Industrial Workers of the World

Everybody knew just what sort of “defence” the Chinese weapons would used to inflict upon the population if they ever reached Zimbabwe. All the politicians ummed and ahhed and generally wrung their hands. Thabo Mbeki told journalists that South Africa would not, could not, possibly, interfere in a legitimate transaction between Zimbabwe and China.

So in the end it was up to the workers. The 300,000-strong South African Transport and Allied workers Union (Satawu) said it would be "grossly irresponsible" to touch the cargo of ammunition, grenades and mortar rounds on board the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang anchored outside the port.

A Satawu spokesman Randall Howard said: "Our members employed at Durban container terminal will not unload this cargo, neither will any of our members in the truck-driving sector move this cargo by road. South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation between Zanu-PF and the MDC."

The London-based International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said they were mobilising unions in China and Africa, including those in Angola, to take a firm stand and to stop the ship from offloading its cargo of weapons. The ITF, which consists of more than 650 unions, representing 4,5-million workers in 148 countries, is believed to have been instrumental in Mozambique's refusal allow the ship to dock in Maputo after ITF affiliate Satawu asked it to intervene.

It is some sixty after the revolution in China that brought the Communist Party to power theoretically in the interests of the workers and poor peasants; nearly thirty years after Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe and solidified his regime with the help of troops from the fifty year old revolutionary” Cuba; fourteen years since multi-racial elections were first held in South Africa. Still with all this political change and revolution the workers remain where we have always been. We are on the bottom still forced to use direct action to protect the basic human rights of our colleagues. It is where we always were and where we always will be. A change of politicians is the joy of fools.

We can develop our economic power and solidarity on the job, however, by following (for example) the excellent example of the Durban dock workers and making an injury to one an injury to all (It's on the Satawu badge). If we do that then we could push through some real change. At least in South Africa workers have shown that they are not passive victims of a neo-liberal spectacular commodity economy sitting on their fundamentals at the end of history. (Read: A flock of bloody sheep.)

And now AUSTRALIA has supported calls for a global ban on arms sales to Zimbabwe. Foreign Monster Stephen Smith is appalled. "The continued delay demonstrates the Mugabe government's utter contempt for democratic principles and processes," Mr Smith whimpered. "I strongly support international efforts that prevent the Mugabe regime from being further equipped to commit further human rights violations against the already long suffering Zimbabwe people."Which is interesting because under current law and "Labor” Party policy if Australian workers took the same actions as the South African dock workers it would be illegal. Zimbabwe is not the only place on the planet that needs an extension of human rights. To bring us up to the level of certain parts of Africa.Sources:IUF - Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide, “South African Dockers Succeed in Thwarting Chinese Arms Ship Bound for Zimbabwe” http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=4999&view_records=1&ww=1&en=1Support for Zimbabwe arms embargo Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 29 Apr 2008 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23622711-5005961,00.htmlChantelle Benjamin, Business Day (Johannesburg) 22 April 2008 - http://allafrica.com/stories/200804220109.htmlIan Evans, Saturday, 19 April 2008, Independent, “Chinese troops are on the streets of Zimbabwean city, witnesses say” :- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/chinese-troops-are-on-the-streets-of-zimbabwean-city-witnesses-say-811796.html