Zimbabwe - October 23rd, 2020
The fair struggle of the teachers must succeed
Their demands for decent wages and working conditions are the same demands of all the workers of the country
Unite all the demands!
GENERAL STRIKE!
Out with the dictatorship!
1.6 billion people lost their jobs worldwide due to the Covid-19 impact and this has consequences. The current situation for workers in Zimbabwe leaves a lot to be desired. Families are hardly surging and are struggling to make ends meet.
Zimbabwe, like other African countries, is trying a phased re-opening of schools after closing in March due to COVID-19. But many teachers are refusing to return to class, pointing to low pay and unsafe conditions.
At the time of writing there is war between teachers and the government over wages. The government to make matters worse is promising to give funeral assistance worth USD500 which is a mockery to our intelligence and integrity.
Teachers protest to demand USD salary should be supported by all workers in Zimbabwe for a general strike. Decent wages are a must for all citizens to be able to enjoy the rights given from birth.We demand decent wage for all so that food is placed at the table and able to enjoy the socio-economic rights like education food, shelter, security and access to clean water.
Civil servants are becoming vulnerable, they are now pushing for salaries to be above the PDL.
DESPITE being rated highly across the region for their contribution to the country’s high literacy rate, Zimbabwean teachers in government institutions are still among the lowly-paid in the region.Low salaries and poor conditions of service have de-motivated teachers thereby compromising the quality of education. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union(ZCTU) had described the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) as a monumental failure and a disappointment which has left workers reeling from poor remuneration. This has comes as the labour movement has mobilised its members to embark on lunch-hour protests every Monday to push for United States Dollar based salaries in light with the struggling economy.In 2019, ZCTU president was happy with the TNF was signed and can help to address some challengesconfronting the country.
Mnangagwa government announced that they will fill staffing gaps at public schools by recruiting new teachers while intensifying daily assessments of teacher attendance amid faculty strikes. The majority of teachers on strike have not been reporting for duty since schools opened for public examination classes on September 28, demanding a review of their salaries. The teachers, who earn their salaries in local Zimbabwe dollars, want the government to pay them in U.S. dollars at a level of 520 U.S. dollars per month for the least paid worker. The Zimbabwean government is currently paying its workers in local currency after the country in June last year discarded the use of U.S. dollar that had been in place since 2009, and re-introduced the Zimbabwe dollar.
Teachers vowed to continue their strike against the 40% increment in salaries of teachers, which they consider below their actual needs. They have escalating their campaign for better salaries and allowances. They call upon all bona-fide members and sympathizers to join in the chorus of better salaries.The Zimbabwe National Teachers Union (ZINATU), one of the teachers’ unions has reacted to reported threats of dismissal by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema, saying they will not be moved by them
We International revolutionary socialist of the Workers International League of Zimbabwe stated that our country is a military state, a slave labour force open air concentration camp and there are no democratic freedoms, not even freedom of association, if all the assets of the officers members of coup d’état are not expropriated. There is not a single chance of marching to a free sovereign constituent assembly if the repressive forces and the judge caste (under the rule of the imperialist master and the murderous officers of Zimbabwean army) are not dissolved.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
We must re-nationalize the land without any payment, and put it to produce under the control of the workers' organizations, the poor peasants and popular organizations!
We call all the organisations that speak in the name of the working class demands must break with the government and bourgeoisie that starve and dismiss us!
Enough with the class-collaborationist trade unions bureaucracy!
Only the working class of Zimbabwe, united to the working class of all Southern Africa, is the one that can guarantee the bread, the land, the national independence and even the struggle for the most extreme democratic liberties.
Today the Imperialism and the Capitalists are burdening their crisis on the masses. The catastrophe is already here: we need to fight it!
For a workers and popular economic plan!
Let the crisis be paid by those on the top: the capitalists and the generals agents of imperialism!
The liberation of the workers will be done by the workers themselves!
The struggle of Zimbabwe is part of the struggle of our class brothers from all over Africa. Out Mnangagwa! Out Ramaphosa! Out Muhammdu Buhari! Enough of governments of the imperialist transnational companies!
For a Southern African congress of workers' organizations, to break with the bourgeoisie and fight to expel imperialism!
We have to fight like in Marikana, with stoppages, pickets, and with the method of workers' democracy!Their demands are the ones of all the worker movement in the region and the World working class: salary, decent job, and against the treason of all the leaders that speaking in the name of the unions and worker organizations only sell out workers to their executioners.
We seriously condemn all acts of violence by the security forces of Nigeria on innocent protesters. We are deeply concerned by the killings currently happenings in Nigeria. We stand with our fellow brothers and sisters in Nigeria.
Standing with our colour class brothers all over the planet! #Black Lives Matter, in Zimbabwe, in South Africa, and in the US, Brazil, Libya! We are not indifferent to the genocide of our Syrian class brothers! Let's not allow the massacre to continue in, Nigeria, Syria! Let's fight against the dog Bashar and the murderer Putin, who do dirty work for imperialism!
Expel Mnangagwa, the bourgeois politicians and all the corrupt generals, agents of the imperialist powers that have ruled Zimbabwe for years!
Enough with governments of representatives of black millionaire’s partners of the banks and the TNCs that rule in a sea of black slaves. For a government of the workers and the poor people!
For a provisional revolutionary government of workers, poor peasants, students and ruined middle sectors, supported on rank and file soldier’s committees, self-defence committees and workers militias!
Revolutionary General Strike now until the government falls, and we expel imperialism out of Zimbabwe!
Out with the imperialist transnationals!
Let's take to the streets. General strike now!
Issued by Workers International League of Zimbabwe
section of FLTI
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