wfn.org | Leader Calls For WCC to Condemn Mugabe's Ban on Strikes

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>
10-December-1998 
 
 
    Trade Union Leader Calls For WCC to Condemn Mugabe's Ban on Strikes 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
HARARE, Zimbabwe--The leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions 
(ZCTU), Morgan Tsvangirai, has called on the World Council of Churches, 
whose eighth assembly is meeting in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to issue a 
strong condemnation of a ban on strikes in Zimbabwe. 
 
    Last month Zimbabwe's president, Dr. Robert Mugabe, declared a 
six-month ban on strikes, prohibiting "the inciting of, or taking part in, 
collective industrial action meant to put pressure on the government to 
change laws." The government has said it will introduce a permanent ban on 
strikes next year. 
 
    Tsvangirai, the ZCTU's secretary general, told ENI today that he was 
hoping that the WCC "will take a very strong resolution and make it clear 
to government that this is unacceptable." 
 
    The ban follows growing industrial action by unions and other 
organizations as unrest grows over the nation's troubled economy. Inflation 
and massive price rises are making it very difficult for many Zimbabweans 
to survive. The most recent one-day "stay-aways," on 11 and 18 November, 
brought the country to a virtual stand-still. 
 
    However, asked at a press conference today whether the WCC assembly 
would rebuke Zimbabwe for its ban on strikes, Dr. Janice Love, the 
moderator of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, 
said that the WCC had a "long-standing policy" of not criticising the 
governments of countries in which WCC meetings were taking place. 
 
    Tsvangirai was speaking to ENI after addressing a meeting on 
international debt, organized by the Jubilee 2000 coalition, at the WCC's 
assembly, which is taking place on the campus of the University of 
Zimbabwe. 
 
    During his speech,  Tsvangirai criticized, without specifying any 
particular country,  "ruling elites who have found a way of borrowing 
[international loans] on behalf of the people, and then secreting the funds 
outside the country." At the time of the struggle against colonial rule 
there had been a "unified programed," but since liberation "a certain group 
of people assumed responsibility for us and made us accountable to them 
instead of them being accountable to us," he said. 
 
    Under the presidential decree banning strikes, trade unions which 
recommend, encourage or incite people to engage in unlawful collective 
action will have their registration suspended. Employers who encourage 
staff to join illegal action can be fined or gaoled for up to three years 
or both. 
 
    Zimbabwe's trade unions were now "facing very serious constraints in 
terms of their liberty to operate," Tsvangirai said. The presidential ban 
on strikes "literally incapacitates our ability to organize," he added. 
 
    "The whole world church movement is here and we cannot be seen to be 
operating the other way round [when] people's rights are trampled upon and 
people's freedoms are not observed," he said. "I think that the churches 
throughout the world must campaign for human rights 50 years after the 
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and I think it is important 
that these conditions also apply here," he said. Today, 10 December, marks 
the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights. To mark the anniversary the WCC assembly issued a declaration 
supporting "the indivisibility of human rights, including social, economic 
and cultural, civil and political rights, and the rights to peace, to 
development and the integrity of creation." 
 
    The ZCTU has not called any stay-aways since 18 November, saying it 
wants to give tripartite talks between government, employers and trade 
unions a chance to succeed. But a tripartite meeting yesterday 9 December 
ended without agreement, after a key government minister, Finance Minister 
Herbert Murerwa, failed to turn up. 
 
    "It's a disappointment, but we're used to so many disappointments. But 
we're hopeful that this process can be taken further and these issues can 
be resolved without necessarily anarchy and chaos," Tsvangirai told ENI, 
but refused to rule out further strikes. 
 
    "Obviously we cannot put all our eggs in one basket, in the negotiating 
option. We will have to make sure that we also have the rights to take 
appropriate action." 
 
    According to a local political analyst, Lupi Mushayakarara, the ZCTU is 
the only national organisation in Zimbabwe apart from President Mugabe's 
ruling ZANU (PF) "with a membership and a leadership." 
 
    "It is not surprising people look to the ZCTU to become a political 
party," she said. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org