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We are not quiet diplomats
Zwelinzima Vavi, Secretary General of Cosatu
November 05, 2004

The congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is part of the liberation movement, whose record of struggle against apartheid and colonialism at home and abroad is well documented.

It has always been politically close to Zanu-PF, but recent events in zimbabwe have opened up a debate in Cosatu as to whether that country does not now represent a typical example of a derailed revolution.

Cosatu has been forced to intervene and publicly criticise the Zimbabwean government after it trampled on fundamental worker rights. We will not keep mum when freedom does not lead to respect for workers and human rights. Liberation must mean a decent life for all, not a selected few. I am proud of the 13 brave members of the Cosatu mission who were deported from Zimbabwe last week. They went through 24 hours of hell – arrested, shoved on and off buses, threatened, physically and mentally abused, deprived of food and finally dumped at Beitbridge at 5am.

But they succeeded brilliantly in their mission—to highlight what sort of society Zimbabwe has become. The mission’s short visit proved beyond doubt that this is a society where people’s human rights and civil liberties are being crushed. Our members’ ill treatment and nightmare

lasted for a day. For Zimbabwean trade unionist, activists, and the people as a whole, it lasts 365 days a year.

In support of our comrades in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), we have send numerous letters to the Zimbabwe authorities, complaining about restrictive laws, police attacks on union meetings and the arrest of ZCTU leaders. They have all been unanswered.

Our national congress held last year resolved to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to get a full, first-hand picture of the conditions under which our sister organisation, the ZCTU, operates. The aim was to engage constructively with the broadest range of representative organisations, including the government and the ruling party, so that we have a more comprehensive picture of the country’s challenges.

The Zimbabwean government squandered a golden opportunity to put across its side of the story and get Cosatu as a partner to engage constructively with the situation there in search of a solution to its mounting political and economic problems.

The collapse of Zimbabwe’s political system and economy would have profound implications for all countries and peoples of Southern Africa.

Already none can deny the effects of that impact. So why would a government that claims to be progressive and revolutionary feel threatened by 13 people with writing pads and pens from a left-wing revolutionary trade union movement with whom it shared the same trenches in the struggle against the Ian Smith and Apartheid regimes?

The only reason the Zimbabwean government objected to this mission was fear of what it might uncover.

So, first it deported our members, and then wheeled out Jonathan Moyo’s propaganda machine to make absurd allegations that Cosatu was acting on behalf of Tony Blair, that the mission was "an act of aggression against the country" and that Cosatu were "agents provocateurs whose agenda and views on Zimbabwe are similar to the country’s archenemies". Moyo’s level of buffoonery is such that no one can take him seriously.

What is frightening, however, is that the levels of paranoia in the government have reached dangerous proportions. Government leaders have taken refuge in, and are victims of, their own propaganda.

Any person who is critical of their awful human rights track record is casually labelled an agent of Blair or Western interests. Anyone critical of their policies that have resulted in record unemployment and hunger is seen to be working with the enemies of Zimbabwe. Hitler, the master propagandist from whom Moyo must certainly have learned his tricks, believed in repeating a lie frequently enough until it settles as the truth inn the minds of ordinary people.

Moyo’s aim is to get ordinary Zimbabweans to be tolerant of the general assaults on people’s civil liberties, on the spurious grounds that it is all done to protect Zimbabwe from its mythical enemies.

Unfortunately, the majority of people in Zimbabwe will have read nothing about the real reasons for the Cosatu mission, because media freedom has virtually snuffed out and only the government ‘s views are published. But the truth will be out and President Robrt Mugabe and Moyo will learn how that "you cannot fool all the people all the time".

President Thabo Mbeki, at the launch of the African Union in 2002, said "we must mobilise all segments of civil society, including women, youth, labour and the private sector to act together to maximise our impact and change our continent for the better".

Cosatu is playing the role he demanded – mobilising in support of human rights. The objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and the AU, which Cosatu shares, must not be left only to the political leaders.

Nepad must be propelled from below. The concept of partnership should not be interpreted to mean singing praises and keeping mum when things are obviously going wrong. Ordinary workers and citizens must be mobilised to demand their freedoms and a better life for all.

Cosatu’s campaigns should be seen as complementing the work of governments who use diplomatic channels to get all African states to act in conformity with the objectives of Nepad.

Cosatu supports attempts to find a diplomatic solution to Zimbabwe’s problems, but that does not mean that we must suspend pledging and acting in solidarity with our ZCTU colleagues until there’s a diplomatic breakthrough.

A diplomatic breakthrough can only happen when Mugabe is forced to change by a mass movement from below, by the Zimbabwean people, assisted by a campaign if international solidarity action, to compel him to restore human rights, repeal repressive laws and allow free and fair elections. This is exactly how we defeated the tyranny of Smith and Apartheid. Trade unions can only survive if they receive and provide solidarity. Cosatu will not flinch form its international duty to organise activity in solidarity with its comrades in the ZCTU and the people of Zimbabwe.

We have called for an internal debate on how we should take forward this struggle, which may include protests at border gates and other, harsher forms of solidarity action. For this we need no permission from our government or other tripartite alliance formations. While we need to co-ordinate our actions so that we can reinforce one another, we cannot afford to suspend acting in solidarity with other workers until diplomatic engagement delivers.

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