“Even if the MDC wins power, it will be faced with the enormous challenges of reconstructing the crumbling state apparatus and fostering increased development and democratisation in a country that has suffered from a deficit of both. The MDC is aware that it will have to deal with the IMF,but many of its working class supporters want to maintain subsidies and price controls in order to survive. They are also aware of the problems of Zambia, where a trade union-based party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), came to power and quickly fell prey to corruption, its ranks filled by opportunistic placemen from the former regime. Big cuts were accordingly made in the state safety net for workers and the poor. Certainly, the MDC in power may face resistance from parts of its civil
society and trade unionist constituencies if it becomes too entangled with the forces of globalisation, especially the Bretton Woods institutions.”
