WE, the General Council members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), meeting at the Quality International Hotel in Harare today 21 June 2008 to, among other things, discuss the 27 June 2008 Presidential Election Run-off ;

Having,

* Discussed the violent environment prior to the holding the Presidential Election Run Off of 27 June 2008;

* The conduct of political parties during the campaigning period; and

* The State's preparedness for holding a free and fair election


Observing that,


* Political violence in the country has reached alarming if not catastrophic proportions;

* That the 27 June Presidential election is not an election, but a declaration of war against the people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party;

* Dozens of people have been murdered due to political motivated violence;

* Thousands of people have been threatened with deaths, beaten, tortured and harassed for expressing or supporting the opposition political party;

* People are being forced to attend political rallies failure of which they are being beaten up;

* Deployment and sprouting of several bases led by the ruling party militia that are harassing and perpetrating violence;

* The usual poling officers, that is teachers and other civil servants, have been sidelined in the running of elections in favour of ruling party supporters;

* Thousands of people have been displaced through political violence and thereby unable to vote;

* The State President has made it clear that he will not accept defeat even if he loses the elections.

* Very few local observers have been accredited to oversee the conduct of the elections;

* Continuous harassment of workers on their way to and from work by youths militia who have been deployed in suburbs;

* Opposition party agents have been harassed, some killed and therefore unable to monitor what may happen in some wards on the day of the election;

* The opposition has not been granted permission to campaign;

* There is a complete black out of the opposition in the public media and in case where it is mentioned, has always been in negative light;

* Potential voters are being threatened if that they are names would be recorded if they voted for the opposition;


We therefore hereby resolve that:

* We will not accept an outcome of a flawed election;

* The Government immediately disband bases in all suburbs and unofficial road blocks manned by the youths militia;

* The government stop violence and allow local observers that were accredited for the March 29, 2008 Harmonised Elections to observe the Presidential Run Off.

* There be equal and unbiased access to the Public Media by all contesting parties.




Last Tarabuku

Acting Information Officer

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions

P.O Box 3549

Harare, Zimbabwe


Telephone 263-4-794702/794742

Cell 263 11 620 231

Fax 263-4- 728484

E-mail info@zctu.co.zw
Website www.zctu.co.zw <http://www.zctu.co.zw/>

From the latest Weekly Worker:
http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/726/forced.html

Forced underground

The Zanu-PF regime of Robert Mugabe has stepped up its repression in the lead-up to the June 27 presidential election run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change. The offices of the International Socialist Organisation have been closed down as part of the regime's crackdown against all opposition groups. Peter Manson spoke to ISO leader Munyaradzi Gwisai


PM: What happened when your office was raided by the authorities?

MG: Initially they came two weeks ago. They confiscated some material and raised an issue about our latest Socialist Worker, claiming it was inciting violence. This was because we had argued in the paper that the crisis was not going to be resolved through elections, but through mass action. We said that the way forward for the Movement for Democratic Change and civil society was to create a united front and mobilise against the regime. They said what we had written was very similar to what Wellington Chibebe, general secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, had been saying when they arrested him last month.

Then on June 12 they came over and ordered the closure of all the civic organisations in Zimrights House - Zimrights is the NGO that owns the complex where we rent our office. Also affected were the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe National Students Union. That very same day the offices of a variety of civic groups, including the Zimbabwe Social Forum, were also ordered to close. But nobody was arrested in our complex, as far as I know, and we were able to rescue our materials and computer, but our operations are now virtually underground.

Mugabe has said that most of the money coming from the imperialists is being channelled via the NGOs. Of course, many do get funds from the west and the intervention by the west in this election is significant. But the stepping up of the repression is now unambiguous.

PM: There are reports in the western press about Zanu-PF denying food to MDC supporters unless they hand in their identification papers, which would prevent them voting. Are these reports true and do you think the repression will succeed in delivering a Mugabe victory?

MG: Some of these stories are a load of trash. There might be one or two incidents in the countryside of people being told to hand over their identification papers and it is true the regime has started issuing new identification documents - informally we hear that in Zanu-PF's rural strongholds people are being wrongly registered. But these stories serve to disguise the regime's real preparations to rig the elections nationally.

The regime will close off key rural areas and the MDC will be lucky to have polling access there. Mugabe has openly declared that, whatever the result of the election, he will not hand over power to Tsvangirai. He will only hand over power to a leadership that he believes is consistent with the 'ideals of the liberation struggle'.

There is a fear that these methods might work. I would say at this stage it's a 50-50 election. The difference really is only around 130,000 votes, so the strategy of the regime is to displace a significant number of MDC voters in the rural areas they control. Combined with the disarray that the MDC and its allies are now in, this is giving Mugabe a good chance of victory.

The MDC banked everything on change through elections and had no plan B. Their strategy for taking on the dictatorship was one based exclusively on elections. The ISO has been arguing against this from the left for over a year. We have said that a resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis is not going to come through elections or similar means. A resolution will only come through the mass mobilisation of the opposition, organised labour and civic society through a united front.

Initially we argued for a boycott of the election. We said that elections should only be viewed as a mobilising tactic to take on the regime in the cities, in our factories, in our campuses, rather than a general strategy. Unfortunately many people got excited and fell into election mode.

The movement is now paying a heavy price for its failure to appreciate the true character of the Mugabe dictatorship and its naive illusions in the possibility of a peaceful transformation. The MDC - and the movement in general - is also paying a heavy price for the marginalisation of the MDC's working class and left activists in favour of a bourgeois and middle class elite who have no experience of struggle and who thought that the regime was about to fall and they would reap the reward.

PM: But what else can we expect of the bourgeoisie? Surely they have to rely on either constitutional means or top-down non-constitutional means with the support of imperialism?

MG: That is too sweeping. Historically we do know that bourgeois and middle class elements can take the road of mass mobilisation - look at the movement in Iran in the late 70s. Or look at the movements in eastern Europe directed by western involvement. Even more recently is the example of Kenya. There was a bourgeois opposition that was able to organise on the streets.

But in Zimbabwe, immediately after the March 29 elections, instead of leading the movement forward the MDC elite were calling for restraint. And then Tsvangirai ran away to South Africa, leaving a complete vacuum of leadership on the ground.

There is no doubt about it - the regime is rooted among the population with a solid social base. Despite the catastrophic economic collapse, Zanu-PF still won more popular votes in parliament than the MDC in the March 29 parliamentary elections. Mugabe might have lost on the streets, but if you count the actual votes, his party won more than the MDC in elections to the House of Assembly and Senate.

Zanu-PF won an absolute majority of votes in five of the country's 10 provinces, plus a simple majority in another province. By contrast the MDC won two provinces with an absolute majority and two with a simple majority. But because we use first past the post, not proportional representation, Zanu-PF's votes were not translated into a majority in parliament. It was only Mugabe himself, in the presidential election, who did worse in terms of the popular vote.

But it is also true that in the key sections of society - that is, in the industrial and economic centres - the MDC had a total whitewash in virtually all towns big and small. It is clear that the working class is solidly behind the MDC, while Zanu-PF's support comes from the rural provinces. And for the first time the MDC was able to make inroads in two major rural provinces - two drought-hit regions, where there had been a disaster in terms of food and where the international aid organisations had been very active in giving food relief.

There has also been the dislocation of many working class people from the cities into the rural areas two years ago, which has escalated with the economic collapse. So there is now a core of working class people in the rural areas who can form a powerful base around which to organise for the opposition. In the rural areas MDC supporters have started organising themselves and hitting back, which is sending the regime into a frenzy. But they are not getting proper leadership. The MDC is completely cowardly. You don't see people putting on MDC T-shirts or putting up MDC posters.

PM: So what do you expect to happen after June 27?

MG: Zanu-PF are finalising their strategy and there are two scenarios after the election. First, a quick announcement that Mugabe has won - all potential centres of opposition are being or have been hit to ensure that they will not be able to rise up the way the opposition was able to rise up in Kenya. After making sure of that, they will then offer a government of national unity to the MDC.

The second option is, if Tsvangirai wins, Mugabe will refuse to accept the result, as he did after March 29. That would escalate the pressure massively, aimed at making the result irrelevant. In those circumstances they would still aim for a government of national unity.

A scenario that is most unlikely is that of the regime accepting defeat. If they were really ready to hand over power, the kind of moves they are now making against the opposition would put them in big trouble if they lost.

But the working class and the radical opposition must not sit back. They must urgently regroup to mobilise not only for the vote, but, more importantly, for the bigger strategy of defending that vote and fighting back against the regime through united front activity.

We must base our strategy on self-activity, not on an ideology that sees the west and its programme of neoliberalism as the way forward. That is why we are appealing for international solidarity. They have closed our offices, but they have not closed our movement.

Send donations to the ISO to

FirstDirect Bank, 40 Wakefield Road, Leeds, LS98 1FO
Account name: John Page
Sort code: 40-47-78
Account number: 1118 5489
Please email details of deposits to: iso.zim@gmail.com

COSATU Demands Democracy in Zimbabwe

Congress of South African Trade Unions
June 24, 2008
http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/2008/jun/press46.htm

The Congress of South African Trade Unions fully
sympathises with the decision of the Movement for
Democratic Change to withdraw from what was clearly
going to be a totally unfree and unfair election on 27
June 2008. The federation is appalled at the levels of
violence and intimidation being inflicted on the people
of Zimbabwe by the illegitimate Mugabe regime, and
endorses the view of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), that:

- Political violence in the country has reached
alarming if not catastrophic proportions;

- The 27 June Presidential election is not an
election, but a declaration of war against the
people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party;

- Dozens of people have been murdered due to
political motivated violence;

- Thousands of people have been threatened with
death, beaten, tortured and harassed for expressing
or supporting the opposition political party;

- People are being forced to attend political
rallies, failing which they are being beaten up;

- There has been deployment and sprouting of
several bases led by the ruling party militia that are
harassing and perpetrating violence;

- The usual polling officers, i.e. teachers and
civil servants, have been sidelined in the running
of elections in favour of ruling party supporters;

- Thousands of people have been displaced through
political violence and are thereby unable to vote;

- The State President has made it clear that he will
not accept defeat even if he loses the elections.

- Very few local observers have been accredited to
oversee the conduct of the elections;

- There has been continuous harassment of workers
on their way to and from work by youths militia who
have been deployed in suburbs;

- Opposition party agents have been harassed, some
killed and therefore unable to monitor what may
happen in some wards on the day of the election;

- The opposition has not been granted permission to
campaign;

- There is a complete black out of the opposition in
the public media and in case where it is mentioned,
has always been in negative light;

- Potential voters are being threatened that their
names would be recorded if they voted for the
opposition.

-COSATU therefore supported the decision of the
ZCTU not to accept an outcome of any flawed
election, and demands that the leaders of the SADC
and AU governments, whose observers are now in the
country, make a clear public statement that the
elections cannot possibly be free and fair, and to
withdraw their recognition of a `government' that
has no mandate to rule following their defeat on 29
March 2008, but is clinging to power by brute
force.

Now that MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out
of the Presidential run off in protest over the conditions
articulated by the ZCTU (above), the COSATU
NOBs, in their normal Monday meeting, decided as
follows:

1) To work with the COSATU Limpopo Province to
start mobilising for a blockade to protest against
the violence Mugabe has unleashed against his own
people. This will also serve as a reminder to the
now illegal and illegitimate government that
Zimbabwe is not an island and that they do need the
cooperation of neighbours like South Africa to
survive.

2) To call on all COSATU's other Provinces,
together with civil society organisations,
including those armchair critics of COSATU's
commitment to human rights, to organise rallies
during June and July, and to call on the ANC and
SACP to take similar action in solidarity with the
people of Zimbabwe

3) To call on the workers in South Africa, SADC,
Africa and the world over, as well as all
progressive citizens of the world, to work towards
a total isolation of Mugabe and his government. We
call on all our unions and those everywhere else in
the world to make sure that they never ever serve
Mugabe anywhere, including at airports,
restaurants, shops, etc. Further we call on all
workers and citizens of the world never to allow
Mugabe to set foot in their countries.

4) To call on the South African government, SADC
governments, African governments and all other
governments not to recognise Mugabe's illegal
government all over the world, and to refuse to
have any dealings with Mugabe other than ensuring
that he work towards a new elections strictly under
the conditions of total observance of the SADC
election protocols.

5) To endorse the statement by the SADC chairman
Benjamin Mwanawasa that there were no prospects for
a free and fair lection in Zimbabwe

6) To call on all the governments and employers to
support the application that has been submitted by
labour under Article 26 of the ILO Constitution
against the Zimbabwe government for non-observance
of the ILO's Convention 87 (Freedom of Association
and Protection of the Right to Organise) and
Convention 98 (Right to Organise and Collective
Bargaining) respectively.

Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)

Congress of South African Trade Unions

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/26/zimbabwe_and_the_question_of_imper...

June 26, 2008 Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: Today, we host a discussion on Zimbabwe.
We're joined in Washington D.C. by Professor Gerald
Horne, Chair of History and African American Studies at
the University of Houston and the author of numerous
books including "From the Barrel of a Gun, the United
States in the War Against Zimbabwe, 1965 to 1980."
Joining us on the phone from Syracuse is Professor
Horace Campbell, Professor of African American Studies
and Politics at Syracuse University in New York, has
written extensively about Pan-Africanism and Zimbabwe.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! I want to begin
with Gerald Horne in Washington. Can you talk about
what is happening in Zimbabwe and the coverage of it,
how we understand what is happening in Zimbabwe in the
United States?

GERALD HORNE: Well obviously what is happening in
Zimbabwe is quite tragic and I would hope some of the
sympathy that is extended to Zimbabwe could be extended
as well to other African nations that do not have white
minorities. For example, the statement condemning or
questioning the Zimbabweans elections emerged from
Swaziland, a South African nation that is one of the
last absolute monarchies on this small planet. Some
might well question why isn't Swaziland's human rights
situation being interrogated and investigated? A scant
year ago in Nigeria, the continent's giant, you had
shambolic elections, had hundreds killed yet that
barely registered a blip on the international media. At
least not in the North Atlantic. Many talk, perhaps
understandably, about the fact the President Mugabe has
served as President since 1980, but what about Omar
Bongo of Gabon, a close ally of the U.S, an oil-rich
country in West Africa, which of course, he has served
as president since 1967? 13 years before Mugabe came
into power. I mean, I could go on in this vain, but I
think the fact that thousands were killed in Zimbabwe
in the 1980's and yet, he received a virtual knighthood
from Queen Elizabeth and received an honorary degree
from Massachusetts, and yet, today in 2008, he is a
subject of international scorn after of course he
expropriates some white farmers, really speaks of
profound racism in terms of how this issue has been
covered in the North Atlantic media.

JUAN GONZALES: Horace Campbell, I want to ask about
this issue. It does seem that the western media did not
focus on Zimbabwe at all until the expropriations began
of land. But does that deal with--the land of the
white-minority there--but does that deal with the
underlying class conflicts that are obviously clearly
percolating in reaching ahead right now in the country?

HORACE CAMPBELL: Well, thank you for having me on the
show. First of all, I would say this platform on
Democracy Now! is a platform for the progressives, the
left, and those who are involved in the peace movement.
Our discussions on what is going on in Zimbabwe or any
other part of Africa should be guided by how our
solidarity with the peoples of Zimbabwe, with the
oppressed workers of Southern Africa, and in all parts
of Africa can assist our own struggle in this country
against all forms of oppression. And so, comparing
Zimbabwean's oppression with other oppression in Africa
does not excuse the oppression of the Zimbabweans
people by any means. I think Gerald is very right about
these oppressions across Africa, but organizations in
this country that are in solidarity with the peace
movement across the world ,that are in solidarity with
the Zimbabwe people, should take the cue from the
Congress of South African Trade Union that is calling
for a blockade of Zimbabwe because of the oppression.
And I think what distinguished Zimbabwe from those
countries that Gerald speaks about is that none of
those countries is representing themselves as being in
the forefront of liberation. Robert Mugabe and Zanupe
started out like they were Lumumba in the Congo. They
ended up like Mubutu, killing from the people, arrested
opposition leaders, killing people, calling homosexual
pigs and dogs, and killing hundreds, tens of thousands
of people. 18% of the Zimbabwean people are unemployed.
While the stock exchange is the most successful in
Africa. We on the left, in the peace movement, we
acknowledge that George Bush nor Brown have any moral
authority to criticize Zimbabwe because of the unjust
war that they're fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But
having said that, we on the left and the progressives,
we must take the moral leadership in having solidarity
with those opposition leaders, those workers, those
human rights workers in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa
who are being oppressed by the Mugabe government.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response, Gerald Horne?

GERALD HORNE: Well I think there is very much to
recommend with what Horace Campbell said. As a taxpayer
to this government here in Washington, my first
approach must be this regime of George W. Bush. And I
think we have to question the hypocrisy of George Bush
who has engaged in questionable elections in Florida
and Ohio, questioning the legitimacy of the elections
in Zimbabwe. More than that, if the situation in
Zimbabwe is so terrible, and I agree it is, why is it
that the Bush administration continues to send
undocumented Zimbabwe workers back to Zimbabwe? There's
been talk about a so-called genocide unfolding in
Zimbabwe, yet, you see the Gordon Brown administration
in London not giving asylum to Zimbabwe workers who are
exiled now in London. We talk about the Mugabe regime,
but just the other day it was revealed that Anglo
American, the major transnational corporation with
close South African ties and headquarters in London, is
about to make a $400 million investment in Zimbabwe.
Barclay's bank is in Zimbabwe. Rio Tinto-Zinc, the
major mineral conglomerate is in Zimbabwe. It seems to
me in the first place, we in the North Atlantic should
be focusing on these kinds of contradictions that we
can affect and as the African National Congress has
said, leave Zimbabwe to the Zimbabwean people
themselves.

HORACE CAMPBELL: Yes, I want to reiterate a point that
any kind of political work we do on Zimbabwe should
assist us in educating our people here so that when the
Zimbabwe political leadership represents itself to say
that it is being persecuted because it expropriated the
land of the former white settlers, we have to
interrogate what did the expropriation of the land mean
for the millions of Zimbabweans workers, small farmers.
It is very clear that the Zimbabwean people needed to
reclaim the land from the white settlers. But the
Mugabe government, when he was receiving his knighthood
from the british government, never negotiated about the
land because throughout the period from 1980-1992,
Zimbabwe had the legal powers to be able to set in
motion the possibilities for strengthening the working
peoples, the farm workers, the women, the plantation
and agricultural workers. And hen we speak about land,
we must understand that whether the land is owned by
white farmers are black farmers, the fundamental
productivity on the land emanates from the labor of the
working people--working people. So our task is how is it
we defend the working people of Zimbabwe? The hundreds
of thousands of workers who live on the conditions of
wretchedness, who have been exploited by the black
capitalist farmers, who are in the Zimbabwean
government just as the whites have done. So any kind of
transition in Zimbabwe must involve strengthening the
rights of the workers, the women, and the use in
Zimbabwe. I think that what Gerald said should throw
away all of the talk about Mugabe been against
imperialism because it was very clear that
Anglo-American, Barclay bank, and Rio-Tinto and diamond
dealers have made billions of dollars while Mugabe was
talking about the land. And what we're calling for is
for any transitional period in Zimbabwe to be one where
there is intervention by the African Union so that the
billions that have been carried out by the ruling
elements in Zimbabwe, that we do not have them carried
out repression of the workers with impunity and then
stealing the money as they have done the past 8-10
years.

JUAN GONZALES: Gerald Horne, I'd like to ask you.
Obviously Mugabe has been an icon and a hero, a giant
in terms of the liberation movements in Africa for
decades. But your sense now, do you believe that he
still represents any forces for progress in Africa or
has he gradually transformed himself into a dictator?

GERALD HORNE: Well, I think that president Mugabe is a
force to be reckoned with in Zimbabwe. And I agree with
those leaders in the region who feel that he and his
party must be contented with if there is to be a
settlement of this controversy in Zimbabwe. I should
also say that with regard to Professor Campbell, I'm
here not to carry a brief on OPS, but they have argued
they did not move on land reform before 1994, i.e. the
date of the South African elections, so as not to
unsettle the situation in neighboring South Africa,
which of course has outstanding land claims of its own.
We all know there are more white farmers killed in
South Africa than have been killed in Zimbabwe. And
likewise, there are outstanding land claims in
neighboring Namibia as well. I think it's
understandable why there has been a focus on on Zanu
PF, but standing in the wings of the opposition of the
MDC and sadly, unfortunately, there has not been
considerable focus on them such as their leaders, Roy
Bennet, a top leader, a former major land owner in
Zimbabwe who of course throttled an African leader on
the floor of the Zimbabweans parliament--I would of
thought that kind of behavior would have ended in
independence in 1980. You have other leading Rhodesians
in the leadership of MDC. One thing that worries many
of us is that if MDC does come to power, there will be
a split and quite frankly, they will pave the way for
the rise of certain retrograde elements like Roy Bennet
come back into power. In some ways, MDC, a trade
union-led movement, is akin to solidarity in Poland
which of course paved the way for the present right
wing in Poland to come to power in Warsaw. So we have
to be careful when we try to butt in to the internal
affairs of a sovereign state. I think our energies
would be best served by putting pressure on this
government here in Washington and its comical sidekick
in London.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Horace Campbell?

HORACE CAMPBELL: The intellectual subservience of the
MDC and the leadership of the MDC is clear to most
workers in Southern Africa. But this point in the
history of Zimbabwe, the MDC doesn't have political
power. The social forces that are organized in Zimbabwe
against the government have thrown their weight behind
the MDC at the present moment. The Women of Zimbabwe
rise, these are independent organizations, Padari, the
workers, agricultural and plantation workers. I do not
think--we do not have the right to say to the Zimbabwean
workers that your under oppression and therefore, we
should decide for you because of the history of
Mugabe's relationship to the liberation movement, 28
years ago, then we should be saying to you what your
choices should be. In Southern Africa, the Congress of
South African Trade Union movement has called for a
blockade of the Zimbabwean government and is the
Zimbabwe leadership and the Congress of South African
Trade Union which is the largest trade union movement
in Southern Africa is a movement which is calling for
the isolation of Mugabe government. What we agree with
Gerald is on as the falling--the land question in
Southern Africa is an urgent question in the media, in
south Africa, and in Zimbabwe. But having said that, we
must learn lessons from Zimbabwe. To say that when land
his been reclaimed it should not be reclaimed for rich,
black farmers to replace white farmers. Land when it is
being reclaimed in South Africa or in Nambia should be
reclaimed in a condition where there is health and
safety conditions for the working peoples. So yes, we
should take lessons from Zimbabwe and we should
introduce new politics in Southern Africa that is
coming out of the politics of reconciliation. That no
concept of victory should be victory which gives power
to one group over another there should be ways in which
the transition towards a new political dispersion--in
south Africa it is one that strengthens the producing
classes, the small workers, farmers, students. And
these are the forces that have been repressed,
brutalized, the trade union leaders that are in jail
right now in Zimbabwe should be released. Opposition
leaders should be released. Women should be released.
Human rights workers should be released. So that yes,
we can criticize the leadership of the MDC and I have
done so in my writing, in my book, "Reclaiming
Zimbabwe" but the government of Zimbabwe must now arise
in a situation where we provide leadership in a
condition where 80% of the people are unemployed, where
women have been persecuted as prostitutes when a walk
on the streets. Were homosexuals have been called pigs
and dogs and where men go around trying to have sexual
relations with young virgins saying this would prevent
HIV/AIDS. We need a new political leadership to go
against this kind of backwardness that came out of the
kind of patriotic leadership that we had for the past
28 years.

AMY GOODMAN: We wanted to bring South African
archbishop Desmond Tutu into this. He also came out
forcefully against the violence and intimidation in
Zimbabwe speaking in Cape Town Tuesday, who warned
Mugabe should bend to international pressure or could
risk facing universal sanctions and could risk facing
an international criminal court.

TUTU: We are seeing a country not just steadily, but
rapidly going down into chaos. The international
community should, I believe, had intervened long ago
when some of us appeared for a peacekeeping force, to
ensure that people who are not intimidated, people are
not attacked. And that the conditions for a free and
fair election would then have been sustained. Now, I
think obviously the effort should continue where we are
hoping against hope that good sense might get to
prevail and that Mr.Mugabe would agree that really his
time is up. It's 20 years or more that he has been head
of state. I think they've got to tell him he still less
the chance--if he continues and everyone decides to
grant his administration illegitimate, then he stands a
very very good chance of being arraigned before the ICC
for human rights violations.

AMY GOODMAN: Archbishop Desmond Tutu Gerald Horne, your
response both to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Horace
Campbell.

GERALD HORNE: Well obviously we have enormous respect
for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But I must return to the
question that should occupy us in the North Atlantic.
Which is why is it the Zimbabwe gets so much focus and
attention on this side of the Atlantic when Paul Biya,
the leader of Cameron a few weeks ago basically named
himself President for life and it barely registers a
blip? Similar situation unfolding in Uganda with Yoweri
Museveni. I think part of the reason, not only the race
and racism question, there's also the question that
many of the former Rhodesian have kith and kin on the
side of the Atlantic. The spouse of Henry Kissinger,
the former U.S. Secretary of State. The spouse of
Chester Crocker, the former assistant Secretary of
State for Africa under the Reagan administration. Even
some distant relatives of George Washington for whom
the city of which I'm sitting is named. Ian Smith, the
former Rhodesian leader of course has relatives in San
Diego. There were hundreds if not thousands of white
mercenaries who flocked to Rhodesia in the 1970's and
1980's to fight against liberation of that particular
country. And it befuddles and baffles me why this kind
of basic historical background is not integrated into
the conversation, integrated into the discourse on
Zimbabwe. I think it gives a very bad impression on the
African continent which leads many Africans to consider
their only focus on the North Atlantic is on Zimbabwe
because there is a white minority and that perhaps
explains to why there has been such a lethargy in
responding to some of the human rights violations that
are unfolding in Zimbabwe. And until that kind of
situation is rectified, I dare say there will continue
to be an uncivil situation in Zimbabwe.

JUAN GONZALES: Gerald, all that being true and we
clearly recognize that disparity in approach and
coverage, back in 2005, there were massive forced
relocations of hundreds of thousands of people by the
Mugabe government that really stunned people, even here
in a progressive community of the United States who
have supported Mugabe and the past. Your response to
those relocations and again to the issue of whether the
government has increasingly become iron handed and
dictatorial in dealing with its own people?

GERALD HORNE: Well, those dislocations were tragic and
unfortunate. I know about them because I hail from St.
Louis, Missouri. And of course it used to be said, with
regard to that city and many other cities, that urban
renewal meant negro removal. That kind of situation is
not unique to Zimbabwe. In Senegal as we speak, there
been tens of thousands of Africans who have been
displaced because of a civil conflict there reaches
back 25 years. It has barely registered a blip on the
international press screen. So yes, those situations
that are referred to in Zimbabwe are quite tragic and
they need to be criticized as well as other analogous
situations. And when those analogous situations are not
criticized, it basically provides fodder for those who
would like to downplay the situation in Zimbabwe.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Horace Campbell, we just have
about 30 seconds, your response and your summary?

HORACE CAMPBELL: My response is that the government of
Senegal, the government of Cameroon does not represent
itself as a liberation government. The Zimbabwean
government is very aware of the racism that exists in
North America. And it is exploiting that racism and the
antiracist sentiment among Africans in the west in
order to legitimize its repression on the people. The
government of Zimbabwe at this moment is illegitimate
we must avoid war at all costs. Mugabe says only god
can remove him and he will go to war. At present, he is
at war with the Zimbabwe people and we must end the
silence in the progressive and pan-African community
against this type of manipulation and repression in the
name of liberation.

Global Peace & Justice Auckland media release
www.gpja.pl.net

25 June 2008

The New Zealand government must move on from condemnation of the brutal Mugabe regime to take some simple steps to put real pressure on the dictator.

If we have learnt anything from the regime to date it is that Mugabe takes notice of actions – not words.

It is encouraging to see international cricketers taking the lead. Governments must now take effective action to support work for the total sporting isolation of Zimbabwe. In New Zealand’s case it means ending the proposed black caps tour to Zimbabwe next year.

More than anything else actions such as these can psychologically undermine those supporting tyrannical regimes far more effectively than finding new ways to describe the megalomaniac Mugabe.

In 2005 New Zealand had the opportunity to put intense pressure on Mugabe by cancelling the New Zealand cricket tour to Zimbabwe.

Despite appeals from democratic forces inside Zimbabwe and around the world, such as those from Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olongo and human rights campaigner Judith Todd, the New Zealand cricketers toured Zimbabwe after the our government refused to even formally request the team to call off the tour.

The bluff and bluster from the then Foreign Minister Phil Goff and Prime Minister Helen Clark let Mugabe off the hook and helped deepen the crisis for Zimbabwe’s people. Concerted action then could have increased international pressure and could well have ended the regime before now.

Our government can take the initiative now to actively promote a total boycott of the regime through the Commonwealth and United Nations. A good place to start is cricket.

John Minto
Spokesperson

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) position on the current
political stalemate in Zimbabwe

WE, the General Council members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), meeting at the Quality International Hotel in Harare
today 12 July 2008 for an update on the current political situation in
the country, in the aftermath of the 27 June 2008 Presidential
Election Run-off;

Pursuant of our Communiqué issued on 21 June 2008, which focused on:

• the violent environment prior to the holding of the Presidential
Election Run Off of 27 June 2008;
• the conduct of political parties during the campaigning period; and
• the State's preparedness for holding a free and fair election

Noting that the 21 June 2008 Communiqué highlighted that,

• Political violence in the country had reached alarming if not
catastrophic proportions;
• The 27 June Presidential election was not an election, but a
declaration of war against the people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party;
• Dozens of people were murdered due to politically motivated violence;
• Thousands of people were threatened with death, beaten, tortured
and harassed for expressing or supporting the opposition political
party;
• People were forced to attend political rallies failure of which they
were severely beaten up;
• There was deployment and sprouting of several bases led by the
ruling party militia that harassed and perpetrated political violence;
• The usual poling officers, that is teachers and other civil
servants, where sidelined in the running of elections in favour of
ruling party supporters;
• Thousands of people were displaced through political violence and
thereby unable to vote;
• The State President made it clear that he would not accept defeat
even if he lost the elections.
• Very few local observers were accredited to oversee the conduct of
the elections;
• There was continuous harassment of workers on their way to and from
work by youth militias who had been deployed in suburbs;
• Opposition party agents were harassed, some killed and therefore
were unable to monitor what happened in some wards on the day of the
election;
• The opposition was not granted permission to campaign;
• There was a complete black out of the opposition in the public media
and in case where it was mentioned, it was always in negative light;
• Potential voters were threatened if they voted for the opposition;


Further noting that the 21 June 2008 Communiqué conveyed the resolutions that:

• The Government disbands bases in all suburbs and unofficial road
blocks manned by the youths militia;
• The government stops violence and allow local observers that were
accredited for the March 29, 2008 Harmonised Elections to observe the
Presidential Run Off.
• The ZCTU would not accept an outcome of a flawed election and
reserved the right to reject result of a flawed election;

Having reconvened today, 12 July 2008 to discuss in particular:
• The process and the outcome of the Presidential Run Off Elections
• The current efforts towards resolving the election dispute
• The Way forward

And having observed that:
• None of the demands stated in the communiqué of 21 June 2008 were
attended to;
• The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Election Observer
Mission said "The elections did not represent the will of the people
of Zimbabwe";
• The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) Observer Mission concluded that
"the current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to
the conduct of free, fair and credible elections...";
• The African Union (AU) Observer Mission also noted that "in the
context of the AU Declaration of the Principles Governing Democratic
Elections in Africa, it is the considered view of the African Union
Observers Mission that the Election process fell short of accepted AU
standards";
• The nature of the current dispute is about the 27 June 2007
Presidential Election Run Off, not the 29 March 2008 Harmonised Local
Government, Parliamentary, senatorial and Presidential elections;
• There are inter-party talks going on aimed at resolving the current
political impasse;
• The current composition and structure of negotiations should stick
to the parties of the 27th June Presidential elections, that is, Zanu
PF's Robert Mugabe and MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.

Worried that:
• The current mediator in the talks, South African President Thabo
Mbeki is part-time and has been leading the negotiations on Zimbabwe
for a long time without much success is perceived as sympathetic to
the ruling Zanu PF.
• Other players not connected to the Presidential election dispute
have been included
• The talks are concentrated on the issue of power sharing and
Government of National Unity (GNU) at the exclusion of other options

We therefore resolve that:
• The 27 July 2008 elections were not free and fair and did not
represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe;
• That the mediation efforts should not be left to President Thabo
Mbeki alone, it has to be expanded to include other AU members,
preferably a retired President who would work full-time;
• The MDC fronted by Authur Mutambara should not be part of the talks
since the election in dispute is that of 27 June 2008, of which only
two Presidential candidates, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai took
part;
• Inter-party talks should take less than two months because the
economy is in bad shape, violence is continuing and people are
suffering;
• A Government of National Unity is a subversion of our National
Constitution and only a Neutral Transitional Authority should be put
in place with a mandate to take Zimbabwe to fresh, free and fair
elections that will hopefully not be disputed by the parties.

The hallmark of every dictator is such draconian laws of the past colonial and racist policies of the minority ruling elites and parasitic capitalist lackeys and their compromised post colonial regimes that guard their masters ill begotten resources in exchange for crumps falling from master's table. the situation of Zimbabwe is similar to that of us here in SOUTH AFRICA we both lost our liberation struggles on the eve of victory on the tables of LANCASTER HOUSE and KEMPTONPARK convention centres respectively and both influenced by old people tired of liberation and eager to enrich themselves at all costs before they die. After ZUMA legalise his secrecy laws we are going to suffer similar fade as yourselve and in SOCIALIST PARTY we are prepared to join hands with the people of ZIMBABWE to build a batter future a future without human parasites.