In 1948 the Holmes Commission was instructed to review conditions
in the civil service of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. It
recommended that a racial structure of payment be retained: differential
rates being attached to jobs in the middle ranges of the civil service and
three-fifths of European salaries being the rule for Africans higher
posts.®

All these factors which characterise wage employment in the
colonial situation give labour perspectives which differ from those
of labour in the metropolitan societies. These perspectives hinge
upon the scope within which labour can manifest itself as a socio-
economic group. Because of the over-riding weight of the political
structure in the sphere of exploitation of colonial labour, the
economic struggle of the workers in the colonies often becomes
indistinguishable and of secondary importance in relation to the
political struggle. In the eyes of the working people in the
colonies, trade unionism is inseparable from political agitation and
organisation, and indeed most times it is only by making political
demands that the colonised manage to wrestle any economic gains
from their colonisers. Unlike in the metropolitan societies where
economic aspects feature most prominently in the activities of the
working class, in the colonial situation the production system
gives rise to socio-economic contradictions which often require
political solutions even in the short term. Hence, where the sub-
jective conditions are availed i.e. where the necessary leadership,
organisation, and ideology are secured — the activity of the
working class in the colonies easily becomes one of politics as
distinct from exclusive concern with trade economism.

Let us now trace briefly the history of working class activity in
Tanzania in this respect. As will be seen, this activity has changed
its outlook over the decades just preceding and following in-
dependence.

In the forties and before, working class activity in Tanganyika
was generally sporadic and spontaneous. There were no formal
organisations with known leaderships among workers since it had
not yet become British colonial policy to foster the development of
trade unions in the colonies. Protests of various kinds including
short strikes were at times resorted to, but their organisation
always remained clandestine and informal.

It is a matter of some significance that the key to working class
activity in the forties and before was held by dockworkers and

136