Attacks and intimidation against the trade union movement

While the military government in Burkina Faso has driven French troops out of the country and broken with ECOWAS, which was strangling the economy, it has also at the same time engaged in dangerous practices against democracy and workers. At a conference on 24 March, the spokesman for the CGT-B trade union center denounced these attacks: « While all the activities of political parties and civil society organizations are banned under the pretext of fighting armed terrorist groups, the transitional authorities and their supporters are flexing their muscles and organizing meetings and rallies (…). Manoeuvres such as threatening people with machetes are used to silence our people, preventing them from expressing any criticism of the management of the security crisis and, more generally, of the of the government’s rule”

The government continues to unilaterally seize 1% of all wages to fund the fight against terrorist at- tacks and has prolonged the general mobilisation against terrorism for a year, while seeking to prevent workers from defending their interests. The communiqué adds: « Today, intimidation continues with attacks followed by death threats against workers at the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Prospects, wrong- ly accused of preparing a coup d’état ». On 27 March, a dozen democratic rights organisations denounced the « threats, abductions, arrests and arbitrary detentions » and called for abiding by the Constitution.

With our correspondents in Burkina