I. INTRODUCTION
The trade union movement in Zimbabwe has been playing a critical role in the struggle for democracy in both the pre-independence and post-independence era. Many nationalist leaders in pre-independence started off as active trade unionists and then politicians. In post independence Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was at the fore front of championing democracy and multi-party dispensation when the then ruling party was toying with the idea of a one party state in the late eighties. More recently, the labour movement was at the forefront of the creation of a viable national alternative opposition party, thereby nurturing Zimbabwe's multi party democracy.
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