Zimbabwean police surround suspected demonstrators in Harare. Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty Images
A nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has ended in several arrests, writes Bonnie Malkin.
The day of mass action was held to protest against low wages and poor access to heathcare. However, inside Zimbabwe, opinions on the value of the demonstration have been varied.
In the lead-up to the protests, as police trucks and a water cannon patrolled the streets, the Zimpundit blog described the atmosphere in Masvingo Town.
"They used loud hailers to instruct businesses not to close on the Wednesday and for workers to ignore the call by the ZCTU to march to the Town Centre on Wednesday at midday. Tension was palpable in the Town as a result."
This is Zimbabwe on Sokwanele.com called on everyone to join in the demonstrations, while sokwanele.com itself wondered what, if any, contribution to the movement the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, would make.
The country's independent paper, the Zimbabwe Independent, provided the answers.
"When questioned on why the two groups could not join hands and stage a combined demonstration, [an MDC spokesman] said the workers had a right to express themselves without being influenced by politicians.
"We respect the response taken by the workers but the planned stayaway by the workers is not the same programme that the MDC would embark on."
Once the protest got under way, The Daily Mirror reported workers in Harare were "indifferent" to the union's call to march.
The paper quoted a Harare worker, who only identified himself as Moses, as saying: "The ZCTU is just driving people onto the streets and they are going to lose their jobs. What is also not clear is whether this strike is against employers or the government."
But the strongest condemnation of the action came from the government-affiliated Zimbabwe Herald.
Calling the action "a ploy to tarnish Zimbabwe's image", the paper employed Shakespeare to convey just how despicable it considered the unions to be.
"The ZCTU 'is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, (yet) signifying nothing'.
"This line from his main character Macbeth aptly sums up the ZCTU -- a poor player; its planned mass action -- which is mere sound and fury; and its significance to the lives of Zimbabwean workers -- nothing."
