'Behind every strike lurks the hydra of revolution', these wise words attributed to a German Minister of Interior many years ago seem to capture very well the attitude of the Botswana government to the industrial action undertaken by public sector workers. Although the strike action is about bread and butter issues and does not in any way challenge the regime itself or its capitalist system the government is clearly jumpy and panic-stricken.
This is neither a political strike nor a general strike. It is an economic strike. Workers are only demanding a 16% salary adjustment to compensate for the ever-escalating price rises of basic necessities and services occasioned both by the 2009 global capitalist crisis and government's blind pursuit of neo-liberal reforms. The overall effect of these changes has been the erosion of the buying power of workers' salaries and wages which have widened the gap between their nominal wages and real wages. Workers are simply negotiating the terms of the sale of their labour power and therefore acting within the confines of the capitalist order - the root of all their evils. As instruments for the promotion and defence of workers' rights trade unions are doing their job. And yet the government overreacts by imposing a complete news blackout and unashamedly monopolising the public media to feed the nation with half truths and blatant untruths. It takes a simple peaceful strike over bread and butter issues to expose the glaring weaknesses and fragility of our democracy.
