Workers' Liberty

From a statement by the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe

ISO press release, 13 May:

Condemn the ZCTU arrests!

Mike Sambo of the Zimbabwe International Socialist Organisation spoke to Sacha Ismail

What is the latest with the election results?

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission have withheld the results of the first round presidential elections and instigated a recount in 23 electoral areas.

In a magnificent display of working-class solidarity, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, refused to unload 77 tonnes of Chinese weapons bound for Zimbabwe.

Two days after the polls closed in Zimbabwe's presidential election, 77 tonnes of mortars, rockets and ammunition were dispatched from China.

The ISO is linked to the SWP. We do not agree with much of the analysis, particular the comrades' call to critically support the MDC, and will respond in the next issue of Solidarity, but we print their call as an act of solidarity.

On 8-9 February 2008, over 3,000 delegates from fifty civic groups, social movements, trade unions and the revolutionary left gathered in Harare.

At four in the morning on 24 August, Zimbabwean police carried out a raid on the homes of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members in Bulawayo, taking six women and a one year-old baby into custody.

by Sacha Ismail

On Tuesday 3 April, trucks of riot police drove through the Zimbabwean capital Harare, and military helicopters hovered over workers’ districts, as a two day general strike called by the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions over wage rises and price increases — and against Robert Mugabe’s increasingly dictatorial regime — began.

By Jack Staunton

On 5 February teachers across Zimbabwe began an indefinite general strike for pay and conditions, joining doctors and nurses already taking action against poverty pay.

With inflation now reported to be running at 1,593% (the worst in the world), dictator Robert Mugabe is keeping public sector workers’ wages down in order to have enough money to keep his regime afloat. Almost 200,000 public sector workers angry about pay now pose a threat to the regime’s stability.

On February 5th teachers across Zimbabwe began an indefinite general strike for pay and conditions, joining doctors and nurses already taking action against poverty pay.
With inflation running at over 1,200% (the worst in the world), dictator Robert Mugabe is keeping public sector workers' wages down in order to have enough money to keep his regime afloat.

South Africa

Hundreds of thousands of workers in South Africa supported a one-day general strike in protest against job losses on 18 May.

from the national coalition of anti-deportation campaigns

CAMPAIGNERS have reported that Lizwane Ndlovu, one of the original Zimbabwean detainees at Yarl’s Wood who went on hunger strike there over the summer, died last Thursday 10th November 2005.

Organised by Amicus and Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA). Guest Speakers: Thabitha Khumalo, Women's Secretary and Collen Gwiyo, Deputy General Secretary, of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. To

Campaign forces reprieve for Zimbabwean asylum seekers

On 14 July, the campaign by over a hundred Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who had gone on hunger strike, plus their supporters, won a victory.

Sacha Ismail spoke to Briggs Bomba, an activist in the Zimbabwean democracy movement and international coordinator of the Zimbabwe International Socialist Organisation (ISO).

Two socialists comment on the Zimbabwean elections which take place on 31 March

South African trade unionists picketed the Zimbabwe border last week to demand democratic and labour reforms ahead of Zimbabwe’s 31 March parliamentary elections.

By Peter Tatchell*

Has the left lost the plot? On a number of issues sections of the left have abandoned the principles of universal human rights and social justice.

Over a number of years I have done solidarity work with Zimbabweans struggling for democracy, socialism and human rights. They have not had much support from the mainstream left.

During the last week of October, a delegation from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) arrived in Zimbabwe for a brief “fact-finding mission”.

When it happened minds came together. Struggles converged like many rivulets forming a powerful river. Floating hopes joined to become an unstoppable Hope. It all flowed towards the future. This was the force of the just-ended Zimbabwe Social Forum as thousands of radical spirits came together in central Harare from 28-30 October. Problems were attacked, common struggles found. Visions of The Society We Want abounded, strategies were laid out. The future was on the horizon, it felt.

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by Pablo Velasco

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Teachers in Zimbabwe have stayed out on strike, defying a court ruling to return to work.

The strike, organised by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta), was declared illegal and teachers ordered to report for duty within 48 hours by the Labour Court on 20 May. Zimta said it would comply with the order and urged its members to return to work.

Rosa Zulu of the International Socialist Organisation reports.
In Harare, 6,000 workers in Gwanzura stadium gave the ISO a rousing welcome. We have now assumed the role of opposition faction leaders in the Movement for Democratic Change. We oppose the talks MDC have with the ZANU(PF) government. We organised students from the University of Zimbabwe, who came in a hired bus. Also groups from the National Constitutional Assembly and the Progressive Teachers Union.

By Rosa Zulu of the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe, writing just two days before the country's presidential election.

With elections looming thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans are already disillusioned and have no interest in voting. 12 months after the Movement for Democratic Change became the official “opposition” in Parliament, the mood for change experienced in June 2000 has evaporated. The question that must be asked is why has this happened? The answer lies in the power that Parliament has and the nature of reformist parties themselves like the MDC.