ZIMBABWE, WORKERS AND POOR MASSES UNDER ATTACK
REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS GROUP OF ZIMBABWE (RWG-Z)
(ZIMBABWE SECTION OF THE LIAISON COMMITTEE OF COMMUNISTS-LCC)
Publishers of the Revolutionary Worker
Website: www.rwgzimbabwe.wordpress.com
E-mail:rwg.zimbabwe@gmail.com
Facebook: Revolutionary Workers Group-Zimbabwe
Twitter:@rwgzimbabwe
Cell: +263713045654
ZIMBABWE, WORKERS AND POOR MASSES UNDER ATTACK:
FORWARD TO AN INDEFINITE GENERAL STRIKE!
BUILD A UNITED CROSS UNION RANK AND FILE STRIKE COMMITTEE!
BUILD WORKERS DEFENSE MILITIAS!
Workers and the poor masses are under attack from the pro austerity capitalist serving regime in Zimbabwe. Since October last year the government has made clear its intention to make workers, poor farmers, the urban poor and youths pay for the crisis of capitalism in here in Zimbabwe, a semi colony. Prices of basic commodities have risen by more than 100% whilst the income of the majority of workers, both lower level and middle class have been eroded by more than 400% in less than three months. The introduction of a tax on electronic mediated transfers, the most popular method of transaction for the majority as a result of hard currency shortages, has worsened the situation with most poor people failing to take care of their families and afford basic services like health and education. This is not accidental: it is a direct result of the policy stated of the post- Mugabe regime expressed through the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), fiscal and monetary policies and the budget all announced late last year.
If workers do not fight these attacks we will witness massive attacks on the incomes, livelihoods and working conditions of the poor working masses. Doctors and radiographers as well as some teachers under the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) banner have been striking and protesting demanding, among other things, that the government improves their working conditions and pay them in US dollars. ARTUZ staged a march last month preparing for a massive sit in at the offices of the Minister of Finance. More importantly and decisively, doctors and radiographers in state hospitals have been on strike for over a month now despite threats, isolation and propaganda against them. They have truly managed to hold the fort against the odds but without other sectors of the civil servants coming out soon the strike can be defeated as the doctors tire. We hope the doctors and radiographers hold the line well into the coming week when schools open and teachers join in as well as nurses and other civil servants. Ultimately all workers including all in the private sector must join in and turn the strike by civil servants into an indefinite general strike.
The doctors and radiographers strike continues. Teachers under ARTUZ as well as other organisations will picket the offices of the Minister of Finance tomorrow Monday demanding that their grievances be addressed. The largest teacher union, the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA), has declared that its members will not go to work on Tuesday when schools open demanding salaries in US dollars and an improvement in their working conditions. We expect other teachers’ unions and nurses, on the basis of their joint declaration last week, to also down tools this week. This would bring on board the majority of the civil servants with high chances of other public sector workers joining. But ultimately all workers should come out. We call on the main trade union federation the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) general Council, which is meeting this Tuesday, to call on all workers to join the strike turning the action into a massive all out indefinite general strike. Only then can we be assured of defeating the austerity agenda of the regime and laying a solid foundation for defeating capitalism and imperialism.
It is not enough for all workers to be on strike. Rank and file workers must, in action, build a united cross union strike committee to advance the strike beyond the possible wavering and selling out by the trade union leaders. As the government feels the pressure it will resort to brute force to smash the action by workers. To defeat this, workers should form defense militias to defend themselves against state violence and harassment. Poor urban masses, unemployed workers, youths and vendors must join the action against the attacks on the poor masses. The agenda of the government is to divide and conquer the masses and as such solidarity and unity in action is vital to move forward and remove fear.
– A living Wage! Workers fight for a living wage and better working conditions through mass action controlled by ordinary workers!
– Against unemployment and destitution we demand a sliding scale of working hours to provide decent jobs for all through massive public works programs to provide housing, education and medical care for all!
– Against the ever rising prices and inflation we demand a sliding scale of wages!
– For free, comprehensive and secular education for all!
– For free quality health for all!
– Workers take back your unions!
– Organise the unorganised! Form unions of the unemployed as fully affiliated unions!
– The government and city municipalities must stop the attack on the vendors!
– Militant workers to form class struggle caucuses in the unions to fight for this program!
– Workers to form strike committees to lead the resistance to the growing attacks on the wages and working conditions of the poor and the livelihood of the majority poor!
– Workers to form workers defence guards for defence against state violence!
– A national strike committee to organise and plan for a general strike!
– For a workers government on the basis of the armed people to implement decisions that benefit the workers and the poor!
– Nationalization of all companies without indemnification to the big shareholders under workers control!
– Land to be distributed to all poor peasants together with a state bank to provide inputs to all small farmers!
– 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 (Zimbabwe section of the Liaison Committee of Communists)
06 January 2019
Harare, Zimbabwe
