A quick, and getting rather late, plug for the new ITUC website, We Are ZCTU (www.wearezctu.org). It’s set up in support of Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Matombo of the Zimbawe Congress of Trade Unions, who are due in court in Harare this Wednesday (30 July).

They’ve been charged with “spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state”, which translates as telling the truth about the state-sponsored violence in the run up to the sham elections in their country. They were originally supposed to be in court last month, but the case was postponed, most likely so as to keep the punitive bail conditions in force for as long as possible, effectively shutting up the unions’ public voice whilst Mugabe got about stealing the election.

Unionists all over the world are coming out in support of the pair online, with a giant photo mosaic that you can pan and zoom on the new site, and other ways to show your support.

If you have a moment, please nip over there now and sign the comments page to add your own name to the support list. And crucially, help spread the word online by digging, facebooking, blogging, whatever. This trial is an important one for civil society in Zimbabwe, and may well be overlooked in the international media. Let’s help get their case some more profile, and hopefully help get the charges against Lovemore and Wellington dropped. www.wearezctu.org

UPDATE 30 July: Wellington and Lovemore went to trial today, to find that their case had been postponed yet again (with silencing bail conditions in full force), this time until 27 August. I guess it suits Mugabe even more to keep them quiet, denied their rights to freedom of speech and association, at this critical time, and this looks like a handy way to keep effective independent scrutiny of his abuses and mismanagement silent.