STATEMENT ON ACTURUS MINE EVICTIONS
The following is reprinted from our comrades of the Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe-RWG-Z (Section of the Liaison Committee of Communists-LCC):
RWG ZIMBABWE STATEMENT ON ACTURUS MINE DISMISSALS AND EVICTIONS
NYAMBIRAI HANDS OFF WORKERS! WORKERS FIGHT DISMISSALS AND EVICTIONS!
SOLIDARITY WITH WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES!
Acturus mine former workers and their families are sleeping in the cold after being forcibly evicted from their company homes .This is being done by the purported new owner of the gold mine, TN Holdings owned by businessman and lawyer Tawanda Nyambirai, who claims to have bought the entity from Metallon. As we speak over fifty families have been evicted and are sleeping in the cold with babies and young children. Only last week a tent provided by a well-wisher was forcibly removed by the company security and impounded. The evictions follow the unfair and callous dismissals of workers without any benefits and without following even the basic requirements of bourgeoisie labour rules guiding retrenchments and dismissals.
A brief context of the situation is as follows: In 2016 the spouses of workers at the mine blockaded all entrances to the mine thereby preventing workers and management from working. This was in protest to the prolonged salary arrears and lack of commitment on the part of the management to resolve the wage issue. The blockade was defeated after the betrayal of workers by their union which agreed to a memorandum putting the blame for the work stoppage on the workers and not the owners who had provoked the spouses into action. The management went on to use the memoranda as well as the complicity of the union to isolate workers and victimize them. Since then workers have been orally and summarily dismissed without due process and benefits. Late last year the company was purported to have been sold to Nyambirai despite the fact that pay slips still bear the Metallon details. Workers believe Metallon colluded with Nyambirai to dismiss them and evict them.
The issues at hand are clear: Bosses and the state are taking advantage of the Zuva ruling (which allowed for workers to be dismissed on notice without benefits), compromised unions and isolated workers to push the burden of paying for the crisis of capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the workers and poor masses. This is but a clear class struggle that must be fought in terms of the class means and not through reformist and legalistic means. Workers dismissed and evicted should not move an inch from the mine premises until proper procedures are followed and all their dues and outstanding wages and allowances are paid in full. This should be the basis for the legal fight currently under way and in no way should workers rely solely on legal tactics which can be manipulated and frustrated by the bosses and the state. But above all this, workers still in employment should realize that it’s only a matter of time before they too are targeted so a full blown indefinite strike is necessary to reverse the losses suffered by the workers since 2016.To sustain the strike and the sit in working class solidarity is paramount. We call for:
-An all-out strike and solidarity action to defeat the dismissals and evictions!
-Reinstatement of all workers and payment of all outstanding wages and allowances!
-Workers fight for a living wage and better working conditions through mass action controlled by ordinary workers!
-Nationalisation of Acturus mine and all mines without indemnification to the big shareholders under workers control!
-A sliding scale of wages and prices and employment for all who can work!
-Organise the unorganised! Form unions of the unemployed as fully affiliated unions!
-Workers take back your unions!
-Militant workers to form class struggle caucuses in the unions to fight for this program!
-The introduction of state projects to employ all the unemployed; the government must stop the attack on the vendors!
-Land to be distributed to all poor peasants together with a state bank to provide inputs to all small farmers!
-For a national congress of all workers in struggle (state and private sector workers) to coordinate and prepare for a national general strike!
-Workers to form strike committees to lead the resistance to the growing attacks on the wages and working conditions and livelihood of the poor!
-Workers to form workers defence guards for defence against bosses and state violence!
– Workers, poor peasants and poor masses break with the petit bourgeoisie MDC-T Alliance and bourgeoisie ZANU (PF) and fight, through class struggle, for a worker’s party that champions the interests of the workers, poor peasants and the poor masses!
-A workers state that defends workers, peasants and the poor masses against the local and foreign capitalists!
-An African socialist revolution as part of the international revolution that alone can guarantee a better life for all!
-A new WORLD PARTY of socialist revolution based on the TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM of 1938 to lead the revolution to end capitalism and open the road to socialism!
Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe-RWG-Z (Section of the Liaison Committee of Communists-LCC)
17 May 2018
Harare
