glad someone has decided to cover the rail strikes.
by the way, on your favorite theme, i read in the daily mail [of all places] that zimbabwe has raised literacy to the highest [85%] in africa since 1980. thought i should mention it, for i have to disagree with your analysis of the situation.
regards.

Not sure I'd trust figures from the Daily Mail! ;-)

But since you mention Zimbabwe, here's a link to a report of Mugabe's latest attempt to silence workers opposition:

we did a little support demo today - banner hang from a Manchester train station roof, and leafletting with 90% for 90% leaflets (www.risingtide.org.uk), broadening issues from just strike. Banner read "Public transport NOT private profit. Passengers support the strikers"

in the abstract, we want an entire world free of all oppression, exploitation, ghastly sordidness and beastly horridness.
in general, we should be supporting workers rights, in africa and elsewhere, democratic oppositions, the rights of civil society, etc, etc.
but in particular, we cannot ignore the context in which zimbabwe finds itself. we cannot spout generalizations, especially those which fit in with, and indeed are sponsored by, the Blair attempt to rebuild the Victorian empire (and if you doubt THAT, some USA liberals are enthusiastically proclaiming it to be so already !).
in fact, this zimbabwe thing puts me in mind of the recent debacle over Kosovo in 1999, when some silly people ended up supporting NATO in the mistaken belief it was to liberate the Albanians. Without the precedent set then, i doubt the Afghan adventure could have gone ahead. Remember, every empire sooner or later has to accrue a moral, for open conquest is not enough to keep it going