industry is a possibility. It is possible if construction work is
properly planned, phased, financed, organised and executed. If
regular employment is desired then those pressing for it, and that
should include both ‘managerial workers’ and other workers,
should ensure that work is properly planned, phased, financed,
organised and executed. They must do what they can to achieve
this within the industry, and they must play their part at all
political and planning levels to ensure that other sections of the
planning instrument are held accountable for their contribution to
this process. Thus they will come to play a progressive political
role in the society as a whole. No one, least of all bodies with a
social responsibility, can demand regular pay where there is not
regular work, without concerning themselves with the fact of
whether or not work is in fact regular. This is no longer just the
job of management — it is the job of the enterprise, and of all the
institutions connected with it.

There is no doubt that regular employment in construction is
possible and desirable. There is again no doubt that this should
mean a re-organisation of the industry to make regular work
possible. The complete nationalisation of MECCO has laid the
basis for such a move. Management and labour must now
recognise that the task has not been completed and that certain
further steps are now necessary. They must also recognise that
some of these further steps have been rejected in the past because
of vested interests in the present structure of things and that
political pressure on their part must counteract these narrow and
selfish interests. The social interest demands that the re-
organisation of the industry be taken to its logical conclusion.

Earlier proposals for the industry in Tanzania recognised that
the existing system of tendering for contracts provided only the
illusion of the protection of the client. Under present cir-
cumstances, with MECCO under Government control and with
numerous firms closing down, this system is even more ineffective
now. Not only is it unable to control prices, but it now becomes
the major obstacle to a realisation of many of the benefits to be
derived from the present situation. The most important con-
tribution to MECCO's ability to plan its work so as to provide
regular employment for its workforce, could be made by
providing MECCO with a programme of work that extended over
considerable periods and that allowed it to plan utilisation of

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