US embassy cable - 03HARARE2208

UNCLAS HARARE 002208 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR JFRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ELAB, PGOV, ZI 
SUBJECT: "DEFECTION" FROM ZCTU EFFECTED BY GREEN BOMBERS 
 
 
1.  Summary.  The GOZ-sponsored press reported triumphantly 
that the Grain Marketing Board's (GMB's) workers have seceded 
from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to ally 
instead with the ZANU-PF organization, the Zimbabwe 
Federation of Trade Unions (ZFTU).  However, the increasing 
number of National Youth Service graduates (colloquially 
known as "Green Bombers") within the GMB made such an 
eventual alliance a foregone conclusion.  Rather than a 
victory for the ZFTU, this new alignment simply underscores 
the allegiance of the Green Bombers to the party line, 
regardless of the impact.  End summary. 
 
2.  Press reports over the last year have claimed that 
increasing numbers of ZANU-PF youth militia have been 
absorbed into various GOZ, security force, and parastatal 
enterprises.  One report indicated that up to 1,250 graduates 
of the National Youth Service were "hired" by the GMB -- some 
as unofficial "security" to maintain order in the growing 
queues for GOZ-distributed grain.  As recruits of the GOZ who 
have been steeped in the party line and promised 
government-connected jobs, these graduates clearly understand 
that loyalty to the party is a condition of service.  Labor 
contacts indicate that this contingent, rather than other GMB 
laborers, are behind the public defection of GMB workers from 
the ZCTU, which has often been reviled by the GOZ as a 
political rather than a labor organization. 
 
3.  Comment:  Despite the claims of victory for the ZFTU, 
this realignment is merely a pro-forma statement of the youth 
militia's accord with ruling party ideology and submission to 
ruling party authority.  Despite predatory attacks by the 
ZFTU on established unions, no other legitimate organizations 
have unilaterally changed alliances.  Such reports underscore 
the GOZ-owned Herald newspaper's growing comfort -- in the 
absence of countervailing independent media sources -- with 
publishing whatever they please, regardless of the more 
subtle reality.  End comment. 
SULLIVAN