Federation of Labour which was created in 1955.

The first point to be made here is that the leadership of the
workers now changed hands. While formally all activities had
been organised and led by elements from among the workers
themselves — because of the spontaneity and secrecy with which
matters had to be conducted, in the fifties elements from the mid-
dle class dominated the leadership of the trade union organisations
which from then on were responsible for all activities of the
workers. *. . . a survey in 1960 showed that, of the full-time
leaders interviewed, 83 per cent had been white collar and clerical
workers, 15 per cent had been technicians (electricians or
mechanics), and only 2 per cent had been unskilled manual
workers’. 1? .

This was of course to be expected. Throughout the continent it
is elements from such inter-mediary positions that have spear-
headed the nationalist movements. It is these elements which after
all had been prepared by the colonial system to fill that role. Ob-
jectively, these elements were just as anti-colonial as any other
sectors of the population, particularly because if they did not suf-
fer as much economic deprivation as the workers and peasants
did, it was they who suffered most from the cultural humiliation
and degradation of colonialism, as they saw what they could not
advance themselves socially and economically just they happened
to be African. They therefore felt most the political and ideological
manifestations of the colonial system. At the same time, they were
the only ones who could present the demands of the people in a
sufficiently articulate manner to the colonialists. But perhaps the
most important stimulant to their initiative was the fact that they
had the most to gain from the withdrawal of the colonial system,
since only they could move into the shoes of the departing
colonisers.

In Tanganyika the development of the trade union movement
coincided with the development of the nationalist movement: the
Tanganyika African National Union was formed in 1954. Not
only was the social base of its leadership the same as that of the
trade union movement, but in many instances leadership of the
two movements actually overlapped. It was therefore easy for the
nationalist movement to strike roots among the workers through
the trade union movement which it used for its political ob-
jectives.

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