The situation in Zimbabwe gets worse month after month. Inflation rises, poverty increases and the tattered remains of a former civil society may no longer fear the weakening grip of the state.
It is always difficult to gauge the level of resistance that institutions will take against ZANU-PF. however, the Zimbabwe Coalition of Trade Unions is calling for strike action in order to protect its members. Does their willingness to withdraw their labour signal the desperation of workers in Zimbabwe or does it represent the slo-mo collapse of the state structures? There is probably an element of both factors in this signal.
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday resolved to stage crippling mass protests if employers fail to award workers salaries above the Poverty Datum Line (PDL).
The resolution was adopted at the labour union's sixth Ordinary Congress, which ended in Harare last night.
ZCTU chairman, Lovemore Matombo, said: "We will take to the streets to force employers to award their workers minimum salaries that tally with the Poverty Datum Line."
Restrictions on protest and liberty may start to prove ineffective, as economic immiserisation takes hold. As ever, with Zimbabwe, predictions of Mugabe's downfall are the optimistic reading of a Rorschach blot.