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This article participates on the following special index pages:
November 2005 street protests - Index of articles
Action
against poverty
International
Socialist Organisation (ISO)
November 08, 2005
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
JOIN THE MASSES OF ZIMBABWE IN THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST POVERTY!
The Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has declared Tuesday 08 November a day of ‘Action
Against Poverty’. This call comes at a time when the vast majority of
Zimbabweans have been reduced to a life of desperate destitution as the
economic crisis deepens to unprecedented levels. The economic crisis remains
fundamentally a consequence of the disastrous failure of IMF structural
adjustment programs officially implemented since 1990 under the Economic
Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP).
As such our struggle
must as a matter of necessity clear reject IMF and World Bank neo-liberal
policies. Mugabe made an opportunistic partial retreat from these policies
in 1997 when his power was threatened by mass uprisings against the harsh
effects of ESAP. However since May this year the government veered to
the right embracing fully IMF world bank demands through the reserve bank
governor Gideon Gono’s economic turn around program. We are now full swing
into a full-blooded neo-liberal program and the poor are paying through
the nose.
The last six months
saw; a complete removal of price controls leading to price increases on
almost a daily basis and basic commodities are now way out of reach. The
cost of basic drugs and ARV’s has skyrocketed. Gono has completely deregulated
foreign exchange and the Zimbabwe dollar which was at 5000 to the American
dollar beginning of the year is now around 100 000. The country has been
without fuel since the and workers are suffering from a crippling public
transport crisis. In the past two months Gono has paid a total of US$135
million to the IMF, this money should have been used to buy drugs, fuel,
import grain and pay for other basic necessities. Many townships have
gone without water for four months now and there is no sign that things
will get better. The whole system is grinding to a halt making daily survival
a serious struggle. School fees went up by 1000% last term and is set
to rise again next term.
This is the context
in which the call to action comes. In terms of the potential for mass
struggles we have gone back to 97 and 98, but this time around the crisis
is much more acute. Like in 97 and 98 labour has been thrust into a position
to lead not just organized workers but all the poor masses. The ISO calls
out to all the working people of Zimbabwe and all progressive forces to
come out in full support of the action. Those who can not make it to the
action can express their solidarity by banging empty pots and pans outside
their houses when the demonstration starts and motorists are urged to
hoot in solidarity wherever they are.
The working people
of Zimbabwe need support from working people and other progressive forces
regionally and internationally. As such we are calling on international
comrades to organize solidarity action either in the form of pickets at
Zimbabwe’s embassies or come up with other creative forms of action.
Shinga Mushandi Shinga!
Briggs Bomba
National Coordinator
Visit
the ISO fact
sheet
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