Although the youth have the\nenergy and time for political discussion, they do not have the strength in production\nof the employed workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question which is on the mind\nof all genuine strugglers is how the great potential of the workers for\nresistance to the compromisers and the capitalists can be realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the struggle for\nindependence the trade union leaders mobilised no challenge to the Smith regime\nor the bosses. Most were passive collaborators, not merely with capitalism, but\nalso on the question of majority rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hence the unions stagnated, and\nthe workers were forced into the background by the petty-bourgeois\nnationalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After independence, while the\nunion leadership eagerly fell over themselves in praise of compromise with\ncapitalism, there was a spontaneous movement of workers\u2014taking advantage of the\nblack government to strike against the capitalists for a living wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This movement was not sustained\nbecause the workers looked to the ZANU(PF) leadership, rather than to their own\npowers to achieve their demands. Eventually these ‘socialist’ leaders used the\npolice and the army to break the movement. Many strikers were dismissed after\nKangai, the then Minister of Labour, threatened them with the whip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The union leaders dissociated\nthemselves from this strike movement. Instead of supporting the workers’\ndemands they attached themselves to the Department of Labour and pleaded with\nofficials to attend their gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the lack of leadership\nthe strikes notched up many achievements\u2014a national minimum wage, state\nregulation over dismissals, and the election of workers’ committees which arose\nduring the strike wave (but became regulated by the government as an\nalternative to strikes). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ebb and revival<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the period of recession\nfrom 1982 to 1984 there were virtually no strikes, and the union leaders did\nnot resist redundancies and factory closures. Where struggles against\nredundancies did take place these were under the leadership of the workers’\ncommittees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These committees, under greater\ndemocratic control by the workers, have been a source of resistance to the\ncorruption of the leaders. But inevitably, even the best of the workers’\ncommittees have been forced to recognise their limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restricted to the factory they cannot\nmake changes to the disgraceful Industrial Council agreements made by the union\nbureaucrats with the capitalists against the workers\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the face of these difficulties\nmany workers’ committees have been isolated, demoralised and forced to retreat.\nBut it is to these committees that the workers will first turn to fight the\nexploitation of the capitalists and the control of the state bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been considerable\nindustrial action since the elections. The workers have made use of the\ncontradictory statements of the politicians. After Mugabe\u2019s post-election\nanti-Smith speech there were some strikes against racist management (with 2,000\ndemonstrators at Mashava Mine on 20 July 1985).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dispute over the\nagro-industrial wage showed the enormous potential for struggle existing within\neven isolated sections of the working class. After the government announced an\nincrease in the minimum wage to $143.75 a month a furious resistance was\nmounted by the capitalists. This resistance was met by strikes and disputes\nthroughout forests, plantations and estates as the workers insisted on the full\nincrease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Muteyo Forestry Commission\n150 workers struck early in August, at Mazowe more than 1,000 later in August,\nand about 4,000 in Manicaland tea estates early in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the government was faced by\nthis movement it dithered, making one contradictory statement after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other struggles show the\npotentially explosive situation in manufacturing, which has not benefitted as\nmuch as other sectors from the upturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In protest against redundancies,\nthe workers of Springmaster, the largest furniture company in Zimbabwe, seized\ncontrol of three factories early in October. The workers’ committee appealed to\nthe government to take over the company, and commandeered the company cars. But\nwith no support from the trade unions and other factories, the redundancies\nwere eventually carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Brockhouse, an engineering\ncompany, there has been a protracted fight to save jobs. Towards the end of\n1985, after a year of struggle, the workers succeeded in saving the factory by\ndemanding the government take it over. Usually the government has simply\nadvised workers to form a cooperative with no guarantee of state support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These struggles have been\nessentially defensive. But the mood of the workers in industry is definitely\nhardening after decades of exploitation and arbitrary management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The present struggles, important\nas they are are designed to put pressure on the government. The mass of workers\nhave yet to understand that their class demands cannot be met by their party\nleaders in a compromise with capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But movements such as these will\nstrengthen the workers’ committees and the desire to link up with other factories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are the foretaste of much\nbigger industrial battles to come, against dismissals and redundancies, for\nhigher wages, pension rights, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Simultaneously, it is entirely\npossible that non-industrial forms of working-class resistance will break out,\nsuch as bus boycotts, community action against lack of housing, rent strikes,\netc. These will cut across factory divisions and combine many of the grievances\nof women and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlikely as it may seem at\npresent, there will eventually be the growth of mass opposition to the\ncompromise with capitalism and to state control over the trade unions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The trade unions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A labour movement characterised\nby democratic discussion and decision-making, with perspectives independent\nfrom the government, has not been allowed to develop in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trade unions are still\nsuffering from a bad hangover after the liberation struggle. Having contributed\nnothing to the victory over white reaction, the union leadership now finds\nitself the pawn of the present government. At the same time it stands\ndiscredited in the eyes of the workers became it does not support their\nstruggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This crisis in the unions is the\nresult or two main factors. On the one hand the policies of guerilla struggle\nbelittled the role of the working class; and on the other hand the union leadership\nprovided no way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many workers gave material\nsupport to the guerillas, but this only emphasised their feelings of\ninsignificance in contrast with the fighting guerilla youth. Having no faith in\nthe working class, the guerilla leadership made no calls for unions fighting\naround bold economic and political demands, let alone preparing the workers for\nan armed seizure of power in the towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The timid and bureaucratic\nleadership of the unions often were the pawns of the ICFTU and other pro-capitalist\nagencies. They split again and again in the face of the challenge of UDI and\ncapitalist reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the burden of this\nleadership, there were important struggles by the workers in the factories and\ntownships against the Smith regime, which show the potential for a worker-led\nopposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is basically the same\nleadership (with the exception of the best elements, who were detained, removed\nor murdered) which is occupying the seats of power today. More than ever they\nare now under state control and free from control by their members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An independent rank and file\nmovement has been hindered in its development by the general demoralisation in\nthe unions. The fighters for union democracy and socialist policies find the\nworkers are sceptical that the unions can be changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This attitude is based on their\nexperience of the corrupt union bureaucracies. They are also aware that this\ncorruption has been tolerated by the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Large sectors of the working\nclass have much deeper hopes and illusions in the nationalist leadership than in\nthe pathetic union officials. Having no experience of a fighting union, many\nworkers regard the present unions, at best, as pro-employer benefit funds with\ncorrupt officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where else could you find a\nsituation where militant workers are proud to say they have resigned from their\nunion? <\/p>\n\n\n\n State control<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after independence the ZANU(PF)\nleadership made every effort to convert the existing trade unions, which were\nnot of its making, into loyal party structures. The party leadership did not\nwant to allow any potential source of opposition to its domination to remain.\nAlthough it appeared to have a radical stance, this leadership firmly opposed\nstrikes and sought co-operation with employers in breaking the old leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Workers’ committees directly\nlinked to the party apparatus were encouraged in opposition to the existing leadership.\nParty factions were formed in the unions to take over the union offices, often\nwith the co-operation of the employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Direct state intervention in the\ntrade union field became obvious with the removal of the secretary of the\ntextile union, Phineas Sithole\u2014and the installation of Albert Mugabe, the\nbrother of the Prime Minister, to lead the officially-sponsored ZCTU!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phineas Sithole had earned a\nradical reputation in the period of Smith for fighting against ICTFU domination\nof the trade unions. But this reputation of trade union militancy was fatally\ncompromised by his political support for ZANU(Sithole)\u2014which participated in\nthe Muzorewa government\u2014and it was this that paved the way for his removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new leaders, however, did not\ncome from the ranks of the working class, The opposition to Phineas Sithole in\nthe textile industry after independence, for example, was led by Soko, a\nmanagement official of the notorious multinational, Lonrho!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This internal opposition was\nfinally able to win only with the mobilisation of the Department of Labour and\nthe police. This union, which had well-developed democratic structures, was\nvirtually absorbed into the Department of Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the basis of\nclass-collaboration \u2014 opposition to strikes and appeals for workers to \u2018work\nhard for the capitalists\u2019 \u2014 the ZANU(PF)-approved officials found they were\noften unable to displace the old leaders. Why should the workers fight for\nleaders based on a \u201cnew\u201d brand of collaboration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where attempts to defeat the old\nleaders failed, the ZANU(PF) leadership either formed splinter unions based on\nthe political support among workers for the party, or eventually made peace\nwith the old collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The splinter unions had\napparently radical policies and practices, but in reality were based\nfundamentally on support from the Department of Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These supposedly ‘radical’\nsplinter unions followed the terrible traditions of splits in the past. The end\nresult is that there are now, for example, at least 11 different unions in the food\nindustry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n With few exceptions, the\nsplinters failed to grow or win the leadership in industry. They failed because\nof the policies or collaboration with the bosses carried out by the ZANU(PF)\ntops and implemented by the Department of Labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disunity and lack of\nleadership by trade union officials resulted in stagnation in the trade unions even\nduring the strike movement of 1980-81. Workers were often attracted to a\n‘radical’ splinter union for a while, only to become disillusioned and then\nreturn to their own union or lapse into complete inactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now\u2014faced with many fragmented\nunions without any credibility\u2014the government is changing its policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a period the government\nfollowed a policy of divide and rule, favouring sometimes the ‘radical’ splinter,\nat other times the registered and longer-established unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the general trend in policy\nnow is in favour of the old rogues, as was shown by the detention of workers\ncampaigning for socialist policies in the engineering union. Complete state support\nis being given to the old discredited leadership of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These changes have been brought\nabout by the disgrace of the ZCTU leaders and by the fact that workers can no\nlonger distinguish between the old and new policies of collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ZCTU leaders who had been\npromoted to positions of authority for their subservience to ZANU(PF) and\ncollaboration with the employers, proceeded to enrich themselves. These people\nvied for the most abject expressions of loyalty to the party, to which many\nwere late-comers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Union funds were looted, friends\nand relatives brought to hotel ‘seminars’ and sent abroad on trips, and gifts\nand funds received from unions internationally disappeared. Critics of this\ndebauchery were removed from the leadership and damned as opponents of the\ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually the government found\nthat all credibility of these ZCTU officials was being lost. Just as Mugabe had\nhad to get rid of the discredited Minister of Labour Kangai, so this trade union\nleadership was finally denounced by the new Minister of Labour, Shava. After a\nlengthy process of bureaucratic manoeuvre, during which the same Shava initially\nrefused to accept their being dismissed, they were replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent government report has\nconfirmed what the Marxists had been arguing all along: that the unions are\nbureaucratic shells with a leadership under no democratic control by their\nmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe survey revealed a shocking\nstate of affairs in some unions\u201d, the authors wrote, pointing out that some\nunion bosses “make no regular financial reports while in other unions the leadership\ndeviates from constitutional requirements in order to serve private ends\u201d. (Herald<\/em>, 16 August 1985)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ln plain language this means that\nthe leadership is milking union funds for their own houses, cars, clothes,\nrelatives, etc. Yet for the crime of pointing out these facts in the\nengineering union and campaigning for socialist policies, Marxists in Zimbabwe\nsuffered detention and torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole strategy of the\ngovernment is to make use of such surveys to ‘restructure’ the bureaucracies by\neven further state control. By intervening, the government is trying with one\nhand to make the unions more acceptable to the workers who want nothing to do with\nthem. But with the other hand it is repressing all movements of the workers for\nunion democracy and socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Reform’ from above?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The government now declares itself\nagainst all splits and for a policy of one union per industry. But this is not\npart of a policy to put the control of the unions in the hands of the members,\nbut a policy to integrate the unions more securely with the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It puts forward this position,\nnot to assist the unification of the workers in the struggle for a living wage,\njobs, and decent working conditions, but in order to control the unions more\nefficiently from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These policies are a result not\nonly of the ideas of the ZANU(PF) leaders, but of the objective demands of\ncapitalism. “Monopoly capitalism is less and less willing to reconcile\nitself to the independence of trade unions\u201d, Trotsky wrote in 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It demands of the reformist\nbureaucracy and the labour aristocracy, who pick up the crumbs from its banquet\ntable, that they become transformed into its political police before the eyes\nof the working class.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is this trend, shown most\ngraphically in the colonial world, which has drawn the trade union\nbureaucracies together with state powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this intervention by the\nZANU(PF) government to ‘reform’ the trade union bureaucracy from above cannot\nachieve even the formal unity of the existing bureaucracies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disunity of the trade unions\ncannot be solved by bureaucratic means which deny democratic control to the\nmembership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only a leadership basing itself\non the struggle of the workers against the capitalist bosses, and armed with a\nsocialist program for union democracy, a living wage, etc., can win the genuine\nagreement of workers to unite in one trade unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, the state-managed clean-up\nof the ZCTU and the 1985 ZCTU Congress has not heralded any real change in\npolicies, but only a less openly corrupt and more efficient leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mutandare, leader of the mining union,\nis now the undisputed strong man of the ZCTU, but has made it abundantly dear\nthat he is not prepared to challenge the government in any real way. In the\nfuture, however, there could be some conflict between the ZANU(PF) leadership\nand the union leadership over questions such as wage increases and price\ncontrols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, despite all this, there have\nbeen some changes in the unions. The ousting of the ‘gang of four’ from the ZCTU\nleadership (Makwarimba, Soko, Kupfuma, and Mashavira) has shown that unpopular\nleaders can be removed, even if campaigns for union democracy are suppressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two leading lights of the ‘gang\nof four’ are now in trouble with their own unions. Soko has been dismissed at\nthe textile union’s congress, and Makwarimba of the commercial workers’ union\nis facing a revolt in Gweru. Even though these developments are undoubtedly a\nresult of bureaucratic rivalry as well as the disgust of the workers, some\nchange is in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from the manoeuvring at the\ntop there is also evidence of rank and file revolt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By throwing the NEWU (National\nEngineering Workers Union) regional secretary out of a Bulawayo factory, the\nworkers showed their spontaneous disgust with the corrupt leadership: an action\nwhich completely confirmed the demands put forward by the engineering campaign\nin GEMWU (the previous name of this union).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent demonstration by 4,000 workers\norganised by a splinter union in the garment industry in Harare to demand a\nspeeding up of the unification of both unions, also repudiated the Industrial\nCouncil agreement which does not benefit the workers. Even with Youth Brigade\nsupport for this demonstration, the large-scale mobilisation indicates\nconsiderable dissatisfaction among the rank and file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even in the rather quiet Harare\nMunicipal Workers\u2019 Union, whose leadership recently expelled two supporters of\na campaign for union democracy and socialist policies, there are rumblings\namong the membership. This resulted, at the 1985 AGM in the replacement of the\nlong-standing president, Maodzwa by an apparently more radical opponent,\nbecause of the workers’ dissatisfaction with his handling of wage negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of these movements yet add\nup to the ground-swell needed to raise the present demands of the workers to\nnationally coordinated action. But they do confirm the early developments of a\nfuture wave of opposition to the employers and the policies of compromise with\ncapitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Revival of workers’ movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first half of 1985 was the\nlow-water mark for the working class since the strikes of 1980-81. This low\npoint was marked by a decline in struggle on the one hand, and the frenzy\nwhipped up by the ZANU(PF) leadership before and after the elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was marked also by the arrest\nand victimisation of Marxists, who while having the sympathy of many thousands\nof workers, were not actively defended when this would have meant defying the\ntrade union leaders and the full weight of the Mugabe regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The workers’ movement will be\ndriven into action once again by economic and political factors. Over time it\nwill become clear that the re-election of ZANU(PF) and any deal at the top with\nZAPU will have changed nothing as far as the lives and conditions of working\npeople are concerned. Yet the economic upturn has removed the government’s\nexcuse for the general lack of progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the economic upturn and a halt\nto the debilitating succession of retrenchments and factory closures, the\nworking class is regaining some of its confidence. Among many workers there\nwill be the growing realisation that eventually they will have to fight against the very government they have elected<\/strong> if they\nare to secure the necessities of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The coming downturn in the\neconomy will not necessarily have the same dampening effect on the workers’\nstruggle as in 1982-84. What really affects the workers’ consciousness is the\nchange from one period or capitalism to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The approaching downturn will\nbring home to the mass of the workers that capitalism is in terrible decline\nwith rising inflation coming along with the closing of many factories. What has\nobedience, patience and sacrifice availed them in the past? Many will be drawn\nto the conclusion that a policy of compromise with capitalism is completely\nagainst their interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the pre-election wage\nincrease of 15% in July 1985, real wages were the highest that they had been for\nmore than a year, after many years of decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the government only kept the\nlid down on price increases during the period leading up to the elections. Now\nmilk, maize meal, sugar, cigarettes, electricity, and bus fares have gone up.\nThe price of meat has increased dramatically. These price increases have already\nover-taken the wage increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Reserve Bank has warned that\na rapid increase in inflation is inevitable. At the same time it is unlikely\nthat the minimum wage will be substantially increased, despite promises by Mugabe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the wider front, the\ngovernment will be seen to be backtracking on its promises for education,\nhealth, lands and on other questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The blame for poverty wages, lack\nof jobs, and inflation will increasingly be put at the door of the government,\nas the workers now feel that the upturn should have brought about real\nimprovements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another political factor which\nwill spur the working class on to independent action will be the implementation\nof the Labour Relations Act which provides enormous powers to government\nofficials. The workers were promised they would make important gains through\nthis law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In time this also will be found\nto offer very few benefits, while the workers have to suffer even more\ngovernment controls. There is bound to be anger that the workers have been\nconned by the talk of a pro-worker law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The workers in Zimbabwe will turn\nagain and again to the workers’ committees to solve their problems. They will\nuse them to their limits, before having to turn once again to the very\ndifficult problem of transforming the unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless a leadership develops at\nthe factory level the task of changing the unions will not even be posed. But\nsuch a movement for workers’ control of the unions cannot be created simply by\nthe heroic efforts of a minority of conscious activists in the factories and\ntownships: the conditions for success will arise only when the workers are\ndriven by rising prices, bus fares, and rents, to take co-ordinated mass\naction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Movement after movement is likely\nto take place in the workers’ committees and unions for democracy and socialist\npolicies. Zimbabwean workers will want to copy the example of black workers in\nSouth Africa who are building independent democratic trade unions. Every effort\nshould be made by the activists to make direct links with the unions in South\nAfrica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The union leadership in South\nAfrica has the duty to give unqualified support to activists in Zimbabwe who\nare fighting for union democracy. They have a responsibility to make clear their\ntotal opposition to state control and repression of socialist trade unionists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is necessary for the activists\nto be firm, but patient at the same time. Until a strong, conscious movement of\nmass opposition develops among the workers the current leadership cannot be\neffectively challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What holds this movement back is\nthe formidable obstacle the workers face\u2014the combination of the trade union\nbureaucracy and the Mugabe government which is quite prepared to use repression\nto defend the union bureaucracy and capitalism. The workers will have to\nconfront their ‘own’ government. This movement is bound to develop, but it will\ndo so on a massive scale only when feelings are strongly aroused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience of the struggle in\nthe engineering industry shows that even the most principled opposition to the\nunion leadership with the general support<\/strong>\nof the workers cannot succeed if there is not a strong movement<\/strong> of the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this movement does not exist,\nthe leadership will use every unconstitutional and illegal device, backed up by\nthuggery, to maintain control at all costs. If struggles go ahead without being\nbuoyed up by the mass movement, then the genuine strugglers and factory leaders\nwill be isolated and exposed to state repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within the ranks of the workers\nthe pressures are building up for union democracy, a living wage, a 40 hour\nweek, no redundancies and the nationalisation of the monopolies\u2014a program of\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge of the time is not\nthe broad national mobilisation of the recent past. Rather the task is the\ncareful development, in this period of repression, of a workers’ leadership\nsteeled in theory and able to lead the workers when the movement goes forward\nagain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can only be achieved through\nthe socialist education of the activists, particularly the leaders in the factory\ncommittees, who are in struggle against all forms of collaboration with the\ncapitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the task faced by all genuine strugglers in the factories, municipalities, mines, and farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nContinue to Chapter Seven<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"