arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Solidarity with Dutch Railway Workers and Passengers [who will have anti-privatization demonstration, 9 June, Utrecht, The Netherlands]

MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY

Dear Friends

As we struggle on the African continent with massive retrenchments, layoffs and a vicious privatisation process dictated by World Bank and IMF conditionalities we recognise the importance of your own struggles in the West.

In Zambia various strategies have been used to weaken the labour movement.
In the name of "democracy" the splintering of unions has flourished. Within the public sector "restructuring" holds employees at ransom by not confirming them in their new positions, with the unveiled threat that if they are seen to be agitating for better conditions they will not retain their jobs.

You may know that in the analysis of the conditions that led to the Rwanda genocide of 1994 it was determined that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) [of the International Monetary Fund] in that region was part of the cause of the holocaust.

Globalisation as unbridled capitalism knows no borders. More now than ever before we must reawaken the internationalist spirit or die. Your victory will be ours.

We wish you well.

[Ms.] Malele Dodia
Member of the Central Committee
Chairperson of Labour and Social Service
United National Independence Party, UNIP, Zambia