by James Parks, Sep 18, 2006

The southern African country of Zimbabwe, the home of the spectacular Victoria Falls, is also one of the world’s most brutal, repressive dictatorships.

Just last week, when workers in Zimbabwe took to the streets to protest the sorry state of the economy, their government reacted by beating and arresting their leaders, ignoring the international workers’ rights standards the government has agreed to enforce. Today in Washington, D.C., U.S. workers turned out to support them.

Zimbabwe’s workers have plenty to be upset about. The country has the highest inflation rate in the world—1,000 percent currently—along with 80 percent unemployment and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that kills at least 3,000 people a week.

Police arrested more than 250 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) who were marching peacefully Sept. 14 in the capital city of Harare and other cities, including ZCTU General Secretary Wellington Chibebe, winner of the AFL-CIO’s 2003 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and First Vice President Lucia Matibenga.

Chibebe told the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC) by phone that police beat him and others with batons and rifle butts. Police claimed the march was banned under sweeping security laws that require political groups to get government permission to meet. Chibebe’s lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, says the union leader has two fractures on the left arm, cuts on his head and bruises on his body. Zimbabwe police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed to the BBC that Chibebe was in the hospital.

Hundreds of U.S. union members and religious and human rights activists rallied today in front of Zimbabwe’s embassy in Washington, D.C., to demand that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe immediately release the ZCTU leaders.

The Washington, D.C., rally follows a strong letter from Guy Ryder, general secretary of the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which demands:

…all charges against the ZCTU activists should be dropped immediately and unconditionally, and that no further legal action be brought against them in connection with the 13 September protests.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:

Reports reaching the AFL-CIO indicate that Matombo and Chibebe were beaten so severely, they could not stand. The activists remain in custody, where they have been refused medical attention, access to lawyers and representatives of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The AFL-CIO is incensed by the violence unleashed on the workers of Zimbabwe. We are deeply concerned for the safety and health of those in custody. We strongly condemn the brutal repression of union activity and urge the Government of Zimbabwe to respect the principles of freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively, as enshrined in ILO Conventions 87 and 98.

This is not the first time the ZCTU leaders have been arrested. Last November, Mugabe’s troops arrested Chibabe and Matombo for leading protests against the rampant poverty in the nation.

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