railwaymen. This reflected the nature of the economy: economic
processes were concentrated on the removal of raw materials from
the interior to the ports for shipment abroad; and in their par-
ticipation in a crucial sphere of the colonial economy the dock-
workers and railwaymen realised their own importance and thus
began to constantly challenge at least some of the most blatant
forms of exploitation and oppression.

The pretests and strikes that were prevalent even at that early
stage clearly reflected the political dilemma of the situation: quite
often the expressed demands were rather vague, broad in scope,
and political in content. Strikes therefore tended to be very general
in terms of demands articulated, but they were also general in
another sense: they tended to attract the participation of all
Africans irrespective of involvement in the expressed grievances.
As a result they also tended to be violent, for where strategic areas
of the economy were affected, the reaction of the colonial
authorities was bound to be harsh — which inevitably led to
rioting. All this of course simply underlined further the political
nature of the problem facing the workers.

One of the first major strikes of the time was that of the port-
workers at Tanga in 1939.

The strike originated in a small incident in which a European treasurer
of a firm employing labour in the port pushed the face of an African
workman against a tree. Although the incident caused amusement at the
time, the workers later refused to go to work until their wages were
raised. Wages were raised, but some misunderstanding about the period
of duration of the increase led to a strike which soon spread to workers
of all firms employed in the port.®

Subsequently, practically the whole town joined in the strike, ‘in-
cluding non-workers’, and acquired violent features.

In 1947 there was the greatest strike of the period. Beginning as
an industrial conflict at the Dar es Salaam port, it soon spread to
all sectors of the African population in the town and later travelled
all along the railway line paralysing the towns on the line. By the
time it had reached the town of Mwanza on the other side of the
railway-line, the original source of the conflict had in fact been
solved and the strike in Dar es Salaam had come to an end.
Despite that, Mwanza had to have its go and the workers there
went along with the strike.” As a result of this strike, a trade union

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