Committed to pan-Africanism, good governance, social democracy, protection of human rights, respecting the principle of constitutionalism;

Dedicated to the protection and promotion of workers’ rights and the decent work agenda;

Determined to uplift and transform the lives of our people, join the working people of Zimbabwe in commemorating the International Workers Day 2016 under the theme: “Celebrating the international labour movement”.

Introduction

The International Labour Day is celebrated globally as part of recognition of working people’s struggles and it is also a day for the working people to reflect on the struggles that have been fought in the quest for better working conditions, fair remuneration and indeed work place democracy.

It is from these struggles that great working people’s movements were born and have played vital role in pushing for democracy as well as economic and social justice.

Indeed it is from the womb of the labour movement that the bulk of our post liberation movements, of which the PDP is proud to be one, were born and nurtured in its great culture of solidarity, struggle and social justice.

This year’s commemorations come at a time when the nation is facing insurmountable challenges underlined by a decaying economy, high unemployment, total collapse of service delivery, a ravaging drought and general hopelessness among the generality of the people.

98% of the youths are in the informal sector, 60% of the industries which we had operating in 2010 have shut down, 83% of our people live on less than US$1 a day and our women still die while giving birth because our hospitals lack basic facilities and medicines.

The commemorations also come on the back of one of the darkest days for the working people, 17 July 2015, when the government of the day via its courts betrayed the workers and conceded to private capital in the case of Nyamande &Anor vs Zuva Petroleum.

While the politicians in government attempted to distance themselves, it was very clear to all and sundry that they had a hand in the case as the government and various parastatals went on to dismiss thousands of workers on the basis of the 3 months notice provided for by the ruling.

More critically, the commemorations come at a time when the NRZ workers are engaged in a struggle to demand their salaries some dating to many years back from the carefree administration at the parastatal and the government of the day has shown little concern on the matter.

In light of the foregoing, we in the PDP make our pledge to the working people of Zimbabwe as follows:

Creating employment
We will work to ensure that we come up with a clear programme of economic recovery which is hinged on creating jobs for the working people as outlined in our policy document HOPE. This will be in the areas of the agro -economy, infrastructure development, manufacturing and beneficiation and value addition on our mineral wealth.

Social contract
We commit ourselves to the establishment of a social contract which will respect the fundamental pillars of working class struggles as captured in the Kadoma Declaration which the government of the day has long discarded.

Labour law reform
We commit ourselves to reforming the labour laws of the land to ensure there effective in the protection of workers’ rights while ensuring productivity. Further we pledge to harmonize the labour laws so as to give equal rights to all workers in Zimbabwe.

Upholding of the fundamental right to organize and assembly
Unionism is about organizing and assembly, it is about mass mobilization and as such we commit ourselves to respecting these fundamental rights already in the constitution. In order to do this we pledge to repeal such draconian laws as the Public Order and Security Act which has been used to persecute trade unionist in our country.

Conclusion
The struggle for emancipation of the worker and the creation of a social democratic state underpin the transition towards socialism which would represent the most advanced form of working class democracy. It is in furtherance of this noble goal that as the PDP we commit ourselves to be in solidarity the working people of Zimbabwe in undertaking the immediate mission of torpedoing the failed and incorrigibly corrupt ZANU PF government.

Workers of the world unite; Shinga mushandi shinga; Qhina sisebenzi qhina! Source: Gorden Moyo PDP Secretary General