ZIMBABWE: Workers' resistance `on the rise'

ZIMBABWE: Workers' resistance `on the rise'

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2003/564/564p20.htm

BY NORM DIXON

Thousands of workers across Zimbabwe joined anti-government protests on 
November 18, despite threats of police repression prior to the marches 
and the arrest of scores of trade unionists on the day. Police brutally 
beat hundreds of protesters as they dispersed the demonstrations. 
However, according to Munyaradzi Gwisai, a leader of the International 
Socialist Organisation (ISOZ), the protests revealed a renewed 
preparedness among workers to confront President Robert Mugabe's 
authoritarian capitalist regime.

The national stayaway and associated demonstrations were called by the 
250,000-member Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to protest 
against the ever-rising cost of living (annual inflation is running at 
more than 500%, and projected to reach 700% next year), high taxes on 
workers' incomes and continued violation of trade union rights by the 
Mugabe regime. It was timed to coincide with the government's annual budget.

Assistant police commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena warned on November 17 
that the police were prepared to deal with such rogue elements. In the 
early hours of November 18, police arrested and severely assaulted 
prominent ZCTU leader Peter Munyukwi. David Shambare, who organised 
industrial action by unionists at the national Railways of Zimbabwe, was 
also picked up.

Police also raided a ZCTU general council meeting in the capital Harare 
and arrested eight leaders, including ZCTU vice-president Elias Mlotshwa 
and teachers union leader Raymond Majongwe. Eight union leaders were 
reported arrested in the central Zimbabwe city of Gweru, and one each in 
Bulawayo and Gwanda, in southern Zimbabwe.

Despite the arrests, workers braved certain repression to gather at noon 
in most major Zimbabwe cities. In Harare, several hundred workers were 
confronted by hundreds of baton-wielding riot cops deployed on every 
street corner. Around 40 unionists and democracy advocates were arrested 
under Zimbabwe's draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Those seized included ZCTU president Lovermore Matombo, ZCTU 
secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe, ZCTU vice-president Lucia 
Matibenga, National Consitutional Assembly chairperson Lovemore Madhuku 
and well-known progressive academic Brian Raftopoulos.

In Bulawayo, more than 10,000 workers gathered outside the government's 
offices to hand a petition to the provincial governor. They too were met 
with riot cops and police dogs. At least 10 protesters were detained. In 
the small city of Mutare, several hundred workers and their supporters 
mobilised and more than 300 arrested. In Gweru, about 100 people 
demonstrated.

The ISOZ's Munyaradzi Gwisai told Green Left Weekly in an email that the 
Bulawayo protest was the largest and most militant demonstration in 
Zimbabwe for many years: Workers and township women  some with 
children on their backs  took on the police in inspiring struggles. 
Many shops and factories closed in the city as workers heeded the call 
for action.

Gwisai believes that the reason why the Harare protest was small was due 
to a lack of leadership on the day caused by the detention of key ZCTU 
leaders that morning. However he also pointed to deeper problems: In 
Harare, the ZCTU unions are in poor shape. Most of their leaders have 
become alienated from the rank-and-file membership due to massive donor 
funding over the last few years. This has massively corrupted the 
full-time officers and a layer of worker activists. Together with the 
pacifist policies of the pro-capitalist Movement for Democratic Change 
[opposition party], this has meant that hardly any mobilisation took place.

It is no coincidence that the largest contingent of workers who turned 
up in Harare came from the relatively small printing workers' union  in 
which radical worker activists working with the ISOZ recently won 
leadership of the union. That union organised a special meeting for its 
rank and file leaders the day before the demonstration, which was also 
attended by ISOZ's Harare leaders and student leaders. They issued joint 
call to mobilise.

The tobacco workers' union also has a new militant, young leadership, 
which was able to bring out workers for the Harare protest. The older, 
more established ZCTU union leaders never really intended to organise 
the mass of workers to protest, but instead intended to have a symbolic 
demonstration at which they and key civic leaders would get arrested. A 
number of them literally offered themselves up for arrest to the 
police... A labour forum [mass meeting of worker activists] held two 
weeks earlier to promote the stayaway was attended by less than a 
hundred workers.

On the other hand in Bulawayo and Mutare, away from the capital, the 
problems of union corruption are much less, and the mobilisation of 
workers has been much better. Both cities had very big labour forums 
prior to the action, attended by more than 1000 workers.

Gwisai told GLW that overall, the good turnouts for the protests may be 
a turning point. The actions have built confidence of workers, 
especially in the towns and among the members of the unions which 
actively participated, he said.

However, a two-day stayaway called by the ZCTU for November 20-21 to 
protest the arrests was largely a failure. Gwisai said the ZCTU's call 
was hasty and premature, for it was necessary to take a breather and 
call for labour forums to assess the situation, reorganise and build 
another action in a much stronger and more coordinated manner than before.

However, it seems that the spirit of resistance is clearly on the rise 
and the next few months are going to be very important in the unfolding 
struggle. A key aspect of this is going to be the area of leadership, in 
particular, whether the rank and file of key unions will be able to 
break through the suffocating disorganisation and passivity of the union 
bureaucracies. If this occurs, then we could be in for very exciting 
times, Gwisai concluded.

Friends of Green Left <http://www.greenleft.org.au/fogl.html>

 From Green Left Weekly, December 3, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. <http://www.greenleft.org.au/>

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