ZIMBABWE’S Communist Party has called for international action to support a global solidarity day called by the country’s trade-union confederation, amid government brutality and a deepening economic crisis.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called for progressive organisations and unions to hold solidarity activities in their own countries on September 23 and picket Zimbabwean consulates.

The call comes as unemployment in the formal sector rockets beyond 90 percent, the party said, amid a violent crackdown on opposition forces.

A specialised unit of some of the most brutal elements of the police and army known as the Ferrets has been used to hunt down trade unionists.

ZCTU president Peter Mutasa and the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe’s president, Obert Masaraure, and secretary-general Robson Chere are all in hiding.

The ZCP cited President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s neoliberal policies for the deepening economic crisis, which has seen nurses and other health workers taking strike action against poverty pay as low as $30 (£23) a month.

The party warned of the development of militaristic capitalism controlled by the deep state and the realistic prospect of a coup led by either faction of Mr Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu (PF).