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Zimbabwe unions back strikes amid economic chaos
Stella Mapenzauswa, Reuters
May 20, 2006

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main labor federation, a key ally of the divided opposition movement, decided on Saturday to lead a national strike for higher wages as the economy teetered on the brink of collapse.

The meeting coincided with a Harare by-election expected to test the level of popular discontent with the ruling party ZANU-PF, accused by critics of driving the country deep into crisis with an annual inflation rate now topping 1,000 percent.

"We are now going to be more militant than ever before because ... no matter how hard we try to cooperate with the government, without the necessary push from the streets we may not get what we want," Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe said.

"The first general council meeting which we will call any time after June 16 will decide on the timetable, possibly end of June, July, August thereabouts," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a ZCTU conference ending later in the day.

Zimbabwean security forces have intensified a crackdown on President Robert Mugabe's critics, fearing protests threatened by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which has close links with the labor movement.

Last week the police barred street marches planned to mark last year's official destruction of urban slums, fearing the anniversary could provide another flashpoint for violence.

But in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulayawo, church leaders said about 500 people marched peacefully on Saturday after winning a court ruling permitting the march.

"The church is the last vestige of democracy of Zimbabwe and the police were pushing us out, so this ruling is very important," Zimbabwe Christian Alliance coordinator Useni Sibanda said by telephone. "People can see that you can take the police to court."

POLITICIANS ARRESTED
Voting was quiet in the by-election in Harare's Budiriro district, which is being closely watched amid signs of increasing stress in Zimbabwe's fragile political landscape.

On Friday police arrested several senior politicians from one MDC faction, including its candidate for the Budiriro seat, accusing them of campaigning without official permission.

They were later released but are expected in court on Monday on charges of violating security laws.

Budiriro was represented by an MDC legislator who died in office this year. The party has since split into two factions, both of which are fielding candidates in the election, dividing the MDC vote.

ZANU-PF has vowed to capture the seat to show its political strength, despite mounting economic problems including rampant inflation, sky-high unemployment and frequent shortages of food, fuel and other key commodities.

Election results are expected in the next few days but will do little to alter the balance of power in parliament, where ZANU-PF holds a two-thirds majority.

Mugabe, 82, blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on sabotage by domestic and Western opponents critical of his program to seize white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.

Rights groups say public anger over the economic crisis was the chief reason for the recent clampdown on protests by a government they say is alarmed at MDC threats to launch a wave of "peaceful democratic resistance" to Mugabe's rule.

Mugabe, who says the MDC are puppets of Zimbabwe's former colonial master Britain, has responded to the opposition's threats by warning that any attempt to unseat him would be "dicing with death."

On Saturday the lobby group National Constitutional Assembly said it was seeking a court order for the release of 103 activists arrested on Thursday during another march in Harare.

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