party becomes an administration, and the militants disappear into the
crowd and take the empty title of citizen.®®

I therefore see TANU as an organisation which is much talked
about and revered but whose manifestation is nearly non-existent.
Apart from the occasional pronouncements at the top, it com-
pletely lacks substance and hence initiative and creativity at the
grass-root level. It is like Nkrumah'’s Convention People’s Party on
the eve of the coup:

Although the CPP constantly referred to itself as a mass political party
— one which supposedly first brought the techniques of Western
political organisation to Africa — this identification was quite
misleading. The CPP was a mass party only in the sense that it had a
large membership. It was not a mass party in the sense of mobilising
large numbers of people and bringing them into the political arena as ac-
tive and politically conscious participants. Many of the men and women
who bought membership cards in the CPP did so for the same reasons
that citizens in the United States buy tickets to a policemen'’s ball. In
both cases, the sale involves a tax levied on the vulnerable by the power-
ful.>®

(b) WORKERS' COMMITTEES

The workers’ committee is the trade union organisation at the
factory level. It was established in 1964 with the reorganisation of
the trade union movement in the country.®’ It is the workers’ con-
sultative organ on matters concerning the welfare of the workers.

According to the Government Paper No. 1 of 1964, the func-

tions of the workers'’committees are eight-fold:

() To ensure the observance of collective agreements and ar-
bitration awards.

(ii) to safeguard rules of employment, including those con-
tained in Bills of general application (such as a disciplinary
code).

(iii) to take part in all inspections of employing concerns con-
ducted by any authorities or officials charged by law with
that duty.

(iv) to inspect all records of employment, including time-and
wage sheets, and to report any non-compliance with the
provisions of a wage regulation order to the appropriate
labour officer.

(v) to confirm any case of dismissal or termination of

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