Zimbabwe

David Broder spoke to Mike Sambo from the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe What is the current state of the ISO Zimbabwe and the labour movement? Over the last two years the ISO Zimbabwe grew but this year we have faced more significant challenges. We are trying to stay relevant to the working class, but it is hard to operate. We work around the trade unions but not with the bureaucrats. Most unions support the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, but there are also rank-and-file groups within many of the unions. Furthermore, in the case of the Zimbabwe Graphical Workers' Union, the...

This is abridged from a statement by the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe written before MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the election, and followed by a postscript concerning the withdrawal. It is worth restating our opposition to the comrades' electoral support, however critical, for the MDC; we printed a critique in the last issue of Solidarity and hope they will reply when they are able to. A member of the ISO will be speaking at Ideas for Freedom on Saturday 12 July (see page 12). Reign of terror The Mugabe regime has unleashed a reign of terror across the...

The last issue of Solidarity carried a statement from the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe, a group linked to the SWP (workersliberty.org/node/10590). This statement reiterated the position of critical electoral support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change which ISO comrade Mike Sambo outlined in an interview in Solidarity 1/131: "The driving force behind our critical support to the MDC remains unchanged: run-away inflation, caused by the ever-declining economy, caused by Mugabe's dictatorship — and affecting working people the worst. That alone necessitates all...

From a statement by the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe After the elections enthusiasm, as we revert to our routines, we are faced with the critical task of implementing our Central Committee resolutions — amongst them, unconditional but critical support to the MDC. This, obviously, will be difficult for comrades who had been firm with our previous perspective of no to elections arguing for the formation of an alternative to the MDC. Two things need to be carefully considered now. Firstly, how tactically to jump onto the changing wagon as late-comers who vehemently opposed the...

ISO press release, 13 May: Condemn the ZCTU arrests! The International Socialist Organization Zimbabwe condemns the arrest and detention of Zimbabwe congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe on 8 May 2008. They are being held for stirring people to rise against the government and for allegedly reporting falsehoods on innocent people being killed by ZANU PF supporters across the country. The arrest of these workers' leaders is unlawful; it is one among a hodgepodge of other dirty tactics that Zanu PF is blatantly using to intimidate...

Mike Sambo of the Zimbabwe International Socialist Organisation spoke to Sacha Ismail What is the latest with the election results? We have not yet heard results for the presidential poll, but meanwhile ZANU PF requested for a recount of ballots for 23 constituencies and the exercise was done over the weekend. We are still waiting for the outcome of this recount. How is the crisis developing? The political and economic crisis has been deepening at an alarming rate each day ever since the government started its chicanery around the election results. The economic situation has deteriorated so...

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission have withheld the results of the first round presidential elections and instigated a recount in 23 electoral areas. The recount has been further delayed. This “extra time” has been used by Zanu-PF MPs and supporters to intimidate MDC activists and voters into line before the second round. MPs and government ministers are reported to have arrived in towns and villages brandishing firearms together with armed groups of supporters. Known MDC voters have been forced into mass meetings and threatened with retribution if they do not...

In a magnificent display of working-class solidarity, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, refused to unload 77 tonnes of Chinese weapons bound for Zimbabwe. The An Yue Jiang left China just days after polls closed in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections with a cargo of three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3000 mortar rounds. Chinese officials claim the cargo is “perfectly normal trade” — true enough as each year China exports more than $1 billion dollars of weapons in exchange for cash, raw materials and influence. The Stalinist bureaucracy...

Two days after the polls closed in Zimbabwe's presidential election, 77 tonnes of mortars, rockets and ammunition were dispatched from China. South African dock workers, led by the Transport and Allied Workers Union, have refused to unload the ship. China is a leading supplier of arms to African states - its willingness to arm the despotic Mugabe regime demonstrates its reactionary international agenda. Mugabe's planned crackdown on Zimbabwe's democratic opposition has been stalled by working-class solidarity - this solidarity can and must spread. Sprite, a member of the SATAWU in Durban...

The ISO is linked to the SWP. We do not agree with much of the analysis, particular the comrades' call to critically support the MDC, and will respond in the next issue of Solidarity, but we print their call as an act of solidarity. Mike Sambo: Zimbabwe is at a cross roads as both Zanu PF and the MDC square up for a presidential run off. The 29 March elections shook Mugabe as the opposition scooped many more parliamentary seats than he had anticipated. Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC won 99 seats to Zanu PF's 97, with six for the other MDC faction; in the upper house the two groups are tied 30-30...