The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has called a worldwide day of action Friday to protest the mistreatment, allegedly by Zimbabwean police or security forces, of leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The ICFTU is urging labor and human rights activists to demonstrate outside Zimbabwean embassies.
Elsewhere, international labor activists meeting in Johannesburg at the Council of South African Trade Unions resolved to travel Friday to Zimbabwe to express their solidarity with their ZCTU colleagues. Based on previous incidents, it seemed quite likely authorities in Harare would refuse to let the activists enter the country.
Trade union rights director Janiek Kuczkiewicz of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe in an interview from Brussels that his organization is disturbed at the “despicable…anti-union repression” allegedly carried out by Zimbabwean authorities.