Far too many countries in Africa continued to regard their union movements with suspicion and hostility. Some tried to control the unions by using (or misusing) the law; others were more brutal; but the attitude was the same throughout much of Africa - despite all the evidence to the contrary, governments held fast to the view that they and only they knew what was good for their citizens.

The result, unsurprisingly, was more repression, and more economic stagnation.

The Nigerian military dictatorship maintained its tight grip on the country's independent trade union movement. Senior trade unionists remained in jail, one for the third year. They have not been tried. They have been denied access to their lawyers, and to their families - some are even being refused medical treatment.

Those outside the jails are no safer; thugs attacked and beat up the wife of one of the detainees after she made a public appeal for her husband's release.

Trade unionists are not the only ones suffering under the generals; they have been singled out because here, as elsewhere, it is they whom the dictators fear the most.

In Ethiopia, the teachers' unions have been targeted. Police there shot and killed a leading official of the ETA teachers' union in an attack that signalled the continuing crackdown on the movement. At least 70 trade unionists were jailed; others fled the country in fear of their lives.

In Djibouti, police used live ammunition and tear-gas in an attack on a union-led protest March. The unions' crime? They had organised a protest because their salaries had not been paid.

Security forces in Swaziland also used live ammunition against a union-led demonstration, this time calling for more democracy. A senator heightened tension by calling for the deportation of union leader Jan Sithole.

In Zimbabwe, there was an attempt on the life of union leader Morgan Tsvangirai two days after the country's biggest ever protest strike. Seven armed men beat him with chairs and coffee tables in his own office and tried to force him to jump out of the eighth-floor window. He was taken to hospital unconscious, although he later recovered. The government has not opened an enquiry into what happened.

All this repression contributed nothing to solving the continent's economic problems. At best, it was an irrelevance; at worst, it merely added to the suffering of the African people.

Violence against civilian populations by armed fundamentalist Islamic groups or between these groups and the government's security forces again claimed the lives of over one hundred union members and many thousands of working people. Trade unionists were often singled out because of their particular role in established civil society - opposed by the fundamentalist Islamic forces.

Those with jobs were seen as government supporters and faced threats and assassination. Islamic groups targeted women workers simply because they went to work - claiming that this conflicted with Islamic values. Eleven women teachers were massacred at the end of September.

The state of emergency declared in February 1992, and renewed indefinitely in 1993, allows the Minister of the Interior to requisition workers during an unauthorised or illegal strike; to order the temporary closure of assembly places; and to ban demonstrations likely to disturb the peace or public order.

The labour law prohibits trade unions from associating with political parties and receiving funds from foreign sources. Trade unions violating the law face suspension by the government and dissolution by the courts.

The right to strike is restricted by lengthy pre-strike procedures, including 14 days of mandatory conciliation, mediation or binding arbitration. If no agreement is reached in arbitration, workers can go on strike after voting by secret ballot.

The union was also calling for the introduction of a minimum wage and protesting because it had not been represented in tripartite discussions on reform of the labour law. The CGSILA said its leaders and members were intimidated and victimised during the strike.

Around the same time, the authorities took away the passport of the CGSILA general secretary to prevent his attending a sub-regional trade union conference in Harare. They returned the passport two days later and he was able to travel.

The current law contains numerous restrictions on the right to strike. There is a broad definition of essential services where strikes are banned. The authorities can declare strikes illegal, and requisition strikers to maintain minimum services.

The unions said that enterprise managers were increasingly trying to divide workers by encouraging and financing the formation of parallel unions, to undermine existing ones.

Striking workers are frequently intimidated and threatened with the sack.

Public servants and teachers cannot form or join trade unions, although they can belong to associations with restricted bargaining rights. Agricultural and domestic workers are not covered by the Trade Union Act and cannot belong to trade unions or bargain collectively.

Workers can go on strike, but there has never been a legal strike in Botswana because of the complex and lengthy pre-strike procedures unions have to follow.

The Minister of Labour has to approve any union affiliation to international confederations, although if permission is withheld, unions can appeal to the courts.

The law allows the Labour Commissioner to attend union meetings.

The sacked workers were reinstated in July after negotiations, and the union called off its strike.

The dispute began in November 1996 over wages and working conditions, and the deterioration of the health service because of privatisation in line with the structural adjustment policy.

The strikers were also protesting at government plans to employ some workers on contracts. The government agreed to meet some of their demands, but later reneged on its agreement.

The union held a warning strike on 6-7 May 1997. As there was no response from the government, the union said it would go on a partial strike for a month. The government then did meet the union but refused to discuss their demands and said the strike was illegal.

The law allows the authorities to requisition striking civil servants and state officials.

The ILO has criticised a law which requires public servants to respect the revolutionary order or face disciplinary proceedings.

Under the 1992 labour code, trade unions or professional associations of public servants have to register with the Minister of Territorial Administration to obtain legal status. Trade unionists who fail to register their organisations risk prosecution.

The government has refused to register the National Union of Teachers in Higher Education, SYNES, since 1991.

A 1969 decree requires trade unions or professional associations of public servants to get approval from the authorities before they can join international federations, although in practice, this provision has often been ignored.

As in previous years, the authorities continued to interfere in the internal affairs of the CCTU national union centre. Their aim was to undermine the elected leadership which opposed the government's austerity measures, and the day-to-day work of the union. In August, the CCTU bank account was blocked.

Management of state-owned companies in the electricity, water, railways, air transport, and agro-industry sectors colluded with the government by obstructing the payment of checked-off union dues to the CCTU.

Cameroon's 1991 EPZ laws exempted employers from some provisions of the labour code but stated that terms and conditions of employment must be consistent with internationally accepted workers' rights. The CCTU says that trade unions are denied access to EPZ enterprises.

The UNTC-CS held a day of protest, at the beginning of June over the fall in purchasing power. Various sectors subsequently went on strike for 24-48 hours.

The management at the Port of Praia, with police support, illegally recruited non-dock labour to break a dockers' strike on 3-4 July. The police occupied the port and threatened and intimidated strikers with their guns. A few days after the strike, port management began disciplinary processes against six strikers, including four union officials on the strike committee. They were suspended from work without pay for three months and transferred to other enterprises.

Workers at the ENACOL petrol company were ordered back-to-work by the authorities on 15 July. The UNTC-CS said it was the fourth time in recent years that workers had been 'requisitioned' in this way.

The management at the large EMPA enterprise abolished the check-off system for union dues after a strike there. Members of management visited families of workers before the strike to try and dissuade them from taking part.

The dispute over who owns the First May Social Centre was still not resolved, and part of the centre began to fall into serious disrepair. The centre had been built for the UNTC-CS by international trade union solidarity funds, and includes union offices and space for educational and recreational facilities.

The authorities confiscated the keys to part of the centre in December, 1991, and handed them over to a breakaway union which later set up a new national union organisation and claimed co-ownership of UNTC-CS property. Two union vehicles were also confiscated.

The UNTC-CS took the matter to court, and in 1992, in an interim ruling, the court told the breakaway group to leave the disputed part of the centre and ordered it to be closed.

In 1995, a court ruling closed the case on a legal technicality without settling the matter of ownership. The UNTC-CS lodged an appeal. In 1996, the centre was legally registered in the name of the UNTC-CS. The government attempted to challenge the registration, but the 30-day period in which they were entitled to do so had already expired. The UNTC-CS appeal remained pending.

The ILO has criticised the government of Cape Verde for its failure to promote free collective bargaining.

The law still requires trade union officials to work full-time in their sector.

Collective bargaining is not protected by law. Where there is collective bargaining, the government generally intervenes. Lengthy mediation and arbitration procedures must precede a strike. The government has the power to order strikers back-to-work in the "general interest".

Trade unions are banned from holding meetings of a political nature.

There were many strikes over unpaid wages during the year. On 15 December, police in the capital city, Bangui, halted a protest by public servants who had not been paid for seven months. They were planning to march with a list of demands to the president's palace. Armed police blocked all the roads before the march got going, and the protesters dispersed.

It repealed the ban on political activity by trade unions and lifted the 1975 Ordinance suspending all strikes; and the 1976 Ordinance prohibiting public servants from forming or joining trade unions.

The authorities can no longer intervene in collective bargaining, nor need the government approve an agreement before it can enter into force. However, the Minister of Labour can make comments on an agreement and ask for negotiations to be reopened.

The new code reduced the residence qualification for holding union office from seven years to five.

However, the 1962 Ordinance requiring prior authorisation from the Ministry of the Interior to form an association remained in force - and the government has applied this law to unions on several occasions, despite repeated assurances that they would only be governed by the labour code. The penalty for not complying is up to a year in jail.

The Ordinance allows for the immediate administrative dissolution of an association and lets the authorities oversee associations' funds. In 1996, the government said that it had drafted an amendment specifying that the Ordinance did not apply to trade unions, and had submitted it to the Minister of the Interior and Security.

The meeting was part of a protest strike over ten-month wage arrears for public servants. The government said it could only pay one month, and declared the strike illegal.

It blamed the union for the violence, and on 30 January, arrested teachers' union leader Ibouroi Ali Tailbou, and Abdou Halidi from the health workers' union. They were not released until 7 February.

Later in the year, on 18 August, the government banned all political and trade union demonstrations, giving as a reason the secessionist movement on the island of Anjouan. Trade unions had been discussing the resumption of their protests against wage arrears which still had not been paid.

A demonstration in January by public servants demanding unpaid wages was brutally repressed by the police.

One hundred and ninety-nine trade unions have emerged since the introduction of trade union pluralism in 1990 - largely because the authorities, employers and others created and registered a number of in-house unions and other unrepresentative and phantom unions, particularly in the public sector and state enterprises.

The labour code protects workers against anti-union discrimination and interference by employers into union affairs, but it was ignored. Trade unionists were victimised and discriminated against by employers.

There continued to be reports that trade union dues collected by check-off were withheld by company management, including at the state-owned national post, telephone and telecommunications enterprise.

Nine trade union leaders sacked from their jobs during the September 1995 strike have still not been reinstated, including UDT President Ahmed Djama Egueh, and UDT General Secretary Aden Mohamed Abdou. They took their case to the labour court in 1995, but as yet, there has been no action.

The UDT and UGTD union centres had organised the strike to protest against government austerity measures imposed within an IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programme.

The authorities responded by closing down the union headquarters and sealing the doors.

On 28 January, a bailiff and three policemen threw Egueh out of his company-owned house because he had been sacked after the strike. They changed the locks.

On 16 February, a disciplinary committee sacked five leaders of the secondary schoolteachers' union, the SYNESED, who had been suspended in 1996 from their teaching jobs: Mariam Hassan Ali, Kamil Hassan Ali, Malyoun Benoit, Mohamed Ali Djama and Souleyman Ahamed Mahamed. Other teachers had been sacked, suspended, transferred or struck off the teaching register in 1996, and the government had banned suspended teachers from going into schools and organising meetings.

Teachers' unions and workers from other sectors held a demonstration outside the building where the disciplinary committee met. The police attacked the gathering with tear gas and batons. Dozens were injured, and one person needed hospital treatment. Many hundreds were taken to Nagad detention camp, including leaders of the UDT and UGTD.

On 23 February, the SYNESED union and SEP, the primary teachers' union, held a week-long strike to protest at four-month salary arrears and, the withdrawal of teachers' housing, and to call for the reinstatement of sacked trade unionists. The Ministry of Education refused to talk to the unions

On 25 February, police and troops attacked a massive protest march organised by the teachers' unions, and joined by other workers, students and parents. Live ammunition and tear gas was used in the attack, which left many people injured.

Hundreds of people were arrested and taken in lorries to a detention camp in Nagad. Some of them were severely ill-treated. They were released the next day. Most of them were abandoned in the desert without food or water, kilometres from Djibouti town.

Several leaders of the SEP and SYNESED teachers' unions were taken to the police department.

Four union leaders spent several days in Gabode prison: Souleiman Mohamed Ahmed, the former general secretary of the SYNESED and the assistant general secretary of the UDT; Mohamed Ali Djama, the former general secretary of the SYNESED; Abdoul-Aziz Mohamed, the assistant general secretary of SEP, and Osman Miguil Waiss, a member of the SYNESED committee.

Five others were held for several days in Nagad detention camp before being provisionally released: Abdirahman Ismail Abdirahman, the assistant treasurer of SYNESED; Abdi Daher Boulaleh, the SEP treasurer, Salem Nasser Mohamed, Mohamed Abdillahi Ali, and Mohamed Said Abdi, SEP officials.

They were held in appalling conditions. They were not allowed to see their lawyer, or their families. The union's lawyer had been suspended from his job because of government interference.

The government recruited several foreign teachers (mainly French) working in Djibouti under a co-operation agreement to try and break the strike.

On May Day, the UDT/UGTD held a rally in front of union headquarters. They had told the Ministry of Labour about the rally in line with the law. Police were deployed and positioned all around the building. When the workers started to move towards SEP headquarters to continue their rally, the police fired tear gas and beat up workers. UDT president Ahmed Djama Egueh, General Secretary, Aden Mohamed Abdou and one other were detained.

The government included a workers' member of a union confederation it had itself helped to form in 1995, CONGETRA, in its delegation to the ILO conference. It had also encouraged the formation of a new trade union federation in 1995, the Djibouti Labour Congress, CODJITRA, as well as a trade union youth organisation, CONJEUTRA, to undermine genuine unions.

On 3 June, the government sent letters to the UDT and UGTD claiming that they had not conformed with the law requiring founding members of unions to register their rules and the names of their officials with the authorities. The government said they must hold a congress and elect new union leaders. The Minister of Labour issued a press release broadcast on national radio saying that the organisations and their leadership were illegal.

In July, the Minister of Labour met the UDT and UGTD leaders and told them that both national centres were illegal. He said that he didn't recognise the UDT/UGTD alliance, and that the unions would only be allowed back in their headquarters if they signalled their allegiance to the Minister of Labour.

The Minister wrote to the justice ministry asking them to investigate the illegal status of the UDT and UGTD. The criminal investigation department immediately detained the president of the UDT, and he was interrogated and beaten up.

The UDT wrote to the Minister of Labour pointing out the contradictions in his claim that the national centre was illegal. He didn't pursue the claim.

Around the same time, the UDT president's home was broken into and ransacked by the Director General of Djibouti airport, his previous employer, accompanied by police officers. They broke down the door and stole personal possessions as well as union archives, and they changed the locks again.

By the end of the year, the UDT said that salaries were at least five to six months in arrears. The government crackdown continued, and union leaders said that they and their families were in constant danger.

The Act on Associations, which requires associations to get requires that prior authorisation before they can be set up, is needed before an association can be set-up. It has been applied to trade unions.

The labour code only allows Djibouti nationals to hold trade union office.

A decree allows the president to requisition public servants in essential services, which are broadly defined.

The government began drawing up a new labour code in 1996 to reform the 1952 code -- in line with its structural adjustment programme -- without trade union participation.

At the end of the year the government agreed to receive an ILO direct contacts mission.

The law gives the national union centre control over trade union nomination and election procedures and over union finances. It specifies how much unions have to pay the federations and how much the federations have to pay the centre.

A 1995 law amended some of the above provisions, but only slightly. A revised draft labour code published by the government early in 1995 maintained the single trade union system. It was not adopted in 1997.

Collective bargaining in Egypt is not encouraged or adequately protected by the law. Any clause in a collective agreement which could jeopardise the economic or security interests of the country is invalid.

The government sets wages and other terms and conditions of employment in the public sector after consultation with the unions. Public enterprise directors do not have to negotiate with trade unions, and the government must approve any agreement in the sector.

There is little collective bargaining in the private sector.

There is no legal right to strike, although strikes do take place. Strikers face a prison sentence of up to two years. There have been prosecutions under the state of emergency in force since 1981.

Compulsory arbitration can be imposed at the request of one party in industries designated as essential services. These are broadly defined. The judicial authorities can remove a trade union committee from office for provoking a strike in the public services.

A 1993 Act entitled "law on guarantees for democracy", relating to professional trade union associations, closely regulated elections in these organisations, detailing requirements for a quorum, length of office, and electoral procedures.

Some public sector strikes took place during the year. The police arrested seven strikers in Gharbiya Province on 2 January, the second day of a strike by 3,000 public transport workers in the provincial capital, Tanta, over the cancellation of annual bonuses. The seven were on their way to a nearby town where some of their colleagues had returned to work.

On 18 June, local security forces used tear gas to break up a strike involving hundreds of employees at Zagazig University, east of Cairo. One worker was reported to have been seriously injured by the gas.

The union first applied for registration in early 1995. Although the application met all the requirements under the 1992 Trade Union Law, the authorities refused to register it, objecting to the word "independent" in the union's name.

Subsequent applications later in 1995 and in 1996 were also rejected.

The law does not recognise the right to collective bargaining. There is no protection in the law against acts of anti-union discrimination. Strikes are prohibited.

There continue to be reports that workers must be members of the ruling party to get jobs in both the public and private sectors. In the oil industry, workers are screened to ensure they are sympathetic to the regime.

Police killed ETA executive council member Maru Assefa on 8 May, 1997, while he was on his way to work. The police had come to arrest him for alleged terrorist activities. The government refused to hold a public enquiry. Shortly after the killing, the security forces ransacked the ETA office in Addis Ababa, and detained 34 people.

The state-owned television channel subsequently showed a list of ETA executive council members on television alongside a document which was purported to be from an illegal terrorist organisation. As a result of this, ETA general secretary Gemoraw Kassa, left the country fearing for his life.

Within the next few days, some 70 teachers and ETA members were detained around the country because they had signed a letter denouncing the government's increased repression against trade union and human rights organisations.

ETA president Taye Woldesmiate remained in prison after being arrested at Addis Ababa airport on 29 May 1996. No charges were brought against him until August, 1996, when he was accused of conspiracy against high-level government personnel. He was denied bail. In February, 1997, two of the most serious charges against him were dismissed. He remained in prison pending the determination of the remaining charge on incitement to armed uprising.

In July, at a hearing of his case, two other prisoners on the same charges said that the police had tried to get them to incriminate him. In October, another prisoner on the same charges said that he had been tortured to force him to incriminate Woldesmiate.

Two other ETA officials were also imprisoned after being arrested in 1996. Abate Angore, arrested on 29 September, 1996, was released around the beginning of March 1997. Kebede Desita, the president of the Retired Teachers' Association, affiliated to the ETA, arrested on 24 March, remained in prison and was also charged with incitement to armed uprising.

The government began harassing the ETA in 1993-94, when it helped a breakaway group from the union to register. It closed the legitimate ETA's bank account and those of its 134 regional offices, and even collected union dues and handed them over to the new group. Thousands of teachers were transferred. Twenty ETA members were sacked, including all the leadership. The government defied the courts and ignored rulings that it recognise the legitimate ETA as the leadership of the union.

A longstanding appeal against the court decision in favour of the legitimate ETA was adjourned until July 1998. The judge who had originally ruled in favour of the ETA was dismissed shortly afterwards, and it was believed that other judges were trying to avoid the case until the ETA had been destroyed altogether.

Other union officials were also targeted. Constant harassment led Mamo Basazen Bahiru, the vice-secretary of the FCTP commercial and technical union, to flee Ethiopia in March. Four attempts had been made on his life and twice during the previous month the police had searched his house during the night.

The national trade union centre, CETU, was finally registered again in 1997 and its headquarters and bank accounts were re-opened. It had been closed down when the government cancelled its registration in 1994 after it had opposed the government's structural adjustment policy. It held a restructuring congress in April, although some observers believed that the government was stage-managing the event behind the scenes.

In April, former president of the CETU national centre Ibrahim Dawey, and executive council members Fekadu Tenkir and Ayalew Hundessa Gurara fled Ethiopia, believing that their lives were in danger, and asked for political asylum.

Ethiopia's 1993 labour law forbids workers in the public service from forming or joining trade unions, although the 1994 constitution allows them to organise and bargain collectively. Teachers and medical personnel are also banned from joining trade unions.

The labour law prohibits trade unions from acting in an overtly political manner.

Essential services in which strikes are banned are widely defined and include: air transport, railways; city cleansing and sanitation; electricity-generating plants; petrol stations; pharmacies; post and telecommunications; banks; and water supply.

The right to strike is restricted by lengthy pre-strike requirements, and binding arbitration can be imposed.

At the end of the year there were expectations that the government would be reviewing the labour law.

He had only just been given back his passport, which had been taken away when the NIA had held him for two weeks in December 1996.

Civil servants in the Gambia cannot form unions or strike.

A 1985 law remains in force banning collective bargaining at the national Cocoa Board over redundancies, and preventing unions from taking cases to court.

The lengthy procedures to be fulfilled before a strike can take place have meant that there have been no legal strikes since independence.

The ILO has expressed concern about the 1994 Emergency Powers Act which could be used to impede freedom of assembly and demonstration.

The strike began on 14 April over the government's failure to pay a wage rise promised after a 1995 strike.

Union telephone lines were cut, and union leaders received threatening telephone calls. Tyres were burnt in front of union headquarters by youth mobs. It was believed that the authorities were behind the violence and intimidation.

After a two-week strike, the government agreed to pay the rise as promised.

Binding arbitration can be imposed by one party, or a government minister during a dispute in essential services, which include public transport and communications.

The Kenya Civil Servants' Union and the University Staff Union were both de-registered by the government in 1980. The government refuses to register the Kenya Medical Practitioners' and Dentists' Union.

The Kenya Wildlife and Allied Workers Union remained without registration after being de-registered by the authorities in 1995.

The 1965 law which established the national trade union centre, COTU, allows the president of the country to remove the union's three senior leaders from office.

The Minister of Labour and a representative of the ruling party, KANU, are non-voting members of COTU's executive, although in practice this provision is disregarded.

In 1993, COTU amended its constitution to cut-off its institutional links with the government, but the government refused to register the changes.

The law restricts the right to strike. All disputes must be submitted to the Minister of Labour. A union must wait 21 days before calling a strike, during which time conciliation procedures are mandatory. The minister can determine that there is no dispute, after which a strike is illegal - a power he exercised during 1997. He can also submit a dispute to the industrial court for binding arbitration.

In July, COTU submitted proposals to the government on amending the labour law, particularly in respect to strikes.

Primary and secondary school teachers belonging to the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) went on strike on 1 October when the government reneged on previously-negotiated salary increases. The government said the strike was illegal and sought a court injunction to end it. The Education Minister threatened to sack teachers who did not go back to work. The government said it would fulfil its previous agreement after the strike had gone on for 11 days.

Other strikes at the end of the year included a strike by hospital nurses which began on 28 November over wages and working conditions. The nurses had earlier applied for registration of the All Cadre Nurses Union of Kenya, but had received no response from the government. During the strike, riot police dispersed around 100 nurses at a demonstration at Naivasha hospital. In Nairobi, the police armed with rifles threatened to use force on workers demonstrating outside the College of Health Professions. Unqualified students were used to tend patients during the strike.

The strike was still going on at the end of the year and the union had still not been registered.

At Kenya Co-operative Creameries, 3,800 employees were sacked and told to re-apply for their jobs when they went on strike to protest at corruption in the company.

Although the labour law applies in Kenya's export processing zones, many exemptions have been granted. There continue to be reports of violations of workers' rights in the zones.

Teachers were banned from striking under a 1995 law which categorised teaching as an essential service.

Lengthy and cumbersome procedures have to be followed before a strike can take place, with the result that there have been no legal strikes since independence in 1966. Workers are often sacked for going on strike even though this is against the law.

Lesotho's labour law applies in the country's industrial zones - but police stations at the entrance to the zones stop union organisers getting in.

Unions, particularly in the textile sector, said that employers were constantly undermining union organisation by harassing organisers and intimidating union members. Union activists were frequently sacked and put on blacklists. The Labour Ministry has generally proved either unwilling or unable to enforce the law.

The 7,000 employees at Harbel Firestone, the biggest rubber plantation in the world, were striking for better social protection, improvements to their accommodation and working conditions, and the reemployment of some 8,000 former employees of the company. Firestone had resumed production in February 1996 after closing its operations when the civil war broke out in December 1989.

Two days after the shootings, the government said that a special committee would be set-up to examine the incident, in consultation with the trade unions and the Firestone management.

Workers in the public sector and state enterprises, have no rights in law to form or join unions, or bargain collectively. There is a ban on agricultural workers forming unions. Trade unions did, however, exist in these sectors before the civil war.

Strikes are illegal. The law allows trade union elections to be supervised by government authorities.

The law does not adequately protect workers against acts of anti-union discrimination, nor against acts of interference by employers' organisations.

The government sees independent unions as "intermediaries between the revolution and the working forces".

Public servants, agricultural workers and seafarers are prohibited from bargaining collectively. The government must approve all collective agreements to ensure that they are in line with the national economic interest.

Workers are not protected against anti-union discrimination at the time of recruitment. Public servants, agricultural workers and seafarers are not adequately protected against acts of anti-union discrimination.

There are no strikes in Libya. Public servants can be imprisoned or sentenced to forced labour for striking. Libya's president has said that workers can go on strike, but they do not because they control their enterprises.

Foreign workers are not allowed to join unions.

On September 25-26, workers at the national social security headquarters in the capital city, Antananarivo, went on strike. A new director of the institute who had been appointed in August unilaterally cut benefits acquired through collective bargaining over the years. The management refused to negotiate.

After the labour ministry mediated in the dispute, it was agreed that the benefits would be restored and no sanctions would be taken against the strikers. When the workers returned to work, however, 20 union leaders and union members received letters of dismissal.

The CSTU public servants' union had gone on strike to call for a wage rise recommended by an independent commission on salaries and conditions of service, which the government had promised to pay.

On 8 April, the second day of the strike, armed police with dogs dispersed a gathering of union members in the capital, Lilongwe. Many strikers were badly bitten and others were injured after being hit by batons. Some of the strikers fled into their offices, and were followed and locked in by police. The authorities threatened to sack them, claiming that the strike was illegal.

On 9 April, police arrested and tortured the chairman of the CSTU in Zomba, two other union officials and a union member. On 10 April, CSTU General Secretary, Samuel Banda, and union treasurer Hastings Kachhikopa were arrested. Banda was dragged naked from his home. They were interrogated on a matter which had nothing to do with the dispute and released on bail. The next day, Samuel Banda was seized on his way to a funeral and detained for three hours.

On 14 April, the government instructed the police to arrest more union leaders and said that no more than four civil servants could meet at any one time. There were clashes with the police in Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba. Union leaders in several towns were persistently harassed by police and other security forces.

On the following days, the police put up road blocks around government offices.

On 16 April, all the members of the CSTU committee in the Rumphi district were arrested and taken to Mzuzu and interrogated. They were released on bail and charged with breaching the peace. Police used teargas to break up a march of public servants in Zomba protesting at the arrests and harassment. Dogs were set on public servants in Lilongwe.

On 17 April, the union committee in Mzimba was arrested, and some of them were threatened at gun point. They were detained for a day before being released on bail and charged with breaching the peace.

On 22 April there were more arrests, particularly in Chitipa. Six union leaders were arrested in Mzuzu. Members of the union committees in Nhkata Bay and Karonga were arrested. There were violent clashes when police dispersed strikers trying to submit a petition to the president and cabinet in Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Blantyre. CSTU Vice-president Mike Gondwe escaped when four police tried to arrest him in Mzuzu.

Letters of interdiction were issued against almost 50 CSTU members. The TUM teachers' union gave notice to the government that it would hold a demonstration on 29 April and join the strike on 13 May.

On 28 April, Mike Gondwe was arrested in Mzuzu while addressing a meeting of public servants. The union feared he would be tortured. He was held in police custody and no-one was allowed to see him. In Karanga, police attacked a peaceful gathering of striking public servants with teargas and live ammunition.

On the next day, marches by the teachers' union in various cities and a civil servants' meeting were dispersed by dogs and teargas, injuring many women. The police beat the president of the CSTU with sticks. The regional chairman of the union, T.R. Mwafango, was arrested after being bitten by police dogs. He was so badly injured that he had to go to hospital before being taken into custody.

In Karonga, police fired teargas into people's homes as they broke up meetings of strikers. In Mzimba and Rumphi, they were searching for union leaders.

The authorities began to force some public servants to retire or transferred them into other ministries.

On 30 April, Mike Gondwe was released on bail and charged with inciting a strike in Nhkata Bay and throwing stones at a vehicle. He denied the charges.

On 5 May, the police in Mzimba tortured detained public servants Brown Mbale, Nyirenda, and Munthali to try and get information about the alleged murder of a policeman. Munthali's hand was broken. They were not allowed to have hospital treatment.

On the following day the police continued to harass public servants and to use teargas on any gathering. The regional chairman, T.R. Mwafango, arrested on 29 April, was acquitted by a magistrate's court on all charges.

The government didn't turn up to a meeting with the unions on 9 May and said it would not negotiate until the strike ended. On 19 May, all sides agreed to resume negotiations. The strike was called off and the government withdrew the letters of interdiction. Thirty union leaders still faced court cases.

Observers said that the government had repressed the strike out of fear that the opposition were behind the union action.

Many employers continued to resist unionisation in their workplaces. The National Seed, Cotton and Milling Company of Malawi sacked 129 workers including the general secretary of the hotel and catering union, Dorothea Masuku, for union activities in 1996.

Although a new labour law had been adopted in 1996, it did not come into effect during 1997.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the headquarters has been seen as a rallying point for pro-democracy forces.

Tear gas was fired at civilians peacefully demonstrating for the cancellation of the elections. The president of the country finally declared the results null and void and withdrew the army from the union premises.

On 23 July, the headquarters was again surrounded by troops after new elections had been held on the basis of an incomplete list of candidates on 20 July. Teargas was fired into the building.

There were allegations that forces inside the government were interfering into internal trade union affairs, and were behind moves to oust the UNTM general secretary, including in August by funding a congress of a rival union.

The UNTM general secretary was summoned to appear in court on 4 September in an attempt to prevent his entering union headquarters.

On 7 October, plainclothes policemen broke in and ransacked the headquarters. The general secretary's office was sealed.

On 23 October, the judge ruled in favour of the rival group in a court case to decide who could use the union's name and who were the union's legitimate leaders. The previous day, the government had closed the union headquarters.

During the night of 29 November a bomb exploded in the headquarters causing widespread damage.

The government can order compulsory arbitration to end a strike in disputes which are likely to "compromise the normal operation of the national economy or concerning a vital sector of professions".

The government has been promising for years to introduce a new labour code which will lift these restrictions.

There are no rules on the introduction of the check-off system of union dues, although the Minister of Labour had said he will discuss this with the unions.

The CLTM union centre has not been registered by the government, although it is allowed to function. It has said that the authorities and employers discriminate against its members.

On 1 May, a CLTM meeting was violently suppressed by the police. Ten unionists were arrested although they were later released. Many others were injured.

When secondary school teachers belonging to the SIPES union said they would strike on 7-8 April over pay rises and other issues, the government threatened to sack them and occupied their headquarters. Around 15 SIPES leaders were put under house arrest for six months, although they were released earlier. Their salaries were cut. Some teachers went on strike at the beginning of May. There was no retaliation by the authorities.

The police also said that the eleven officials would not be allowed to leave the country and must hand over their passports, although this demand was subsequently withdrawn.

The threats arose out of a march organised for 26 June 1996 in the capital city, Port Louis, by the "All Workers Conference", an unofficial grouping representing all trade unions formed in May 1996 to co-ordinate union initiatives on national issues.

The unions had told the Commissioner of Police about the march two weeks in advance, but he banned it the day before it was due to take place, although under the law he should have given 48 hours notice of cancellation.

The Commissioner cited a section in the Public Gathering Act, which said that "no public meeting or public procession shall be held in the district of Port Louis on any day on which the (National) Assembly meets and sits". The unions had planned the march for a Wednesday when the Assembly didn't normally meet.

Around 2,000 workers turned up because of the short notice and heard a brief speech from the union leaders.

Eleven union leaders decided to walk to Government House to hand over a letter protesting at price rises, privatisation plans and welfare cuts contained in the government's budget.

The police formed a ring preventing the union leaders and workers and others from moving. The union leaders were assaulted by riot police and several of them were hit with batons. One was choked by a baton held across his throat.

Two days later, a police statement on the TV news threatened to prosecute the union leaders.

In August 1997, a few days after the police had told the MLC that the union leaders would be prosecuted, both the Prime Minister's office and the Attorney General's office denied that they had instructed the police. The government agreed with the MLC proposal for an enquiry into the matter, but nothing happened.

At the beginning of October, the Government Teachers' Union organised a forum on the governments' draft education bill. Two days before the forum, the Ministry of Education wrote to the union asking it to cancel the forum because, it said, the union was getting involved in political activities.

In the first week of October, the Minister of Health attacked the twelve executive council members of the Nursing Association in Mauritius on national television. A row had erupted over whether or not the Minister had the prerogative to intervene unilaterally into hospital administration. The Minister suspended the council members for what he claimed was their refusal to co-operate with efforts to improve services.

The twelve executive council members were reinstated in November.

Free collective bargaining is undermined because the government sets wages in the state sector. Legal strikes are virtually impossible because of the lengthy pre-strike procedures and binding arbitration. The law does not adequately protect trade unions against acts of interference by employers.

There was little progress on amending the labour law during the year, despite government promises. The government said it was still consulting.

Although the labour law applies in the export processing zones, it remained difficult to organise there. Many employers, and particularly smaller investors from East Asia, victimised and intimidated workers wishing to join trade unions, and established employer-controlled works councils. Union organisers find it hard to gain access to the premises of many of these companies.

There is hardly any collective bargaining in the zones. The Statutory Wage Commissions determine wages after representations by employers and workers' representatives. Special clauses of the labour law which apply in the EPZs include compulsory overtime and compulsory work on public holidays.

There was no progress on revising the labour code, although a draft bill was drawn up in 1994. Amendments to the code in 1996 in the framework of the government's deregulation and privatisation policy, allowed employers to dismiss workers at will, and to hire temporary workers as replacements during a strike.

In the private sector, trade unionists are sacked, fined, and imprisoned for union activities, and strikes in particular. Employers regularly collude with the police, who often use violence against workers who go on strike. Loopholes in the law allow employers to victimise unionists; criminal charges can be brought against strikers for "withdrawing labour", while the government rarely acts against employers who refuse to pay the minimum wage and workers' social security contributions, close factories illegally or victimise trade unionists. Even the election of a trade union leadership in an enterprise can result in employers calling the police.

Morocco's collective bargaining laws are inadequate; wages for many workers are set by employers. Many conflicts arise from the failure of employers to implement collective agreements.

The UMT said that its members in the public sector, suffered victimisation, intimidation and arbitrary punishment.

The whereabouts of two UMT activists, Abdelhaq Rouissi, who disappeared in October 1964, and Houcine Ben Aki El-Manouzi, who disappeared in November 1972, remained unknown. They may be alive and held in a secret detention centre. It is believed they were detained for their trade union and non-violent political activities.

Twelve members of the UMT employed by the national coal board, SOFACO, got a month in prison on 16 January for "withdrawing labour". They had gone on strike the previous month. The factory manager himself handed the police summons to the workers.

Workers at the Proval salt company began a sit-in in the factory on 28 April after its illegal closure. On 6 May, the police attacked the workers and arrested Aziza Belbaraka, a member of the UMT branch union executive committee, after beating her up. She was taken to court the same day and charged with insulting a government official. She got a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of 1,500 dirhams.

After two strikes by UMT unions in the banking sector on 6 and 30 May, the management of the Moroccan bank for Commerce and Industry, began to intimidate and harass its employees. On 3 June, it took disciplinary measures against Azimani Abdelhamid, the general secretary of the UMT branch, on false allegations, and sacked him three days later along with two other union officials.

On 27 May, Mounacir Abdallah, general secretary of the sea fishermen's' union in Agadir, was kidnapped. His body was found four days later, bound and mutilated.

A special EPZ dispute settlement panel was set up to deal with disputes promptly.

The clause will automatically lapse after five years, unless it is re-enacted.

The imprisoned union leaders, mostly employees of the state electricity enterprise, NIGELEC, included Mahmane Mansour Dado, the deputy general secretary of the USTN national union centre and general secretary of SYNATREN.

The USTN had called the strike, held on 18-19 March, to protest over civil servants' salary arrears of up to five months, cuts in civil servants' wages, tax increases, and privatisation. The government had imposed these measures as part of the structural adjustment policy agreed with the IMF and World Bank, and had refused to negotiate with the unions, even though two warning strikes had already taken place earlier in the year.

Members of the broadcasting union, SAINFO, joined the strike while maintaining minimum services in television and radio broadcasting. The security forces threatened SAINFO strikers and refused to allow union leaders into radio and television station premises.

On 14 April, four of the detained trade unionists were convicted of sabotage. Two of them received two years in prison, and another two got two months, although the state had no evidence against them. The other 18 were acquitted, but remained in jail.

NIGELEC victimised other trade unionists for going on strike, sacking 28 union members, suspending 19, and disciplining five others.

After international trade union representation, 16 of the detained unionists were released by 1 June and the remaining six by 20 June.

In October, over 1,000 teachers were transferred and suspended following a strike by the SNEN teachers' union.

Administrators appointed by the military regime have been running the Nigeria Labour Congress union centre (NLC), and the oil workers' unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, since August 1994.

The regime's move followed a strike in the oil industry in July and August 1994 led by NUPENG and PENGASSAN, and backed by the NLC with a call for a general strike on 3-4 August, 1994. The strike was over numerous economic grievances, as well as the military regime's annulment of the June 1993 general elections, widely believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola.

The administrators took over after the regime dissolved the executive councils of the NLC, NUPENG, and PENGASSAN, by Decrees 9 and 10 of August, 1994. The decrees banned union leaders from their own premises, froze union bank accounts and withdrew check-off facilities. The regime issued other decrees banning the courts from challenging the government over labour matters.

Security forces arrested NUPENG General Secretary Frank Kokori in August 1994. Milton Dabibi, PENGASSAN general secretary, and the secretary-general of the federation of senior staff associations, SESCAN, was arrested in January 1996.

Kokori and Dabibi are still in detention and have not been charged or tried. They have not been allowed to see their lawyers or union officials. Family visits are severely restricted. Both men are both in poor health and are being refused proper medical attention. In addition to other ailments, Frank Kokori has a spinal injury resulting from a car accident in 1991. The regime has refused requests from prison doctors that he be allowed to see an orthopaedic specialist.

In early May, 1997, a mob vandalised Frank Kokori's home and roughed up his wife and son after his wife spoke in public to call for her husband's release.

During 1996, the regime brought in three harsh anti-union laws. It also banned the university unions and associations: ASUU, NASU and SSANU, and confiscated their assets under essential services legislation.

In January, 1996, the regime issued the Trade Unions (Amendment) Decree No. 4. This gave legal effect to the forced merger of NLC affiliates from 41 to 29 which the government had already imposed. It made it a criminal offence for any union other than the 29 unions named in the decree to belong to the NLC. The law already named the NLC as the sole national union centre.

The Decree didn't mention 25 registered senior staff associations which belong to SESCAN, which is unregistered. While senior staff associations can exist they are not allowed to affiliate to the NLC.

Decree No. 4 disqualified leaders of the 29 industrial unions affiliated to the NLC from standing for election to NLC office, by banning full-time union employees from standing for leadership positions of industrial unions, and of the NLC at national and state levels. A candidate for office had to be a card-carrying member of one of the 29 NLC affiliates. The Decree contained a provision prohibiting a court challenge to its validity.

On 16 October, 1996, the Trade Unions (Amendment) Decree No. 26 came into effect. It allows the Minister of Labour to cancel the registration of any of the 29 unions affiliated to the NLC if he considers their activities to be at "variance with the overriding public interest" - which is not defined. Unions can appeal against such a decision to the Minister within 30 days, but they cannot challenge the decree in the courts. The decree bans a de-registered union from collecting union dues.

Decree No. 26 also says check-off payment of union dues will only be allowed if the are "no strike" clauses in collective agreements concluded after the registration and recognition of the 29 NLC affiliates. Strike action taken in defiance of such legally-imposed clauses would lead to the suspension of check-off.

Referring to Decree No. 4, Decree No. 26 defines a card-carrying trade union member as a worker employed in the trade or industry represented by the union, and specifies that only card-carrying members can be elected to trade union office or participate in decision-making bodies, unless the post is strictly administrative. Contravention of this provision carries a penalty of a 100,000 fine Naira, and/or five years in jail.

On 23 October 1996, Trade Unions (International Affiliation) Decree No. 29 was secretly promulgated. It specifies the international trade union organisations to which the NLC or any trade union can affiliate.

It nullifies existing affiliations to unapproved international trade union organisations unless approval has been granted by the Provisional Ruling Council, and bans future affiliations without the express approval of the government-appointed administrator running the NLC.

Anyone contravening the Decree is subject to a 100,000 Naira fine and/or five years in prison. A trade union or association contravening the Decree would have its registration certificate revoked. There are no reports that the Decree has been used to force trade unions to disaffiliate internationally,

Nigerian labour law also requires that fifty workers are needed before a trade union can be formed.

The Registrar of Trade Unions (Minister of Labour) has broad powers to supervise trade union accounts at any time.

The government often interferes in collective bargaining, and can impose compulsory arbitration in a broad range of industries which are defined as essential services. Teaching has been designated as an essential service in which strikes are banned.

In June, 21 trade union leaders in Kaduna state in northern Nigeria were arrested during a civil servants strike over implementation of a 1994 an agreement on pay and conditions. The authorities refused to negotiate with them.

They were charged with unlawful assembly, civil disturbance and other criminal charges. Charges against many of them remained pending at the end of the year. Around 16,000 workers were sacked because they refused to return to work by the government's deadline.

Adams Oshiomole, the general secretary of the NUTGTWN textile union took the labour minister to court during the year for defamation of character.

Government employees cannot go on strike, though the government has told the ILO that it intends to amend this law.

The government has also said it is drafting a new labour code and will amend the law prohibiting non-nationals from being elected to trade union office. It also said that the new code would ensure that all workers, including agricultural workers, were protected against anti-union discrimination.

There are no institutional mechanisms to promote collective bargaining, and there are no collective agreements.

Rwanda's unions say that some private-sector enterprises systematically violate trade union rights and prevent workers from forming and joining unions. Some persistently obstruct trade union activities and harass and sack union officials.

On 27 April, armed police surrounded the headquarters of the CESTRAR national union centre in Kigali the capital to stop the ATRACO minibus drivers' union from holding a meeting to discuss high taxes imposed on them by the local authorities, as well as other grievances. The union went ahead with a strike on the following day.

The SLLC refused to recognise the regime. It called for workers to stay at home until the elected government was restored and ignored the regimes' order that its members return to work. Government offices, most businesses, and all schools were still closed at the end of the year as employees stayed away, despite warnings by the regime that they would be sacked.

Alpha Timbo, the general secretary of the teachers' union and the assistant general secretary of the SLLC left the country temporarily in July,
taking his family to Guinea. The military regime was targeting the teachers' union for its opposition activities, and his family had received threats.

In October, the acting secretary of the SLAJ journalists' association, Fallah Ensa-Ndemah, went into hiding, fearing arrest on subversion charges. The SLAJ had denounced the regime and its control of the press.

Most union leaders were sacked or detained when trade unions and professional associations were dissolved after the coup. All union affairs were managed by steering committees under the regime's control until the 1992 Trade Union Act was adopted.

During the same year, trade unionists from the pre-coup SWTUF went into exile and established the SW(L)TUF.

The act imposed a single trade union system. It allowed the Minister of Justice to define the sectors, industries and enterprises in which unions can exist; denied union rights to certain public servants; and interfered extensively in internal union affairs and elections. It gave the authorities the power to suspend or dissolve trade union organisations, and did not protect workers against acts of anti-union discrimination.

The SWTUF was set up in 1993, after the regime sponsored a trade union congress following rigged union elections the previous year. Its objectives are to "mobilise the masses for production and to defend the authenticity of the Islamic state".

Sudan's 107 unions were arbitrarily merged into 26 unions which were reduced to 13 in 1996.

Most wages are set by a body controlled and appointed by the regime. There is very little collective bargaining and strikes are banned.

The treatment of Sudanese seafarers worsened significantly after 1989. Former members of the pre-coup shipping union are victimised. The regime controls the Sudanese shipping industry through its ownership of the Sudan Shipping Line. Seafarers are forced to work on its ships which sail in war zones and in areas of health epidemics where no other ship will go. Those who contact the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to complain about wages and working conditions face arrest and torture upon return to Sudan.

The regime uses the state of emergency established under Constitutional Decree 2 of June 1989, and other security laws, against leaders and members of the former unions and political opponents.

Decree 2 bans "the showing of political opposition by any means to the regime of the Revolution for National Salvation". It allows the authorities to make arrests without warrants, or to restrict the movements of anyone "suspected of being a danger to political or economic security". There is no requirement to charge prisoners or bring them to trial.

Trade unionists were among many other opponents of the regime arrested and held without charge in a crackdown that began on 13 January and continued over the next two months. Most of the trade unionists belonged to a broad trade union structure co-ordinated by the SW(L)TUF, and included professional and technical workers' trade unions. They carry out underground union activities in several towns and provinces.

The families of the detainees were not told where they were being held. Some were thought to be in the security service-run section of Kober prison in Khartoum. Many of the unionists had previously been arrested and detained in 1996.

The detainees included: • Mahgoub El-Zubeir, president of the SW(L)TUF • Yahya Ali Abdalla, deputy president (released by April and reporting to security daily) • Kamil Abdel Rahman El-Sheik, textile workers union (reporting daily to security) • Taha Sayed Ahmed, SATA workers union • Abdalla Mohamed Malik, river transport workers' union (released by April) • Mohammed Adam, university workers' union • Seoudi Darag, stores and services workers' union • Mohamed Asel, employees' federation • El Taheer El Rageeg, executive member SW(L)TUF • Nasr Mohamed Nasr, treasurer SW(L)TUF.

Abdel Fatah El Rufa'i, commercial company workers' union • Ali El Semet, president of the railway union (reporting daily to security) • Ali Kalifa, secretary of the professional federation • Abdel Aziz El Rufa'i, employees' federation • Mohamed Babiker Mokhtar, secretary of the employees' federation (released by April) • Abdel Karim Abd El Galil, employees' federation • Mohamed Mahgoub Mohamed Ali, member of the accountants' federation • Awad El Karim Mohamed Ahmed, member SW(L)TUF board and engineers' federation • Najib Nijn El Din, secretary doctors' union • Jaafar Babiker, employees' federation • Mohie El Din Osman, SW(L)TUF.

Mohamed Mohamed Tom, SW(L)TUF • Hassab Alla, SW(L)TUF • Ali Mahgoub, SW(L)TUF
• Ahmed Abdalla Helal, SW(L)TUF • Mann Alla Abdel Wahab, SW(L)TUF • Ali Khureish, employees' federation • Hassan El-Badawi, craftsmen's union • Abdel Abdoun, industrial area craftsmen's union • Galal El-Sayed, lawyers' union • Mustafa Abdel Kader, lawyers' union • Mahgoub Ahmed El-Zeid, SW(L)TUF • Ali El-Mahi El-Sakhi, unionist; Yahya Mudalal, unionist • Mohamed Suleiman, member of the doctors' union (released by April) • Mohamed Di'a El-Din, unionist.

In October, Osman Abdel Gadir, president of the textile trade union was detained in Medani City. Daoud Suliaman, secretary of the Blue Nile trade union, was detained in Bara, west Sudan and unionist Ahmed Ali was detained.

Al-Rasheed Mohamed El-Hasan, member of the Blue Nile trade union had been detained for a year in October. He had been constantly moved around to several different jails and ghost houses and tortured.

As in the past, the regime brought pressure to bear ensuring that its own supporters were elected to office in elections to the Sudan Journalists' Union, in November, and in December to the Sudan Bar Association. Bar Association elections in September had been nullified after widespread allegations of fraud.

Under the act, an official of a trade union federation who calls a strike can face a fine of 5,000 Emalengeni and/or five years in prison, and a subsequent five-year ban on holding union office.

Equally severe penalties apply to organisations or officials calling, organising, or giving financial support to strikes in essential services, which includes broadcasting. The Minister of Labour can amend the definition of essential services.

The Attorney-General can apply for a declaratory order to suspend a strike and the Minister of Labour can apply for an order to ban a strike on the basis of the national interest, which is not defined.

The Act allows the Commissioner of Labour to suspend an organisation or federation.

Trade union officials are banned from holding more than one official position in a union, and from holding office in a political party.

The Act limits unions and federations to an advisory role. Courts can penalise, and even dissolve, a union or federation if they find it has devoted more time and funds to public policy issues than occupational issues during the past year.

Unions cannot picket outside establishments not directly involved in a dispute.

The Commissioner of Labour must conduct a strike ballot and a majority of all employees must vote in favour.

The 1996 act perpetuated several restrictions on union rights contained in the 1980 Industrial Relations Act. The Labour Commissioner can refuse to register a trade union if he thinks an existing union already represents the interests of the workers in the sector. Workers can only organise unions within the industry in which they are employed. Prison staff cannot form or join trade unions.

The 1973 Decree on Meetings and Demonstrations, restricts the rights of organisations to hold meetings and demonstrations. Under the 1963 Public Order Act, police permission is needed for certain meetings and public gatherings. Police can attend union meetings.

The SFTU called a mass stay-away for 3-4 February to support demands first raised in 1993, relating to labour and economic issues, for a more democratic society, and the repeal of security laws. Swaziland's constitution was suspended by a 1973 decree which also banned political parties. Although the King had set-up a constitutional review commission in 1996, it was composed of hand-picked representatives.

From the start, the government determined to crush the stay-away, rather than negotiate on the union demands. Ministers refused to take part in a meeting between unions and employers on 29 and 30 January aimed at finding a solution. On 31 January, the government published legal notices No. 8 and 9 declaring the stay-away a boycott under the 1963 Public Order Act, and listing offences for which no bail would be granted

Police arrested SFTU general secretary Jan Sithole the same day. Richard Nxumalo, SFTU president, Themba Msibi, vice-president, and Jabulani Nxumalo, assistant general-secretary were arrested early the following morning after a union meeting. It was believed the King himself had ordered their arrests.

On 1 February, the authorities obtained an Industrial Court order banning the SFTU, its affiliated unions, and members, and all workers, from organising or participating in the stay-away, and declaring it illegal and against the national interest.

On the same day, seven police officers and 15 heavily-armed soldiers, acting without a warrant, raided and searched SFTU headquarters.

The Swaziland Broadcasting Service banned all announcements or news relating to the stay-away.

A meeting on 2 February between the SFTU, employers and two government ministers failed to make any progress.

On 3 February, the stay-away went ahead. The police surrounded and blocked off SFTU headquarters. Security forces were stationed in major towns, and guarded key installations. Police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators, including in Matsapa. In Mbabane, they intimidated and beat workers who had joined the stay-away. Trade union official Simon Tsabedz was roughed up and thrown into a dam. Police acting without a warrant raided and searched the home of Afrika Magongo, an SFTU trustee.

On 3 February the four arrested officials were taken before a magistrate's court in Mankayane and charged under Section 12 of the 1963 Public Order Act for intimidation in connection with their involvement in the stay-away. They were refused bail and sent to Matsapa Maximum security prison. Their trial was set for 10 February.

In the evening of 3 February, the SFTU held a general council meeting. Some 150 armed police prevented the 23 members from leaving and ordered them to the police station. The police opened fire but no-one was injured. SFTU treasurer Mxolisi Mbata, a wheelchair user, was thrown from his chair and forced to crawl to the police station. The council members were locked in a room full of teargas until early the following morning. They were beaten up and then individually interrogated. The acting secretary general, Barbara Dlamini, was asked why she had called a meeting without police permission.

The stay-away continued, and on 11 February, workers were shot at and one was seriously injured at Big Bend.

Jan Sithole's mother and other close family were harassed while he was in jail.

The trial of the four SFTU leaders began in Manzini on 19 February after preliminary hearings in the remote rural town of Mankanyane. The government manipulated the legal proceedings, and as in the past there was confusion about where the trial would take place.

The four men faced charges of intimidating bus operators into not running services on the two days of the stay-away, an offence which carried a life prison sentence. Bus operators wrote a letter to the SFTU dissociating themselves from the charges.

On 26 February the judge acquitted the accused through lack of evidence, saying that there had been no case in the first place. He said that the police called for the prosecution were dishonest and their evidence lacked credibility and was full of inconsistencies.

The stay-away was called off, but the government was still gunning for the SFTU.

In May, it suspended all SFTU-affiliated unions for failing to submit their financial returns on time, in line with the IRA, even though the act did not define the financial year. The government subsequently backed down.

The SFTU called a mass rally on 7 September in support of its demands.

At a meeting on 5 October the SFTU gave the government one week to meet its demands, or face an immediate programme of mass action.

A stay-away was held on 13-15 October. The police and the army were deployed in force. Teachers began a strike on 13 October over a pay rise. On 27 October, there was a mass march of SFTU members, professional associations, parents, and students. On the following day the marchers went to the airport where the King was arriving home from the Commonwealth Summit in Scotland. The security forces shot at the crowd with live ammunition and tear gas. Many had to go to hospital.

At the end of the month, the SNAT teachers' association was banned from using the state media. The teachers' strike continued until the end of the year. Troops were deployed to supervise exams. The senate called for the association to be banned at the beginning of November and for all teachers to be sacked until 1998, although this was rejected by the government.

One senator called for Jan Sithole to be deported, and for the nationality of SNAT president Meshack Masuku to be investigated.

At the beginning of December, the SFTU said that harassment and intimidation of trade unionists was increasing despite the fact that the SFTU, employers and the government were drafting a new Industrial Relations Act. Seventeen union leaders and officials were sacked after the October stay-away, by the Simunye sugar company, partly owned by the government. Armed troops and artillery, including armoured vehicles, were stationed in and around the factory.

The SFTU temporarily withdrew from the drafting committee of the IRA in protest but went back at the end of the year.

Although the TFTU can function normally, only one of its eleven affiliated unions has been registered. The government has said that it would repeal the 1991 law but has not yet done so.

The law also allows the president of the country to de-register the union as and when he decides.

Collective bargaining only takes place in the private sector. Public sector wage levels are set by the state. Tanzania's Industrial Court can refuse to register a collective agreement which is not in line with the government's economic policy. The government has said however that an unregistered agreement can be applied.

Unions have to follow protracted and complex procedures before calling a strike, which involve mediation, conciliation and an industrial court decision, and can take several months. The end result is that most strikes are illegal.

Their offence was that they had all signed public appeals protesting at the increasing restrictions on civil liberties, particularly freedom of expression, and trade union rights, as well as at the economic situation, and privatisation.

Police arrested Rachid Ennajar, a member of the UGTT agricultural union on 21 April; trade unionist Monji Souab on 23 April; Jilani Hammami, former general secretary of the PTT union on 24 April, and Ahmed Berramila, a former UGTT deputy general-secretary, on 26 April. They were held incommunicado until 5 May. The UGTT intervened to secure their early release.

Abdelmajid Sahraoui, a former UGTT executive committee member went into hiding.

The police had already held him for two days in January, and had harassed his family. He had been arrested by security officials on 17 February and held at the Ministry of the Interior for just over 24 hours.

After his release, the authorities said they had no record of his detention and that he had only been taken in for questioning.

On 16 April, they arrested him again and held him for six hours of interrogation at the Ministry of the Interior.

During the night of 29-30 April, the office of the unionists' lawyer was broken into, searched and ransacked.

On 5 May, the four detained trade unionists were charged with possession and distribution of leaflets, insulting an official body and spreading false information liable to disturb public order. Ahmed Berramila was released on bail on 12 May.

After interventions by the UGTT, the other three were released on bail on 27 May. The case was reported to still be under investigation.

Also in May, the union of university teachers protested against the withdrawal of the passport of Mohamed Tahar Chaieb, a former general secretary of the union, in July 1996.

Abdelmajid Sahraoui, was again arrested on 9 June and held in secret detention for three days

Under a 1967 law, strikes are illegal without the prior authorisation of the national centre.

The right to strike is restricted by complicated procedures. After conciliation, grievances and strike notice must be submitted to the Minister of Labour, who often hands the case to the Industrial Court for decision. Both the Minister of Labour and the Industrial Court generally rule against strikes. The government threatened to sack striking hospital workers during the year.

There are reports that the Ministry of Labour has colluded with employers to prevent unionisation in the textile sector. The Ugandan textile union has been trying to get recognition at the Vitafoam Ltd. Company for over eight years, and in other companies for over ten years.

New investors in the private sector also obstructed unionisation by refusing to recognise unions as bargaining agents, particularly in textiles, construction, agriculture, road transport, and in new banks and hotels.

Seven armed men attacked the secretary general in his office. They used chairs and coffee tables to beat him and tried to force him to jump out of the eighth-floor window. He was taken to hospital unconscious, although he later recovered. The attack was widely believed to be politically motivated. By the end of the year, the government had not opened an enquiry into what had happened.

The attack followed a one-day national strike organised by the ZCTU to protest against a five per cent levy on workers to finance compensation payments for veterans of the independence struggle, the imposition of a sales tax and an increase in fuel and electricity costs. The state fund for compensation payments to war veterans was reported to have been siphoned off by corrupt officials.

Before the strike took place, the police commissioner threatened to crush the demonstration, and the Minister of Home Affairs said in parliament that demonstrators were in danger of being shot. Politicians belonging to the ruling party made statements inciting the population against the ZCTU leadership and made unfounded claims of collusion between the ZCTU and Zimbabwe's white landowners in the debate about land redistribution.

On the day of the strike, the police used teargas, dogs and sticks on workers gathering in the capital, Harare. This was in defiance of a high court injunction taken out against the Chief of Police prohibiting the police from interfering with the demonstration as long as it was peaceful. The police also tried to prevent buses and other transport from taking workers to join the demonstration.

Little progress was made in bringing all workers under a new consolidated labour law. Zimbabwe's constitution prevents public servants, teachers and nurses from joining trade unions, and determines their conditions of employment. They are allowed to join associations which cannot bargain collectively or strike.

The new law was expected to let these workers belong to unions which could join the ZCTU union centre and bargain collectively, and to give them limited strike rights. In November, the ZCTU said that it had not been consulted on the government's draft bill.

The 1985 Labour Relations Act provided for workers' committees to be set up at each workplace, and to negotiate with management on a wide range of plant-level matters, excluding wages. The committees exist alongside trade unions, and are legally independent of them.

The 1992 Labour Relations Amendment Act provided for collective bargaining but the role and status of trade unions were further diminished by the greater emphasis on workers' committees.

Works Councils, composed of management and workers' committees, were given powers to negotiate collective agreements or employment codes. These can override industry-wide agreements reached by employment councils, made up of unions and employers. The government can veto agreements which it believes are harmful to the economy.

The ZCTU said in 1996 that the principle of getting rid of the workers' committees and replacing them with union committees had been agreed in tripartite discussions and was expected to be incorporated into the new consolidated labour law.

The 1992 Act also provided a broad definition of managerial employees, which included workers such as foremen and supervisors, and excluded them from union membership.

Union dues cannot be used for political purposes. The Minister of Labour has wide powers of control over union finances and can even set the level of union dues.

Export processing zones were exempted from labour law regulations under a 1994 law. However, the law did provide for the EPZ Authority to establish special labour regulations in the EPZs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour. After ZCTU protests, the government said that regulations would be put in place to protect workers. This had not been done by the end of the year.

The ZCTU reported that ambiguities in the labour law were leading to increasing problems over the High Court's involvement in labour disputes, which undermined the labour tribunal system.

Long and extremely cumbersome procedures must be followed before workers can go on strike. The law gives a wide definition of essential services in which strikes are banned. The Minister of Labour can at any time designate any service or occupation as essential.

The majority of the many strikes which took place in 1997 were declared illegal.

Loopholes in the law make it easy to fire workers without giving reasons. In April, the ZIBAWU union in the banks sector went on strike after negotiations with the Standard Chartered Bank broke down. When agreement was reached for the case to go to arbitration, the union called off the strike. The bank immediately sacked the 400 strikers and told them they had to reapply for their jobs under inferior employment conditions. The union took the case to court.

In July, security guards went on strike over a pay increase. On the following day a security company manager shot at 18 security guards in Harare as they walked to the company's premises to ask colleagues to join the strike. One of the guards was seriously injured.

On 22 July, the government used the colonial Law and Order (Maintenance) Act to ban strikes and demonstrations for a two-week period.

In August, over 13,000 clothing workers were sacked after going on strike when wage negotiations broke down. The sackings took place after the government had intervened to give employers the go-ahead to sack as many workers as they wanted

Eleven thousand of the workers were taken on again almost immediately but had to re-apply for their jobs and were employed on short-term contracts of a maximum of three months. Many of them had to sign undertakings not to go on strike again. Others were harassed because of their union membership.

The president of the national union in the clothing industry was among those not taken back.