types of negative attacks on street markets carried out by governments around the world. Our research shows that street markets almost always contribute positively to the economic wellbeing of both developing and developed nations by providing a competitive alternative to capital-intensive fixed-location stores, particularly in economically depressed regions or nations where capital is scarce.

The horrible abuses of human rights that are being carried out by the Zimbabwean government may seem excessive, but the sad fact is that similar attacks on street vending are constantly carried out by governments around the world in the mistaken belief that street vendors and street markets are somehow antithetical to capitalist development. In New York City, for example, where whole neighborhoods limp by without adequate access to retail establishments, street vendors are limited to a mere 3,000 permits for a city of 6 million!

While street markets are often accused of harboring black-market activities (and this is the accusation in Zimbabwe), they should be thought of more as an economic reality check for governments who strangle the economy with too much bureaucratic red tape. Pointless regulations that tie up economic activity in the formal economy will create a demand for ways to get around those regulations, and selling on the street is often one answer.

Street vending is simply a way in which people exercise the most basic human right of all: the right to honest work to support their families. If governments are not willing to take the responsibility to make sure that everyone has a job, then it is their responsibility to make adequate allowances for people to provide for their own well-being.

Street vending is a growing economic factor around the world in part due to the collapse of alternative sources of income as globalization has led to an increased concentration of wealth and production at the expense of local businesses, a phenomenon which can be seen even in the United States but which is causing economic havoc in Latin America, Africa, and a number of Asian nations. While it is unclear whether this will lead to the creation of more good jobs, the poor and the desperate cannot wait around for the long-term. They need income now.

Street vending is often an option because it requires comparatively little capital. Hypothetically, one can start a food stall with a few basic pieces of houseware borrowed from one’s home and a small initial investment in raw materials—(although unfortunately it is often made far more complicated and expensive by needless regulations that supposedly protect the consumer but usually simply prevent many people from participating). The vendor invests his or her labor, which otherwise would be wasted waiting for a job to open up, and provides a necessary service, as proven by the fact that the goods produced are rapidly bought and consumed.

This is not rocket-science, and neither is it an inherent evil. It is free-market economics, and governments around the world would behoove themselves to ask not what they can do against street vending, but what street vending can do for their economies.