By Global News Service

Credit Line: from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service

Headlines

• Zimbabwe’s President Secures Second Term Amid Severe Economic Crisis
• Big ThreeAuto Workers Vote to Strike by 97 Percent
• Protests Break Out in Libya Over Rumors of Normalization With Israel
• Haitians Reject Kenya’s Plan for Armed Intervention

Zimbabwe’s President Secures Second Term Amid Severe Economic Crisis

Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa has been reelected to serve a second term following the general elections held on August 23-24. The leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) secured 52.6 percent of the votes, according to the official results released by the Zimbabwe Election Commission late on August 26.

Mnangagwa’s main contender, Nelson Chamisa from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), secured 44 percent of the vote. ZANU-PF also secured 136 out of the 209 seats in Parliament, falling short of a two-thirds majority.

The CCC rejected the results of last week’s election citing discrepancies and “significant deviations from both national and international electoral standards.”

This is the second time that the two candidates have faced off in an election, the first being the general election held in 2018. Chamisa challenged the outcome of that election, but his petition was dismissed by the Constitutional Court. The elections took place just months after a coup led to the ouster of President Robert Mugabe and first brought Mnangagwa to power.

Zimbabwe, for years, has borne the brunt of U.S. sanctions that were first imposed after a land reform policy was implemented. The sanctions, combined with the impact of International Monetary Fund structural adjustment policies of the 1990s, hit all critical sectors of Zimbabwe’s economy, including mining, agriculture, and banking.

Zimbabwe was cut off from $100 billion in grants, loans, and other support from international and multilateral sources. It further lost an estimated $42 billion in revenues between 2001 to 2019.

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“Big Three” Auto Workers Vote to Strike by 97 Percent

Workers at the three largest (or “Big Three”) automakers in the United States have voted by a majority of 97 percent to authorize a potential strike of 144,000 autoworkers. The United Auto Workers (UAW) announced the nationwide voting results on August 25. In recent months, the UAW has kicked off a contract campaign to win worker demands in contract negotiations for autoworkers at the three largest car manufacturers: General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford. At these three companies, 144,000 UAW workers are employed and are covered by one contract. It is set to expire on September 14, after which workers will strike if the auto companies have not met their demands.

The union has held practice pickets at auto plants in Detroit, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky. Practice pickets are trade union actions in which workers “practice” for a strike by holding down a picket line prior to the start of their shifts. This tactic was employed successfully by Teamsters workers in their historic contract campaign at UPS.

On August 24, the UAW announced that they had brokered a tentative agreement with Ultium Cells LLC, which employs UAW workers to manufacture electric car batteries for General Motors. The Big Three for years have been using joint ventures such as Ultium Cells to employ an underclass of workers who are not covered by the Big Three master contract and are therefore not entitled to the same benefits. The tentative agreement will raise wages by more than 20 percent for Ultium Cells workers.

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Protests Break Out in Libya Over Rumors of Normalization With Israel

Libya is experiencing political turmoil, with rare popular demonstrations in different parts of the country on August 27. This follows reports that the Tripoli-based Government of Nation Unity (GNU), one of Libya’s rival governments, is attempting to normalize relations with Israel.

Protesters in cities such as Al-Zawiya, Tajoura, and Tripoli blocked roads and burned the Israeli flag while shouting slogans against the GNU and Israel. Some of the protesters stormed the foreign ministry office in Tripoli.

The protesters expressed solidarity with Palestine and warned that if the government goes ahead with the so-called normalization, they will escalate protests and block the railways.

A large number of Libyans also took to social media to oppose the proposed rapprochement with Israel, calling it a “betrayal” of the Palestinian cause and wider Arab solidarity.

On August 27, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen claimed that he had met with Najla Mangoush, the foreign minister under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s GNU, during a meeting hosted by the Italian foreign minister in Rome last week. Mangoush has since been suspended by the Prime Minister and fled the country following Israel’s announcement of the meeting.

Facing protests, the GNU foreign ministry issued a statement saying that Mangoush denied meeting Cohen with the intent to normalize relations with Israel. It claimed that Mangoush had attended an informal gathering hosted by the Italian foreign ministry where Cohen was also present and that the meeting was unplanned and casual in nature.

The statement added that Libya rejects any idea of normalization of relations with Israel and completely stands by the Palestinian cause.

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Haitians Reject Kenya’s Plan for Armed Intervention

A Kenyan assessment mission arrived in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on August 20 to evaluate the security situation in the Caribbean country. The 10-member Kenyan mission met with senior officials of the de facto Haitian government, and the visit concluded on August 23. The plan to intervene has been condemned by progressive organizations and rights groups such as the Haitian Democratic Committee, Amnesty International, the Frantz Fanon Foundation, and the Kenyan Revolutionary Socialist League.

The delegation’s visit came weeks after Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force in Haiti to help improve its security and stem gang violence. On July 29, Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said that his country is ready to deploy 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haiti’s police to “restore normalcy in the country and protect strategic installations.”

Kenya’s proposal came in response to the Henry government’s official request to the UN for international military assistance to fight criminal gangs. At the time, several countries backed the prospect of sending a multilateral force to Haiti. However, no country stepped forward to lead the intervention.

Haitian movements have objected to the plan, citing the severe issues caused by previous foreign military interventions in the country. They also condemned the international community for supporting Henry. In 2021, the latter assumed office following the assassination of the previous de facto president Jovenel Moïse and in the same year indefinitely postponed the long overdue presidential and legislative elections. They also held Henry and the ruling far-right Haitian Tèt Kale Party responsible for the economic, social, political, and institutional crises facing the country.

Henry Boisrolin, a member of the Haitian Democratic Committee, pointed out that “1,000 policemen obviously cannot solve the issue of insecurity. In other words, the presence of those 1,000 policemen—in case they arrive in Haiti—would be to protect the leaders and institutions, not the Haitian people. This is clear.”