Monday's Zimbabwe discussion

Monday evening’s event on Zimbabwe, held jointly by Progress and ACTSA, was thought provoking. It was humbling to be in the presence of Lovemore Matombo, President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Lovemore has made and continues to make huge sacrifices because of his opposition to Robert Mugabe, facing dismissal from work, imprisonment and intimidation. Kate Hoey MP made an inspiring speech setting out why and how the left in Britain and across the world should raise awareness and campaign against the regime in Harare.

It’s pretty clear that South Africa, and Zimbabwe’s other neighbours, hold the key to resolving the crisis. It will only be through pressure from Thabo Mbeki that Mugabe is forced to step down and Zimbabwe can begin the process of rebuilding its civil society and economy. However, this pressure has been conspicuously lacking. The unwillingness of African leaders to be critical of a man who cleverly wraps himself in the flag of African liberation and resistance to Western imperialism is preventing European and American pressure having any impact.

Some voices at the meeting argued that by speaking out against Mugabe British voices risked being counter–productive. Our colonial past will contaminate opposition to Mugabe, and people across Africa will side with him. Whilst this issue is one we have to keep in mind, I found the argument being made depressing and defeatist. We can’t allow post-colonial guilt to prevent us speaking out against one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. And unless we help the Zimbabwean opposition put their case to the rest of the Africa, their voice will never be heard.

Brown's stance on Mugabe

We are delighted by the firm stance of the British government and its commitment to support the Zimbabwean people. ACTSA has been lobbying the British government on Mugabe's invite to the Lisbon summit for a number of months now and is pleased that the British government is taking such a strong stance against the potential invitation to Robert Mugabe.

We have been working hard to inform and lobby the UK and EU governments on the human rights violations being lead by the Zimbabwean government and we hope other EU members follow Brown’s lead. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is currently holding a two day stay-away for workers in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe are being intimidated by riot police to try and prevent the success of the ZCTU stay-away. We must all show our support for the ZCTU and also our disgust for these intimidation tactics.

The ZCTU have made a frim and clear statement that they do not wish Mugabe or his cronies to attend the summit in, rather he should be attending to the needs of his people and not jet setting to the EU where he is banned.

Benn: China's actions will harm development in Africa

In total Africa is likely to get something in the region of $5bn (£2.6bn) in 'soft loans' and grants from Chinese government over the next few years. On the face of it this sounds a fantastic deal for the continent but the reality is that such loans may end up doing more harm than good. Massive loans like these could well plunge some African countries back into debt and undermine the West's efforts to promote good governance on the continent.

This is why Hilary Benn is right when he argues that China's offer of cheap loans to African governments will risk driving back into debt countries that have only just benefited from debt relief. Both Christian Aid and the Financial Times agree with Benn's stance. The FT argues that:

China's policy in Africa is not an alternative to neo-liberalism. Beijing is intent on securing raw materials and commodities to fuel its own booming economy, and on finding new markets for Chinese exports. That sounds very like the past strategy of western colonial powers."

The sad consequence is that if the Chinese continue to offer no-questions-asked loans, many US and European banks will inevitably think again about linking loans to good governance and other conditions. Who benefits then?

Dignity!Period

This Saturday will see the Action for Southern Africa, Amicus and the TUC “Zimbabwe Solidarity Conference” take place at TUC Congress House where the focus of trade unionists with be on the plight of those in Zimbabwe – an incredibly dangerous place to be a democrat and trade unionist.

In recent weeks, a very special guest to the UK, the inspirational Thabitha Khumalo, came to raise awareness of the every day issues of being a women under Magarbe’s evil regime. Thabitha, who appeared on This Morning and Radio 4’s Women’s Hour while on a speaker tour, was here promoting the campaign she is spear heading as a leader of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions that Action for Southern Africa, Amicus, the NUS Women’s Campaign and Labour Students are all supporting – Dignity!Period all about giving the women of Zimbabwe access to sanitary protection that has been prohibited by the policies and economics pursued by the Zimbabwean President.

Speaking at the Launch of the campaign as few weeks ago Thabitha Khumalo said,

Ordinary women cannot afford sanitary wear, we are using old pieces of cloth or newspapers. Consequently, we're suffering the loss of our dignity and serious infections, in some cases leading to infertility. Many women are facing violence from their husbands who believe these infections to be sexually transmitted.

I was fortunate enough to meet Thabitha when picking her up to drive her to one of the speaking events – which went down a storm as normal. While returning her to the station where she was heading directly for Heathrow I asked if you she would be ok on her return – she replied that she had to fly via South Africa to call ahead to the Congress’ lawyer to check whether there was a warrant for her arrest, before calmly reassuring all of us in the car, that even if they did arrest her they wouldn’t kill her because she was too famous!

Saying good-bye, only after being with this woman for less than an hour, brought a tear to the eye and filled me with the most overwhelming feeling of powerlessness as she walked off to contemplate her fate. Thankfully she let us know that she has returned home ok, but the fight for Zimbabwe women continues, getting no easier.

For more information see: http://www.actsa.org/Get_involved/zimbabwe_sanitary_campaign.htm and for attendance to the conference click here: http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-12543-f0.cfm.

Make sure you MP is doing something about it and signing Early day Motion (EDM) 862.