Hands Off Union Leaders!
The following is reprinted from our comrades of the Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-ZIM):
ZIMBABWE: FOR MASS ACTION TO FREE UNION LEADERS AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS!
From the 14th of January the government has been arresting trade unionists, opposition leaders, civic leaders and the poor masses. This was as a result of the historic protests cum stay away which shock the regime to its core forcing it to shut down the internet, repress viciously the masses through indiscriminate killings, mass arrests, wanton shootings, torture and rape. The motivation is clear: To silence all opposition to austerity and massive looting of the state as well as to hinder future organisation of the masses.
As we speak four trade union leaders are in jail facing serious charges ranging from subversion to treason. The president and secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) as well as their counterparts from the radical teachers’ union, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ). Other leaders are on the run and some in hiding. The motivation and intention of the state is to weaken and crush the workers movement as a pre-condition for the successful implementation of further austerity measures meant to make the workers and poor masses pay for the crisis of capitalism and corruption by elites.
Whilst the government has also moved to arrest opposition leaders as well civic leaders it is clear that their real target are the poor masses and trade union leaders whose constituency poses a real threat to their pro imperialism policies. The opposition and civic elites do not oppose the massive austerity measures being forced on the population. Their stated goal is to force the government to a negotiating table with the intention of producing another Government of National Unity (GNU) premised on pro capital policies. Ordinary workers, the poor and urban youths who have been arrested are being denied bail and their cases fast tracked to instill fear in the population calculated at discouraging participation in future protests.
Through the arrests, trials and subsequent sentences the government is engaging in direct class warfare against the working and poor population in the service of capitalism and imperialism. The state has clearly transformed from a police state under Mugabe to a military state where the military is now a key player in enforcing “law” and serving imperialism. This is not peculiar but a necessary expression of the nature of class antagonisms and tasks. The workers, poor peasants, urban poor, poor youths and unemployed must realise this and respond accordingly. Reliance on the rule of law, petitioning regional and international state bodies is not enough and on their own such methods ultimately lead to defeat and demoralization. Class methods must be utilised. Organised militant mass action, leading to a general strike, which is organized and defended by the ordinary poor masses, is a must if our class is to conquer its interests. Solidarity from the international workers movement is a must.
– Free all trade unionists and political prisoners now!
– Stop the persecution and repression of the poor masses and their leaders!
– For the full right to strike, protest, assemble and expression!
– 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!
– Nationalisation 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)
30 January 2019
Harare, Zimbabwe
