Trade union activities are being repressed with ever greater ferocity in Swaziland. Repeated arbitrary arrests, intimidation and beatings are used to silence activists. Barnes Dlamini, president of the SFTU (Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions) has been arrested several times over the year 2011. He gives us an overview of the situation.

Bahrain’s national trade union centre GFBTU, that was at the heart of the 14 February 2011 movement for democratic reform and social justice, has been the target of violent attacks. Ebrahim H. Abdulla, Assistant General Secretary of the GFBTU, and Abdulla Mohammed Hussain, Assistant General Secretary for Arab and International Relations, look back at the anti-union attacks and mass dismissals, two issues that the GFBTU wants to put on the agenda of the national dialogue that began on 1 July.

In Cambodia, one of the countries denounced in the latest ITUC Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights, over 800 workers were dismissed following a massive strike in the textile industry in September 2010. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), exposes the tactics used, such as yellow unions and short-term contracts, to stop workers from organising. He is also appealing for international pressure to secure the reintegration of the workers dismissed and to stop the lawsuits against their union representatives.

In Cambodia, one of the countries denounced in the latest ITUC Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights, over 800 workers were dismissed following a massive strike in the textile industry in September 2010. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), exposes the tactics used, such as yellow unions and short-term contracts, to stop workers from organising. He is also appealing for international pressure to secure the reintegration of the workers dismissed and to stop the lawsuits against their union representatives.

Gertrude Hambira is the general secretary of the General Agricultural Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) (1). She has been forced to leave her country after criticising the land reform that has triggered countless barbaric acts and left hundreds of thousands of workers jobless. Amid continued human rights violations and the persecution of trade unionists, she is calling for a genuine land reform programme that will bring greater social justice without violating human rights.

After decades of inaction, Nepal’s leaders are finally taking an interest in the concerns of the workers, such as the creation of a social security net. Umesh Upadhyaya, general secretary of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), looks back at the political upheavals that have shaken the country and the challenge of integrating former Maoist rebels into the world of work.

Relentless threats and murders... Guatemala is witnessing an intensification of trade union rights violations. Imelda López, general secretary of the civil aviation workers’ union, assistant general secretary of the CGTG and the public services federation, has already suffered three attempts on her life. She recounts the day-to-day realities of trade unionists in Guatemala and, following on from her recent participation in the first ITUC World Women’s Conference, she speaks of the specific difficulties faced by women workers, especially in export processing zones.

Workers are the main casualties of the coup d’état that overthrew the Honduran president, Manual Zelaya, on 28 June. Trade unions continue to mobilise to demand a return to democracy, although many of their members have been killed, imprisoned and tortured. The de facto government controls the press. Erasto Reyes, a lawyer working for the trade union movement and one of the leaders of the National Resistance Front against the Coup, denounces the abuses committed since the overthrow. He calls for international trade union solidarity.

Being a trade unionist is a very dangerous business in Palestine. Rasem Al Bayari, Deputy General Secretary of the PGFTU (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions), an ITUC affiliate, knows that well: following the destruction of a PGFTU building in October 2006 and the firing of two rockets at his home in January, on 6 April Rasem Al Bayari was injured by masked men who attacked him while he was in a car with his family. He describes these events and the enormous problems faced by workers in Palestine.