ZIMBABWE LABOR LEADER SPEAKS OUT IN DC

(DC Labor)

Wellington Chibebe does not look like a dangerous man. A quiet man of average height, he doesn't stand out in a crowd. But a crowd is exactly where you're most likely to find Chibebe - Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions - and his outspokenness on behalf of Zimbabwe's workers has led the government there to arrest him nine times in the last five years, most recently in May, when he was shackled, held in solitary confinement and subjected to long interrogations, starvation and physical abuse. Chibebe visited Washington this week, briefing the Metro Council's Executive Board at a lunch on Monday and speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at the AFL-CIO Tuesday night, sponsored by the Solidarity Center, the Metro Council, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and TransAfrica Forum. He received the A. Philip Randolph Institute's Norman Hill Human Rights Award last weekend at the APRI's annual conference; he previously received the AFL-CIO's George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award in 2003. Despite facing threats of a prison sentence upon his return to Zimbabwe, Chibebe continues to work tirelessly to bring attention to his country's worsening economic and human rights realities while pressing for government reforms. In his Washington appearances, Chibebe went behind the headlines to reveal that Zimbabwe's economy - once the envy of Africa - "is now in tatters, with 95% unemployment, inflation at 11 million percent and each U.S. dollar now worth 80 billion Zim dollars." The country is now $120 billion in debt, Chibebe said, thanks to "corruption, mismanagement and falling for the IMF/World Bank hook, line and sinker." In the wake of Mugabe's recent re-election as President amid widespread violence and intimidation, "We fear the end of democracy in Zimbabwe," Chibebe said. While the labor movement continues to be one of the only organized resistances to political and economic corruption, Chibebe noted that union membership has been decimated by the combination of "a collapsing economy and widespread attacks by the government." Yet Chibebe remains quietly, firmly defiant. "Where does this leave us? In the trenches." Click here to support human rights defenders in Zimbabwe.
- report by Chris Garlock