in an organised system of labour, have wide perspectives and can
easily dare to act decisively.

This has become clearer and clearer as the years go by. As we
have already suggested, this development has been possible first
because of the increasing stability of the workers themselves since
independence. With increasing socio-economic security, it has in-
creasingly become possible for the workers to be politically
militant. Perhaps it should be pointed out here that below-
subsistence-level wages have not been completely eliminated yet.
In June 1972 the government raised the minimum wage in Dar es
Salaam by 35 per cent for government employees and by 41 per
cent for other urban workers. Though the increase was un-
precedented in size, the government press had to spend con-
siderable energy trying to show that the rise was sufficient
following widerspread discontent with the rise, caused by the fact
that a previous survey had showed that a much bigger increase
would be needed if the minimum wage was to coincide with the
minimum cost of living in the city. It must also be pointed out that
recipients of minimum wages are in no way insignificant
numerically: in manufacturing 21 per cent of the wage eamers in
1971 were receiving less than 200 shillings per month, while
another 37 per cent were receiving between 200 and 300
shillings. '’

But the fact that to most workers now there is at least some
hope for progress means that in general the entire labour force in
wage employment can maintain some degree of stability.

A second reason we have suggested for the growing maturity
of the working class is the fact that political consciousness has
been rising quite rapidly of late. This is so partly because of the
various contradictions that have been appearing in society as a
whole, the workers are of course at a vantage point in terms of
both being able to appreciate those contradictions as well as being
able to do something. Additionally, the political propaganda that
has been carried out by both the Party and the Government par-
ticularly since 1967 has been most instrumental in raising this
political consciousness, and in some respects the gap between of-
ficial policy and actual implimentation has taught the workers
many telling lessons.

In considering working class activity we have placed emphasis
on the manifestation of discontent particularly as revealed through

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