Mugabe tries to annex trade unions

There's something ironic about the fact that in many Marxist 'workers' paradises,' public enemy number one is quite often... the workers' trade union. Solidarity helped bring down the regime in Poland. Quite conscious of this fact, China has cracked down hard on trade unions.

Zimbabwe is also going after the trade unions, one of the few independent organizations left in Robert Mugabe's thugocracy.

The parliament, which is controlled by Mugabe's party, is ramming through a bill that would demand the main Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions sack its leadership and replace it with the tiny handful of leaders friendly with the regime.

The trade unions gave birth to the Movement for Democratic Change, the country's main opposition party. It's telling that the most dissatisfied people in Mugabe's workers' paradise are the workers themselves. Maybe this is why the regime recently barred a delegation from the main South African labor grouping COSATU... which was once a close ally with Mugabe.

Ultimately, these regimes don't give a whit about anything other than their own survival. To them, trade unions represent an alternate power structure, which is the most dangerous thing of all. This is why the Mugabe thugocracy has attacked (sometimes literally) the three main independent institutions in the country: the Catholic Church, what remains of the free press and now the trade unions.