johninnit

As of this morning, the ZCTU are out on strike across Zimbabwe, in protest at Mugabe’s economic mismanagement. Inflation has risen to 1,700%, the highest in the world, meaning that people’s salaries have become worthless by the time of their next pay packet. Hunger is killing thousands, and reports suggest one third of the working age population have left to try to send home money from neighbouring countries.

Police turned over the union offices again yesterday to try to disrupt the strike and arrested more union staff. This is a very dangerous time to be a trade unionist, in one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a trade unionist.

Labour Minister Nicholas Goche has overruled normal labour law protections for striking workers, saying: “Employers are free to deal with workers who choose to deliberately stay away from work.”

If you haven’t already taken LabourStart’s online solidarity action, then please do. The strikers will need all the support they can get.

Conflicting reports in the expat ZimOnline and the Government controlled Herald. Who is telling the truth? Well, here’s a clue: Which one do you think publishes reader comments?

Better weather for the Zimbabwe demonstration than Septemeber’s ZCTU one!

Many of the protestors seemed to be expats and involved with MDC (who have borne the brunt of the latest crackdown), but there was at least one Amicus “Solidarity with the ZCTU” placard on display, after the raid on their offices.

A core group of demonstrators kept up a lively dancing protest for ages, until they were obviously in need of a break, but overall there seemed to be a tangible sense of unease and fear for those affected by the latest round of arrests and violence. Hardly surprising when many more of the demonstrators were directly connected with events than those at the ZCTU demo last year.

ZimVigil have kept this pressure up for a long time now with their Saturday vigils. All strength to them in continuing for as long as is needed to see Zimbabwe finally free.

As if things couldn’t be bad enough in Zimbabwe, we’ve just had reports this morning that plain-clothes police have raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (9.45 Zim time), demanding they hand over publicity materials for the planned strike on 3/4 April or face a beating.

Staff at the top of the building managed to get out, but a lot of them have been locked into the building, and are being threatened to make them hand over the materials.

General Secretary Wellington Chibebe was out of the office in court at the time, facing charges over his last arrest, when he and other colleagues were severely beaten in police custody after staging a peaceful demonstration (a fate which also seems also to have met Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leaders this week). I don’t know any more about who’s been detained in the offices, but given what they were willing to do to the high profile figures of the movement, I’m worried about the rest of their staff.

Zimbabwe’s UK Embassy’s email is zimlondon@yahoo.co.uk and their fax is 02073791167 (The Ambassador is Mr Gabriel Mharadze Machinga) - I’m off now to give him an email earful. If you want to waste some of Mad Bob’s fax paper, it’s 002634703858. He likes to be addressed as ‘your Excellency’ if you’re writing to him, though I don’t imagine too many people would give him that title if they didn’t know.

See you at Zimbabwe Vigil’s special demonstration outside the Embassy on the Strand 1-4pm tomorrow (Wed 14 Mar) - www.zimvigil.co.uk

UPDATE 11:00 GMT: Just heard that the police have gone from the office for the moment, though staff fear they will be back. They beat two staffers and then took away printed materials and equipment. One ZCTU staff member was taken into custody.

Very happy to see Thabitha Khumalo in the Torygraph this week, pictured looking very well. After the crackdown in Zimbabwe, she was almost insanely brave to fly back home from TUC Congress in Brighton, as the country’s most senior trades unionist outside jail, to help organise bail and medical help for her colleagues. She knew full well that she might herself be arrested and beaten (she has been before), and I was very concerned we might never see her again.

She’s been back in the UK though, to receive a UK Woman of the Year Award, for her work with the ZCTU and her “Dignity, period” campaign. It’s very good to see her getting some of the recognition she is certainly due. Can’t imagine that a medal from the UK will endear her to Mad Bob’s Anglophobe regime though.

Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, the charges against Wellington Chibebe seem to have been bumped up to actually assaulting police officers (”Yes, your honor, he sustained those severe head injuries when he repeatedly headbutted our officers”).

Well, there I was predicting that Mugabe wouldn’t give much of a t*ss about an international day of demonstrations, but not quite expecting him to admit he doesn’t. According to AFLCIOnow, Mad Bob told his official newspaper:

“The police were right in dealing sternly with the ZCTU leaders.…Some people are
crying foul that they were assaulted, yes you get a beating.”

So he’s now quite open about the fact that, under his regime, “yes you get a beating” for trying to organise a peaceful demo. Hopefully that’s going to make it just that little bit harder for Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa to stay friends with Zimbabwe and Zanu-PF. Mbeki could have a big influence on the situation, but doesn’t want to provoke instability on his doorstep. Given the ANC’s ruling partnership with their own unions, COSATU, he might well now be feeling the instability a bit closer to home.

“Wot no human rights?”

Well, that was the dampest demo I’ve ever been on. Made the leaflets go a bit mushy, but passers by were pretty cheery - even if the Embassy door stayed bolted shut for the duration. Respect to Sean here who I think got damper than most - I, and nearly everyone else, made sure to buy a brolly for it (which made for a rather widely-spaced crowd, trying not to poke or drip on each other).

Biggest surprise though was getting a relatively good turnout of people prepared to stand in the rain. Lots came and went quite quickly when they saw the lack of cover, but I reckon there were consistently around 50 there most of the time - so I’m sure we can legitimately claim 20,000.

Bit disappointed by the lack of chanting, but otherwise quite a pleasant lunchtime, and certainly better than sitting in a cell in Zimbabwe. I’m sure Mugabe doesn’t really give a t*ss what anyone in Britain thinks, but fingers crossed that today’s international day of action will get a whole bunch of reports going back to Harare from embassies around the world - letting them know that the trials next week *will* be followed outside the country too.

Well, not *all the way* to Zimbabwe as you’d have to be pretty stupid, or very brave for that, but to that little corner of a foreign field that will be forever Zimbabwe - namely their embassy in London.

The TUC are having a demo there on Friday at lunchtime (1pm), in protest at the crackdown on trades unions last week, and I for one will be along to join in (munching my sarnies in between chants).

Detailed news coming out of the country is sketchy (Labourstart has a good ongoing roundup), but Chibebe is still critical in hospital, and from the numbers of trades unionists arrested, I guess a lot of them didn’t make bail and are still inside.

For anyone needing more motivation, Her Majesty’s Times has a very grim piece on the events (hat tip Norm). This is where it’ll all be happening - see you Friday!

Following up on my post from yesterday - Things are getting worse in Zimbabwe. The 400 union activists and officials arrested are still inside and in a very bad way. Wellington Chibebe is beaten so badly they have had to move him to a hospital. Take a spare moment if you can to write a protest fax or email, to try to bring more pressure for their release and medical treatment. There’s a suggested action on the TUC site here.

At the TUC in Brighton yesterday, we heard a powerful speech from Thabitha Khumalo, 3rd VP of the ZCTU, the TUC’s equivalent body in Zimbabwe. She spoke frankly about the personal harm she had already faced, and was willing to face in the future, to help bring stability and democracy to her country, things we take very much for granted. You can read her speech here.
One bit that struck me was when she told us her instinctive initial reaction had been fear when she heard people heckling Tony Blair on Tuesday, worrying that the police would storm in to break Congress up for insulting the leader, as would happen in Zimbabwe.
It made for especially uncomfortable listening, when we’d spent several days bemoaning our own trade union problems, which now seemed slightly trivial in comparison with the terrible abuses suffered by colleagues in the Zimbabwean labour movement. To close her contribution, she led us in a rendition of “We will overcome” - something which the TUC hasn’t heard in a while. The conference was obviously deeply moved, but seemed so shocked that the song came out quietly and reverentially, more of a hymn than a protest.
Just hours after Thabitha left the stage, word started to come through that the police in Zimbabwe had started to round up trades unionists - ahead of a planned peaceful national demo for today. Over 400 are now believed to be in custody, with many of the leadership beaten badly and denied medical aid or legal representation. Thabitha is now the most senior labour movement figure outside of prison. This story shocked me especially, mentioning Grace Kwinjeh (the MDC’s Deputy Secretary for International Affairs), another very brave woman who I had the privilege of meeting last year at a meeting when she was part of a delegation to the UK.
The TUC has written to Robert Mugabe, though as he’s not the biggest fan of Britain’s unions or politicians, I doubt their outrage will cause him to lose much sleep. Please read Thabitha’s powerful speech, and help spread the word.

Zimbabwe’s government-independent newspaper, the Zimbabwean, has launched its online version today, reproducing articles from the paper for free. According to the paper, President Mugabe is trying to crack down on internet use, as it’s an unmediated channel to the outside world (trying to get ISPs to turn over users who write critical emails and so on), but luckily he’s not having much success, as the thirst for the truth means information is finding its own way through. The political leaning of this site isn’t particulary subtle (one headline today: “Tsvangirai – ’skilled and charismatic’ from trade unionist to national icon”), but here’s hoping this becomes a favourite bookmark inside and outside the troubled country. www.thezimbabwean.co.uk