guest column:Nelson Chamisa THIS month marks the 21st anniversary of our struggle, our journey and our formidable political formation called the MDC which morphed into the MDC Alliance following processes which saw founding stalwarts being reunited once again. Through the MDC Alliance, we have reconnected, reunited and re-ignited national hope so that together, we collectively achieve what we set out to achieve in 1999. On September 11, 1999, this movement was formed at Rufaro Stadium and the country's political terrain would never be the same again. We salute the over 32 civic organisations that came together through the national working people’s convention at the Women’s Bureau in Harare in 1999 just prior to the launch of the working people’s party. The year saw the birth of a great movement borne out of the sweat of labour, the constitutional movement, the student movement, women’s groups, war veterans and youth groups, with labour having fronted the people's quest for change. Fronting this cause was the great icon Morgan Tsvangirai ably assisted by the indefatigable Gibson Sibanda and many others who came from the labour movement. I and many others were also part of this historic moment, with myself and others having come from the student movement. At our inaugural congress in Chitungwiza in January 2000, a number of leaders were voted into the national leadership of this great movement to steer forward the national hope for a new Zimbabwe. I will forever remain humbled for being voted among the first team of senior leaders of the party, when the inaugural congress expressed its confidence in me and overwhelmingly elected me the party's founding national youth chairperson. Fellow Zimbabweans, it is heartening to take note that most of the founding members of the party are with the MDC Alliance today and are still leading across our structures. And yes, their eyes remain firmly focused on what we sought to achieve when the MDC was formed 21 years ago. Many of these founding cadres are in the national, provincial, constituency and branch structures of the people’s party, the MDC Alliance. Today we remain resolute, resilient and vigilant. The real issues facing our country today of hunger, joblessness, a dead economy, a broken public health system, the water crisis and poverty make the need for a viable alternative ever more urgent. We refuse to be swallowed. We guard our zones of autonomy. We increase the cost of dictatorship in Zimbabwe. We fight the pillars of tyranny. We continue to articulate the illegitimacy of the unelected and unelectable. We assert our credibility as a viable and bankable alternative. Twenty-one years on, we remain focused on our original goal which has always been to achieve positive transformation in the lives of the people of Zimbabwe. And true to our founding values and objectives, we remain unstinting and on course in our quest to consign repression to the dustbin and to give succour and happiness to our country's citizens. We, a peaceful people, are being broken. We are peace-loving